Weird channels doing weird things... Viacom related?

[StealthMonkey]

About the same time the Viacom channels disappeared, I noticed that two peculiar channels were all of a sudden added to my favorites (on multiple receivers). The channels are 8241 and 8327. In the guide, those channels show a perceptual "To Be Announced". If I actually tune to the channel, it is the standard DirecTV logo with music.

My initial thought was, "Maybe DirecTV is going to throw out extra content on these channels to try to make up for the Viacom kerfuffle." So, I left them in my favorites to keep an eye on them. When I was checking the "To Do List" a few days ago, to my surprise, it said that Futurama (the one show I am missing due to Viacom) was scheduled to record on one of these channels on Wed 7/18. I, of course, was very skeptical. The episode info was for the episode that was scheduled to premier on Comedy Central at that very time. I checked the guide for this magic channel -- still showed 24/7 TBA.

Well, the time came... and it recorded... dum dum dum... a half hour of the DirecTV logo. Super weird. Anyone have anything like this going on? Any info on these mystery channels? I'm not worried about it, I'm more curious than anything.

 

[dodger72]

i got that too recorded half hour of D* logo on saturday

 

[Lkr]

that is where the viacom channels are currently located on the system

 

[ejb1980]

I had a bunch of them in the 8000s range on my favorites list. Note: my favorites list has all the channels i get in it, not just my personal favorite channels. I edited out all the pointless PPV, shopping, alternate sports channels that never show anything, PT sports channels that only have blacked out programming, repeats, -1's from AM21 that D* already had, etc, but kept all the "real" channels. I deleted all the 8000s from my favorites list - will that mean the Viacom channels will not re-appear on my fav list when they come back?

 

[raoul5788]

I had a bunch of them in the 8000s range on my favorites list. Note: my favorites list has all the channels i get in it, not just my personal favorite channels. I edited out all the pointless PPV, shopping, alternate sports channels that never show anything, PT sports channels that only have blacked out programming, repeats, -1's from AM21 that D* already had, etc, but kept all the "real" channels. I deleted all the 8000s from my favorites list - will that mean the Viacom channels will not re-appear on my fav list when they come back?

Good question. You can be our crash test dummy when the channels come back on!

 

[ejb1980]

Can I sing "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" and get free HD EXtra for 3 months?

 

[Mr Tony]

when the Viacom channels come back your favorites will be just fine

When directv moves a channel that you have saved as a favorite it moves to the new spot and stays as a favorite. When NASA moved form 289 to 346 (to make room for Disney Jr) my favorites showed Nasa as 346 now. Disney jr I had to add

As noted the 8XXX channels are just the Viacom channel # with an 8 in front of it

 

[StealthMonkey]

As noted the 8XXX channels are just the Viacom channel # with an 8 in front of it

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense.

As for the two 8XXX channels in my favorites... 8241 would be Spike (which was in my favorites) and 8327 would be CMT (which was not in my favorites, but was in my wife's favorites). Interestingly, my favorites don't have 8249, which would be Comedy Central. Huh.

Well, either way, your explanation seems sufficient to me. Thanks!

 

[ejb1980]

When the channels returned, they were NOT in my favorites list. I had to re-add all of the Viacom channels, except Palladia which re-appeared on its own.

 

[DodgerKing]

when the Viacom channels come back your favorites will be just fine

When directv moves a channel that you have saved as a favorite it moves to the new spot and stays as a favorite. When NASA moved form 289 to 346 (to make room for Disney Jr) my favorites showed Nasa as 346 now. Disney jr I had to add

As noted the 8XXX channels are just the Viacom channel # with an 8 in front of it

As long as you do not remover the 8xxx channels from your favorites list. I removed them and forgot to remove one. The only one that came back was the one I forgot to remove. I had to go back and add them to my favorites list again.

 

[DodgerKing]

When the channels returned, they were NOT in my favorites list. I had to re-add all of the Viacom channels, except Palladia which re-appeared on its own.

Did you remove the 8xxx channels from the list?

 

[Mr Tony]

When the channels returned, they were NOT in my favorites list. I had to re-add all of the Viacom channels, except Palladia which re-appeared on its own.

if you removed the 8XXX channels they wouldnt show back up in the favorites. All of mine were back where they belong (in their right spot)

 

[Mr Tony]

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense.

As for the two 8XXX channels in my favorites... 8241 would be Spike (which was in my favorites) and 8327 would be CMT (which was not in my favorites, but was in my wife's favorites). Interestingly, my favorites don't have 8249, which would be Comedy Central. Huh.

Well, either way, your explanation seems sufficient to me. Thanks!

no problem. Your favorites should be back to how they should be now

 

[StealthMonkey]

no problem. Your favorites should be back to how they should be now

Yup, they're back! All is good.

What I'm curious of now is: When will Viacom content be available on the iPad? The press release made it sound like that was coming.

 

[Jimbo]

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense.

As for the two 8XXX channels in my favorites... 8241 would be Spike (which was in my favorites) and 8327 would be CMT (which was not in my favorites, but was in my wife's favorites). Interestingly, my favorites don't have 8249, which would be Comedy Central. Huh.

Well, either way, your explanation seems sufficient to me. Thanks!

It's kinda the same way they do the channels in the 1000's.

 

[Mr Tony]

yup in most cases

 

[Jimbo]

Yup, they're back! All is good.

What I'm curious of now is: When will Viacom content be available on the iPad? The press release made it sound like that was coming.

and the Android tabs !