# Comcast channel lineup changes



## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

In my area, Comcast has started to move and group channels over 999 into what they call "families". Channels with similar content are being grouped together in ranges of 13xx, 14xx, 15xx etc... My One Pass failed to record the most recent Doctor Who because BBCA moved from the 1200 range to somewhere in the 1400s. Normally, tivo reflects channel changes and moves pretty smoothly. Not this time. I can't tune to the old BBCA channel and all of the channels in the new ranges have no guide data but you can access them. I don't know if this is just a Philadelphia / South Jersey thing or if Comcast has begun to roll this change out elsewhere. The thread below addresses this in more detail.

Comcast NJ Lineup issues


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## rgr (Feb 21, 2003)

They did something similar here in Sacramento, except they didn't eliminate the original channel number. Your example of BBCA, for instance. It is both channel 810 AND 1418. Kind of irritating in that sometimes a wishlist wants to record the showing on both channels, as I haven't gone through and deactivated the duplicate channels. I keep intending to, but stop when I think that Comcast change back or eliminate one set of the channels.


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## SMB-IL (Mar 5, 2003)

Same thing is happening in the SW suburbs of Chicago as Sacramento. There are now two channels for most of the cable line-up. Last week, they modified the >999 channels, so I've left everything alone. I've also changed all of my season passes to "ALL" in the channel section. I swear I'm babysitting TiVo these days more than I did a VCR.


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

SMB-IL said:


> Same thing is happening in the SW suburbs of Chicago as Sacramento. There are now two channels for most of the cable line-up. Last week, they modified the >999 channels, so I've left everything alone. I've also changed all of my season passes to "ALL" in the channel section. I swear I'm babysitting TiVo these days more than I did a VCR.


i would think the new channels would remain going forward, so wouldn't it be easier to remove the older duplicates from and let the 1p manager assign the new channel numbers?


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## SMB-IL (Mar 5, 2003)

Yes, it would be, but the new channels showed up about a month or so ago, then about two weeks ago, they all got deleted and the next day, they were back with some changes. Besides, Comcast told us that the old channels would also be there for the foreseeable future and I've ALWAYS believed everything Comcast says. [/sarcasm] They also still have ABC screwed up on 1007: it should be the HD station and it's SD, even though it was originally named "WLS-DT", which should be the HD channel. After the most recent change, it's now "WLS" and still in SD and the HD channel is nowhere to be found in the lineup above 1000. Really screwy!


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

we went through a similar hd issue with sho2 - ch. 1952 was supposed to be hd, but it was sd, and so was the old channel number, so an hd option didn't exist - it took years for comcast to fix it.

i feel your pain...


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## bluemcduff (Sep 8, 2007)

The new national lineup has gone into effect for Atlanta for about a month and my lineup hasn't been changed.

What's the best way of getting TiVo to add the new channels without messing up the entire lineup?


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

bluemcduff said:


> The new national lineup has gone into effect for Atlanta for about a month and my lineup hasn't been changed.
> 
> What's the best way of getting TiVo to add the new channels without messing up the entire lineup?


if your lineup changes, the channels will be added automatically, you'll just need to remove the old duplicates from your guide.


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## rgr (Feb 21, 2003)

NorthAlabama said:


> we went through a similar hd issue with sho2 - ch. 1952 was supposed to be hd, but it was sd, and so was the old channel number, so an hd option didn't exist - it took years for comcast to fix it.
> 
> i feel your pain...


This what I like least of the change. Too many of the new 1000+ numbered channels are listed as being HD - but are shown at 480i


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## bluemcduff (Sep 8, 2007)

NorthAlabama said:


> if your lineup changes, the channels will be added automatically, you'll just need to remove the old duplicates from your guide.


But they won't change it without the necessary information! I got one updated channel yesterday but I submitted that one around March.

We're talking about hundreds of new channel positions and nearly duplicating the lineup from 1-999.

Surely TiVo would notice a change that obvious for a city as large as Atlanta as they have in other parts of the country.

