Cable Company not channel mapping all channels

[Tracer]

I'm on CableOne and they are still using analog for the lower channels. They have these channels available in clear QAM but, because they don't have the channel maps setup the cable card tuner can not tune these channels in. Is there a way to manually map these channels without using a QAM tuner. Or is a case where I have to deal with the cable company being behind in technology?

[JohnW248]

I'm on CableOne and they are still using analog for the lower channels. They have these channels available in clear QAM but, because they don't have the channel maps setup the cable card tuner can not tune these channels in. Is there a way to manually map these channels without using a QAM tuner. Or is a case where I have to deal with the cable company being behind in technology?

These channels may have a "different number" and that might be the reason you don't see them. TWC does both NTSC and QAM on the lower 30 or so channels but the cableCARD does tune the QAM channels.

You can easily check this on your Ceton unit. Just open the web gui (the default for the pcie is 192.168.200.1 and the usb is 192.168.180.1) then click on the cableCARD tab, scroll down the page and where you see "number of channels" it'll be in blue and is a link. If you click on that it'll load the channel map for you to view.

here's a sample of what' you'll see (once you know the channel number you can edit the guide if you want or just use that number to tune the channel. You can also clear the channel map from the clear channel map button and force a new channel map download.

Channel Name Modulation Frequency (kHz) Program EIA

1 INTRO QAM256 861000 151 135.151
2 KCBS QAM256 651000 198 100.198
4 KNBC QAM256 651000 208 100.208
5 KTLA QAM256 657000 222 101.222
6 CH06 NTSC 85000 138 6.138
7 KABC QAM256 651000 207 100.207
8 KCET QAM256 657000 215 101.215
9 KCAL QAM256 657000 214 101.214
10 KMEX QAM256 657000 218 101.218
11 KTTV QAM256 657000 223 101.223
12 KLCSD1 QAM256 633000 168 92.168
13 KCOP QAM256 657000 216 101.216
14 KRCA QAM256 651000 201 100.201

[werds]

Well damn, I never knew you could clear and force a channel remap of the Cable Card through the Ceton Device Diagnostics webpage...

[golfdude]

so am i able to edit the map so channel 2 goes to the hd channel location (in my case is 702), instead of the sd feed? how do i go about that?

[werds]

so am i able to edit the map so channel 2 goes to the hd channel location (in my case is 702), instead of the sd feed? how do i go about that?

Yes, I love this feature as my wife complained about having to memorize which 800 series or 200 series channels had her shows in HD. Instead of making her relearn the channels she knows and loves I mapped all the HD channel sources to show up in the guide on basic channels (2 through etc).

There are several ways to go about it, the one I use whenever I need to make changes is as follows because I find it easier to navigate and compare in the guide.

1. Open up the GUIDE
2. Once you have the guide open, locate the Channel you wish to remap (for example if Fox HD is channel 213, navigate to 213 in your guide)
3. Once you have the channel you wish to remap located press or click the INFO button and a menu will popup - if you have the callsign section highlighted it will look different than if you have a program highlighted - either location works though, the difference being that when you highlight the call sign you can DISABLE the channel so it no longer shows.
4. Once the pop up menu shows from hitting INFO, click on the option labeled EDIT CHANNEL.
5. In the menu that shows up you can now change the channel number, the channel source, or channel listings.
a. Punching in your NEW desired channel number and then pressing save will ask you if you wish to swap these numbers. So lets say the HD channel is channel 213 and you want it to be displayed on channel 5 in your guide. Just type in 5 in the channel number box on this screen and hit save and it will swap the locations.
b. Edit Listings - Now this menu option allows you to set what the guide listings are for your chosen channel. For example lets say you have an HD version of the exact same channel located on channel 213 and 821, but you want them all to listed on channel 5. You Edit Listing, and on the following channel either sort by callsign name or by number, locate the number or callsign you want the guide to pull info from and then hit OK. this will MERGE those channels in the guide. So you could conceivably move all your HD channel listings onto ONE specific channel in the guide.
c. Edit source - if you have multiple tuner sources you can split them into separate channels or pool various channels into one location, you can even move the tuners up or down to prioritize which tuners are used and in what order when tuning that channel. By default it lists clearQAM tuners as higher priority than cable card tuners for channels they can both tune into when you choose to merge them all together (for example I have ABC HD as channel 7 and then merged channel 47.1 which is tuned by a clearQAM tuner into channel 7). Now by default when I tune channel 7 my clearQAM tuners are used first.

[golfdude]

absolutely awesome! considering my provider has like every hd channel possible, remapping the sd lower numbers to the hd higher number will take a bit.. lol

[werds]

Yea, the first few times I did channel remapping it took a long time (but that was because I used a different method by going into settings and remapping through the part where you put check marks to add or remove channels - took longer that way lol) I remember I used to have a notepad with me and wrote down all the HD channel numbers and callsigns, then I listed their corresponding lower SD channel numbers (You might be lucky and already have a printed out channel lineup from your provider somewhere), after that I spent some time looking at the numbering to find out what channels numbers I could move. For example in my guide, I now have ESPN, ESPN NEWS, ESPN2 and ESPN U, and Comcast Sports Net, all numbered 31 through 35. I had to figure out which channels in that particular band I either wanted to disable, or was OK moving to a different channel number. It worked for me because now certain subject stuff are grouped into clusters, easier for me while browsing the guide as the lower the channel number the more watched those channels are and the higher it gets the less watched. So once my channels start hitting 100's they are the rarely watched channels. I still need to go through and disable a bunch of SD channels now that I no longer use them... but the wife is happy so it is a task set aside for a rainy day with nothing better to twiddle my thumbs to.

Also once you get it run through at least once and setup into a reasonably complete mapping you are happy with I would suggest using something like Guide Tool, to save a backup of your tuner channel mapping. http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool

I should have also mentioned this in my earlier post, many members here use guide tool to do the channel remapping. That MIGHT be a better alternative for you. It was not for me because I react quicker to visual cues versus having to process written text. and since I have MyChannel Logos installed, going through the guide as I explained earlier was faster and easier for me. So take a look at Guide Tool as well, you might find it preferrable for the re-mapping, at worst you definitely want to use it to backup your channel mappings as it has saved me HOURS when I need to re-install or troubleshoot my tuners, or when I upgrade or change the tuner configurations.