# PBSHD programming schedule available here



## 4bama (Aug 6, 2006)

pbs.org

Go here, select TV Schedule, enter your zip code or State, select the OTA PBS HD station you watch, then select full week, printable, and print the current weeks' TV Guide.

I've talked to several station engineers in my broadcast area (Birmingham and Montgomery, Al, OTA) and no one has incorporated the Guide data into the PSIP, even though the protocol allows this. Even if they did, current Dish software, v360 for the VIP622, (to the best of my knowledge) does not support it.

As most of you know when analog TV transmissions cease, now the Spring of 2009, the FCC will then allow all TV stations to migrate their DTV transmit frequency back to their native channel assignment. For example, channel 10 here uses UHF 53 for their DTV. After 2009 they will switch back to VHF10 for their DTV. I think this is true for channels 2-55, the FCC will not assign DTV to channels 56-69. Since DTV occupies a smaller bandwidth of a channel the FCC will still recover frequencies from the 2-55 range to allocate to other customers, such as cell phones, etc.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

4bama said:


> pbs.org
> 
> Go here, select TV Schedule, enter your zip code or State, select the OTA PBS HD ...
> uses UHF 53 for their DTV. After 2009 they will switch back to VHF10 for their DTV. I think this is true for channels 2-55, the FCC will not assign DTV to channels 56-69. Since DTV occupies a smaller bandwidth of a channel the FCC will still recover frequencies from the 2-55 range to allocate to other customers, such as cell phones, etc.


They will recover the 52-69 range to sell it. 2-51 will remain for TV. Those with both DTV and ATV in the range 2-51 have a choice of which to keep. Not sure if the ones with 52-69 get a choice or must go to the assigned 2-51 channel.

Important for many using UHF antennas for OTA is that they may need a VHF/UHF antenna's in 2009.


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## grooves12 (Oct 27, 2005)

Are most of you not getting the OTA listings for PBS?? In SF bay our local PBS station has 5 subchannels ... and I get guide listings for all of them on my Vip211.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

tnsprin said:


> They will recover the 52-69 range to sell it. 2-51 will remain for TV. Those with both DTV and ATV in the range 2-51 have a choice of which to keep. Not sure if the ones with 52-69 get a choice or must go to the assigned 2-51 channel.


If one of their channels is above 51 they have a choice of keeping the low channel or finding a third channel to work on. There is no guarantee that a third channel will be available. Most I have researched have chosen the channel they are using in the 2-51 range.

There are a lot of stations permanently moving to their new DT frequency and abandoning their old frequency. It makes sense as they have to engineer everything now to get good DT on their new frequency. Why throw away that engineering to start from scratch on their old frequency? Since all stations _must_ keep their old analog number (regardless of the frequency they end up on) the choice becomes an engineering question more than a marketing question. Which will give the best coverage.


grooves12 said:


> Are most of you not getting the OTA listings for PBS?? In SF bay our local PBS station has 5 subchannels ... and I get guide listings for all of them on my Vip211.


I'd like to sat that "not all areas" are getting PBS guide data ... but when the subject comes up it seems that "most areas" are not getting PBS guide data. It is something that would REALLY be nice to see fixed on E*'s receivers.


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## 4bama (Aug 6, 2006)

grooves12 said:


> Are most of you not getting the OTA listings for PBS?? In SF bay our local PBS station has 5 subchannels ... and I get guide listings for all of them on my Vip211.


I don't think DISH provides subchannel guide listings for PBS unless SF is unique??

Does anyone else receive guide data for PBSHD?? Maybe the Vip211 has the S/W that does this, but the Vip622 does not??

Just curious as to what type programming PBS has for 5 different subchannels?

Here there are only two for PBS, example, 26-01 is PBSHD and 26-02 is Alabama Public TV SD (mostly children programming). I have only seen one local TV channel (45 from Selma) that transmits 5 subchannels of DTV, all are SD, include shopping, Spanish version, religion, paid programming and UPN.

All other DTV channels have 3 subchannels: xx-01 is DTVHD, xx-02 is DTV 24 hour weather and xx-03 is SD programming. All channels say they will drop the SD subchannel soon, (they would not define "soon")


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## pdxsam (Jun 20, 2004)

It looks like they are slowly adding guide data for PBS channels. See JohnH's Uplink Report for more details.


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## teachsac (Jun 10, 2006)

pdxsam said:


> It looks like they are slowly adding guide data for PBS channels. See JohnH's Uplink Report for more details.


WE get guide data in Sacramento (411 and 622). It is something that is being worked on. The first step has already taken place. EPG has migrated to 119.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

4bama said:


> As most of you know when analog TV transmissions cease, now the Spring of 2009, the FCC will then allow all TV stations to migrate their DTV transmit frequency back to their native channel assignment.


