So this does work for OTA ATSC, like for someone who *only* wants those channels?

I ask because I searched EVERY digital cable provider, none gives me all the sub-channels I need. :(

Is there no other way? Can't I just like rename the sub-channels to what zap2it says they are? Or just use a third-party EPG?

~Ibrahim~

Not that anyone is looking, but I seemed to have sloved my cable channels ahowing up.  Apparently I did something wrong the first time, even though I am not sure what.  The last time I deleted them it stuck, and I have been good now for a while. 

I think you may have just been unlucky the first time and downloaded your guide right before they made a major lineup reshuffling.

When I set mine up, about two weeks later 6 new channels popped up.  I deleted them and its been rock solid ever since.

-dickm

 

Ok, I think I am about 95% of the way there, I printed out the local antenna listings, changed the guide data in the registry, and added the appropriate subchannels.

Im not exactly clear on how to add the subchannels listing data, am I just scrolling through the really long list until I find a match on what I think it should be?  Or will it be called exactly what the original channel was called?  ie xxxxDT

Also, when I add the subchannel it shows up as xxxx-DT, but the antenna listing shows it as xxxxDT with no hyphen, if I understand correctly I am supposed to remove the hyphen to make the listing stick.

Okay, is it really hard to find a suitable listing or what?

Everything locally doesnt have everything, tried the Alameda guide mentioned as thats just south of me by a couple hours, but it errors out whenever it tries to download, nothing in my area even has the subchannel listings.

 

camemx01:

Ok, I think I am about 95% of the way there, I printed out the local antenna listings, changed the guide data in the registry, and added the appropriate subchannels.

Im not exactly clear on how to add the subchannels listing data, am I just scrolling through the really long list until I find a match on what I think it should be?  Or will it be called exactly what the original channel was called?  ie xxxxDT

Also, when I add the subchannel it shows up as xxxx-DT, but the antenna listing shows it as xxxxDT with no hyphen, if I understand correctly I am supposed to remove the hyphen to make the listing stick.

Go back to the zap2it website and print out the channel listings.  Then, when you add your subchannel, reference the printout and type exactly whats shown. If zap2it calls it WXYZDT2, type exactly that. MCE will add a "-DT" to that so you'll end up with WXYZDT2-DT but thats OK.

You dont have to do anything else. MCE will automatically associate the channel with its listings. If you go to the guide immediately after adding the subchannel, you should see everything there. No manual association is necessary

-dickm

OK, so you are saying step 7 is not needed, and as long as I input the exact name VMC will pick them up?

Step 7: Change the listings to get the real data.

MCE->tasks->settings->tv->guide->add channel listings
One by one, change your channel listings to the real channel data.

Thanks for your help

 

 

Alright, I hope to make this easier for at least someone in the future, I created some screenshots of the process even though I am not done yet, hopefully this will verify I am doing it correctly and then accident can use it in his write up.

Please give me some feedback before I continue.

Thanks

camemx01:

Please give me some feedback before I continue.

Thanks

Excellent. Thank you for doing this. Unfortunatelly somone like me have DirecTV, still won't work. According to Tribune Media Services anyone with DirecTV mix aith OTA won't able to pull OTA guide info into Guide now.

 

camemx01:

OK, so you are saying step 7 is not needed, and as long as I input the exact name VMC will pick them up?

Step 7: Change the listings to get the real data.

MCE->tasks->settings->tv->guide->add channel listings
One by one, change your channel listings to the real channel data.

Thanks for your help
 

Exactly right. Vista drops manually associated listings at each guide download.  The only way to make this work is to have MCE automatically make the association. Therefore, the name of the added subchannel must be exactly as zap2it lists it. 

If you've done everything right, you can add a subchannel and immediately go to the guide and see its listings. You need do nothing more. Step 7 isnt needed.

However, for analog stations you will have to change their channel numbers because it will download the cable channels and not the OTA channels.

-dickm.

Thanks, and right you are, I verified this when I got home.

Guess I am done with pics, not really much more for me to take screens of thats not built into VMC.

Instuctions are fine from where I left off.

Anyone disagree?

 

Is there some other trick to this? I followed the very helpful screenshot guide, copied the X postpended code, updated my registry, rebooted, and still have the wrong guide (my channel names match the guide exactly).

Do you have to create a Zap2it account or something, is a cookie being written to your computer to get the favorites to save to MCE?

Also this guide changing has to be done on the same computer? (I tried it on a different computer and copied the final URL into a different browser window and the favorites were not there).

There is a step missing and I'm not sure what it is.

baldbear:

Is there some other trick to this? I followed the very helpful screenshot guide, copied the X postpended code, updated my registry, rebooted, and still have the wrong guide (my channel names match the guide exactly).

Do you have to create a Zap2it account or something, is a cookie being written to your computer to get the favorites to save to MCE?

Also this guide changing has to be done on the same computer? (I tried it on a different computer and copied the final URL into a different browser window and the favorites were not there).

There is a step missing and I'm not sure what it is.

I actually created the screenshots as part of trying to figure out how this works, my first attempt did'nt, not sure what happened.

You do not have to create a Zap2It account.

The guide changing thing does not have to be done on the media center, in fact you never even have to go to zap2it on the media center, its simply there to figure out what digital provider in your area broadcasts the same locals as your OTA provider and the get the station ID's and provider ID.

I did all the screenshots on a seperate computer, then implemented it on my media center.

Your getting your own provider ID right?

Keep in mind I created the pic tutorial to supplement the written instructions, even though there are some variations.  The last step of the written instructions are not needed, but you need to make sure the station ID's are identical, which you said you did.  Also, my instructions added creating favorites, but that is just to make it really easy to compare OTA locals to cable locals.

 

Actually remembered something, my PIC tutorial has no mention of rebooting and updating the guide content, did you do that?

Maybe I should just start a new post, Accident has not responded at all to this post or my PM, all credit will of course go to him.

 

"Reboot for the settings to take effect (anyone know what services to cycle instead??)
MCE->tasks->settings->tv->guide->download guide.

It's going to take 5-10 minutes.  you may want to minimize mce to watch the progress in the status bar. "