At least with the old Tivo models (can't speak for other D* receivers), you could actually edit the 'channels I receive'. That way, you could remove channels that you technically did receive but never watched, so they never showed up even if you weren't using a favorites list. Even though they're getting closer to actually populating the list correctly, I preferred the ability to edit myself as well. (no, I'm not trying to turn this into a Tivo vs D* receiver discussion - just stating a fact
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