Why I hate a QAM tuner - Part Deux

So if you read my earlier posts, you would know that the QAM tuner in my new tv and I don't quite get along. However, this time I don't hate the QAM directly, I hate it for exposing what I've known, that cable companies are the sUck. That's why Suddenlink has it's name, because it's close to suck, in fact, I think they should re-image their corporate logo as sUckenlink, but that's just me.

When a QAM tuner pulls in digital tv off a cable line, it needs a certain amount of information included in the signal to tell the tuner specifics about the broadcast, most importantly its channel mapping. That is where the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) comes in to play. PSIP is an ATSC standard designation of how to include channel reference, ratings, program information, etc into a digital tv signal. Where this becomes absolutely vital in a QAM setup, is that whatever the PSIP data contains determines what channel the QAM tuner maps that broadcast to. Typically, digital broadcasts are put on channels consisting of subchannels, or major and minor channels. That's why they will show up as channels like 87-3 and 88-49 after a scan.

Now here comes the great part. The meat, the why, the overwhelming evidence of why sUckenlink and my QAM have banded together to make me cry daily. A few weeks ago, some change, somewhere (I'm not pointing fingers at you sUckenlink), caused all QAM cable channels, that were unencrypted - i.e. FREE - to be sent to channel 0.0. No, that's not a typo, nor a sly attempt at innuendo, but rather the sad fact. So instead of the 20 or so channels I had previously coming in, I now have only about 6, and all of them on channel 0. Impossible you say? Well come over to my house tomorrow night and see for yourself, I can take my remote, turn to channel 0, and then hit the channel up button several times, all while staying on channel 0, but changing the channel. I'm the new Amazing Johnathan, you will fear me.

I won't even bore you with the details of where this has taken me (talking to incompetent CSR's, calling Toshiba, calling a certificed repair center, exchanging the tv for a new model), but I will say I'm getting the shaft in this deal, making me feel like these guys. It all comes down to this, the PSIP data is to be tacked back on the signal after multiplexing, and is open for changes at this point if the cable company so desires (to add custom content, channel mappings, etc). This is where the channels of 87-4 and such are assigned. Well, now they are all being assigned to 0-0, and there is not a thing I can do about it. This also means that I can only receive 1 channel per set, and none of the subchannels. Meaning that tuning to 88-1, 88-2, or 88-3 all revert to 88-1, which reverts to 0-0, which will be whatever is on 88-1, so I have lost the ability to view all those extra channels. I have asked to speak to cable technicians that can actually help me, but they are not willing to admit it is all smoke and mirrors, they only have hamsters in wheels keeping the whole system going.

So the saga of Dave vs. QAM is still ongoing. I want to enjoy tv, and I thought the QAM would help deepen my experience, but it has only thus harmed me in ways I'll never recover from. Watching The View in HD was bad enough, but this new challenge, of wanting to get back what I once had, lots of free extra channels without a set top box (ah, there's the kicker) and drained my will to go on. I shouldn't fault the QAM tuner, but without it, I would have never been cast into Dante's 7th level as I have been recently. So I fault it, and wish it total annihilation. The only purpose it's served is to drive me ever closer to turning into Howard Beale, who you can see below.