[vlayton]

One of my locals(KNVA 54 - Austin Tx) made some change to their PSIP tables(I really don't know what I'm talking about) which caused my HR10-250 to remap their HD channel numbers(from 49-1/2 to 54-1/2). I noticed a problem when my recordings from the original channel were empty. I re-scanned the OTA channels which picked up the new entries for 54-1. However, 54-1/2 do not disply guide data(49-1/2 has the guide data but no programming)

DTV support was worthless. I might has well have been showing card tricks to dogs. So I sniffed around here and saw others with the same problem(even with this same channel). So, I wrote to snap2it.com and the tv station. Got this from the TV station:
---
Yes, we have done some work recently on the PSIP tables. We have been
preparing to turn off our secondary channels due to an FCC mandate
that all digital channels must run a specified amount of children's
programming. That mandate was lifted last week so we will not be
turning off after all but apparently our efforts confused some of the
HD receivers, particularly the DirecTV flavor.

I went ahead and re-imported the program guide info this morning and
it is appearing on our receivers here. Please let me know if you are
still having an issue.
---

Still no change on my receiver. I deleted the on-airs, re-scanned, rebooted etc... Bupkis. Never heard back from snap2it(perhaps I should have given them the contact for the tv station rather than DirecTv). So, I no longer can record my season passes on this channel.

Any ideas about how I might resolve this problem? Do I need to setup my Tivo all over again? I'm guessing the "PSIP table" has something to do with remapping the UHF channel number to the guide channel data and perhaps the HR10-250 has stale data in it?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[ebonovic]

There is nothing you can do about it on your end....

It is a matter between your local station, the "clearing house" for the guide data... which is either Tribune or Gemstar (I keep forgetting which one it is), and DirecTV..


There is no "options" on the user side, to remap it there.


I had to go through that for about a year when one of my stations wanted to be on 1-1, even though their guide data was up on 26-1

 

[vlayton]

Thanks, Earl. I'm waiting to hear back from the tv station engineer to clarify a few things. What concerns me is that I choose the option to "clear OTA channel data" on the TiVo but it doesn't seem to do anything. All my local digital channels still show up(except the new one that doesn't have guide data - that goes away). I'm thinking the old channel data needs to be cleared somehow.

I'm trying to determine why a standalone receiver is okay(according to the station engineer) while the HDTivo is not.

 

[vlayton]

I'll follow up to my own post for any others in Austin. Just got off the phone with the engineer and it turns out they he can still see the problem on their DTV HD receiver. So, they are aware of the problem but it may take a week or two to track down folks at Tribune and DTV to get the problem fixed(the holidays aren't helping).

He said that the PSIP implementation is kludgy and it's not the first time that they've made changes to the PSIP table that messed up particular receivers.

 

[JimSpence]

My local ch 40 (analog) is broadcasting digital on ch8. For a while my HTL-HD receiver had them listed as 40-1 AND 8-2. It got confusing. To make it worse, they used a subchannel for our UPN affiliate (40-2). This showed up as 8-3. They got their PSIP working and all is well now. The guide shows 40-1 and 40-2 as it should.

 

[wje]

PSIP - Program and System Information Protocol

This is part of the digital TV standard, and it's how digital stations can provide info about channel names and daily programming. To quote: 'The ATSC PSIP standard (A/65) for Digital Television allows broadcasters to identify themselves and convey up to 16 days of programming information' (from one of the ATSC specs)

However, stations are not required to use it. Most do, though. The problem you're seeing is that the station has changed the info they send out, but the clearinghouse that aggregates all the data for DTV hasn't gotten around to updating their stuff yet. They'll probably get to it eventually.

 

[greywolf]

Stations are now required to use proper PSIP information. That went into effect sometime last February.

 

[vlayton]

Just heard from the engineer again and the guide data should be good tomorrow(1/7). He finally found a DTV tech who knew his stuff and they figured out what needed to be changed on the Tribune Media Services end(not zap2it.com, unless they're related).

So, for folks that found this thread with a similar problem, contact the engineer at the local station and ask them if they've been messing with PSIP data and that your guide data is missing. That should get the ball rolling. Good luck.

 

[JimSpence]

Tribune Media Services is the main source (parent if you will) for info on Zap2It.

 

[ebonovic]

Stations are now required to use proper PSIP information. That went into effect sometime last February.

Which finally resolved one of our local stations to get their BUTTS off 1-1 when they belonged on 26-1....

 

[TyroneShoes]

Stations are now required to use proper PSIP information. That went into effect sometime last February.

1-30-05, to be exact. Not only that, but they are required to conform to a standard implementation of PSIP, which was not the case before that date. If you have insomnia or you are a masochist and really want to make your head hurt, try reading the PSIP bible (which is right now glaring at me from a shelf in my boss's office). It is about the size of the phone book in say, Sarasota FL or Austin TX, and is about the driest thing since the source code for Windows 3.1.1.