Re: MCE with DTV & Sky

["noughtomate" <balraj_jassal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Search for Headend ID under MCE forums in AV Forums and you'll see a
hack to align MCE channel descriptions to Sky's. This doesn't fix
the numbering issue though.

Sky broadcasts over the Astra 2 satelitte so the MCE listings are
based on whatever is scanned from Astra2. This implies that channels
which are not available over the Sky service would become visible to
MCE... So more channels (provided they are Sky NDS encryption
friendly) = Good news.

However, Microsfot use specific service providers for EPG data and
there have been cases of missing channels (Filmfour did not appear
on the MCE EPG for months). This is a general issue with MCE's EPG
and is not necessarily a FireDTV related problem. You'd have the
same issues via Analog TV capture. But going back to your original
question, because MCE uses alternate EPG service provider's to Sky's
service, you should still get full sat listings. Don't take my word
for it - double check on AV Forums.

The problem lies in MCE aligning channel numbers in the order of
scanning frequency range. MCE provides a tool to shuffle the
channels or remove them totally (on Vista at least, not sure about
XP). So BBC Parlimant and BBCi are not available by default . But
shuffling with 700+ channels is a pain, especially using the MCE
interface. Many MCE die-hards have been crying out for Microsoft to
provide a more intuitive method of arranging channels.

In the forums I've mentioned, there is a tool to source XMLTV using
Bladerunner or som'ing, but I haven't tried it myself.




--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Benfield, John \(GTI EMEA\)"
<John_Benfield@...> wrote:
>
> >The biggest challenge for most users is that the EPG is not
aligned to
> >Sky. So if you want Cbeebies on 614, then you'll have to do alot
of
> >Guide browsing until you familrise yourself with the MCE version
of
> >the Guide.
>
> Do you mean that there is no guide data for the Sky channels,
other than
> when the channel also exists on DVB-T? For example do you get
guide data
> for say Sky One (which I think is only available via Sky satellite)
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