[mythtv-users] Question regarding "-1" / HD channels on DirecTV

[John P Poet]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 10:46 AM, Robert Kulagowski <rkulagow at gmail.com> wrote:
> I can see from http://www.directv.com/sports/nhl_schedules that SD
> content may be on channel 771, and HD is on 771-1.
>
> If you're trying to change the channel to the "-1", are you actually
> sending a "-1"? Or do you have to lock the STB so that it's in HD
> mode, and when you change to 771 you're automatically tuned to 771-1?
> Or is it something else?

Most of the time, Directv has both a HD and a SD version of the
channel.  In those situations, the channel number will be exactly the
same (e.g. 269).  Typing in 269 will take you to the HD version of the
channel.  If you want the SD version, you then have to hit channel-up.
 You can also configure the STB to hide SD duplicates so they don't
even show up.

However, there are situations where the HD version of the channel is
not available 24/7, and that is when they use the -1 suffix.  From the
remote you can type in 771-1 to get to the HD version of the channel.
SchedulesDirect does not make the distinction between 771 and 771-1,
so for a channel like that, I hack my channel change script to
automatically add a channel-up when it detects that that is the
channel I am changing to.

John