How do I manually map channels?

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kd6icz

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How do I manually map channels?

#1

Post by kd6icz » Sun Nov 04, 2018 10:59 pm

I’m back to using WMC again after Plex DVR let me down.

I noticed after activating a new CableCARD this past week that it appears my cable company is testing a few MPEG4 channels. (see attached photo)

They work! But of course they’re not on any channel list or guide. Is there a way to manually map them?

Image


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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:22 pm

You can use the client and manually "Subscribe" a tuner channel to a guide listing. Select the guide listings on the right and right-click the tuner channel on the left and select 'Subscribe'.
- Gary
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kd6icz

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#3

Post by kd6icz » Mon Nov 05, 2018 3:57 am

I don’t follow.... I manually named them in WMC but I don’t know how to add them to epg123.


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#4

Post by garyan2 » Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:15 am

You don't add them to epg123 (unless you create a custom lineup), you just subscribe (map) the listing to the new channels. In your example above, you would map channel 3412 on the left side to channel 2115 on the right side for CSPAN.
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kd6icz

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#5

Post by kd6icz » Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:37 am

I don’t understand what you’re telling me to do. All I know is every time epg123 runs it deletes the channels I manually added.


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#6

Post by garyan2 » Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:50 am

Open the client. Click channel 2115 (CSPAN) on the right side listing. On the left side listing, scroll down to channel 3412... right-click channel 3412 and select 'Subscribe'. This attaches the CSPAN guide listings to channel 3412.

You have the option to 'Automatically match stations to channels' enabled, so when epg123 performs an update, any channel without guide listings will be disabled/hidden in the guide. That is why it keeps disappearing.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#7

Post by kd6icz » Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:56 am

It’s the whole “right” “left” thing that I’m not understanding. I have lineup 1 and lineup 2. One is for my CableCARD tuner and the other is for my OTA tuner.

I’ve tried right clicking but nothing happens.


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#8

Post by garyan2 » Mon Nov 05, 2018 5:39 am

Take a look at page 11 of the guide. If you right-click a channel in the listings on the left side (Guide Channels), you will see the panel to select 'Subscribe', 'Unsubscribe', 'Rename', and 'Renumber'. If 'Subscribe' is greyed-out, then you have not selected a channel in the listings on the right side (Lineup Services) to map it to.

Since you have 2 lineups, you will have to make sure that the cable lineup is selected in the drop down above the right side listings.
- Gary
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Space

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#9

Post by Space » Tue Nov 06, 2018 1:19 am

Sorry to go off-topic on this a bit, but...

It's interesting that CSPAN has DRM but not CSPAN2 or CSPAN3, nor do any of the MPEG4 channels have any DRM (which includes CSPAN).

Not to mention that the JEWELRY channel has DRM. Somehow I doubt that they require DRM, since they are a shopping network and probably would like it if you shared their programing with others.

It's a shame that the cable companies are so clueless about DRM, I am sure that most channels that have it are not required to have it by contract, it's just how it was set up initially and was never thought about.

This is one of the reasons that I like Verizon FiOS, the only channels with DRM are the ones that absolutely require DRM due to the contract with the provider (just HBO/Cinemax and FOX cable networks). I am pretty sure that if FiOS can have every other channel without DRM, that all cable companies can have it (unless for some reason their contracts are more restrictive, which I find hard to believe but I suppose it's possible).

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#10

Post by kd6icz » Tue Nov 06, 2018 6:55 pm

Space wrote:Sorry to go off-topic on this a bit, but...

It's interesting that CSPAN has DRM but not CSPAN2 or CSPAN3, nor do any of the MPEG4 channels have any DRM (which includes CSPAN).

Not to mention that the JEWELRY channel has DRM. Somehow I doubt that they require DRM, since they are a shopping network and probably would like it if you shared their programing with others.

It's a shame that the cable companies are so clueless about DRM, I am sure that most channels that have it are not required to have it by contract, it's just how it was set up initially and was never thought about.

