Interesting duplicate channel bug.

[pwtenny]

I tossed this problem around for a couple of hours, modifying the database by hand, deleting channels and letting the EPG update re-add them, and I finally figured this out (it's kind of obvious now.)

On my zap2it lineup, I have two channels with different numbers but identical names.

388 WNYW
882 WNYW

388 is a national feed, while 882 is supposed to be a local feed (I don't even get that channel, it's dead air.) Either through some fault of zap2it, or gbpvr, the following channel is added: "882 388 WNYW", with source channel 904. (904 is from config/edit recording source, and doesn't jive with the stuff below here, I don't know why.) But that's not the only one. From the database:

125|880 380 WCBS||880|Y
128|880 380 WCBS||897|Y
127|882 388 WNYW||882|Y
130|882 388 WNYW||899|Y

Quick reference information: 880 and 380 are valid channels, 897 is not and doest not exist at all. 882 and 388 exist, while 899 does not.

The typical result of this is a channel with the wrong name and absolutely *no* guide data at all. (A small gripe: when you navigate the guide and hit a channel that has no actual data, the channel doesn't get highlighted at all, and if it's at the top of the screen, the guide stops scrolling upwards even when you hit normal channels with guide data again. You have to page-up to get it to scroll upwards again.)

Now that I realize why, I can just uncheck the redundant channels from my lineup, delete them again via config, and hopefully an EPG update will give me back my locals.

But I thought you'd like to know, because this isn't something I or anyone using zap2it can control as far as I know. Every time DirecTV adds channels, they are automatically added to your lineup whether you want them (or even get them) or not, and gbpvr happily and rightfully adds them as well, making conflicts like this potentially unavoidable. DTV is constantly expanding and adding channels, and I am always having to go in a delete them because 9 times out of 10, I don't even get them. I hate that.

Also, DirecTV has High-Def channels that have numbers go away all the way up into the 2100's. Just FYI.

[pwtenny]

Quick followup, I unchecked the duplicate channel names from my zap2it lineup, and deleted the messed up channels via config, then did an EPG update. The channels I want are back with their correct names and now have 1 day of EPG data (I'll do a full update when I'm satisfied this is all working properly.)

I discovered one channel that wasn't fixed by all this, 889, my local UPN affiliate, and I know exactly why. This is important, because it's not unheard of for this to happen for various reasons.

UPN and The WB are crappy 'netlets', baby networks with an audience more befitting a cable channel. They decided life sucks alone, and are merging. I used to get both a The WB and UPN local channel, so things were bound to shake up, and they have. My UPN affil decided *not* to play ball (doesn't matter why), and have since changed their callsign. 889 WUPN -> 889 WMYV. I imagine my local affil for The WB (which is playing ball and becoming a "The CW" affil) will be changing their callsign as well.

Now zap2it simply renamed the channel, there were no dupes or anything like that, but gbpvr had no way of knowing this, and so it saw 889 WMYV as a *new* channel, and added it as such, even though there is already a 889 WUPN in the database.

This has resulted in 889 WMYV showing up in the gbpvr guide (must be because it's below WUPN in the database sort order) with no guide data.

I'm just going to go into the config and grease them both, then do my full EPG update and all should be well, but as I said, it is not unheard of for channels to change their callsigns. In the 17+ years I've lived in North Carolina, I've seen two local channels (as in over-the-air and later carried by DirecTV) switch their affiliation (Fox->ABC, etc) so this may be worth putting on the "long list" of things to do sometime down the road.

I haven't had a working 889 WUPN for over two weeks now and never even noticed (not blaming you or gbpvr), even though I have a season pass for ST: Enterprise on that channel. Once it's setup, you just take it for granted that it's going to work.

Ah well. Peace.