# Back to Dish, got a 942 and in hog heaven



## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

Dumped Time Warner cable and went back to Dish. Had my 942 installed yesterday and its amazing. This has got to be the best receiver yet. Picture quality is outstanding in SD and HD. I have played with everything and cant find anything wrong, except, one issue.

Mark, the digital tuner. It pulls in all my digital stations, except our CBS here in Charlotte. My Sony LCD-RP has no problems getting it and the signal strength is 100 percent. Now I think I know why, but hoped you could help. The analog station for CBS is 3. I realize at this time it wont map it. Its digital stations are 23.3 and 23.4 All other digitals are mapped to the correct analog station number with the .1,.2,.3,.4, and .5 next to the analog number for that station. Could it be that since there isn't a 23.1 it cant see it, or because it isn't mapped to the 3 segment. This is my only aggravation. It isn't because of strength because it pulled in the digital stations from Spartenburg SC, over 70 miles away and digital from Greensboro NC at 90 miles away. They are weak and pixelate, but at times the signal is great. It is my local CBS that worries me.

Oh, HDMI to HDMI does put out audio. Very well I might add. I cant set the volume over 6 on this set due to the loudness.Dish, got it right. This receiver is the best.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Welcome back, Jeff!

When you bring up the Local Channels screen, select Add Locals, and put in channel 23 in the Transmit Number box, do you show any signal strength? If so, what happens when you save? 

What exact channels is your CBS broadcasting on, including subchannels, and what is broadcast on each subchannel?


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

23.3 is CBS-HD 1080i
23.4 is CBS-SD 480i
23.5 is CBS 4801 weather
When I use the 942 and go to add 23, nothing.
I scanned them again with the Sony tuner and they are there. I scanned again with the 942 and nothing. Tower is about 30 miles away. It did find the one from Spartenburg is the same direction at 75 miles away. I am using a roof top Winegard HD Ghost killer with rotor. Its weird.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Yeah, that's most likely a 942 bug. I'll add it to the list, and get it reported.


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

I think when it starts a scan, it looks for digital stations that are a single number. If it finds one it then looks at .1 then .2 then .3. As long as it finds something at .1 it moves to the next .number. In my case, CBS starts with 23.3. Since it didnt find a 23 or a 23.1 it moved on to 24. Bug I think.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Mark,
I have a similar issue here as well. I have a local CBS affiliate that has their digital channel mapped as 39.3. (No .1 or .2 just like Jeff has.) My 942 missed the station when I scanned for it, and when I tried to program it manually it got a signal lock in the "add channels" screen but the 942 wouldn't save it. Also, the station isn't running PSIP yet. The station is KMEG-DT in Sioux City, IA. 

I was able to add it on my 811 ok.


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

Mike, in the add channel, what did you set it at, 39. 
The only thibg I dont like is that you cant add manually and put a decimal then a number to map the station. The Sony Grand Wega will allow this.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Yes, I manually entered channel 39 (that's the actual RF channel they broadcast on). The signal strength meter came up to around 75 and showed a locked signal but after clicking the save button it didn't get saved in my channel list.

I had to do the same thing on my 811. The channel scan didn't find it. I entered it manually, and when I saved it, it showed up in my channel list as 39-3 with no call letters.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Mike, I've updated my bug report to Dish with your data as well.


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## stu1962 (Mar 23, 2005)

I live North of Winston Salem and I can't pick up the local CBS station out of Greensboro, but I can receive the Charlotte CBS station. I am currently using a Samsung HDTV tuner and I receive the Charlotte CBS (WBTV) on 23.1 for HDTV, 23.2 is SD and 23.3 is for the Power Doppler Radar/Weather.

I have had a 942 on order for a few weeks, but it hasn't shipped yet. Not sure what wilol happen with the channel order when I receive it. I don't think that the Samsung tuner reorders the stations because ABC HDTV is on a .2 and the SD is on a .1


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## scottchez (Feb 4, 2003)

Same bug here. My PBS is in HD on Channel .5

It gets .1 and .2 but since there is no .3 is stops and never finds the .5

I need the .5 as its the HD Signal.

They need to change the code to IF Signal Found SCAN all sub channels 1 though 6 to be covered.

Thats how the HD Direct TV does it.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Where are you Scott, and what's the station?


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## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

what possesses these stations to jump to .x instead of .1 for their channel, just seems silly on the surface..


