Boston, MA RCN QAM cable channel lineup

IMPORTANT NOTE: Upcoming encryption of all channels

(aka: Oh, are you our customer? Sucks to be you!)

RCN has decided to eliminate all their analog channels. Removing analog channels frees up space for more digital channels: who can argue with that goal? (not me!) As this is a list of digital channels, you'd think that wouldn't affect this list.

However, they're using that as an excuse to encrypt all their digital channels (except the non-HD local broadcast networks). Faced with the complaints from customers about their QAM-ready TVs ceasing to be useful without the rental of expensive set-top-boxes, RCN says things like "By going all digital it allows us to deploy a large amount of HD channels. This wouldn't be possible if we maintained a large analog lineup." [source]. These remarks are blatant misrepresentations of the situation: going all digital does not mean that they have to encrypt all the channels.

So, anyhow, expect this list to dwindle to nothing over the next month or two. Rather than do updates as I was before, I'm going to just start crossing off the channels that have been encrypted.

I wrote some blog postings about this, too, first expressing a hope that RCN wouldn't do what they've now decided to do, expressing dismay when they did it in Chicago, and now, further dismay that they are doing it in Boston. Sigh.

If RCN wants to screw over all their customers, I guess there's really not too much I can do about it.

Update: RCN Tech support confirms that 2-22 and 83-98 are all that will be left unencrypted.

Update2: (2008-05-27: I guess this has now been completed: pretty much all channels are gone.)

Anyways, here's the list while it's still useful....

Channel list

These are all QAM256 MPEG2 channels. I tune them with mythtv via a HD3000 PCI card. Last updated 2008-04-19. Changes since 2007-10-04 version: Changes since 2007-09-10 version: Changes since 2007-08-04 version:

And now, the data. Sorted by phys_chan, serviceid. Any channum > 2000 is something I couldn't figure out.

+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+----------+------------------------------------------+---------+
| phys_chan | serviceid | frequency | channum | callsign | name                                     | xmltvid |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+----------+------------------------------------------+---------+
|        77 |         2 | 543000000 | 181     | FOODHD   | Food Network HD                          | 50747   | 
|        77 |         3 | 543000000 | 174     | TBSHD    | TBS HD                                   | 58515   | 
|        78 |         2 | 549000000 | 182     | HGTVHD   | HGTV HD                                  | 49788   | 
|        79 |         2 | 555000000 | 169     | ESPN2HD  |                                          |         | 
|        82 |         2 | 573000000 | 1       | VODDM    | Video On Demand                          | 32046   | 
|        82 |         5 | 573000000 | 93      | WGBXDT4  | WGBXDT4 (WGBX-DT4)                       | 34158   | 
|        82 |        15 | 573000000 | 172     | NGCHD    | National Geographic Channel              | 49438   | 
|        84 |         2 | 585000000 | 16      | WNEU     | WNEU                                     | 11480   | 
|        84 |         3 | 585000000 | 18      | WZMY     | WZMY-TV                                  | 11707   | 
|        84 |         4 | 585000000 | 21      | WMFP     | WMFP                                     | 12342   | 
|        84 |         5 | 585000000 | 22      | WUTF     | WUTF                                     | 11529   | 
|        84 |         6 | 585000000 | 12      | WBPX     | WBPX (Formerly WABU)                     | 11807   | 
|        84 |         7 | 585000000 | 17      | WUNI     | WUNI                                     | 12420   | 
|        84 |         8 | 585000000 | 23      | QVC      | QVC                                      | 11069   | 
|        84 |         9 | 585000000 | 24      | HSN      | Home Shopping Network                    | 10269   | 
|        84 |        10 | 585000000 | 8       | LOOR008  | Local Origination - LOOR008              | 23316   | 
|        84 |        11 | 585000000 | 19      | SHOPNBC  | ShopNBC                                  | 14948   | 
|        84 |        12 | 585000000 | 46      | BET      | Black Entertainment Television           | 10051   | 
|        84 |        13 | 585000000 | 77      | GALA     | Galavision Cable Network                 | 10222   | 
|        84 |        14 | 585000000 | 82      | RTPI     | RTP Internacional                        | 15717   | 
|        85 |         1 | 591000000 | 44      | VH1      | VH1 - