Random channels showing up?

[werds]

I might be wrong and maybe the channel has been there all along but last night I suddenly noticed a channel that I had not seen before on my channel guide. I have Comcast and a mixture of InfiniTV4 with a handful of HD650 ATI clearqam tuners. Now one of the oddities is that on the Cable Card one of the channels in our lineup (The CW) does NOT come in in HD, only in standard.... yet in ClearQAM on the ATi tuners it comes in in HD. I verified by recording both channels at the same time after I noticed it was there, and not only was the aspect ratio correct on the HD channel but you could definitely see the extra video information (for example on Seinfeld's garage episode you could see more of the cars than on the Cable Card channel when using the ClearQam channel)

Now one - is it normal for a ClearQAM channel to randomly show up or was I just missing it the first time I setup? (the Cable Card channel is 3 and the clearQAM chanel shows up as 3.2). Secondly, why in the H is the comcast provided channel not in HD yet on their own network the clearQAM channel is in HD? Yet if I didn't have the clearQAM tuner I would never have seen this?

[Shackleford]

Comcast has been known to move and change their clearQAM channels without notice. The CW in my area is provided as a sub channel OTA and they have an agreement with Comcast to provide it in a separate HD feed. Similar to you I was receiving it via clearQAM but not my InfiniTV. When this happened I had to contact zap2it to let them know to add it to my guide in my area (cablecard). So its most likely on a channel that isn't listed for your cable card guide. Double check your cable providers channel line up, if this is the case once added you can tune it via your cable card device as well.

[foxwood]

Now one - is it normal for a ClearQAM channel to randomly show up or was I just missing it the first time I setup? (the Cable Card channel is 3 and the clearQAM chanel shows up as 3.2). Secondly, why in the H is the comcast provided channel not in HD yet on their own network the clearQAM channel is in HD? Yet if I didn't have the clearQAM tuner I would never have seen this?

In my area, Comcast carries the HD version of the SD channels in the 800 range - the HD version of Channel 3 is on channel 803, etc.

(Not being experts in this whole issue of managing channels, they put the SD and HD version of the CW on 13 and 811, but you can hardly expect them to get this sort of thing right all the time, on the tiny pittance that they get for the job...............)

[werds]

Thanks for the replies. It appears that Shackle nailed it. They took an OTA sub channel and plopped it on there as 3.2 (Actual OTA should be 47.2) and left the Comcast encrypted channel as just plain Channel 3 (Oddly enough my clearQAM also pulls in 47.1 OTA channel...). I also checked all the sources for channels by call sign and this channel was NOT found in the 800's or the 200's the callsign was only listed under the SD channel range. They also do not have the sub-channel listed in the guide - but that can easily be remedied.

So contacted Comcast last night and put a ticket about it since last time I had talked to my local they claimed there was no HD broadcast of the CW channel lol... Oddly enough I watch NOTHING on this channel so I do not know why I care, other than the potential for losing another HD channel when Comcast encrypts all their stuff..

I wonder if these OTA re-broadcast channels will disappear once they go full encryption?

[gary94080]

werds,

what kind of response did you get from Comcast? did they say what they are going to do with clearQAM? they seem to be moving channels around and turning on and off encryption lately.

I have been using WMC since Vista. I noticed that the guide provider adds channels from time to time. most of them are not on my service level so I delete them.

I used to visit the old site and stopped when MS took it over.

[werds]

werds,

what kind of response did you get from Comcast? did they say what they are going to do with clearQAM? they seem to be moving channels around and turning on and off encryption lately.

I have been using WMC since Vista. I noticed that the guide provider adds channels from time to time. most of them are not on my service level so I delete them.

I used to visit the old site and stopped when MS took it over.

It appears a week or two ago they finally added some of those clearQAM channels to the 800 series. They never officially responded to me but apparently me escalation may have helped if this wasn't already in the works.

[gary94080]

werds,

what kind of response did you get from Comcast? did they say what they are going to do with clearQAM? they seem to be moving channels around and turning on and off encryption lately.

I have been using WMC since Vista. I noticed that the guide provider adds channels from time to time. most of them are not on my service level so I delete them.

I used to visit the old site and stopped when MS took it over.

It appears a week or two ago they finally added some of those clearQAM channels to the 800 series. They never officially responded to me but apparently me escalation may have helped if this wasn't already in the works.

ok, thanks. I was hoping they might have given you some information on what they were planning for with clearQAM. the ones I spoke with either don't know or can't say. one actually tried to tell me the direct cable signal without a box was 480p.

[TeddyR]

ok, thanks. I was hoping they might have given you some information on what they were planning for with clearQAM. the ones I spoke with either don't know or can't say. one actually tried to tell me the direct cable signal without a box was 480p.

Its misinformation like this that makes me wonder if the FCC should mandate some sort of certification for Cable Co CSRs and installers... something that they must complete before they can serve the public and revalidate at least annually. Many other trades already have some sort of certification requirement.... looks like its time for a change here...

[drtdiver]

ok, thanks. I was hoping they might have given you some information on what they were planning for with clearQAM. the ones I spoke with either don't know or can't say. one actually tried to tell me the direct cable signal without a box was 480p.

Its misinformation like this that makes me wonder if the FCC should mandate some sort of certification for Cable Co CSRs and installers... something that they must complete before they can serve the public and revalidate at least annually. Many other trades already have some sort of certification requirement.... looks like its time for a change here...

I would love if cable csrs had to actually learn about the products they are supporting. But if they do this can you imagine how much cable bills will go up if they had to certify csrs