Lots of new HD content - but not in Sage!

[richardhood36]

I have a different concern. I have 2 OTA receivers and am able to record all the OTA programs I want. I also have 2 pvr250's on d* H20 HD receivers.

my problem is how to tune the HD channels that D* has added. if you examine the D* channel listings, for example, USA, you will find 2 channels for USA. one is USA and the other is USAHD, both on 242. I sent an information e-mail to D* to find out why i wasn't getting USA in HD. It turns out that the SD and the HD channel are multiplexed on 242. If you tune, with D* remote, to USA (242), you get the SD channel. If you select the USAHD (242) channel on the program guide, you get the HD channel.
This is true for many of the HD channels added in September and October. There doesn't appear to be any way to tune the HD channels from Sage. I am using the Sage TV guide thru an Actisys IR200L.
Any ideas?

[bialio]

What troubles me is that I don't want to have to depend on IR blasters to control STB's.

I don't mind having 1 STB (or 6 for that matter) - they will all live in the wiring closet anyway. My experiences in the past using IR blasters to control stuff (TIVO Series 2 controlling a cable STB) left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Channel changes that are either slow or not accurate, etc.

That's why the R5000 mod appeals to me - but that gets real pricey real quick.

If the cable company would just shift all it's normal analog programming into clear QAM that would be nice. Don't know if that will ever happen though.

btl.

[chrisc16]

Originally Posted by richardhood36

I have a different concern. I have 2 OTA receivers and am able to record all the OTA programs I want. I also have 2 pvr250's on d* H20 HD receivers.

my problem is how to tune the HD channels that D* has added. if you examine the D* channel listings, for example, USA, you will find 2 channels for USA. one is USA and the other is USAHD, both on 242. I sent an information e-mail to D* to find out why i wasn't getting USA in HD. It turns out that the SD and the HD channel are multiplexed on 242. If you tune, with D* remote, to USA (242), you get the SD channel. If you select the USAHD (242) channel on the program guide, you get the HD channel.
This is true for many of the HD channels added in September and October. There doesn't appear to be any way to tune the HD channels from Sage. I am using the Sage TV guide thru an Actisys IR200L.
Any ideas?

The Dish Network HD receivers have a (vaguely-worded) option to turn that sort of channel mapping off. If DirecTV doesn't provide the same option, I'm afraid you're probably out of luck.

The whole double channel mapping thing is a very poor interface/UI design, IMO. Typing in a channel number should have the same effect as selecting from a guide.

-Chris

[kevine]

Right now I have a deal with my cable company for signing up $30/month for a year. I believe it goes up to $57/month when the year is up. But adding on top of that, STP monthly cost for me at 4 STBs is $300/year + tax/fcc fees AND I can't record HD reliably with them. Since I get all of my broadcast basic through QAM, I had to ask myself what would I actually be recording that is not on broadcast basic cable/QAM? My answer was not much. Therefore I have 1 STB to record the off chance 1 of those channels. I guess it all depends on what channels you want to record. Now if the cable card ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner (http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html) worked with Sage, the cable card version is $600 (retail) to start for the 4 tuners + $60/year for 4 cablecards and I would add as I need them.