I removed the receiver info but left the grid pics. Sorry!
OTA channel guide problem
- Thread starter Jeffrey A
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I gave DISH thumbs down in the past for their ota guide information, but with all that channel shuffeling going on in just about every market it would be pretty hard to keep up with it.
Brittanygarden,
I don’t know how to attach a picture to a private message but I have attached pictures of the guide to the forum.
Img764 shows that Dish does recognize that Fox 28 is now broadcast on channel 6-03. Unfortunately no Guide information.
Img765 shows the Fox 28 guide information on channel 28-01. However 28-01 is actually TBD.
These changes occurred on January 8, 2021 so the Dish Guide has been incorrect for16 months.
I will send you a private message with my receiver numbers since I don’t want that information in the public forum.
The scenario you describe - actual content listed in guide is wrong and present on another channel - is also scattered throughout the Las Vegas OTA space. For a while even the root channel - ie, the network that was OTA (usually *-01) and the Dish version (*-00) was displayed as anonymous 1 hour blocks. This is the reason I keep my OTA channels on Dish and just add the subchannels on the Dish OTA path. I use Titan-TV for a look at the OTA grid but even it isn't completely accurate, and where it is incorrect is incorrect all by itself, ie, sometimes you have three different views of the same region. The actual TV scan PSIP isn't correct some times either (but that's usually the third class low power channels that are run from remote locations)
It was so simple when we had the TV guide, and channels 4(NBC), 9 (ABC) and 14 (CBS) and Ch2 on good days for PBS.
A lot of the problems have occurred in markets that have implemented Nextgen TV (ATSC 3.0) broadcasts. They will appoint a “lighthouse” station to continue the existing ATSC 1.0 broadcasts while one station takes over the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. This frequency sharing will continue for a minimum of 2 years. Dish should be able to remap their Guide but they don’t seem to be in a hurry to do it. I appreciate the Dish technical support gal who is trying to fix the problems.
Do some of these recent posts mean that the official process for reporting OTA guide problems and getting them fixed is to send a PM to brittanygarden ?
If so, I will do that when I am back at my H3 location in about a month.
If so, I will do that when I am back at my H3 location in about a month.
A slight correction there, as Img764 shows that the Dish receiver doesn't recognize what is being broadcast on channel 6-03. That is why the one-hour blocks simply mimic the channel ID from the PSIP. (The channel labels on the left side of the guide are what the station is actually broadcasting in the PSIP, and is the only part of the PSIP that is used by the Dish guide.) This happens for any channel where Dish doesn't carry the guide info, or where the receiver does not recognize which guide data stream to use.
Img765 shows that Dish themselves do recognize that Fox is now on 6-03, since they replaced the feed they use for channel 28 with the 6-03 feed, and labeled it WSYX3. However, the guide mapping is still wrong. So, the department that handles local channel carriage on satellite, and the department that handles OTA guide information mapping, evidently do not communicate with each other.
I also ran into problems trying to attach pictures to private conversations in the past. If anyone knows how to do that, please let me know. Thanks.
So, the correct procedure is to post pictures of the incorrect OTA guide info here, and then start a private conversation with brittanygarden, with the receiver and Smart Card numbers. Is that right?
You can’t post images to private messages as the images never get deleted once read.
It’s a major flaw in the forum software.
It’s a major flaw in the forum software.
Thanks for the explanation. So, it wasn't just me doing something wrong, and I am not the only one struggling with this issue. Good to know.
I do agree it's a major flaw, as the only other recourse is to make the images public instead. Another workaround may be to post a video of your guide to a site like YouTube, and send Dish technical support a link to that video. Then, the member posting the video could delete it after Dish is done looking at it. Still not a perfect solution, though. I think I prefer having the pictures posted in this thread instead.
Ok Brittany.
Here is one for the Beaumont/Pt. Arthur ,Texas DMA.
