Why so many duplicate channels?

[cmalberto]

I am becoming a new Dish Subscriber on Tuesday. Getting the Hopper(w/Sling), Super Joey and a regular Joey. I am also getting a VIP 211Z for the motorhome. However, today I have a loner 211K for the weekend while out in my motorhome. Question is as I run through the guide is why are there duplicate channels? Seems there a ton of duplicates in the 5100s(ABC, NBC, CBS locals and some sports). Then there are the 8400s(ABC, CBS, NBC & FOX locals) - then we get to the 9400s...I see NICK at 9416(HD?), then AMC, PIXL, A&E and on and on.

So what gives with these duplicate channels. I guess there is a reason for us newbies. Tried searching but couldn't figure how to search this vague question without examples.

Thanks in advance.

--Mickey

 

[MikeD-C05]

On the hopper You can select to have only the hd version of channels with sd equivalents and it eliminates a lot of duplicates. Hit settings, then guide settings , then format guide and under channel preference you can select HD channels. Also you can change the order of your guide so it ascends or descends ,which ever is your preference. On the 211z you can go to locks menu then select which channels you want blocked out . For instance any Sd channel you don't want or any shopping or religious channels you want blocked. Then create a 4 digit code to lock in your password and Viola : a new cleaned up ,clutter free guide. On the hopper there is the Parental locks menu that works similarly .

 

[n0qcu]

The OP didn't ask how to get rid of duplicates he asked WHY there were so many of them.

 

[garys]

Most of them are not duplicates, some are sd and others are HD versions of the same channels while others are just remapped to other locations.

 

[TNGTony]

As mentioned in the previous post, most of the High Definition channels actually "live" in the 8000-9000 range. The Standard Definition channels, for the most part, "live" in the 3-digit channel range. The local channel Sirius music channels, etc "live" in between.

The architecture of the Dish receivers do not allow more than one channel to be on the same channel. What dish does is it "maps" the HD channels to the same channel number as the standard definition channel as a matter of convenience. The result is that many channels show up three times on the channel guide, though there is only one HD and one SD channel actually uplinked.

To add more confusion to those that look at the channel chart on this site, many channels are also assigned other channel numbers for special packages, such as Dish Latino. So some channels can show up on the list as many as 6 times on the channel list, but the most one subscriber might see a channel is 2 or three times.

Then the local channels are another story, You have HD, SD on the Western Arc satellites, and sometimes another uplink on Eastern arch. Since all receivers on Eastern Arc satellites. Since any one receiver will usually only "look" at one set at a time so channels are reused. Same goes for many local channels on different spot beams since it is impossible for any one location to see different spot beams at one time.

A video stream is usually uplinked only once and assigned or mapped to many different channels with no additional bandwidth used up save for the few bits of info assigning or mapping the channel number.

Hope this isn't too confusing. Of course if I were king I would have assigned the HD channels identical channels numbers as the SD channels but add a digit (eg an SD channel on channel 180 would be 2180 (or whatever thousand range one might pick). I still don't know why they didn't do it that way.

 

[SomeDishGuy]

As TNGTony said, it's called mapdown. There is a channel 4 in Los Angeles. A channel 4 in New York. A channel 4 in a lot of markets. How does Dish handle all those local channels with the same number? Every single local channel that Dish carries has a spot in the 5000s and the 7000s (for both HD and SD). Totally hypothetical, I don't have anything in front of me, but NYC channel 4 may be at ch. 7184, LA channel 4 may be at 7298, Miami channel 4 may be at 7422. Your receiver works with the authorization you get from the satellite to decide what channels you are supposed to have (your DMA) and then maps those down to where they're supposed to be in the single and double digits.

Same goes for a lot of the other channels, they're actually assigned to a 9000-something channel, and are mapped down to an easier to find spot. I like that, as I think it's Time Warner that has all HD channels in the 1000 range.



As a Dish employee, my opinions are my own, and do not represent my employer in any way.

 

[MikeD-C05]

The OP didn't ask how to get rid of duplicates he asked WHY there were so many of them.

I gave him the suggestions to clean up his guide, why do you care?

 

[Tampa8]

Stop being helpful.

To maybe take a different angle - When you see the channels in the high number range they are for the most part willy nilly. If they were grouped correctly you would have more channel number changes when new channels were added or channels dropped.

Those high channels numbers are then mapped down - repeated in an organized way at the lower numbers. Lower numbers are easier for people to remember the channel number, and as already pointed out, rather than tie up Channel 4 for instance for the Boston Market, now Channel 4 can be used in any market that has a local at that number.
You can be creative and use the higher numbers for recording purposes, I have locked out all the higher channels.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I guess the nice thing about the Hopper is that you only need to clean up the duplicate channel on only one botwo,if you have two Hoppers),imagine cleaning up two ViP 722k's(with at least one set up & connected to a second TV) & one ViP 211k. That's a lot of running around.