(This thread is also in the Satellite etc. Forum)

This receiver apparently forgot its off-air programming in the early part of this year. I say apparently because the client did not ask me about it until it had been happening for several months, and they fool around with the menu enough that they might have done it. But now…

The receiver is getting its satellite and digital channels very nicely. I have entered the zip code where it was asked for, and am using a three-LNB sidh and an off-air antenna for local digital TV. In the channel setup, I have checked the digital channels and specifically unchecked all of the analog channels (all of the local channels we might get off the air come in via satellite). We never want to look at the analog channels off the air because they look real bad; we have a UHf antenna, so VHF is horrid, and the UHF channels all look better off the satellite anyway.

But if you directly enter a channel number that happens to be an analog channel, MOST of the time the satellite receiver switches to the TV antenna, not to the satellite tuner. For instance, if you enter

4, 5, 11, 18, 22, 24, 30, 34, or 40, then you get the channel number and you see the lousy antenna signal. Channel up or down will take you to the satellite version of this channel because the analog channel is not in the channel list.

If you enter 2,7,9.13,28, you get the number preceded by LA, indicating that it is a satellite channel, and the signal is great. Because it is coming from the satellite.

(I didn't check above channel 40. I thought this was enough to get the idea across.)

If you use channel up and down, NONE of the analog channels appear except 25.

Analog channel 25 is its own case. It is checked in the list. But if I UNcheck it, it won't go away: it is still checked next time I look, and it shows up whether I directly enter the number or use channel up or down to go to it. It is some kind of permanent example of snow, I guess. Hughes' little joke.

Any ideas? I admit I did not unplug the unit. I just realized that might have cleared this, but it seemed too weird for that.

If I remember correctly, the channel list doesn't pertain to the analog channels...thus, you can't remove them using that method.

I would think that unplugging it and allowing it to rebuild its channel list would solve the problem.

I believe this is just how the box works. I assume by Hughes 8 you mean E86. Also you should be alittle more descriptive in what your talking about. When you set the E86 up to recieve over the air reception for some reason the box defaults to the over the air stations when directly inputting the station. I do now know of a work around for this other than turning off the over the air option, which is not a solution obviosly. If you find a way to get around this I would be interested but I would be very surprised to see any way around it.