MPTV Relocates Digital Channels

[jkane]

I guess I read that the "guide thinks those still exist" meant that the channel numbers were still there.  That was why I finally deleted them on mine.  Got tired of seeing them without a signal to tune to when selected from the menu.  Sorry for the confusion.

Mptv.org is dead today.  I wasn't resolving the host name earlier.  Now corecom has a message up for the main page saying it's a placeholder!  DOH!  Can't get the link for asking them about this.

[tbarney]

Any other Dish people here who can verify that they also have no guide data for 36?

I'm doing an online chat with Dish right now to at least inform them of the issue. I think I did a very good job explaing the issue and I'm being told to rescan for the channels, if that doesn't work, then reset my receiver. I don't think they get it.

[jkane]

MPTV.org is back.  I went to their contact us page and left an query for them on this issue.  We'll see what happens next.

[cjucoder]

I guess I read that the "guide thinks those still exist" meant that the channel numbers were still there.

Oh, I see.  And yes, the invalid channel numbers are still in the guide.  On these Gemstar boxes the channel numbers in the guide ARE guide data.  It has nothing to do with the channels your receiver scans.  It decides what channels are in your guide based on the zip code you tell it you have.  Doing a rescan would not affect channels in the guide.

I could delete them all together from the guide, but what I will probably do instead is remap the channels.  I could assign what the guide thinks is 10-4 to 36-4 etc, and I probably will do that, but that only partially fixes the problem since the shows are still often wrong.

MPTV.org is back. I went to their contact us page and left an query for them on this issue. We'll see what happens next.

Good idea!  I just did the same thing.

[tbarney]

Any other Dish people here who can verify that they also have no guide data for 36?

I contacted Dish again today, this time by phone (last time by chat) to tell them they are missing guide information for 36-2 and beyond. Of course they figured it was a problem with my equipment or settings and put me through 30 minutes of reseting this and that. In the end, a big waste of my time and a bunch of minutes on their 800 line.

After all that, she ended with; "Sir, since we don't provide you those channels thorugh the dish we cannot provide you the guide information".  My response was really simple and along the lines of: "Then why did I get 10-2 and 10-3 guide information a few weeks ago when you don't provide me those channels through the dish?" Of course she was stumpped at that point and said she could not help me any further.

After me pleading my case a bit more she agreed to send my case to an engineer. Yeah Right! That'll never happen. This was a call center in the phillipines. I bet I'll win the lottery before that case ever gets sent to an engineer.

[jkane]

Haven't heard from the station either yet.  Was thinking a second query might be in order.

[cjucoder]

Haven't heard from the station either yet.  Was thinking a second query might be in order.

Ten days later and I haven't received a reply either.  For a station that relies so heavily on public support it seems like bad PR to ignore questions supplied on their own contacts form.

[jkane]

I got a reply from Kevin Kukowski at 10/36 today.  He is trying hard to help.  Sounds like to them, the guide data they send is right.  But not sure they understand the mechanism of how the guide data gets there either.  They understand the provided channels, but not the OTA.  Must be Magic at Dish that converts the SD feed guide into the OTA HD feed data.  :rolleyes:

He suggested deleting the channels from the line up and scanning for them again. It's worth a shot again.  Who knows, maybe it will wake dish up and it'll jsut recognize them again.

Sent an email back to Dish to let them know they are getting the data, and placing it on the wrong channel.  Doubtful they will understand it, but it's the next step!

Gee, if this works, should we start working on 55 and their missing data?  I guess that will never show up since it is not a channel provided by dish at all.  I am sure it is some story like that!

[tbarney]

He suggested deleting the channels from the line up and scanning for them again. It's worth a shot again.  Who knows, maybe it will wake dish up and it'll jsut recognize them again.

I've already tried removing the channels and scanning for them again. It still shows Digital Service.  I'll give dish a couple more weeks to get it figured out.

Gee, if this works, should we start working on 55 and their missing data?

Dish needs to get 58-2 figured out as well. That is WMLW, but most of the time it has the same guide info as 58-1.

[cjucoder]

I got a reply from Kevin Kukowski at 10/36 today.  He is trying hard to help.

That is really good news. :rock:  I just hope that doesn't turn into 10/36 saying "it's Dish's fault" and Dish saying "it's the station's fault".

I just sent a second request using the same "Contact Us" form and this time included a link to this thread and I mentioned it was my second request.  I hope someone will try hard to help with my issue too.  I hope the reason I am being ignored isn't because my problem is Gemstar guide data (as opposed to Dish Guide data which I assume is used by more people).

[cjucoder]

I just sent a second request using the same "Contact Us" form and this time included a link to this thread and I mentioned it was my second request.

I got this reply this morning:

I will forward your e-mail to the engineering department...
Thanks,


Volunteer.

The good news is that it was CC'd to Mike Behlen!  I'll be sure to post back here what he says.

[jkane]

No answer from Dish other than another automated "we'll get back to you" one.  But someone else from MPTV wrote me and asked for more information.  She said she'd look into it.  Sounded like she is a volunteer so I am trying to be nice to her and not pushy.

We'll see what happens.

[cjucoder]

The good news is that it was CC'd to Mike Behlen!  I'll be sure to post back here what he says.

I received this reply this morning from Mr. Behlen:

"I will check further into the way that Gemstar receives our channel line ap data and try to get this corrected. One of my difficulties in doing this is I will need to acquire a box that can receive the data here to validate it.

I will respond to you as soon as I can on this issue."

[jkane]

There is some traction.  But I was told it could take 4 weeks to get all the pieces of the puzzle in place.

[cjucoder]

On Mon. Oct.13th I received this email from Mr. Behlen:

"Update a Data Operations Supervisor from Gemstar-TV Guide International, now a part of Macrovision Solutions Corporation is checking into the issue. It may take a day or two for the correction to migrate through the system."

A week later and I have not noticed any difference, but I am still optimistic based on that email that this may finally be rectified.