NFL Sunday Ticket

[Fuzzy]

That does sound like the best solution, with one exception. There is still the issue of locally broadcast games (obviously not a problem in Canada). If a game is broadcast locally, it is not shown on Sunday Ticket. This is to ensure the local broadcasters get their advertising revenue. This would work okay if your local broadcasts were a higher priority than your sunday ticket (say, for instance, if you had a separate local tuner, HDHR for instance). However, if two channels in the same lineup have the same thing being broadcast (if you also get your locals from DirecTV), I wonder how sage would determine which to use?

[sdsean]

Yeah I knew that in Canada (and everywhere else in the world) sunday ticket is not exclusive to DirecTV ( i used to live in Vancouver. . .).

As far as watching the game via local vs. sunday ticket. . . i don't think you could resolve this problem anyway since if a local station blacks out a game, you can still watch it on sunday ticket. . . just not on the local station. . .but there would be no way for you to resolve it automatically. ..

I guess what I'd say is just make sure that you specify the channel you want to record on via the Advanced recoding options. . .its manual but that will solve the problem. . .

Is there a way that I can use multiple guide sets with one source?

Slugger's solution will work, if I re-map channels I think, but it would mean that one HD-PVR would only work with that lineup and hence only be used for Sunday Ticket right?

And yes clift your right, that would be the better solution. . .

Just use a completely different lineup from Canada or somewhere and use that as the augment data for the normal guide set with DirectTV

(Of course I would think that Sage should be doing this anwyay. . . )

[Fuzzy]

well, in all fairness, the solution to the locally blacked out games.. is to buy tickets.. being there really is better than HD.. ;-)

[Slugger]

You don't even need to add a new EPG source. Just disable the DirecTV NFLST channels from your lineup, add the Shaw channels to your existing DirecTV lineup (add a new channel to your lineup, call it what you want then when Sage asks for the Zap2It channel id then use the ones I provided), then map those channels to the appropriate DirecTV channel numbers. Again, however, you will need to ensure that the channels are actually the same as the DirecTV ones (perhaps in a different order) by ensuring that they're showing the same two games over the next two weeks.

[Fuzzy]

As for adding the channels from a different guide set, it's actually really easy. The guide sets themselves are nothing but a list of channelsID's and numbers. Adding an outside channel to a lineup is simple:

Go to the line-ups Channel Setup.
Choose Edit Channel Lineup on left, and Add Channel to Lineup on the right.
Station Name: NFL1SC
Station ID: 44422
Logical (Guide) Channel Number: 701
Physical (Tuning) Channel Number: 701
Click Add-Done or Add-Again

Then, either wait for an EPG update, or force one via the web interface, and you've got the channel in there. I just added NFL1-4 to my dish network lineup (obviously not going to keep it in there), and after waiting a bit after the epg update, it's populated with game info for next sunday. Should work, as long as the game info is correct.

Obviously, the real solution would be for zap2it to add this info to the DirecTV lineup.. but oh well.

[Slugger]

I just took a quick look at the DirecTV NFLST schedule and it looks like it's a 1:1 mapping between Shaw Direct and DirecTV. So disable the DirecTV channels and add the Shaw Direct versions to your lineup and bingo you've got the game data in your lineup.

The other thing I noticed is that DirecTV charges $300US per season! Yikes! I won't even tell you what I pay. Actually, I will b/c it's gross. I pay $14.94CDN for the entire season (yes, fourteen dollars and ninety four cents)! When I order NHL Centre Ice they throw in NFLST for $14.94. Now, mind you I only get one NFLST HD channel, but I can live with that for $14.94 and with the games on local channels I still get 4-6 games in HD each week so I'm satisfied.

Anyways, for all you DirecTV users with NFLST, here's the Zap2It channel ids to add to your lineup to get the game data in your EPG:

Callsign	Z2I ChanID	DirecTV
NFL1SC		44422		704
NFL2SC		44423		705
NFL3SC		44424		706
NFL4SC		44425		707
NFL5SC		44426		708
NFL6SC		44427		709
NFL7SC		44428		710
NFL8SC		44429		711
NFL9SC		44430		712
NFL10SC		44431		713
NFL11SC		44432		714
NFL12SC		44433		715
NFL13SC		44434		716
NFL14SC		44435		717

For HD, just map the Z2I ids to channel 704-1, 705-1, etc. The only issue is that the data will not have the HD flag set, but the game info will be right (just make sure your HDPVR has higher priority and Sage should still record the game in HD).

EDIT: Use Fuzzy's instructions above for adding the channels to your existing DirecTV lineup.

[sdsean]

Well i still need paterson cables in order to get the darn -1 problem solved so in the mean time I just mapped them to the non -1 channels.

I did an epg force update, and there is still no data, but of course there isn't any on my directv guide yet either since its so early in the week, so now i'll just wait and see. . .

I do think that we should make these note sticky though if it works right (or maybe as part of a proper directv setup)

Slugger, do you mind telling me what postal code you use, just so I can enter that on zap2its website and verify my guid against that later. . ?

[Slugger]

Any Canadian postal code will do since Star Choice is a national provider. Try M3B 3A4. Choose Star Choice East (not Advanced though as that's the new channel lineup coming soon and that lineup isn't complete).

[stlbearboy]

Originally Posted by Slugger

For HD, just map the Z2I ids to channel 704-1, 705-1, etc. The only issue is that the data will not have the HD flag set, but the game info will be right (just make sure your HDPVR has higher priority and Sage should still record the game in HD).

