OK, Engineering Types: Explain This Again

[Scott Fybush]

Laurence Glavin wrote:

> As I said, I deleted all the channels from memory.  OK, I guess now I'll
> have to re-scan as if I had just installed the box and see what happens.
> How about a year after 6/12...will DTVs jusr tell everybody we're not your father's channel.

I probably owe you a longer answer, now that Time Warner has graciously 
restored my internet service that's been out (along with most of the 
rest of western NY) for much of the day):

Channel mapping is here to stay, for a variety of very good reasons that 
start with competitive balance: if WHDH gets to keep "channel 7," while 
WBZ becomes "channel 30" and WCVB becomes "channel 20," you've upset a 
competitive balance that's more than half a century old - and lost a lot 
of the support that broadcasters have brought to the table on the DTV 
conversion.

In any event, to call WCVB-DT "channel 20" is meaningless. Unless you 
already know that UHF channel 20 was traditionally mapped to 508-514 
MHz, and that VHF channel 5 was traditionally mapped to 76-82 MHz, you 
(being an average viewer) would have no reason to know or care that your 
digital TV box now goes to 508-514 MHz when you punch in "channel 5" - 
any more than you already know, if you're a cable subscriber, that your 
digital cable box is probably going to a QAM channel in the 750 MHz 
range when you punch in "5" on Comcast cable, or that your DirecTV box 
is tuning in a 12 GHz carrier when you punch in "5."

"5" equals WCVB equals ABC, and what goes on inside the box doesn't 
matter - and shouldn't!

In general, once you've scanned your local DTV channels, you don't need 
to go back and do it again, UNLESS:

A) Stations change their mapping, which is happening in earnest right 
now, as we work toward the June 12 deadline. Once that's over, though, 
we're pretty much done.

or

B) You delete all your mapped channels, in which case your box doesn't 
know what's supposed to be where until you remap.

My basic advice still stands: rescan and you should be fine. (And mark 
your calendar to rescan once more on June 13, after WHDH and WMUR go 
back to their original RF channels.)

s