But that doesn't appear to be the case yet.

There is another lineup I could use that has most of the channels above 1000, but it's really messed up.

I want the lineup I use now corrected instead of using the bad lineup.


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

Only six of my new channels from 1400 - 2000 have guide data.


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## bluemcduff (Sep 8, 2007)

bluemcduff said:


> But they won't change it without the necessary information! I got one updated channel yesterday but I submitted that one around March.
> 
> We're talking about hundreds of new channel positions and nearly duplicating the lineup from 1-999.
> 
> ...


Finally got the update today. Not perfect, but very nearly.

One or two duplicates that have to be fixed, an incorrect network name (but the right guide data) and some incorrect icons, but 98% of the way there and usable.

Only downside is that Xfinity hasn't seen fit to reassign the music channels to slots 1000 and above yet.

Would think those would go in the 1900s but what do I know?

After all, they gave new channels to everything else.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I got a bazillion changes a few weeks ago, then another set yesterday.. I don't think it affected any of the channels I currently record, yet.. (I think one of the PBS re-broadcasters' SD station went away, but the rest of them are still there.) Mostly it seems like a bunch of duplicates in the 1000+ range from the 700+ range.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

mattack said:


> I got a bazillion changes a few weeks ago, then another set yesterday.. I don't think it affected any of the channels I currently record, yet.. (I think one of the PBS re-broadcasters' SD station went away, but the rest of them are still there.) Mostly it seems like a bunch of duplicates in the 1000+ range from the 700+ range.


We received our first update yesterday with all the changes on the TiVo and they are all appear active but I don't know when that happened since as in your case these are all just duplicates for us as we had not channels above 999 before.

We had the same situation with channels in the 200 and 800/900 range for years until they finally dropped most of the 200 channels only a few years ago. I wonder how long it takes them this time to drop the 800/900 channels.

Scott


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

HerronScott said:


> We received our first update yesterday with all the changes on the TiVo and they are all appear active but I don't know when that happened since as in your case these are all just duplicates for us as we had not channels above 999 before.
> 
> We had the same situation with channels in the 200 and 800/900 range for years until they finally dropped most of the 200 channels only a few years ago. I wonder how long it takes them this time to drop the 800/900 channels.


I noticed the 1000 channels were active in the CableCARD channel table at least a week before TiVo notified me. They are not "selected" as active in TiVo though. I only noticed them because I went to remove a different channel and noticed all these deselected 1000+ channels numbers that were duplicates. They worked if I tuned to them.

So it seems if the CableCARD channel table says there is a new channel TiVo lists it as unselected and when TiVo has guide data for a channel, then becomes and "added" channel and is selected as available (at which point you can deselect and make inactive again.)


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

SMB-IL said:


> I swear I'm babysitting TiVo these days more than I did a VCR.


Agreed. (... and which triggered my finally customizing my TCF avatar title, to "TiVo shepherd"; I have a weekly reminder, now, for reviewing the To Do List, and expect I may need to inquire with the KMTTG and/or Pytivo gurus as to whether there's a way to automatically monitor for lineup changes, with notifications for any changes affecting OnePasses.)


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

sfhub said:


> So it seems if the CableCARD channel table says there is a new channel TiVo lists it as unselected and when TiVo has guide data for a channel, then becomes and "added" channel and is selected as available (at which point you can deselect and make inactive again.)


Right. 

Scott


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## chf (Sep 3, 2002)

Comcast has changed the lineup in Fairfield County, CT today. How long does it take Rovi to get the new channel information updated? I've tried forcing a Tivo connect to no avail. The channels show in the the channel list, but have no program information is there.


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## wish_bgr (Jul 19, 2014)

chf said:


> Comcast has changed the lineup in Fairfield County, CT today. How long does it take Rovi to get the new channel information updated? I've tried forcing a Tivo connect to no avail. The channels show in the the channel list, but have no program information is there.


