# OTA = "Digital Service"



## RobbieB (Jun 21, 2006)

When I first setup my vip622 my OTA channels showed up as "Digital Service" Then after a day or so it picked up the channel names.

Now all of a sudden they are back to digital service and it's raping my harddrive. I had a bunch of shows saved up from the week... I went to bed with like 12 hours free space. Next day I come home after work I have 2 locked shows a couple 30 minute shows and 1 22 HOUR long recording of "digital service" This obviously from a timer I scheduled on one of those channels.

How come my DVD/HDTunner can pickup the channel names just fine but the dish dvr isn't? It's in the same spot as my hdtunner using the same antenna.
Well, not the same, since the dvr can use it I unplugged it from my dvd/hdtunner but its the same setup basically.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

I had this happen to me once. The trigger seemed to be that I had a timer fire that ran through the normal nightly update time, by default 3:00am. The next day everything was Digital Service but it was firing off underlying timers that should have been skipped (not new episodes). I killed the timers that were running, Ran a check switch, when triggers a guide update after you exit, and rebooted. After that the guide cleaned itself up and all was well.


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## RobbieB (Jun 21, 2006)

So delete all my timers for those channels and turn off the dvr/turn it back on? I've already rebooted but I didn't try deleting the timers yet. 

when you said you ran a check switch, is this some kind of diagnostic or some manual process.


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

Check Switch in found in the point dish screen. Easy way to force a download without soft or hard reset as you can do it with remote (and have to walk to receiver or reach behind entertainment center.


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## RobbieB (Jun 21, 2006)

I did the check everything went okay. It downloaded the guide but it has done that over previous reboots too. 

I'm talking about my over the air channels which still don't have their names. What else am I missing?


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

RobbieB said:


> I'm talking about my over the air channels which still don't have their names. What else am I missing?


If they don't have their names you should get them back if you do a re-scan. Also, you can always edit the names of the OTA digital channels.

You still will get "digital service" for the channels that DISH has not picked up the listings for. When I got my 622 in February I complained about not having them for many of the Cincinnati area stations. The tech support person said that "we will have them in March". Here it is, August and we still don't have them. The ones that I am interested in are the PBS HD stations. We have four in our area and DISH doesn't carry the listing for any of them (all say "digital service" in the guide).


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## jscudder (Jan 18, 2006)

Bill R said:


> You still will get "digital service" for the channels that DISH has not picked up the listings for.


Two of the OTA Digital locals that I receive from Portland ME (WPME-UPN & WPXT-WB) just say "digital service". The other three OTA digital locals (WCSH-NBC, WMTW-ABC, & WGME-CBS) all have the proper program information.

Dish Network carries all 5 stations in the Portland/Lewiston Locals package. Can you explain why 2 of the 5 say "digital service"?

John


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

jscudder said:


> Dish Network carries all 5 stations in the Portland/Lewiston Locals package. Can you explain why 2 of the 5 say "digital service"?
> 
> John


John,

"Digital service" is the "default" if the programming listings are not available for an OTA station. Apparently, DISH isn't providing the information for the "lesser" stations in your market area. You will have to ask them why. You are not alone. DISH is doing the same thing in many markets.

Personally, I think some of us customers are getting ripped off since we have to subscribe to local channels to get listing for OTA digital channels and then only get listing for some of them.


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## RobbieB (Jun 21, 2006)

That's the thing though, I WAS getting the program listings but it just changed back to digital service and I don't know why. If I connect my antenna back up to my old hdtunner it can get the program info. The signal strength is pretty good.


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

RobbieB said:


> That's the thing though, I WAS getting the program listings but it just changed back to digital service and I don't know why. If I connect my antenna back up to my old hdtunner it can get the program info. The signal strength is pretty good.


The OTA hd tuner you are referring to is picking up the station's PSIP's (program system information protocol). Dish doesn't pick this up.


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

Bill R said:


> If they don't have their names you should get them back if you do a re-scan. Also, you can always edit the names of the OTA digital channels.
> 
> You still will get "digital service" for the channels that DISH has not picked up the listings for. When I got my 622 in February I complained about not having them for many of the Cincinnati area stations. The tech support person said that "we will have them in March". Here it is, August and we still don't have them. The ones that I am interested in are the PBS HD stations. We have four in our area and DISH doesn't carry the listing for any of them (all say "digital service" in the guide).