This is one of the reasons that I like Verizon FiOS, the only channels with DRM are the ones that absolutely require DRM due to the contract with the provider (just HBO/Cinemax and FOX cable networks). I am pretty sure that if FiOS can have every other channel without DRM, that all cable companies can have it (unless for some reason their contracts are more restrictive, which I find hard to believe but I suppose it's possible).

What’s funny is my dad lives in an old Charter (Cisco) system and virtually no channels have DRM. This includes the HD feeds of HBO and Showtime. For whatever reason, the SD feeds of the extra HBO and Showtime have DRM.... Go figure!

I live in a formally Time Warner cable area and TWC has EVERYTHING DRM protected. I noticed that Spectrum has relaxed a few of the DRM restrictions but not many.


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#11

Post by Space » Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:07 pm

kd6icz wrote: Tue Nov 06, 2018 6:55 pm What’s funny is my dad lives in an old Charter (Cisco) system and virtually no channels have DRM. This includes the HD feeds of HBO and Showtime. For whatever reason, the SD feeds of the extra HBO and Showtime have DRM.... Go figure!

I live in a formally Time Warner cable area and TWC has EVERYTHING DRM protected. I noticed that Spectrum has relaxed a few of the DRM restrictions but not many.
Yeah, it's like I said, I don't think most cable companies give this a second thought (or even a first thought). It is just set however it is set and they don't want to change it because no one knows if they are allowed to change it and don't want to bother to find out.

If you call and ask why a particular channel is DRM protected, they will invariably say "it is required by contract with that network" but I think this is BS for most channels, they just don't want to be bothered to change it since most customers don't care. They are not going to go through the trouble to make things easier for one (or a few) customers who use a CableCard device (which cable companies don't like in the first place).

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#12

Post by tirebiter » Tue May 07, 2019 8:20 pm

I have a similar problem but not exactly the same.

I recently set up an OTA antenna with a HD HomeRun Connect Quatro 4-tuner receiver.

When I do a scan with the HD utility, it picks up all the broadcast networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and CW). But when I run the Client Setup, WMC doesn't include ABC. It has all the other channels. I can view ABC in the HD viewer app and it looks fine.

My question is, how do I manually add ABC (or any channel) from the Lineup Services (the right side of the client) to the Guide Channels on the left side. I don't want to override any existing channels in the guide, just add additional ones.

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#13

Post by garyan2 » Tue May 07, 2019 8:55 pm

I suspect your ABC is xmitting in the VHF frequency band and you need to manually add it. Search the installation guide for VHF to see how to do that.
- Gary
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#14

Post by tirebiter » Wed May 08, 2019 12:30 am

Thanks Gary. I should have seen that info about VHF channels. However, I can't figure out how to get started. The manual says"

Select [settings]→[TV]→[Guide]→[Add Missing Channels] from the Tasks menu strip

I've looked everywhere for this menu. What program/screen is it in?

Thanks again!

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#15

Post by garyan2 » Wed May 08, 2019 12:35 am

In WMC... start with the Tasks strip and go from there.

EDIT: correct title of Tasks strip
- Gary
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#16

Post by tirebiter » Wed May 08, 2019 4:47 am

Sorry, I didn't read that section in the manual closely enough.

But I'm stuck again. The channel I'm trying to add is 8.1 (and 8.2 but that's less important). AFAICT, the assigned frequency is 192MHZ, but WMC only accepts 2 digits for that value.

I got that information from this site:

https://nocable.org/browse-stations/cal ... w-haven-ct

Any ideas?

So close and so far....

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#17

Post by garyan2 » Wed May 08, 2019 5:48 am

It is not the frequency you put in that field, it is the RF channel. In your case it is channel 10. So Digital TV channel will be 8.1, 8.2, etc... and the Assigned frequency is the physical RF channel 10 for all of them.
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#18

Post by tirebiter » Wed May 08, 2019 4:18 pm

All is well now. I entered information from the HomeRun utility and the channels started to work. Then WMC automatically added the real channel info, so there were two copies. My manually entered one and the WMC version. But the WMC version didn't work (no signal). Then this morning both entries were from the lineup, but they displayed different channels. So I turned off the channels that weren't the correct one and now it's working fine.

Sorry for being so dense in getting through this process.

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