It might be a slow rollout to your area; I had to 1000s neighborhood available for about a month or so with no programming information and then one day the new channels with programming information were added, with a message from TiVo mentioning they were available. Maybe check every few days or so?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

OK, probably stupid question, but these are just the same literal channel being remapped to two different channels (in the 700s and 1000s), right?

Is there any way I can "prove" that on my own Tivo? (look for signal somewhere)

I was kind of hoping they _weren't_ and the 1000 one would be MPEG-4-ized (MUCH SMALLER)..but I realize that's unlikely.

I may eventually turn off one set of them, but I'm used to the #s for some of the 700s (e.g. CNNHD is 759, the one major channel I purposefully 'buffer' to FF through/let run as I go to sleep).


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

mattack said:


> OK, probably stupid question, but these are just the same literal channel being remapped to two different channels (in the 700s and 1000s), right?
> 
> Is there any way I can "prove" that on my own Tivo? (look for signal somewhere)


Try tuning to the channels in question on different tuners, then looking under Account & System Information->TiVo box Diagnostics

It should give you the frequencies, if they match, they are the same physical channel.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

mattack said:


> I was kind of hoping they _weren't_ and the 1000 one would be MPEG-4-ized (MUCH SMALLER)..but I realize that's unlikely


Yes they are the same channel just mapped to two different numbers. If you have not been moved to MPEG4 yet, they seem to be accelerating that migration as even our small town is supposed to be moving around now (we got a letter on it a while back).

Scott


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## chf (Sep 3, 2002)

We were notified a few weeks ago by Comcast too. It seems that Rovi should have been aware and ready for the change. Basically the guide usefulness has degraded since they bought TiVo and replaced its original guide data. Selecting NewOnly rarely works as it used to for example.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

HerronScott said:


> Yes they are the same channel just mapped to two different numbers. If you have not been moved to MPEG4 yet, they seem to be accelerating that migration as even our small town is supposed to be moving around now (we got a letter on it a while back).


Many many many of the cable channels have been changed to MPEG 4, just it seems like none of the OTA channels, and some of the more 'major' cable networks. (I usually only notice when I look at the size of recordings or realize I have to download in Transport Stream format..)


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

mattack said:


> Many many many of the cable channels have been changed to MPEG 4, just it seems like none of the OTA channels, and some of the more 'major' cable networks. (I usually only notice when I look at the size of recordings or realize I have to download in Transport Stream format..)


It should eventually be all the channels except the broadcast channels.

Scott


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## gcondrey (Sep 10, 2013)

Memphis Comcast/xFinity did their migration to the new channel numbers above 1000 yesterday. Things are a mess. The new channels have shown up, but no guide data. Hope the guide data get correct soon!


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

HerronScott said:


> It should eventually be all the channels except the broadcast channels.


Darn, so they won't ever reencode the broadcast channels too?

I honestly don't think I could tell the difference in most cases.. and I admit this sounds similar to people who preferred pan & scan (but isn't exactly the same), I'd probably record _more_ of the SD channels IF they were properly 16:9 (instead of sometimes cutting off the sides, or sometimes window boxed!) That is, for something like sitcoms which IMHO don't matter too much about picture quality (as compared to a drama, esp an action drama, where the image quality can be useful).

The OTA channels are ~5-8 GB/hour, and the mpeg 4 channels seem like 1-2 GB/hour.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

mattack said:


> Darn, so they won't ever reencode the broadcast channels too?
> 
> I honestly don't think I could tell the difference in most cases.. and I admit this sounds similar to people who preferred pan & scan (but isn't exactly the same), I'd probably record _more_ of the SD channels IF they were properly 16:9 (instead of sometimes cutting off the sides, or sometimes window boxed!) That is, for something like sitcoms which IMHO don't matter too much about picture quality (as compared to a drama, esp an action drama, where the image quality can be useful).
> 
> The OTA channels are ~5-8 GB/hour, and the mpeg 4 channels seem like 1-2 GB/hour.


Unlikely since those are picked up locally while from what I've heard the other channels are centrally distributed to all sites.

Scott


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