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Weird: DIRECTV vs. Cable TV system feeds

sdwulfdawg

sdwulfdawg

I just made a really strange discovery: Of what I've seen of cable TV and DirecTV, they are running different feeds of Bravo and TV Land, as well as other channels.

For instance, the DirecTV feed of Bravo has "paid programming" while the cable TV feed is still showing regular programming until 4 a.m. west coast time. Then I noticed that while DirecTV is showing three straight hours of Gunsmoke, they are showing "Good Times," "Threes Company" and "I Love Lucy" on the cable TV feed.

I have both cable and DirecTV and noticed this discrepancy. Any ideas????????
 
The operators of various cable channels do provide specific feeds for DirecTV (and most likely for Dish, as well). Most often, the difference is in the spots inserted into programs (the cable feeds do not include all those DirecTV ads and promos, and ads for HughesNet). In some cases, DirecTV may take a channels East or West Coast feed, while a local cable system may carry the other feed. (Add or subtract three hours from the DirecTV feed and see if the schedules match.)
 
With few exceptions by default, both Direct TV and Dish carry the east coast feeds of most cable networks. I know DirecTV carries both Disney Channel east and west as well as two feeds of Nickeloden and the premeium movie channels.
 
West coast cable systems get a west coast feed on some cable channels.

Cable on a stick nationwide gets the east coast feed.
 
Sdwulfdawg did not give his location or time zone in the original post.

I have compared the on-screen DirecTV schedules for TVLand and Bravo (the channels he mentioned) and the website listings for those channels. DirecTV's schedule is the same as the two channels' Eastern Time schedules.

It appears both satellite and cable get the same shows. Most likely, Sdwulfdawg's cable system is taking the West Coast feeds.
 
He's on the San Diego radio board all the time.

C-band owners with digital gear can watch the east and west feeds.
 
...I remember back in '85 when USA Network took what used to be their national feed channel and started a West Coast feed on it while moving their East Coast timed feed to a different transponder; the cable system in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, screwed up and didn't switch over to the new East Coast transponder for about a month, causing those who tuned in for the regular prime-time feed at 7:00 to get reruns of "The Gong Show" (their 4:00 show) instead. And circa 2001, when Dish Network started carrying more than just the ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox stations for the Dallas-Ft. Worth market, they screwed up by setting aside a spot for KERA-TV/13 (the primary PBS station) but placing KDTN/2 from Denton (calling itself "KERA-2") on the channel by mistake...
 
Yes. And many hobbyists have connected DVB tuners to their old 4DTV (or other brand) of downlink decoders / tuners, and are getting all kinds of interesting unscrambled feeds.

They are keeping very quiet about what they can actually see, remembering what happened in the 1980s. And not everything out there is unscrambled - but a lot of it is. Networks, special feeds and "bouquets" of local channels being brought home by DBS companies are often in the clear, unscrambled, and viewable.

Truth be told, the DVB/C and ku band feed rigs are quite cumbersome and not consumer friendly - only the hardcore (like me) will put up with it.

www.lyngsat.com
www.4dtvrocks.com
 
East Coast Feeds

This is my biggest gripe about satellite --- being force-fed East Coast feeds. Infomercial Heaven kicks in at 11PM PT, which is torturous for west-coast-night-owls. It's worse in many west coast hotels -- they take the HBO/Showtime East Coast feeds, which is great if you are lounging @6PM. True, I timeshift almost all my programs to zap out the commercials, so the original airtime isn't that devastating, but it would sure be nice to see multiple feeds on channels other than Disney and Nickelodeon.
 
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