Windows 7 Media Center doesn’t always get your lineup right from the start. Channels may be assigned to the wrong number, improperly labeled channels or channels might be missing all together. What do we need to do to get our listings sorted out?
Step one is to select the right guide for your area during TV signal setup. This should be fairly straight forward though if you find that you don’t have a complete lineup of listings available in later steps you may want to choose another nearby location.
Entering the zip code of a nearby urban center might provide better results for your lineup if you find that your unable to select the proper lineup options in the later steps. Afterward complete the TV Signal Setup as usual then enter the TV Guide. You should now have a channel lineup, hopefully somewhere close to what you need in the end.
Now we’ll add any channels that are missing from the guide. Go to the TV –> Guide menu under Settings in the main menu. Here you should see an option to Add Missing Channels.
After entering this menu you’ll see options to add either Analog or Digital Channels to your lineup (provided you have the proper hardware). The steps are slightly different for each channel type but should be fairly simple.
Select the type of channel you’d like to add Channel for analog, QAM channel for ClearQAM or ATSC for antenna channels. Next Media Center will ask a series of questions about the channel you’d like to add including the name of the channel, the channel number and modulation (if applicable).
If you are unsure about QAM modulation, for example, in the United States selecting QAM256 is a fairly safe bet. If that turned out to be the incorrect choice however you can always change the modulation later through the Edit Channel menu.
Once you’ve entered your missing channels re-enter the TV guide and you’ll notice that you’re still missing the guide data for each of these channels. That’s because though you have assigned a name and number to these channels Media Center still isn’t sure which data to use for the channel.
To tell Media Center what guide data to use for this channel we need to bring up the Edit Channel menu for this channel. Press the i button on your remote or right-click the channel with your mouse. Select Edit Channel from the menu. You can also use this menu to disable any channels that appear in the guide that you don’t receive by selecting Disable Channel.
Inside the Edit Channel menu you’ll find a number of options available. The one we’re interested in is Edit Listings. This is the option that will allow us to assign the listings to be used for this particular channel. Once selected you should be presented with a large list of potential channel listings to assign to the channel.
This list should include all the channels downloaded by the Media Center guide retrieval application. As you can see above, even though I’ve selected an analog lineup I’m still given the option to select paid digital channels (even those on the opposite coast!).
Select the lineup that best represents the channel you’re currently editing. This is made slightly easier by using the “Show Preview” option and the details of the currently selected listing at the bottom. The currently selected channel will play in the background and should match up with the details listed.
Once you’ve got the right lineup selected Save your settings and return to the TV guide. You should now see the selected data imported to the guide along with a name assigned by Media Center to the channel.
Repeat these steps for each channel you need to customize and you should have your custom lineup ready for use in no time! Remember to remove any channels that you may not receive as well by selecting Disable Channel from the menu.
Spice up your TV guide even more using the My Channel Logos program and custom color logos!