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

May seem silly, but its the only logical reason. I have 24 mapped digital stations. All begin with .1, except CBS. ATSC tuner in Sony KDF-42WE655 finds all. 

The only other thing might be multipathing. I really dont understand it well. In the same general direction as CBS for Charlotte is WSPA, CBS in Spartenburg SC. I pulled it in last night on both tuners with a 65 percent signal. Could it be killing the signal for our local CBS, I dont think so. I still say it is how the 942 maps digital stations. Time will HOPEFULLY tell. I am ok because of the tuner in the Sony. But if I am correct, all 942 sold around Charlotte in the future to people whose sets are only HD ready, are in for a surprise.


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## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

While there may indeed be a software issue in the 942 tuner code, it just seems odd that stations would elect to transmit their station on a different sub-channel than the first one. I could see it if they were actually multi-casting, but if they aren't, why isn't it #1...


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

WBTV, (CBS) USE TO BE MAPPED TO 3.1,3.2, AND 3.3. Why the change, I dont know. I agree its stupid but we have others. PSS Channel 30 is mapped to 15.1 and 15.2. And I think channel 64, independent is map around 44.

So I agree it doesnt make sense. And the 942 finds all of them, but they start with the one key componet, .1


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

Well, I know whats wrong. I called the station manager at WBTV and he said that a piece of equipment, something about a amber, broke. It had to be sent to France to be fixed and they were told it would be here 2 weeks ago. When it arrives the channels will be remapped to 3.1 and so on. So Mark, this may not be a bug.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Just FYI, "Amber" is a multiplexer built by the french broadcast company Thales. It muxes the PSIP signal with the DTV signal. Without it, they can't broadcast PSIP.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Absolutely it's a bug in the 942. The 942 should be intelligent (well, more technically "dumb") enough to receive the station, even if a piece of equipment at a station is broken.


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## scottchez (Feb 4, 2003)

Im in Nebraska. Nebraska Public TV has the problem.

I did some more testing and comparing it to the HD Direct Tivo.

What I am finding is NET (Nebraska Ed TV) runs 12.1 12.2 and 12.3 in the daytime.
Then at night they run 12.1 and 12.5 12.5 is the HDTV PBS Feed.

To get the 942 to work, I have to Rescan Twice a day. Once in the day time to get the 12.1 through 12.3 line up.

Then Rescan again at night when they turn on there HD PBS feed.

The 942 does not seem to remember or pick up the other sub channels if they are not all active at the time of the scan.

The HD Direct Tivo, gets them all on the scan and remembers them. I thin the HD Tivo scans and remembers so If I scan in the daytime and then again at night it remembers the daytime channels that are not active at night.

With the 942 it removes the un active sub channels at night, thus you have to scan twice a day.

Now Im thinking the code fix would be to always ADD channels but never remove channels.

Ill do more testing again tonight.


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2005)

I have the same problem with Nebraska Public Television.


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## scottchez (Feb 4, 2003)

Any one know a HDTV contact with Nebraska Public TV? 13 Stations- a State wide HDTV network.

Has Dish Network helped with things like this before (talking to the network)?

I would think they need to know this, after all they are 100% based on Donations. If people cant watch, how can they donate.

When it is working there HD is awsome. . . .


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Scott - Dish has helped many stations through the transition, but the station has to be the one to instigate the contact. Can't be the other way around. They've got to have a website. In Colorado, our PBS stations are all under the "Rocky Mountain PBS" unbrella, even though it's made up of either 4 or 5 different stations.


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

the real question is why would they broadcast on one channel during the day and another at night? Seems pretty dumb to me?


Jon


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

I can also confirm the problem with Nebraska ETV from my location. I get KXNE-DT on Ch 16. They map the following sub channels .1 .2 .3 .5 and as stated above the .5 is HD at night only. (They do map the channel full time.) They also run a datacasting channel which I see as 18.6. The 942 sees them all except for the .5 HD channel.

Also add to the list KPTH-DT ch 49 in Sioux City. They only run on 49.2.


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## DRJDAN (Apr 28, 2002)

Jeff M--

You said the HDMI to HDMI did put out audio. Does it put out Dolby 5.1? 

What do you mean you can not set the volume over 6?


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## dmodemd (Jul 5, 2002)

PBS in many areas broadcasts an HD channel during prime time which requires them to turn off some other SD channels in order to preserve the bandwidth. During the days they multicast SD channels (including Kids and other stuff). Its not such a bad idea given that HD programming is limited and devoted mainly to prime time shows.


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