Is it time for DISH to re-arrange its channel lineup?

[music_beans]

I think it is time that DISH re-arrange their channel lineup so people can find what they need faster.

My idea is to arrange them into groups like Primestar did in their glory day. One section could be just kids channels, then movie channels, etc. (Audio only channels could remain in their current spot.)

I am just wondering since they kept mostly the same lineup since DISH started.

[rtt2]

Good idea.
They can start by:
Putting all the CNNs together
Putting all the Discoverys, TLC, Science Channel, etc together

[Jacob S]

They still have most of these channels together dont they? This is why they skip the channel numbers. I remember when most if not all channels used to be even numbers then they filled them in later with odd numbered channels that fit close to that category.

[TNGTony]

They're pretty well arragned now. With the exception of the Travel Channel, SoapNet and the channel to be named "Spike" (TNN), I don't see why they should move anything.

105-138 General Entertainment
137-153 Basic Sports
158-168 Music Video Channels (remember TNN used to be mostly country misic and entertainment...this is the one that should move to the 105 to 138 range)
169-195 Children's channels sliding over to family and sliding over to educational/documentary. (SoapNet does not belong here. It belongs with the women's channels in the 108-115 range
200-220 News and Information (Again This channel belongs in the 190 range)
221-229 Dish Shopping Mall!
230-250 Nationally available broadcast and pseudo-broadcast channels.
260-269 Religious
270-272 (These are going away soon to the 800 block) Basic Spanish Channels available with the AT packages.
300-360 Premium Movie channels
-300-309 HBO
-310-317 Cinemax
-318-339 Showtime Unlimited
-340-349 Encore
-350-359 Starz
-400 range...specialty and local sports channels/PPV sports
-500-539...PPV movies
-540-580...OOM Sports packages
-590-699 Foreign Language Channels! (These will be rearanged this summer with the addition of 100 new channels)
-825-880...Spanish Channels (grouped by catagory)
-930-980...Audio Only Channels
-7000-9399...Local Channels grouped by market.
-9400-9420...FCC Mandated channels
-9420 and up...HDTV and test channels.

See ya
Tony



See ya
Tony

[Nick]

Comstant channel realignment is one of the things I hated about cable. I know where everything on Dish is now, why muck it up.

Leave it alone.

[rowdymon]

I think it's fine the way it is now. Easy to remember, unlike directv's.

[Jacob S]

This is why they do not rearrange channels, because it would be harder on customers to know what channel to turn to to find the channel that they like and want to turn to.

They done a little rearranging before to take USA from 102 to 105 among some other changes in the low 100's to make room for Dish Info channels.

[DS0816]

Then again…I believe Dish Network should do a channel realignment. Dish should also do another one in six months. It serves the purpose of keeping viewers'/subscribers' minds sharp. I think it would be a nice idea if the FCC backed this up as both a satellite and cable requirement. :lol:

[Darkman]

Originally posted by Nick
Comstant channel realignment is one of the things I hated about cable. I know where everything on Dish is now, why muck it up.

Leave it alone.

Yes - leave 'em all alone as they are! :)

By hanging around at TNGTony's channel list for a while now - we (well... me anyhow) know 'em all "by heart" anyhow :)

[Mark Holtz]

It would really really help if Dish would have themes and search to show only subscribed channels instead of every single channel. I can understand why they want to show you what you are missing, but not when I have to stare at a list that also picks up the foreign channels because you have a second dish.

Also, why can't I sort the channel guide by alphabetical channel order instead of numberic order?

[Jacob S]

I think something even better than rearranging channels and so forth would be to allow us to give the channel our own number of choice for each receiver.

[zztzed]

Jacob, I've actually thought about that. Of course, I realized why it's a horrible idea and they'd never implement it -- imagine watching TV at someone else's house who's remapped the channels to their liking. It'd be a nightmare. "Hey, what channel did you put Comedy Central on?"

It'd be nice if they'd let us set a custom order in the favorites lists while keeping the channel numbers the same, though.