The ota Fox channel on 6.3 has NO GUIDE information and the old channel it was once on 4.1 ,which is now the DABLE channel ,has the Fox guide information instead. This means no one can use the correct ota Fox channel for name based recordings. This has been this way since the channel move was completed about a year and a half ago and YES, I have reported this to DISH tech dept. and to the station itself. The station engineer says it's DISH's fault and there is nothing they can do on their end. DISH has said to me "they will get to it when they get to it. "This is one change that would correct the area locals and put them back where they belong.
Thanks.
Hi.
Any update on getting the OTA grid updated? MeTV and others are still "blank" for content and the channel mapping has many errors.
Any update on getting the OTA grid updated? MeTV and others are still "blank" for content and the channel mapping has many errors.
Unfortunately, Dish is only looking into OTA guide data errors for the four major networks, unless something has changed recently. Do any of your guide issues involve any of the Big Four? Also, did you try asking brittany in your private conversation?
I wish I had known that before I went to all of the trouble of reporting the various issues in my market (Cleveland) and posting pictures earlier in this thread. At least I am on the record that I want these guide issues fixed. Like I said before, I really don't expect any fix to come about because of this (nothing has been fixed yet, anyway) but the ball is now in Dish's court.
So what once worked is now broken will not be fixed. Sigh... For the past 8 years my Hopper has known that 8.2 was MeTV (and many other "dot subchannels had good info). MeTV moves and now they can't grok that?
So basically you're saying that the OTA channel info is worthless. In at least half of the channels here in Vegas any given channel in the Dish guide has either the wrong provider paired with it or if it does have the right channel, has no programming information. Vegas channel mapping is very dynamic - it changes as often as some people change their underware. I use OTA ONLY to access those channels. Now I'm unable to set up any recordings becuase the box doesn't know what's on. Double sigh...
If you're not going to provide accurate guide info for OTA programming from the satellite end, how about making the OTA guide come from the PSIP info?
And if you're not going to do anything about it at least tell us so we don't watste our time trying to get you useful local info to help fix it.
It would seem that they could come up with precise OTA info with little or no work. In each major market where they have a service provider simply plant a dish box with some custom firmware that will (daily, weekly, monthly) do a channel scan and upload the channel/provider PSIP info (not the programming content, grid programming info comes from the normal content sources) to world headquarters and use that info to feed our receivers current and accurate information. I'll even help write the code.
So basically you're saying that the OTA channel info is worthless. In at least half of the channels here in Vegas any given channel in the Dish guide has either the wrong provider paired with it or if it does have the right channel, has no programming information. Vegas channel mapping is very dynamic - it changes as often as some people change their underware. I use OTA ONLY to access those channels. Now I'm unable to set up any recordings becuase the box doesn't know what's on. Double sigh...
If you're not going to provide accurate guide info for OTA programming from the satellite end, how about making the OTA guide come from the PSIP info?
And if you're not going to do anything about it at least tell us so we don't watste our time trying to get you useful local info to help fix it.
It would seem that they could come up with precise OTA info with little or no work. In each major market where they have a service provider simply plant a dish box with some custom firmware that will (daily, weekly, monthly) do a channel scan and upload the channel/provider PSIP info (not the programming content, grid programming info comes from the normal content sources) to world headquarters and use that info to feed our receivers current and accurate information. I'll even help write the code.
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I've been suggesting that for years here and the usual responses are:
* PSIP might only be provided for a couple hours or days instead of a week. (So they'd rather have NO data than limited data)
* It would cost too much to implement the software. (Despite the fact the $150 TV you get at Wal*Mart can decode and display PSIP data, it would cost too much to program into Dish's receivers)
That $150 TV doesn’t need accurate meta data to record
I would use two levels.
1. My first goal is to get accurate channel-provider mapping. Use PSIP channel info to get just the provider info. Use Dish's normal sources for programming info for that provider. Once you know a channel 21-1 is MeTV they have a source for that channel's programming info.
2. If the provider isn't known use the PSIP programming info. I don't know how far ahead PSIP program info actually goes but our TVs only go for less than a day ahead. Dish I think goes 8 or 9 days.
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