Guide missing OTA 26.1 WCIU Chicago

[yyygac2]

I have HR21/AM21 and normally switch to the OTA 26.1 to watch the Cubs in HD because DirecTV only carries WCIU in SD. Tonight the Direct-TV guide shows channels 26 and 26.2 but no 26.1. Had to switch my TV to its internal OTA tuner to watch the game in HD.

I checked my SONY's OTA guide (TV Guide service) and channel 26.1 is there and its programming schedule is complete. Not sure if TV Guide is using a different source for programming data than DirecTV uses. I was unable to find a way to include OTA local channels in the programming guide at DirecTV.COM so I can't see if its a problem with the Tribune feed.

Anyone know what's up? :confused:

[dishrich]

You might try deleting & rerunning OTA setup - sometimes for some weird reason, this fixes things.
Our local CW added THIS TV to 23.2 this week - even though it had been populated in the guide weeks BEFORE it was actually lit up, it would not come in for me. I reran it on both my HR20's & it popped right in.

[p010ne]

I have found (dfw) that the am21 needs to be rescanned to get rid of unused and find new channels! Here in DFW the am21 was finding 21-2 which was a surrogate for cbs, and radar on 4-2 that was not valid! It is mysterious that the DirecTV unit returned valid signal levels for these invalid channels?
Redoing antenna setup is REQUIRED to obtain VALID channels for the AM21!
Is this common knowledge?

[retromzc]

Most DirecTv receivers don't seem to like all of the "goofy" ways the WCIU owners have their channels remapped. This happens on both of mine sometimes too. Try tuning to 48-1. WCIU-DT and guide info often show up on that channel.

[yyygac2]

You might try deleting & rerunning OTA setup - sometimes for some weird reason, this fixes things.


No luck with deleting and rerunning the OTA setup.

Try tuning to 48-1. WCIU-DT and guide info often show up on that channel.

The problem with the AM-21 not being able to tune in to 26.1 is probably due to D* having the guide data for 26.1 appearing on channel 48-1. Now this would not be a bad thing if only D* set the AM-21 to tune in the channel which matched the program guide. As it is now the AM-21 tunes-in channel 48.1 (WMEU) a/k/a 26.3 on 48-1 and *not* 26.1 (WCIU). The programming just doesn't match the guide data.

all of the "goofy" ways the WCIU owners have their channels remapped.

Agreed, Weigel Brodcasting certianly seems to have a bit of a mess with WCIU (26/26.1), WWME (23/23.1/26.2), WMEU (48.1/26.3), ThisTV and the ethnic sub-channels.

As things stand now WCIU-DT1 is not tunable at all with the AM-21. Channel 26.1 is supposidly the "premiere" channel of the Weigel station stable aired in Chicago. D* does provides it as a Chicago local on channel 26 but only in SD). It sure was nice to get the subset of CUBS/SOX/BULLS home games that WCIU carries in HD with my AM-21 in the past but I am no longer able to use my VCR trickplay when watching as I have to switch my TV input off the HR-21 in order to view in HD.

Anybody have suggestions on how/where I might raise this issue with D*? I don't think that going the customer support route and getting a script reader is going to be of much value in getting anywhere with this.

BTW, I neglected to mention earlier that I am running CE 0x354 on the HR-21. Maybe I should post this in the CE issues thread?

[JoeTheDragon]

Agreed, Weigel Brodcasting certianly seems to have a bit of a mess with WCIU (26/26.1), WWME (23/23.1/26.2), WMEU (48.1/26.3), ThisTV and the ethnic sub-channels.


you forgot that tv? just a holding page but they have like 6 copes of it.

also 26 analog is gone and 23 is in Analog nightlight programming with a mix of stuff from 26, 5 and 9.

[aa9vi]

Yeah, I've been bitching for 2 years now and next to no one at D* cares about stuff like this. Put a damn OTA tuner in the new satellite receivers. Also, make sure the OTA receiver has CHANNEL SCAN. This AM21 hackjob has incorrect channel assignments way too often because it relies on Tribune Media/Zap2it which is out of date.

Fix the problem. If Weigel's solution works on my TV's receiver, D* should fix it so it works on theirs too.

I have a similar issue with the H20 and HR20, but at least I can rescan OTA with the H20.

-----> In order for you to fix it on your HR21 , you need to contact Tribune Media/Zap2it. <----------

[timmmaaayyy2003]

Yeah, I've been bitching for 2 years now and next to no one at D* cares about stuff like this. Put a damn OTA tuner in the new satellite receivers. Also, make sure the OTA receiver has CHANNEL SCAN. This AM21 hackjob has incorrect channel assignments way too often because it relies on Tribune Media/Zap2it which is out of date.

Fix the problem. If Weigel's solution works on my TV's receiver, D* should fix it so it works on theirs too.

I have a similar issue with the H20 and HR20, but at least I can rescan OTA with the H20.

-----> In order for you to fix it on your HR21 , you need to contact Tribune Media/Zap2it. <----------

In addition, contact the local channel directly and ask their engineer to contact Tribune whenever there is a change to their signal. The engineer will have more pull with Tribune than a viewer. I've done this, and it usually works pretty quickly if you can get in touch with them.

Good luck.

[Blurayfan]

Same issue here. I really wish someone would correct this problem.
I find it unacceptable that this was mentioned in a post on the OTA issue thread back in July yet the issue remains unresolved.

[BuffaloDenny]

So it appears others are having the same issue I've noticed when trying to watch anything in HD on WCIU - channel 26 in the guide from satellite. The sat transmission isn't HD, but the old OTA WCIU on 26-1 did. Now the mapping points to OTA 48-1, and the guide info lists the same content as 26 as well, but in reality 48-1 isn't showing the main channel 26 content, but rather subchannel 26-3. No WCIU HD for us!

Anything that can be done to rectify this? Does anyone who needs to know about this issue working on anything?

[retromzc]

I did try contacting WCIU about this when they first put these "goofy" remaps in place. Their response was that they are doing everything properly and it's a Directv tuner problem so contact Directv. Sometimes the 26-1 channel appears in my guide and all is well, then the next day it's gone and I have to tune to 48-1 for WCIU programming. I also notice when 23-1 appears in the guide then 26-1 vanishes. Then 23-1 will reappear in the guide and then 26-1 goes. I just wish they'd put the original mappings back. FWIW I am using Directv H-20 receivers which can do ota scans and not the AM-21 so even the Directv tuners which do have ota scan capabilities have the same problem.

[BuffaloDenny]

Don't want to steal anyone else's thunder, but wanted to share a fix I found on these forums that worked for me.


1. Unplug the OTA antenna connection. This step seems to be needed for some people.

2. (in the antenna setup) "reset off-air settings" and allow it to go through all it's steps.

3. (in the reset menu) "restart the receiver" Many have skipped this step with success.

4. (in the antenna setup) "initial setup" be sure to re-enter the zip code, don't just hit ok.

5. (in the antenna setup) "edit off-air channels" just to make sure all the channels you want are selected.

6. plug-in the OTA antenna connection.