Please, please, please, please fix "automatic addition of new channels"

[neilbradley]

I'm running SageTV 6 and I have always had an annoying, recurring problem with SageTV.

I have two Dish Network tuners and occasionally in the past, a new channel would get added to my SageTV lineup - a channel that I don't get. When SageTV changes the channel to that new channel, it causes a stupid "Press up/down to change the channel" error on the dish network tuner that I have to manually clear. I usually find out about it 8-16 hours later when a lot of my shows are half or hour long recordings of the "You don't get this channel" screen.

Is there any way to fix this? It's driving me (and more importantly, my wife) batty. If not, can someone in SageTV development please fix this? My 3 SageTV clients would be very appreciative!

[GKusnick]

I seem to recall someone posting a workaround for this recently, but I don't have the link handy; sorry. Search on Dish and you might find it.

You might also want to complain to Dish about their poor UI design and let them know that it's causing headaches for AV system integrators (that's you) trying to use their equipment in home theater setups.

[Wheemer]

I experience this problem too... If the lineup changes and a new channel is added, then at least sage should report it to you, so you can double check it. But ultimately there really should be an option to have these channels added as disabled.

[sleonard]

This is also one of my longstanding complaints. Ideally, Sage should pop up a warning whenever the channel lineup changes but 2nd best would be to put newly added channels in the disabled state.

Scott

[blade]

I actually like knowing when new channels are added. Around 6 new unencrypted QAM channels were added at the first of the year and it would have been months before I had noticed if Sage hadn't automatically added them to the guide. They didn't work automatically because I had to map them first. I prefer this to not being notified at all. I wouldn't mind them being disabled as long as some sort of message was given informing me that new channels were available.

[bcjenkins]

The problem with Dish is that you can't change away from the channel because of their silly on screen message which says you don't have access to the channel. It is one thing to have bad channels, but another altogether to if you click on one and then have to go to your dish boxes and use the remote to click OK. My inlaws run into this with their TIVO too.

My vote would be to notify of new channels added to the lineup but not enable them by default.

B

[chrisc16]

Same here, having new Dish channels added automatically has screwed up many a recording in my household. And my wife's response is always: "How hard would it be for them to put an option in to disable that functionality?" Even if it's enabled by default, for the benefit of those who like it, just please please give us the option to turn it off!

Last time I emailed tech support they said they would consider the feature request. That was at version 4.

-Chris

[Goodspike]

I've found it to be a PITA with the HD Homerun too. Everytime Comcast adds a channel, it gets added to my program guide. It doesn't screw up any recordings, but having to do in and remove them each time is a pain.

It really does need an option.

[briands]

+1

Count me in too... Part of the stupidity here is that the dish box (as stated) will not tune to another channel from the "Failed to load chanel" screen. So the tuner (or tuners) will record this message endlessly until you go to the tuner itself and tune away from the offending channel.

Maybe we could ask dish to change their UI as well I guess they want us to buy their PVR....

[GKusnick]

Here's the workaround I was thinking of earlier. Note that I'm not a Dish user so I haven't tried this myself.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...07&postcount=6

I still think at least half the blame for this belongs to Dish. If enough people complain to them (and maybe threaten to switch to another provider with more automation-friendly equipment) maybe something will happen on their end eventually.

[chrisc16]

Unfortunately, we can have a unanimous decision in this thread but I don't think Sage trolls these forums looking for feature requests. Perhaps if everyone submits this as a bug report (even though it's not really a bug), it will perk up their ears to this ongoing problem.

-Chris

[salsbst]

This feature is, as far as I'm concerned, an anti-feature. It needs to be turned off until something better can be devised.

[briands]

Here's what I just submitted on the dishnetwork tech support form.

Not so much of a question as a feature request. I use a standalone PVR to record from my dish box. Occasionally it will mis-tune to an unsubscribed channel. I understand this is not a dishnetwork issue. My complaint is that the resulting error screen does not resolve with the next channel change. This screen should also accept a channel input to direct tune to another channel. If this is not clear, feel free to email me XXXXXXX@XXXXXX.com

and Sage I know it is tech support, but that is where I have been instructed in the past to submit feature requests. Of course the last one has not made it to production yet and that was originally proposed after v. 3.0...

FEATURE REQUEST:
Please allow me to disable automatic updates to the channel line-up. Ideally there would be an interface that would tell you there were new channels and walk you through to configure them appropriately.
The current arrangement can cause lost recordings if sage tunes my dish box to an unsubscribed channel. The "Unsubscribed channel" screen on the dish box can not be exited by the use of numeric channel entry, so not only do you lose that recording, but any subsequent recording on that box until the user manually exits the screen. This is an enormous problem on a headless server stashed in the basement. I have submitted a request to dish to allow for direct channel entry from these screens, but it would still be best if Sage did not arbitrarily adjust channel lineups.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Contact me if I can provide further details.

[MrD]

This is an issue in DirecTV too. I don't like it either and wish it would stop.

[briands]

Argh

I was out of town this week and of course Dish f-ed me again with a channel lineup change. Worst part is that in place of the season finale of Gray's Anatomy, I have a recording of a Dish dialog box . I will be hearing about this until it is re-run or I find a place to download the missing show (any help, please PM).

One more strike against the WAF- she's already asked if I can bring a tuner into the living room for those times Sage craps out (which seems to be any time I am more than 1 hour from home). Last trip was a dead network card in the server and I am still fighting a network issue on the client that causes lost network connectivity seemingly randomly about once per day.

Has anyone managed to prefix the channel change IR with something that will cause this to always work?

[bhyman1]

I could not agree with this more.

It would be nice if an alert icon or something showed up, rather than just adding the channels.

Often times is Premiums that get added that I dont pay for. Screws stuff up to make it extremely aggravating.

[kevpriest]

This is something pretty much all Dish subscribers want. The only solution I know is to turn off intelligent recording. I've had it off for years, even though it's one of my favorite features of Sage. There's just no other way around it.

[rfutscher]

This is also an Over The Air problem. I receive a station that has four SD channels during the day and two, one SD and one HD, channels in the evening. Sage can not handle the twice daily channel change and tunes the wrong channels. I have reported this issue and they understand the problem but have been unwilling to fix the problem. I think it would take a major rewrite of the software to handle dynamic changes.

[IncredibleHat]

Seems DirecTV just cant make their mind up about bunches of channels, because it seems every other week, I am having to go into the Video Source Channel Lineup editor and DISABLE a ton of channels that SageTV enables by default when it sees them as 'new' from the guide information.

How do I get SageTV to STOP DOING THIS? It is so annoying, and pretty much every single one of those channels it auto-enables, I do not get, or want to have up (like PPV, or Sports event BS).

There has to be a way... if its through studio, ok, because I've messed around in there before to alter some things.

Thanks for any insight into getting sagetv to stop doing this! THANKS!


edit: hee hee... thanks to the mods for moving my post to the right thread!

[salsbst]

BUMP! -- this bug (aka feature) is still kicking our butts. When Sage decides to record from a brand new encrypted channel, all heck breaks loose.