By Vicki W. Kipp
Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) Chapter 24 Newsletter
January 1, 2009
Have you ever wondered where Charter is modulating your broadcast analog and DTV channels within their signal?
If so, you may find the HD Home Run Channel List tool provided by SiliconDust USA, inc. useful. The Channel Lineup includes broadcast, community access, music, and typical basic cable channels.
You can get a listing from all DTV 8VSB over-the-air and unencrypted analog and DTV signals available in QAM256 through the cable provider in a given postal code of the United States or Canada. Next to the channel listing are three thumbnail “snapshots” of the video from that channel taken at different times.
How to look up the Clear QAM Lineup:
- Access Internet page http://www.SiliconDust.com/
- Click on the “Resources” tab
- Click on “TV Channels”
- Enter a zip code.
- Click the “Search” button
According to SiliconDust.com, the following broadcast channels can be tuned on Charter Cable in the Madison area as of December 2008:
| Channel | Program | Call Sign |
| 83 | 10 | WHA analog |
| 83 | 11 | WBUW analog |
| 84 | 9 | WISC analog |
| 84 | 10 | WKOW analog |
| 84 | 11 | WMSN analog |
| 85 | 8 | MyMad |
| 85 | 9 | WMTV analog |
| 85 | 11 | WPT2 |
| 87 | 4 | WisEye |
| 104 | 1 | WMSN-DT |
| 104 | 6 | WMTV-DT |
| 106 | 1 | WKOW-DT |
| 106 | 3 | WISC-DT |
| 111* | 4 | WMTV-DT2 |
| 113 | 4 | WMTV-DT2 |
| 114 | 2 | WHA-DT |
| 114 | 4 | WHA-WI Channel |
| 114 | 6 | WHA-Create |
*The Channel 111-Program 4 listing for WMTV-DT2 appears erroneous. 111-4 seems to be a Music Choice channel.
As a courtesy to their HD HomeRun tuner users, SiliconDust maintains a channel lineup server and shares that information. The tuned channel list and snapshots from each channel are updated regularly. Any channel listed in the lineup has been tuned by an HD HomeRun unit in within the past four days.
SiliconDust receives the channel lineup information from HD HomeRun product users. If enabled, the HD HomeRun will connect to the SiliconDust lineup server whenever a channel scan is conducted to identify and provide snapshots from the channels tuned. The HD HomeRun product will scan channels when it is idle. HDHomeRun users benefit from being connected to the SiliconDust channel lineup server because their tuner then automatically links the tuned channels to the program guide data for those channels.
Channel information submitted does not include any data about which channels are watched. Tuning information is submitted as a hash, a mathematical function which converts a large, varied sample of data into a single condensed data unit which is useful for making comparisons.
Silicon Dust USA, Inc sells several tuning products including the HD HomeRun, the DBV HomeRun, and network cards for TiVo Series 1.
The HD HomeRun networked box contains two digital tuners that decode ATSC, 64-QAM, and 256-QAM. It works with applications such as Windows Media Center, Elgato EyeTV DVR for Mac, MythTV DVR for Linux, TS-Reader MPEG-2 transport stream analyzer (Figure 1, on page 5), VLC multiplayform media viewer, and DVRs for Window such as SnapStream BeyondTV, SageTV, MediaPortal, and GB-PVR.
Sources: SiliconDust.com; TS Reader software tsreader.com/legacy; Wikipedia definitions of hash and clear QAM.
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