Channels I receive

[DouglasPHill]

R10 - It always has bugged me that the DVR does not automatically know what channels I receive. So I'm setting up a wishlist for soccer games and it comes back and shows me 4 games on 4 various channels. Well, before I say ok I have to back out and go find out if I get those channels. So I view them and find out I don't get them. I then go to setup and mark the channels off of my channels I receive list, and go back to wishlist and start over.

What I would really like is when I'm viewing the channels I receive list, I'd like to press a button and view the channel I am highlighting, then a back button to return to the list where I can mark it either yes or no.

[JimSpence]

Hint to all who read this.

Since DirecTV DVRs don't automatically setup the channels based on your subscription you have to do it manually. This should be the first thing you do when setting up a new DVR. Then all you have to do is occasionally remove the shopping channels that keep popping up. :(

[TeeSee]

You don't have to remove the shopping channels that pop up. Set up a favorites list and that won't happen. It is something you have to do manually, but do it once and that's it. I agree this should happen automatically (if Dish Network DVRs can do it automatically, anyone's should be able to) but it's just a one time thing.

[DavidS]

Hint to all who read this.

Since DirecTV DVRs don't automatically setup the channels based on your subscription you have to do it manually. This should be the first thing you do when setting up a new DVR. Then all you have to do is occasionally remove the shopping channels that keep popping up. :(
You don't have to remove the shopping channels that pop up. Set up a favorites list and that won't happen. It is something you have to do manually, but do it once and that's it. I agree this should happen automatically (if Dish Network DVRs can do it automatically, anyone's should be able to) but it's just a one time thing.

I suspect that the OPs complaint is not solved by either suggestion. Both suggestions should be followed - Set up your Channels I Recevice at the beginning and then set up Favorites and use it for your Guide. However, the sports package channels and PPV channels are also constantly added and removed and show up in Channels I Receive; this makes a search for sports like the OP's an arduous task, as he says. Using Favorites doesn't solve the search problem, because Search uses Channels I Receive; Favorties only prevents those phantom channels from showing up on the on-screen guide.

The failure of DTiVo to automatically set Channels I Receive is one of the very few things I personally find disappointed about the product.

[DouglasPHill]

David is right. BTW - Thank you all for your feedback.
I was really complaining about the process of marking/unmarking
the channels I receive. I don't know if I receive it until
I tune to it. So either let me tune to it from the list where
you mark/unmark or when I am viewing a channel, let me
press a button right there to mark/unmark it from my receive
channel list.

Then again, it should have been automatic. One final question,
does the DVR that shall not be named have this problem?

[The Flush]

This is one of the few things that Dish Network does better than DTV; it has an automatic filter for channels you subscribe to and when viewing the guide in all channels mode, the channels you do not subscribe to show up in red. However, the favorites guide sucks because it is limited to a certain number of channels that was inadequate for our family favs (all channels minus shopping and certain specialty channels). The method for selecting the favorites was just as awkward however.

[ebonovic]

Then again, it should have been automatic. One final question,
does the DVR that shall not be named have this problem?

Yes and No...

DTSNBN does have auto-detection of what you recieve, however it is not 100% on that. Problem is... when the DTSNBN thinks you DON'T get a channel, you can't set a recording for it... and there is no way to over ride it.

It is improving though, there are only a handfull of channels still out there that people are reporting...

[DavidS]

DTSNBN does have auto-detection of what you recieve, however it is not 100% on that. Problem is... when the DTSNBN thinks you DON'T get a channel, you can't set a recording for it... and there is no way to over ride it.

Boy, that would suck. I wonder if that difficulty (blocking of recording of channels incorrectly excluded) was the reason DTV/TiVo never implemented that function for the DTiVo. IIRC, other DTV receivers do this, but not DTiVo.

[ebonovic]

Boy, that would suck. I wonder if that difficulty (blocking of recording of channels incorrectly excluded) was the reason DTV/TiVo never implemented that function for the DTiVo IIRC, other DTV receivers do this, but not DTiVo.

From what I have been told, it is more of a "standards" thing.
Inside of the data stream, your Access Card is told what it can and can't see.

The R15 is trying to tap into that... and what was supposed to be there.. is not, or it not in the correct form or something like that.

Primarily it was affecting the RSNs... and recently they adjusted the bitstream, so the R15 thinks you can recieve all of them.

IIRC there where very few recievers that did this (Aka would not allow you to tune in a channel, if it thought you didn't recieve it.... it would just say Channel not available).

[DavidS]

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation, Earl.

[Mr2sday]

I think it's also a marketing thing. They want you to see the shows you don't get and maybe you'll decide to pay the extra to see those shows.

[SeattleCarl]

It also allows them to give you a preview weekend of a premium channel where you can watch it, but not record it. Sneaky, eh?

Carl