Add a "one time only" channel to the guide?

[hmmurdock]

So I just read this...

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Time Warner Cable has announced that it will televise the CSS broadcast of Tuesday’s Kentucky-UT Arlington men’s basketball game.

Scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET tip, the game can be seen on the former Insight cable in Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Bowling Green, Ky., and Evansville Ind.

Customers with a digital set-top-box and subscription to Basic/Classic service can access the game on channel 505.

This isn't the first time they've added coverage for a specific game, but the last time they did this I wasn't able to watch. Every time I'd try to tune to channel 505 it would just stay on the current channel, presumably because that channel hasn't been added to the guide, presumably because that channel wasn't part of the channel listing on the cable card when TV Setup was performed in WMC.

So my question is, can I manually add a channel after the fact, or do I need to wait until the game starts (and the cable card has access to the channel) and run setup again?

[JohnW248]

Channels are added by the channel map from the cable provider. You can check if the channel is available by going into the diagnostic web page for your Ceton device and clicking on the cableCARD tab and then click on "number of channels" which is in blue on the left side towards the bottom of the page. Then view all and see if the channel is there.

To be able to tune that channel you need a guide listing. With luck the guide will be revised by zap2it and shipped by MS. With Vista we had the ability to add a channel that wasn't in the guide, that was removed with Win7. If you can a clearQAM tuner and the channel is 0x01 and not encrypted, then you can add the channel by adding the frequency and the guide number. It'll show up in the guide with "no data" but you will be able to tune it.

However, the system is designed to have the cable co ship the channel map and the guide to populate the guide and give you the ability to tune the channel.

[barnabas1969]

With Vista we had the ability to add a channel that wasn't in the guide, that was removed with Win7.

Not true. The summer Olympics was broadcast in 3D on two special channels in my area. The guide in Media Center was not updated to add those channels. They were on channel 1770, 1773 and 1774. After some searching, I found a way to add the channel. It didn't have any guide info, but I was able to tune the channel. I was also able to record the channel by scheduling a recording by date/time/channel.

All you have to do is add a QAM channel. See this thread (especially page 2):
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 387#p22989

[IownFIVEechos]

If you rescan the channels once the channel is available via your cable card software you probably will pick it up. Not sure if you have to then also rerun the media center tv guide setup as well?

[barnabas1969]

If you rescan the channels once the channel is available via your cable card software you probably will pick it up. Not sure if you have to then also rerun the media center tv guide setup as well?

It won't show up if the guide data is not being provided by Microsoft/Zap2it. About a month after I added 1770 manually, guide data started appearing for it. It took Microsoft and Zap2it that long to update their lineup.

[hmmurdock]

Thanks guys.

JohnW248: I checked the device webpage and found some odd stuff: My first tuner says 615 channels and does not include channel #505. The 2nd tuner lists 603 channels and does include #505. Ignoring the obvious "why are they different" question, I'm assuming that as long as one of the devices has access to it, I should still be able to proceed. Also, I thought I remembered seeing an option to manually add channels. I guess it was back in the Vista days.

barnabas1969, Thanks for the link. I *think* I have it ready to go. I have the channel added to the guide and I can at least tune to the channel now. I get a "service unavailable" error, but that isn't completely unexpected as I don't think they enable the channel until game time.

Again, thanks for the help everyone!

[barnabas1969]

I checked the device webpage and found some odd stuff: My first tuner says 615 channels and does not include channel #505. The 2nd tuner lists 603 channels and does include #505.

I get a "service unavailable" error, but that isn't completely unexpected as I don't think they enable the channel until game time.

Make sure that the tuner which lists the channel as available in the channel map is listed at the top of the list of tuner priorities.

[JohnW248]

With Vista we had the ability to add a channel that wasn't in the guide, that was removed with Win7.

Not true. The summer Olympics was broadcast in 3D on two special channels in my area. The guide in Media Center was not updated to add those channels. They were on channel 1770, 1773 and 1774. After some searching, I found a way to add the channel. It didn't have any guide info, but I was able to tune the channel. I was also able to record the channel by scheduling a recording by date/time/channel.

