Re: My dtv channel moved to its rf carrier channel - Why?

Jer wrote:
Alan F wrote:

Yes, I go with messed up PSIP data. I have seen it happen a number of
times. The stations have gotten better about checking their digital
signal, but it still happens. The box generating the PSIP data crashes
or hangs up, so the ATSC tuner reverts to displaying the physical RF
channel. People have had to contact the station and tell them that the
PSIP data is messed up, or all too often, the closed caption data is not
working properly. It took weeks for WHUT-DT PBS 32 (Howard University)
(DT=33) after they finally fired up a digital signal last fall to put
out correct PSIP data.

The FCC assigns the mapped channel # to the station. For existing
analog stations, the mapped channel # is to be the analog channel #,
even after the analog shutdown. For the digital only stations that have
started up which never had a analog channel or the few that got the FCC
to agree to a channel # change after they killed the analog channel, the
assigned channel is the physical digital channel.

The FCC does not distribute the data to the tuners. It is the
responsibility of the station to send out the correct PSIP data.

Alan F



The FCC may assign the mapped channel, but I would imagine they're under a lot of pressure to not assign a different mapped channel from the original analog channel. I think there's a lot of people that don't even know the real FCC call sign of their favorite source of drivel - they only know the channel number. Changing the mapped channel from the analog channel would be the kiss of death from the AI herd.

The FCC has specific rules on the channel assignments. For a handful
of stations that have shut down their analog channel way early, my
understanding is that the FCC let them go to the digital channel # such
as WNVT-DT 30 in VA before they realized they needed rigid rules on this.

For the existing analog stations, the rule is that they must stick
with displaying their analog channel #s. Yes, the public knows the
stations by their analog channel number, but the value of that number
depends on the station. If you are a NBC 4 which has been on channel 4
for many decades, you want to stick with it. But newer stations way up
in UHF might want to change to their new lower digital number to be seen
as a more "important" station. Rather than getting into the middle of
messy channel number land grab, the FCC is locking the stations to their
analog channel, in theory forever. That might change once the dust
settles from the digital transition and all the low power & translators
are switched over to digital, but for now we will see stations displayed
as Fox 68 or CW 69, even when no TV station is broadcasting above UHF 51.

But you can tell which networks came first, by noticing that CBS is on
channel 2 in NYC, LA, and Chicago and 3 in Philly. NBC is on channel 4
in NYC, LA, Washington DC, Detroit, and 5 in Chicago. ABC is on channel
7 in NYC, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, & Detroit.

Alan F

.

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