[Gelfling]

I am setting up my Replay (trying to at least) with my locals (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc) through DishNetwork. I had everything working great when my locals were coming though New York (I had an exemption because my locals were not offered by Dish). I was able to use Replay's DishNetwork National programming guide and everything was great. Then Dish began offering my true locals (Harrisburg, PA) and thus, they cancelled my New York locals and gave the the Harrisburg ones. This was a problem since those locals are on DishNetwork around channels 9012-9025 and reply does not go up that high. I tried re-downloading the program guide and have not been able to find them in either of Replay's DishNetwork National or DishNetwork Harrisburg Line up. I looked through the whole guide for them (all the channels listed in the guide anyway).


The thing is, I noticed on my second DishNetwork receiver (4900) that Dish has automatically remapped ABC, CBS, NBC, etc to their true network numbers (ie NBC is WGAL channel 8 and gets mapped to 8 on my 4900 receiver as well as being duplicated on 9017). Thus, on my DishNetwork 4900 receiver, the Replay could simply tune to channel 8 and get the station. In fact, if I download Replay's DishNetwork, Harrisburg programming guide, 8 is one of the channels listed!!! Its seems that Replay knows I get WGAL 8 and wants to tune the receiver to channel 8 to get it. That would be fine, if the Replay was on the 4900. However, my Replay is hooked up to my DishNetwork 6000 Receiver, with is a High Definition one, and that one has a rooftop antenna signal going to it in addition to the satellite signal. The UHF/VHF form the rooftop antenna gets mapped on my the DishNetwork receiver to channels 1-64. Replay seems unable to change the channel to any station under 100 on the 6000 Receiver, even if I try to change manually with the number pad.


I tried looking for the stations (the locals) in Replay's guide and could not find them. All I see is several stations in the 2-30 range, which look like my locals (ie WGAL channel 8 is one). The Replay, however, can not only not tune to channel 8, and even if it did, it would get the signal from the rooftop antenna NOT the WGAL coming though the satellite dish. I need to be able to get the stuff through the satellite. I need to be able to find where Replay is mapping those channels in the 9000 range.


Now my Replay (4504) is acting up. I did a factory reset and now I keep timing out every time I try and download a channel guide (either Dish National or Dish Harrisburg). I think I am going to return it as I suspect it may be defective. I Never had any problems with downloading before. I may get a new one and try again. Not sure.


Any advice?


-Adam (Harrisburg, PA)


PS When I say that I can not download anymore, I mean that the Replay times out during the "Getting Program Listings for Channels" step. It connects fine, but times out. The Reaply usually reaches 70-80% before the time out. To download that much takes about 2 hours. I tried BOTH the LAN and the MODEM methods of downloading. Both timed out.


UPDATE 1: I tried downloading a different Channel Guide (Comast in this case) and even that one timed out after an hour and reaching about 85% or so. I am returning this unit. Something is wrong with it as it will not hold channel guide. I Guess I need to cancel this account (luckily I did monthly service since I thought this sort of thing might happen). I may get another unit and try again.

 

[BaysideBas]

For the channel mapping problem on the 6000 you should have a better response if you post that in the Dish forum here at AVS.

 

[Gelfling]

Channel mapping on the 6000 is fine. Its the mapping of some channels on the Replay 4504 was the problem. Reguardless, I think that the combination of local channels though the Dish, OTA (over the air) antenna signals and the standard Dish 100 package when paired with the Dish 6000 receiver AND a Replay is not a good combo. Maybe I just got a bad Replay Unit. The frustration of spending an hour or two downloading a channel guide, only to have it freeze 85% of the way though, coupled with the inability to easily find my locals hidden amonst all the other Replay channels was just too much. The unit is back at Circuit City. I admit that I am really cheap. I got the 4504 for a mere 125 after rebate at Circuit City, but this amount of frustration is just not worth it. I refuse to hold for Tech Support for another 2 hours, only to have them tell me that they don't know what's going on. Perhaps I will take the plunge again in 6 months. I really did LOVE the Replay for the 2 weeks it worked.

 

[BaysideBas]

I don't understand your problem finding the locals. A couple of months ago Dish started mapping the locals to the actual OTA channel number, however, and this is an important point, the Dish receiver which usually stays on 24/7 for the replay, had to be turned off to enable it to download the new software and new channel assignments. As it stands now, my locals appear in 3 places in the Dish guide: up in the 8000s, again in the mid 200, and at their actual OTA numbers below 99. The Replay channel guide has them available in the 200s (last time I looked) and in the OTA slots. I still have some old channels setup before the OTA remapping which still access the locals in the 200 range with no problem. If there are locals which do not appear for you in the OTA slots it's possible that you have to check nearby zip codes for the proper lineup. This has happened before. Recently one of our forum denizens had to resort to a zip code some sixty miles away to get a correct lineup.