Newsflash: February is Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Unless the NTIA fails in its goal of spending somewhere between 1-1.5 billion dollars to develop and deploy digital tuners for analog televisions, the date is February 17th, 2009; a little more than a month before the arrival of Spring. As we all know, the goal is to have everything in place for "March Madness".


> Since DTV occupies a smaller bandwidth of a channel the FCC will still recover frequencies from the 2-55 range to allocate to other customers, such as cell phones, etc.


DTV potentially occupies just as much bandwidth, so there isn't going to be any huge economies there. A channel will continue to be 6MHz whether all of the bandwidth is used or not.

By the same token, the VHF low, VHF high and UHF bands (14-36,38-51) are not available for other kinds of traffic; they are dedicated to broadcast television. Apparently channel 37 is going to be used for radio astronomy.

The idea that they can pack more stations into a single channel is actually a bad thing in many instances. There is a discussion going on now about how many of the CW stations will not broadcast in HD because they are subchannels of some other station.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

harsh said:


> By the same token, the VHF low, VHF high and UHF bands (14-36,38-51) are not available for other kinds of traffic; they are dedicated to broadcast television. Apparently channel 37 is going to be used for radio astronomy.


FYI: TV 37 has been set aside for radio astronomy for decades. They are just continuing the reservation. Also, TV 14-21 are not exclusive to broadcast TV.


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## shultz (Jun 21, 2006)

On my 211's with an outside antenna, i can pickup 30 xtra pbs channels. Some of these have 5 sub-stations here, (ex 49-1, 49-2, 49-3, 49-4, 49-5) and are yellow colored in the epg. Some might have listings for whats on, but some might just show "digital service" in the epg. All 5 sub-channels on 49 show something different 1's children, 1's religion, 1's this old house, 1's local weather, 1's local happening junk. Would be nice if all showed what was on instead of "ditigal service"


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## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

grooves12 said:


> Are most of you not getting the OTA listings for PBS?? In SF bay our local PBS station has 5 subchannels ... and I get guide listings for all of them on my Vip211.


I get no data for PBS. I have never had any.

WBHM 10-1 is PBS HD
WBHM 10-2 is Alabama Public Television


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

mwgiii said:


> I get no data for PBS. I have never had any.
> 
> WBHM 10-1 is PBS HD
> WBHM 10-2 is Alabama Public Television


Three of the PBS in NY area are carried by Dish. Only one of them has guide data on the OTA channel.


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## jacksg35c (Feb 21, 2003)

my question is as always, when will dish put pbs-hd on the satellite? it is a quality hd channel and should be carried. even comcast carries it and that's why i stay with comcrap. i have listened to all the reasons why this is not done by dish but it simply comes down to number of viewers. i think hd tv owners as a group would like to see pbs-hd on dish. these folks pay by contributions to see pbs and to have dish not carry the hd signal is not right. i know the limited bandwith excuse but since now dish has locals here in albuquerque why not carry pbs-hd? seems like there could be a lot of cable subs who would switch if they carried pbs-hd. i had dish for years and loved it but had to change to cable when i went to an apartment and i bought a new hd set and now i am out of the apt. now no pbs-hd on dish. what gives???? i know they are not going to carry it but this is just a rant against dish over this issue.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

I wonder what the national demand for PBS-HD is. There would be markets who would not want a different PBS to be offered (they want THEIR PBS to be exclusive) and other markets where the national feed would be accepted. In my area I can get the national PBS-HD OTA, so I hope my local PBS would not have a problem.

Perhaps E* believes too many large market PBSs would not allow a national feed and the channel would be of limited use. The largest market PBSs would probably want their own feeds - now we have moved the question from one HD signal to many, and putting up entire HD (big four) markets elsewhere.

We are also beginning to see a groundswell of requests for CW-HD channels. Given the choice will E* add the fifth major commercial network or PBS?


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## Donp (May 2, 2006)

I get guide data on all of my OTA major network channels except WB (soon to be CW) and 5 local PBS stations WKPC 15-1 through 6. These all show local digital in the guide on my 811. I have the 180 channel pack and still go back to my local OTA channels and PBS for at least one show per night.


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## jacksg35c (Feb 21, 2003)

james: i guess the best reply i can give is that i pay a contribution to pbs each year and cannot see pbs-hd on dish. all reasons that dish does not broadcast pbs-hd seems lame to me. oh well comcrap does put pbs-hd on their system so i can at least get it. maybe dish will at some point give us pbs-hd in our local area where they are already carrying the "local" hd network feeds (like abc, nbc and fox) here in albuquerque.


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