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View Full Version : Redundant HD Channels? 7 and 397

Freshy
06-18-08, 06:05 PM
Quick question:

Is there any difference between west coast market channel 7 ABC-HD and channel 397 ABC-HD? They seem the same, yet redundant.
rapjrhb
06-18-08, 06:09 PM
Quick question:

Is there any difference between west coast market channel 7 ABC-HD and channel 397 ABC-HD? They seem the same, yet redundant.

I'm pretty sure that 7 is the "local" version while 397 is the "regional" version. You might get LA on both but someone in San Francisco, for instance, might get SF news on 7 and LA news on 397.
Freshy
06-18-08, 06:10 PM
I'm pretty sure that 7 is the "local" version while 397 is the "regional" version. You might get LA on both but someone in San Francisco, for instance, might get SF news on 7 and LA news on 397.

Same quality, though?
rapjrhb
06-18-08, 06:12 PM
Same quality, though?

Someone else might need to chime in here but I think that 7 is Mpeg4 while 397 would be Mpeg2. My memory is a little fuzzy here since I only ever watch the local versions.
TomCat
06-18-08, 08:02 PM
397 is indeed MPEG-4. It replaced 87 in March (which was the older MPEG-2 version) for NDS viewers. Ironically, it is delivered by a Ku sat, and not a Ka sat (which is what most MPEG-4 HD is delivered by).

7 (if it is indeed the "same" LA channel and not a local 7 somewhere else, and the OP is in LA) may still be MPEG-2, and may still be a remap of the original 87. The plan was to move DNS channels to the 300's (yet keep them on the old sats for a time to allow MDU's to catch up). But the actual local mapping, which applies only to LA, may still go back to the same source as 87. The plan is also to turn off the MPEG-2 channel even for LA viewers and map 387 to 7 for them, but there may still be too many folks with older STBs to do that quite yet.

If anyone in LA is getting 7 (HD) on a HR10, for instance, that would solve that mystery, implying that 7 is MPEG-2 and a remap of 87 which is no longer available outside of LA.
SFNSXguy
06-18-08, 09:02 PM
7 is MPEG-2 and a remap of 87 which is no longer available outside of LA.

I still get it (KABC Los Angeles), as well as KGO (ABC 7) San Francisco.