Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Vizio VF550M + Comcast Problem (and Workaround)



The Vizio VF550M television has a weird interaction with Comcast Cable at least in the San Francisco Bay Area: replicated channels.

Upon doing a full channel scan during setup, some lowers channels get replicated to channels in the 200s. For example, channel 244-1 is identical to 44-1. The problem is that the "skip channel" feature doesn't allow you to delete these redundant channels! Careful research revealed that all of these 200+ channels get added as a results of scanning the physical channels 81 and 93. So if you do a "partial channel search" and avoid channels 81 and 93, you can work around the problem channels by not adding them in the first place. In other words, do partial channel search 3 times with these ranges: 1 - 80, 82 - 92, and 93-135.

Of course, there are some casualties. TNT, TBS and some sports channels also come in under channels 81 and 93. So I had to give them up. For me that was an acceptable loss, but if you need them, you'll have to live with the redundant 200+ channels.

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