Comcast finally added the ACC network

[billmich]

I did a rescan for my HDHomerun prime and it got added, but for WMC it didn't show up ( obviously that is through EPG123) -

This channel addition just happened today - so i am wondering is things will take care of themselves in a couple of days, or will i have to get into the settings and do a re-scan in EPG123?

NOT an IPTV channel - channel 1325

[garyan2]

In the client, you can subscribe the ACC channel to the DUMMY Station in the ZZZ123 Dummy Lineup which will keep the channel enabled in WMC, though without any guide data. Once the station is added to the Comcast lineup from SD/Gracenote, it will automatically be added to the channel as long as you have automatch and automatically add new stations options enabled in the configuration GUI.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[billmich]

Thank you for the response

[Space]

Note that with the HD Homerun Prime with cable card, a "scan" does nothing in terms of adding channels. All that a scan does is determine if the channel has DRM, and if you are subscribed. But this is only within the Prime itself (for use by clients other than WMC).

Cablecard devices have something called a "channel map" which is downloaded periodically from the cable provider that allows it to know about the tuning information for all channels without having to do any scans. As I said, the "scan" on the HDHomerun Prime only checks all those (already known) channels for DRM and subscribed/unsubscribed status so that it can report that information to other clients. WMC does not use any of this information, unlike some other clients might.

The only thing WMC does is blindly send the channel number to the Prime when it wants to tune to it and sees what happens.

In order to do that, WMC needs to have that channel number in the guide (a quirk of WMC is that you cannot tune to a channel if it is not in the guide). The main way to get a channel to appear in the guide is to have it in the lineup for your provider. This means that it is the channel lineup that determines what channels you can tune. A scan of you tuners in the Prime does nothing for WMC.

Note that EPG123, by default, adds all channels 1-9999 to WMC, so technically you don't need to have the channel in your lineup to view it, but since the default behavior of EPG123 (automatch) is to disable any channel that doesn't have a guide listing, even if you enable the channel without a guide listing, it will be disabled the next time EPG123 does a guide update.

As Gary mentioned, you can get around this by assigning a "dummy" listing to that channel, or really any listing you want, the dummy is just special in that when that channel finally appears in an updated lineup which was downloaded with EPG123 during a daily update, it will replace that dummy listing with the real listing automatically (whereas if you had assigned it to another non-dummy listing, it would retain that non-dummy listing instead).

[Gripweed]

In the client, you can subscribe the ACC channel to the DUMMY Station in the ZZZ123 Dummy Lineup which will keep the channel enabled in WMC, though without any guide data.

Until the OP's post I didn't realize that I had ACCHD in my Comcast lineup (not that I'm likely to watch it much since I'm a Big Ten team fan.) I have it listed as channel 1325 in my HDHomerun Prime. Anyway, I'm in the same boat in that SD/Gracenote doesn't list it in their lineup. The problem is I can't figure out exactly how to subscribe a channel to the Dummy Lineup. I don't see any way to add the info under the one Dummy line on the right side of the EPG123 Client.

[Space]

Oh boy, I've never actually done this, but if I remember correctly, you select the "DUMMY" entry on the right and then right click on the channel you want it assigned to on the left and select "Subscribe" from the menu.

That will either do what you want, or totally not do what you want, let us know...

EDIT:

OK, I had to confirm it, here it is from someone who knows all the stuff...

[garyan2]

https://garyan2.github.io/map.html

You can view an animated gif at the link of manually mapping a channel to a guide listing.

[Space]

Ah, so you can right click on either the left panel or the right panel as long as you have both selected? Or do they do different things depending on which panel you use the menu on?

Also, can you select multiple items on the left and a single item on the right and assign multiple channels to a service?

[garyan2]

Correct, as long as left and right are selected the 'Subscribe' menu item is enabled. No difference in function.

No, it has to be a single item on the left when subscribing. I figured allowing multiple items on the left could lead to problems.

Also a note for the process. After assigning a channel to the dummy station, I usually then rename the channel to reflect what is on it so you don't end up seeing a bunch of DUMMY channels in the guide.

[Space]

I think a source of confusion (at least for me, and I would assume others) is that there is a channel number in the right panel.

I believe that this is just the channel number that the lineup downloaded from Schedules Direct (SD) says this service should be assigned to, but it does not necessarily mean what it is actually assigned to that channel in WMC.

It seems unintuitive to assign one channel number to another channel number (even though I believe WMCs own channel remapping interface does exactly that), but it is completely intuitive to assign a service to a channel number.

