Strategy for scanning mixed antenna & fios channels with common channel numbers
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jwk
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Strategy for scanning mixed antenna & fios channels with common channel numbers
I have HDHR3-2US tuners for OTA and an HDHR3-CC (Prime) for FiOS w 2 Lineups that have a lot of the same channel numbers between 2 & 66. I'm not going to use and of the FiOS channels before I get to 500 where the HD channels start, not sure I'll go much past 600 because there are a lot of AVC-encoded channels up there, and I'm not sure that WMC will decode them. It seems to be a waste of time to scan the big blocks of unwanted channels, only to disable them in the EPG Client Guide Tool, so I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the best strategy for integrating the 2 Lineups into one WMC guide. (I'm guessing the common channel numbers won't be a conflict because they'll be delineated as either Local Over The Air Broadcast' or ' (whatever the FiOS designation in the Guide is) '. Please let me know what the options and pros vs cons are.
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garyan2
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Why will you have duplicate channel numbers? The OTA will be ATSC with subchannels and the FiOS will be the integer numbers. Or did I read that wrong and you 2 FiOS lineups somehow?
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io
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Space
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FiOS does have some AVC (h264) channels, but not very many and they ARE recordable and playable by WMC.
Check this forum thread (go to the last post to see the latest update) that maintains an accurate list of all h264 channels on FiOS.
As for scanning channels, if you are using a CableCard in your Prime, there is no need to scan anything, the CableCard tells the device where all the channels are, so no need to "discover" them. Scanning will be necessary with the OTA device, and you will have to add any VHF channels manually, as scanning does not find these.
Also, like Gary mentioned, the FiOS lineup will use regular numbering (2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) and the OTA lineup will use sub-channel format (2.0, 2.1, 2.3, 4.1, 4,2, 4.3, etc.) so there should be no numbering conflicts.
Check this forum thread (go to the last post to see the latest update) that maintains an accurate list of all h264 channels on FiOS.
As for scanning channels, if you are using a CableCard in your Prime, there is no need to scan anything, the CableCard tells the device where all the channels are, so no need to "discover" them. Scanning will be necessary with the OTA device, and you will have to add any VHF channels manually, as scanning does not find these.
Also, like Gary mentioned, the FiOS lineup will use regular numbering (2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) and the OTA lineup will use sub-channel format (2.0, 2.1, 2.3, 4.1, 4,2, 4.3, etc.) so there should be no numbering conflicts.
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jwk
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Probably not the best time to write a post at 12:30am after you've been up since 5am and had 5 hours sleep the previous night... clarity and accuracy sometimes suffers as a result.
Gary-
Even though I did postulate that:
"(I'm guessing the common channel numbers won't be a conflict because they'll be delineated as either Local Over The Air Broadcast' or (whatever the FiOS designation in the Guide is) "
I didn't think about the subchannel being appended to the OTA channels, but the point was not to have both included in the guide, because I'm only interested in the HD channels, i.e. the OTA channels as well as the FiOS HD channels that start above 500, and mostly below 600.
So to be clear, I have no need for the lower FiOS channels, because they are low res and occur again in HD above channel 500. At the time I wrote this, I thought that I had to scan the cablecard channels via the HDHR3-CC in the same way that I have to scan the OTA channels via the HDHR3-2US tuners to create a list of tuners and channels within WMC, but in Space's reply this is the first time I've heard that I don't have to scan the Cable Card.
So, I guess what I need to do now (since the OTA tuners have already been scanned in WMC and EPG123 is already working) is to add the Schedules Direct FiOS Lineup to the SD OTA Lineup to be sent to the EPG123 client nightly and just tick the channels I want in the ScheduleDirect lineups viewed in the EPG123 client... Your help here is gratefully appreciated.
I hope that clarifies what I'm trying to accomplish but if not, let me know and I'll try to clarify my clarification
Space, thanks for the link to the forum thread, not sure I'll need it, I just copied and pasted the channels from the list I got looking at the CC in silicondust's myhdhomerun.com application (which also indicates each channels capabilities, i.e. HD, AVC, and DRM, but I'll sure take a look at the website.
Thanks for the info about AVC, I couldn't remember exactly when it went into use in broadcasting, or if WMC was capable of using it. Most of the FiOS channels that use AVC are not channels I'm interested in, but good to know the ones that I am interested in are supported.
And finally thanks for clarifying that while I don't have to scan the CableCard channels, I still do have to scan the OTA tuners.
Since my 2 WMC computers already have scanned the OTA Tuners and EPG123 is using the Lineup from Schedules Direct for them, the only thing I have to do is add the FiOS lineup to my nightly EPG123 client download and disable the unwanted channels from the FiOS Lineup in EPG123 client's list. I guess what lineups get downloaded is done in Schedules Direct, I'll go figure that out now.
Guys, thanks for all your support!
Gary-
Even though I did postulate that:
"(I'm guessing the common channel numbers won't be a conflict because they'll be delineated as either Local Over The Air Broadcast' or (whatever the FiOS designation in the Guide is) "
I didn't think about the subchannel being appended to the OTA channels, but the point was not to have both included in the guide, because I'm only interested in the HD channels, i.e. the OTA channels as well as the FiOS HD channels that start above 500, and mostly below 600.
So to be clear, I have no need for the lower FiOS channels, because they are low res and occur again in HD above channel 500. At the time I wrote this, I thought that I had to scan the cablecard channels via the HDHR3-CC in the same way that I have to scan the OTA channels via the HDHR3-2US tuners to create a list of tuners and channels within WMC, but in Space's reply this is the first time I've heard that I don't have to scan the Cable Card.
So, I guess what I need to do now (since the OTA tuners have already been scanned in WMC and EPG123 is already working) is to add the Schedules Direct FiOS Lineup to the SD OTA Lineup to be sent to the EPG123 client nightly and just tick the channels I want in the ScheduleDirect lineups viewed in the EPG123 client... Your help here is gratefully appreciated.
I hope that clarifies what I'm trying to accomplish but if not, let me know and I'll try to clarify my clarification
Space, thanks for the link to the forum thread, not sure I'll need it, I just copied and pasted the channels from the list I got looking at the CC in silicondust's myhdhomerun.com application (which also indicates each channels capabilities, i.e. HD, AVC, and DRM, but I'll sure take a look at the website.
Thanks for the info about AVC, I couldn't remember exactly when it went into use in broadcasting, or if WMC was capable of using it. Most of the FiOS channels that use AVC are not channels I'm interested in, but good to know the ones that I am interested in are supported.
And finally thanks for clarifying that while I don't have to scan the CableCard channels, I still do have to scan the OTA tuners.
Since my 2 WMC computers already have scanned the OTA Tuners and EPG123 is using the Lineup from Schedules Direct for them, the only thing I have to do is add the FiOS lineup to my nightly EPG123 client download and disable the unwanted channels from the FiOS Lineup in EPG123 client's list. I guess what lineups get downloaded is done in Schedules Direct, I'll go figure that out now.
Guys, thanks for all your support!