[Steve Mehs]

I think all the channels are pretty much in a decent order. As said above, TNN, Soap Net and Travel Channel should be moved and all the Discovery Network channels should be grouped together.

[Nick]

I'm just thankful some of you wild
and crazy people aren't running the
programming dept at Dish. :)

:rolleyes:

[Chris Freeland]

Originally posted by Z'Lott
It would really really help if Dish would have themes and search to show only subscribed channels instead of every single channel. I can understand why they want to show you what you are missing, but not when I have to stare at a list that also picks up the foreign channels because you have a second dish.

Also, why can't I sort the channel guide by alphabetical channel order instead of numberer order?

They already do, just hit your epg button until the "all sub" selection appears on your epg. This will give you just the channels you sub to and the ppv channels.

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
I think all the channels are pretty much in a decent order. As said above, TNN, Soap Net and Travel Channel should be moved and all the Discovery Network channels should be grouped together.

I agree, except for these you just mentioned all others should be left alone.

[ARKDTVfan]

Originally posted by Jacob S
I think something even better than rearranging channels and so forth would be to allow us to give the channel our own number of choice for each receiver. I have DirectV, that would be great for either system. :cool:

[RichW]

My IPAQ PDA has remote control software which allows me to create "buttons" for my favorite channels complete with channel logos. So I don't even know or care what the channel numbers are. Supposedly, I can also program it to do a channel scan in any order so ic an surf my favorites as well.

All my A/V devices are now controlled by my PDA, but that is another thread.

[Mark Holtz]

Originally posted by Chris Freeland
They already do, just hit your epg button until the "all sub" selection appears on your epg. This will give you just the channels you sub to and the ppv channels.

Heh heh heh. You may want to reread my statement.

I already have four custom favorites list for my 501: "Favorites", "News", "Music", and Spanish". The problem lies not in the program guide itself, but rather "themes and search" function of the 50x. Those selections bring up search results of every channel available to me, even if I don't subscribe to it. This is especially annoying when I do a search for "24" and get a results for TVCHL's Edicion Dos de 24 Horas, and TVN24's 24 godziny and Studio 24 (both of which I don't subscribe two, and at least 1 because I have a dish pointed to 148), and DTIME Heathrow 24/7 (which is a channel I subscribe to).

And what am I looking for? The repeats to "24".

In a mood for a movie? I have the AT-150, which has enough movie channels for me. (I don't like P&S movies). Themes bring up channels that I'm not subscribed to likes the premiums and the PPVs.

What's the reasoning behind this? Dish is trying to upsell me to a premium movie package. What if someone who has over 500 titles in his DVD collection (http://www.dvdtracker.com/~markholtz) doesn't want to watch movies Pan and Scan, but would like to see what's on TCM or Fox Movies? The default, IMHO, should be "on" to show unsubscribed and PPV channels, but I want to be able to turn it off.

[DarrellP]

The Travel Channel definitely needs to be move down by TLC/Discovery, etc. Other than that, they are pretty good. I've been a sub since 97 and they've remapped the channels twice in that time period.

[jerryez]

I set up a list for movies. I list only channels that I subscribe to. I list not only movie channels, but channels like sci fi, tnt, AMC and any channels that has lots of movies. Works for me. I also have a list of my favorites, my wives favorites, etc. I do not care what the channel numbers are.

[scooper]

I think (IMHO) that some fine tuning (cleaning up the above mentioned channels to join the rest of the block they should be with) would be nice, but a wholesale changeout is not called for...

[Jacob S]

Well to solve the problem with not knowing what channel to go to at a friend's house they could do it this way.

Create the channel numbers as they would a favorite channel list. Perhaps they could have some sort of seperate guide that goes along with the other one only the one with your favorite's list ends up being the channels you choose for it to be in only your favorite list then change it to the other to get it back to the other channel list.

It would also be nice to select the order you want the channels to go in. This would allow you to do that and organize them on your own. I wonder if you could do that with software to view it on the computer or if someone that knew how to make software could make that for the computer for those that would want that.

[Nick]

Down, boy! :)

[BobaBird]

The ESPN cluster needs to be moved to the 400 block with the rest of the sports channels.