All you have to do is add a QAM channel. See this thread (especially page 2):
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 387#p22989

I did mention adding a clearQAM channel which I have done with HD Homerun. In vista you could add a cableCARD channel, in win7 if that channel is encrypted and copy once you can't add it that way.

[JohnW248]

I checked the device webpage and found some odd stuff: My first tuner says 615 channels and does not include channel #505. The 2nd tuner lists 603 channels and does include #505.

I get a "service unavailable" error, but that isn't completely unexpected as I don't think they enable the channel until game time.

Make sure that the tuner which lists the channel as available in the channel map is listed at the top of the list of tuner priorities.

Or to be safe, go to channel 505 and right click and edit channel and then edit sources and only leave check marks in the tuner that has it listed.

If you live on dangerously you can click clear channel map and see if the other tuner downloads a channel map with the 505 channel. Sometimes, it seems, cableCARDS will get "stuck" on a channel map. If clear channel map doesn't work, unplug the cableCARD and wait 30 seconds and plug it in and it should rebind and verify and download a new channel map. It is possible that the tuner that shows 505 has the "stuck" map.

[hmmurdock]

Well, I finally got everything working... sort of.

Using the Guide Editor from Barnabas's link I managed to get the channel added in a manner that actually worked. Unfortunately, prior to doing that I got impatient and re-ran the tuner setup so I lost all of my custom channel assignments (not the end of the world though, I can fix that fairly easily) but wanted to thank you guys again for your help.

The best part is, this feed is the rawest of raw feeds. 30 minutes prior to tip-off they pretty much have a camera on the arena with the occasional random graphic flashing by, and the audio is guys rehearsing for the actual broadcast. Funny stuff.

[erkotz]

If you rescan the channels once the channel is available via your cable card software you probably will pick it up. Not sure if you have to then also rerun the media center tv guide setup as well?

CableCARD tuners do not support scanning (when a CableCARD is inserted) - they use a channel map provided by the CableCARD

[barnabas1969]

in win7 if that channel is encrypted and copy once you can't add it that way.

Yes, it will. See the attached picture. As you can see, the recordings I made from the Olympics on the channel I added are copy-protected (see the column that says "Protected").

[JohnW248]

Interesting system set-up with that collection of tuners. If you are running win7 with ONLY a cableCARD tuner or combination of cableCARD tuners and no clearQAM or ATSC or NTSC, then the "scan for more channels" does not appear in Tasks,Settings,TV. Without out that and the associated parts of the digital cable (clearQAM) which allow you to add a channel by frequency, I don't know how to add a channel if it isn't in the guide and in the channel map.

[barnabas1969]

So, you're saying that I am only able to do it because I also have clear QAM tuners? That's possible. But what about guide tool? Will it allow you to do it if you only have cable card tuners?

[STC]

FWIW I have added new channels whenever I get the heads-up from head end and they have landed onto the cable card channel map. This is when they are in 'testing' phase for a week or so, prior to the channels being advertised or listed with Zap2it.

I add and name them in GuideTool. As long as it's in the channel map, you're good to go. They have no listings but hey...no complaino.

[JohnW248]

So, you're saying that I am only able to do it because I also have clear QAM tuners? That's possible. But what about guide tool? Will it allow you to do it if you only have cable card tuners?

As STC said, yes with a guidetool add-on but the regular MC on Win7 with only cableCARD tuners, it's a no go.

Also with cableCARD when they start moving things around, the cableCARD tuners will land on the right channels, the clearQAM have to be re-scanned to find their channels. TWC did that last week with CBS and ABC (maybe NBC but I didn't run into that one). I would get multiple "no video" on the clearQAM and a tune on the cableCARD. Running add a channel and delete all channels and scan again fixed it.

[barnabas1969]

Also with cableCARD when they start moving things around, the cableCARD tuners will land on the right channels, the clearQAM have to be re-scanned to find their channels. TWC did that last week with CBS and ABC (maybe NBC but I didn't run into that one)

That's why I'm planning to dump the Clear QAM tuners. I've already bought a couple of HDHR dual tuners, and I'm going to hook them both to my outdoor antenna. There's nothing on clear QAM that I care about and can't get OTA.