USA ATSC channel scan problem with duplicate RF channels (1 Viewer)

[RonD]

In the USA Calif SF Bay area, 2 of my local TV stations broadcast the same ATSC programs on 2 different RF Channels. Looks like both RF channels have the same PSIP info with identical, Chan.SubChan, Channel Names etc. The 2 stations are listed below, each has a few sub-channels but I only show 1. One channel is the primary RF, the 2nd is a low power translator/repeater RF channel to help with reception in some locations.

KGO-HD, chan.sub=7.1, RF=7
KGO-HD, chan.sub=7.1, RF=35
KTVU-HD, chan.sub=2.1, RF=44
KTVU-HD, chan.sub=2.1, RF=48

When the MePo TV Server Config does the scan from low to high channels, it sees both sets of RF channels but only saves the 2nd RF channel. I get better reception on the 1st channel. The attached ChanScan.txt file has the results of the channel scan for all 4 RF channels and the output from "export channel" for all 4 RF channels.

Is it possible to modify the way MePo does the channel scan so it saves all 4 RF channels in "Channels(nnn)" and have an option to select/enable either of the RF Channels options? Maybe modify the channels names if needed KGO-HD_1 and KTVU-HD_1? Add an option to manually select and scan 1 RF Channel? The HDHR channel scan SW shows both sets of RF channels and I can select either option.

My current workaround is doing 3 scans.

• scan 1, all channels, this ends up with, KGO-HD, chan.sub=7.1, RF=35, KTVU-HD, chan.sub=2.1, RF=48
• scan 2, stop scan after 44, KGO-HD, chan.sub=7.1, RF=35, KTVU-HD, chan.sub=2.1, RF=44
• scan 3, stop scan after 7, KGO-HD, chan.sub=7.1, RF=7, KTVU-HD, chan.sub=2.1, RF=44, these RF channels work better at my location

The TV Server Config "channel edit" won't let me modify the RF channels since it gets the "Frequency=-1" problem. I can change the RF channels if I use "export" to export the channels, groups, schedules to a XML file, edit the XML file to modify the ChannelNumber="NN" field to use RF channels 7 and 44, delete all the channels in TV Channels(nnn), then "import" the XML file. But this seems like a lot of work.

Edit, this is all with MePo v1.2.3 but I expect this is true for earlier versions. I forgot to add Version when I first posted this message.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello RonD

Aside from the physical channel number, the two "versions" of each channel are indistinguishable. If this were a DVB-T provider I would say that they should be using a different transport stream ID (TSID) for each physical channel. This would cause MP to create two channels for each real channel. However I'm not so sure of the rules for ATSC...

Is it possible to modify the way MePo does the channel scan so it saves all 4 RF channels in "Channels(nnn)" and have an option to select/enable either of the RF Channels options? Maybe modify the channels names if needed KGO-HD_1 and KTVU-HD_1? Add an option to manually select and scan 1 RF Channel?

Of all of these options, I would prefer the last one - add manual scan option - and to fix the ATSC tuning detail saving issue (this is done in MP 1.3b).

mm

 

[RonD]

Ok, thanks for looking, maybe I'll give MePo 1.3b a shot when it comes out. Not sure how many people in the US would know how to use a scan 1 RF channel option. After the ATSC digital switchover there is almost no connection between the RF/physical channel number and the ATSC virtual Channel.Subchannel that most people see.

There is a comment in the AVS forum for San Fran OTA, that mentions some TVs scan low to high, some scan high to low, some keep 1st found, some keep last found, so the channel you get is almost random. If you have 2 or more TVs, I can see cases where 1 channel works on a TV in 1 room but not on a different TV in another room.