This is a benefit for those of us that get our locals OTA as they will prioritize over the HDPVR recordings meaning we don't have to worry about blackoouts on Sunday Ticket

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stlbearboy

This is a benefit for those of us that get our locals OTA as they will prioritize over the HDPVR recordings meaning we don't have to worry about blackoouts on Sunday Ticket

Just have to worry about local blackouts.. in which case, you're not supposed to get it on sunday ticket either.... and again, the real solution to that problem is to buy tickets...

[jchiso]

There's some great information in this thread. I am now showing the games info in the Guide (though it shows the games as upcoming on Oct 11). Since I'm using HD I added the channels with the -1 extension. I tune the DirecTV set-top boxes via USB-to-Serial adapter and a null modem cable in concert with the MultiTuner plugin as described here...

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by jchiso

There's some great information in this thread. I am now showing the games info in the Guide (though it shows the games as upcoming on Oct 11).

Yeah, that's fine. Star Choice just fills the EPG with "X vs. Y on Date Z" during the week. But if you go ahead to Sunday at 1pm you'll see the EPG is full of "NFL Football: Team at Team" listings, which is all you need.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Yeah, that's fine. Star Choice just fills the EPG with "X vs. Y on Date Z" during the week. But if you go ahead to Sunday at 1pm you'll see the EPG is full of "NFL Football: Team at Team" listings, which is all you need.

It actually shows the matchups, for example it just says "Bengals at Ravens 1pm ET Oct.11" for channel 704-1...

[Fuzzy]

Yeah, that's what he meant.. X and Y were teams.. anyways, that is actually how the DirecTV guide on the boxes shows it as well.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yeah, that's what he meant.. X and Y were teams.. anyways, that is actually how the DirecTV guide on the boxes shows it as well.

Okay, understood. I thought he was saying that it does not show the matchups in the grid until you scrolled to Sunday, but you and he are both correct. I had not really noticed that the DirecTV guide shows "Upcoming TeamX @ TeamY LIVE 1pm ET" in the realtime guide.

Now all I have to do is find out which games are airing locally...

[loomdog32]

There is a way to use the other data for your current city. You will need an extra tuner (if you have 2 tuners using the same lineup, use that second tuner for this during this step - just fyi, you can attach ANY guide to ANY type of tuner)..

Using the extra tuner, set it to the EPG lineup that includes the channels that have the correct data. (For NFL ST, I found using zip V6H 3G2, Shaw Direct Digital - Canada (East), Using Channels 400-413 - NFL##SC)

Do into Sage and verify that the channels you are looking to import have guide data.

While the extra tuner is set to that lineup AND has guide data, setup the tuner that actually has those channels. After selecting your local EPG, remap the wrong/missing channels with the channels from the "extra" epg.

Go into Sage and verify that the complete guide has data. After you have verified that the complete guide had data, you can safely change the "extra" tuner to the correct epg for that tuner......


If any channels are missing data, goto the epg setup, remove a channel, exit epg setup. goto epg setup re-add the removed channel. This triggers a new epg download.




I used this method to get OTA guide data from 4 different markets (Midland/Odessa, Lubbock, Abilene, and San Angelo) on a single tuner. It ran fine for over a month, collecting all updates.. Since this method worked for this, Im ASSUMING it will work for that as well...

Just to clarify, in Canada NFL Sunday Ticket is available on cable and satellite and we don't get DirecTV in Canada.

My provider is Shaw Direct (Star Choice) satellite. So I really think this is a matter of Shaw Direct is sharing the NFLST info with Zap2It and DirecTV isn't and that's why I have the game info on my lineup and you (DirecTV customers) don't.

Although, now that I think about it, there's no reason you can't just add the Shaw Direct channels to your lineup in Sage and map them to your DirecTV NFL channels. Though there's no guarantee that my NFL1 = DirecTV's NFL1, etc. but if they do happen to lineup properly then you should be set for the season.

Code:

Callsign Z2I ChanID Oct 11 Oct 18
NFL1SC 44422 CIN@BAL HOU@CIN
NFL2SC 44423 CLE@BUF BAL@MIN
NFL3SC 44424 PIT@DET CLE@PIT
NFL4SC 44425 OAK@NYG KAN@WSH
NFL5SC 44426 DAL@KAN DET@GNB
NFL6SC 44427 WSH@CAR STL@JAX
NFL7SC 44428 TAM@PHI NYG@NOR
NFL8SC 44429 MIN@STL CAR@TAM
NFL9SC 44430 ATL@SFO PHI@OAK
NFL10SC 44431 HOU@ARZ ARZ@SEA
NFL11SC 44432 NWE@DEN TEN@NWE
NFL12SC 44433 JAX@SEA BUF@NYJ
NFL13SC 44434 NO GAME NO GAME
NFL14SC 44435 NO GAME NO GAME

If your DirecTV channel is showing the same two games in back to back weeks as I've listed here then you should just be able to map your ST channels to the ones listed above in your Sage EPG. If your channels aren't showing the same two games then Shaw Direct doesn't simply pull the feed in from DirecTV for it's Sunday Ticket package and these channel lineups will be useless to you. Good luck (hopefully you can use them b/c I know how much it sucks when trying to schedule recordings for sports packages)!

[Fuzzy]

simpler to just add the out of market channels to the tuner as discussed previously in this thread.

[loomdog32]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

simpler to just add the out of market channels to the tuner as discussed previously in this thread.

I only said what I did, as I personally have not been successfully able to do that and the above method has always worked for me

[sdsean]

damn. . looks like they changed the mapping of channels on us. . .
If you look at zap2it for star choice vs what directv is saying. . . ravens benglas should be the 1st game (this is for Nov 8th games), but zap2it has patriots dolphins. . .

thats' going to be annoying. . .

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by sdsean

damn. . looks like they changed the mapping of channels on us...

Yes. This started happening last week. I hope it corrects itself before too long...