I think if you were to remove that channel number from the right side, it would be 100% more apparent what each panel was for. I'm not saying to remove it, but perhaps make a different view (default) that doesn't have that number with an option to enable it.

Maybe have a little check box above the list or a checked/unchecked right click menu option that says "View source lineup channel numbers" (or something similar).

Again, just a suggestion, now that I (think) I understand how it works, I can certainly see the usefulness of having the original channel number on the right panel (it shows you what SD has as the mappings and if it is incorrect you know to contact SD to fix it), I just feel that for most people who are using it for the first time, it would be better to not see the channel numbers on that panel.

But of course, I am probably not thinking of all the scenarios, and there very well may be ones where NOT having that number in the right panel would be more confusing than having it...

[garyan2]

Two of those scenarios immediately to mind are:
What about services that are on multiple channels in the lineup? They would have to be joined.
Also, doing so would totally break the ability to Match by: [# Number] since I use the channel numbers from the lineup provided by SD to perform that operation.

The way it is now, it is no more confusing than actually remapping within WMC by editing the channel listings manually. In fact, I would say it is less confusing (and way quicker). Understanding the right side is the lineup downloaded from SD and the left side is the WMC guide channels is really all that is needed. With being able to map any guide listing from any lineup to any channel pretty much reveals that the channel numbers on the right side are irrelevant for manual mapping.

[Space]

If you have the same service on two channels on the right side, does it matter which one you choose to map to a channel on the left side? Isn't the result the same? I don't think having that service twice on the right side without the number would be that big a deal, no need to merge them.

Doing match by # would not be affected, this is just a display thing, you would still have all those channel numbers on the right side (as I said, you would be able to toggle the display of them on and off).

I did mention that WMC also does it this way, and that is also a bit confusing. I was just making a suggestion to make EPG123 less so.

I agree with you that knowing what is in the left panel and what is in the right panel makes it much easier to understand, but I think my suggestion would make it intuitive as to what each panel is, rather than having to know that already.

Again, this is just a suggestion, I definitely do not want the numbers completely removed! Just a option to make them easily hidden and unhidden.

Personally, for myself, I am fine with the way it is, I just thought it might be easier for people unfamiliar with the interface to get a better grasp of the functionality without having to have as much foreknowledge. The numbers are helpful to sort by, which might make it easier to find specific services if you know what their channel number is or their grouping, so I would certainly not want them completely removed.

At the very least, perhaps people will see this conversation and be able to get a better grasp of functionality of the EPG123 client tool.

Maybe others may have better suggestions on how to enhance the functionality. Or maybe they all like it the way it is.

[Gripweed]

Correct, as long as left and right are selected the 'Subscribe' menu item is enabled. No difference in function.

Also a note for the process. After assigning a channel to the dummy station, I usually then rename the channel to reflect what is on it so you don't end up seeing a bunch of DUMMY channels in the guide.

Does the following image look right to you? The animated GIF only confused me because I was expecting it to show the Dummy Lineup and it didn't. After reading the extended conversation between Space and you I became even more confused. Eventually I threw out all the advanced theory and just chose the 1325 line on the left and the Dummy line on the right, right clicked and clicked Subscribe. Then I right clicked on 1325 on the left and clicked Rename and entered in ACCHD. When I refreshed the ACCHD turned pink. ACCHD appears in the guide as channel #1325 without any data (as expected).



Now do I have to request SD to add ACCHD to my lineup?

[garyan2]

Yes, that is exactly what you needed to do. You can submit a ticket with SD letting them know that Comcast added the station and they'll work on it.

[Gripweed]

Thank you so much. That actually turned out to be easy and painless.

[billmich]

I added the channel as instructed above - so now i can tune it is - I also filled out a feedback form on the SD site. Any idea about how long/how responsive they are to adding it to my local comcast lineup?

[Gripweed]

Just got an email today from SD saying that Gracenote just sent along the ACCHD addition to my Comcast lineup. I can't check that right now because after running non-stop for 8 years my Win7 WMC computer just died. It was all backed up but I'm having a heck of a time just getting it's replacement computer going at all. It won't recognize it's network card. Sorry, I went off topic there.

It took about 3 weeks for the response from Gracenote and SD after I put in the request. But remember that Christmas and New Years was happening during that time period. Probably will be shorter for you.

[billmich]

Looks like the guide is populating the ACC network with data

[Ken H]

I sent a message to SD for my area Ann Arbor, MI, and two days later it showed up.