I looked up Cincinnati and see your area as having 3 (WCET-DT, WCVN-DT, & WPTO-DT ) what's the 4th? Boy you are lucky to have so many in your area.


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## RobbieB (Jun 21, 2006)

whatchel1 said:


> The OTA hd tuner you are referring to is picking up the station's PSIP's (program system information protocol). Dish doesn't pick this up.


So the fact that it was picking it up for about a month was just a mistake? that doesn't make any sense.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

The fourth PBS station that I get is WPTD-DT (16.1) from Dayton. With my ViP622 I can pull in other Dayton stations too. All four of the PBS station usually have different programs on so there is a lot to choose from. I just wish that DISH would get their act together and we would get EPG listings for all the stations.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

RobbieB said:


> So the fact that it was picking it up for about a month was just a mistake? that doesn't make any sense.


You must be fairly new to DISH. To us, things like EPG listings there one day and not there another day don't make sense. To DISH it seems like SOP. Like I said in my other post, DISH really needs to get their act together on OTA station listings. The ViP622 is a great receiver but its lack of local listings (because DISH isn't supplying them) is something the REALLY needs to be fixed.


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## RASCAL01 (Aug 2, 2006)

How do I record OTA? You can not do it the same way that you would pick a sat program. All the OTA's say digital service.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

You can set manual timers using the ota channels like a vcr does. Set the channel , the time and how often .


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## RASCAL01 (Aug 2, 2006)

Ya I have tried using the manual timers and they work...what a pain... but they work. I guess once they are set up it will be ok.


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## Bradtothebone (Aug 11, 2003)

RASCAL01 said:


> Ya I have tried using the manual timers and they work...what a pain... but they work. I guess once they are set up it will be ok.


You apparently don't subscribe to Dish Locals. If you did, you would get guide data for the digital OTA's, also. Being in a HD LIL city (Boston), you would get the additional perk of being able to record three local network shows at the same time, which is a very good thing!  When I had a 921, I refused to pay for locals just to get guide data. Now, with the 622 and HD LIL's, it's worth it to me.

Brad


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

Bradtothebone said:


> You apparently don't subscribe to Dish Locals. If you did, you would get guide data for the digital OTA's, also. Being in a HD LIL city (Boston), you would get the additional perk of being able to record three local network shows at the same time, which is a very good thing!  When I had a 921, I refused to pay for locals just to get guide data. Now, with the 622 and HD LIL's, it's worth it to me.
> 
> Brad


Not all of the digitals OTA's will be displayed just because you subscribe to the local channels. Some of the digitals will not display the guide information. This is a case where you may not have sub-channels. Many of the sub-channels do not have guide information. This is probably due to the fact that those channels do not provide the guide info to the service that Dish network uses to provide us with a guide. One that really bothers me is the PBS HD channel. Dish doesn't display the info but I find it by using TV Titan on line. It always has the correct info and it is disturbing to not be able to have it on the guide provided on out DVR"s What winds up happening in I have to use several manual timers anytime I want to record off the PBS HDTV channel.


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## Bradtothebone (Aug 11, 2003)

whatchel1 said:


> Not all of the digitals OTA's will be displayed just because you subscribe to the local channels. Some of the digitals will not display the guide information. This is a case where you may not have sub-channels. Many of the sub-channels do not have guide information. This is probably due to the fact that those channels do not provide the guide info to the service that Dish network uses to provide us with a guide. One that really bothers me is the PBS HD channel. Dish doesn't display the info but I find it by using TV Titan on line. It always has the correct info and it is disturbing to not be able to have it on the guide provided on out DVR"s What winds up happening in I have to use several manual timers anytime I want to record off the PBS HDTV channel.


Yeah, I know. PBS HD and the local CW station don't show up in my guide, either. I have been back and forth with [email protected] about this and other issues with my HD LIL's, and they have actually been quite helpful. For example, they did successfully map down PBS-SD to the proper OTA channel, and they fixed a stuttering audio issue on the FOX HD LIL.

At least for me, it (program guide mapping) works pretty well, though.

Brad


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