What is your strategy for channel filtering (channels received, favorites, etc...)

[MikeekiM]

I have never really done anything to maintain my DirecTV channel lists...

When I pull up the guide, it is ugly... all the PPV, sports channels, premium channels, adult channels... All of them are visible, even though they are not all available...

I started to do some pruning using a custom list..here was my process

1. Filter out all SD locals where a HD local exists
2. Filter out all PPV channels
3. Filter out all Premium Channels (I don't subscribe to any of them)
4. Filter out all private network channels (do these stay consistent?)
5. Filter out all "XM for Business" channels (channels 95xx)
6. Filter out all Game channels (channels 99xx)
7. Filter out all obvious non-interest channels (e.g., non-english programming, etc..)

What I am left with is still a lot of channels... I still have not pruned the informercials, the direcTV preview channels, etc... Some questions/issues:

* How stable are the channels outside of the mainstream
* What about seasonal channels, for instance, the US Open have about a half dozen channels broadcasting tennis... How does DirecTV inform us of these sorts of "special" channel assignments?
* I am pretty confident of the stability of the 2-400 channels... Not so comfortable with the 500s outside of the typical premiums, and then the 600s and 700s seem a bit of a mystery for me on stability...

How do you all manage your channel lists?

[Dkerr24]

I don't. I just set season passes and watch the programs from the Now Playing List. The only live TV I watch is the local news and sporting events.

[JimSpence]

I basically just remove from the Channels You Receive list all channels that I don't subscribe to. And the shopping channels (however, those do return). Then make sure you use the CYR for the display of the guide.

[DougF]

I don't. I just set season passes and watch the programs from the Now Playing List. The only live TV I watch is the local news and sporting events.

Same here. The only time I even look at the guide is when I know one of the premium channels is having a free preview.

[skittish]

When I first owned my dtivo, I discovered that I had to use Favorite Channels to filter out all the unwanted stuff. For example, the Gems Shopping channel would keep on showing up again a few days after I would delete it from Channels You Receive. But anyways, like others have said, having a tivo based appliance quickly weaned me from channel surfing. My season passes and searches have kept my Now Playing List full, and I couldn't care less what junk shopping channels DirecTV beams to me.

[Dayton-Dave]

I keep my favorites list the same as the channels I receive minus the non interest channels such as the shopping, non English, Infomercial channels that are labeled DTV. Of course the PPVs & sports packages like MLB, NFL, etc. I only have the channels I watch or want to watch & record from. If not you get some strange or unwanted programs suggested in the Suggestions section. I have to check every so often as DirecTV seems to want to add the shopping channels back & an occasional PPV channel & their DTV channels. This makes my program guide much easier to use & check for programs I may want to watch live or record for later viewing. Not everything I watch is worthy of my recording it, such as old reruns that I use as background when I'm doing other things.

[DBCooper]

Unfortunately, maintaining the "Channels you receive" list is a royal pain because they take that description literally. In other words, it is NOT "Channels you want to receive," it's more like "Channels they want to annoy you with." The shopping channel being put back in the list every day is a major annoyance, but so is the fact that they add every new bastard channel that crosses their antenna whether you can receive it or not.

Just remember that DirecTV is not your friend, they are your enemy. It will explain a lot of things they do.

[JammasterC]

I would like everyone in the house to have their own channel guide on my DSR-708.