[mythtv-users] Analog Cable Channel Blacked Out?

John Welch jrw3319 at gmail.com
Wed Sep 3 13:26:27 UTC 2008


I had a strange (at least for me) issue with a recording from my
PVR-150 last night.  For reference, I live in the suburbs of Boston
and have Comcast cable.  The channel in question is F/X Network
(channel 30 on my lineup).  I have a cable feed going directly into
the PVR-150.

I setup a recording for 10:00 PM last night.  Around 10:30 or so I
decided I would start watching the recording, but was disappointed to
find that all I had was a black screen for the entire recording.  My
first thought was that the network may be experiencing issues, but I
flipped on my cable box to the channel and the show was airing just
fine.  My next guess was that I had a hardware/software issue with my
PVR-150.  However, I stopped the recording and went to Live TV mode
where things were working fine on all the channels I checked except
F/X, which was still just showing a black screen.  I then decided to
check the channel setup in Myth, figuring that even though I hadn't
been in this area of the setup in quite some time that somehow, some
way the channel configuration was messed up.  However, that didn't
seem to be the case either.  Lastly, I turned on another TV where I
have a direct cable feed (no cable box) and sure enough all I got on
channel 30 was a black screen.

This has me confused.  I don't watch/record a lot of shows on this
network.  The show I was recording last night (The Shield) hasn't had
new episodes showing in over a year due to the writers strike last
year.  So I have no idea how long the channel has been like this.  I
do know that the TV that I verified the "black screen" on is new and
when I first set it up it ran through a channel scan and it did add
channel 30 as a "good" channel, so it appears something is being
broadcast on the channel.  I didn't go through the whole range, but
every other channel I checked in what I will call the "analog range"
(2-90) was fine.  On my cable lineup 2-90 are typically analog
stations that I can tune on the PVR-150; then there is the "digital
lineup", with channels in the 200-399 range and the "HD lineup" in the
800 range.  I know in the past Comcast has taken channels out of the
analog range and put them in the digital lineup, or they will add a
corresponding HD channel in the 800 range.  In this case have they
simply starting broadcasting a digital channel in the analog range, or
is something else going on here?

I know this isn't a Mythtv issue, but I also know there are a lot of
people on the list that know a heck of a lot more about how CATV
transmissions work, so I'm hoping someone here might be able to shed
some light on this issue.  I'm also hoping that this isn't the start
of a trend by Comcast leading up to the digital TV transition.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
John


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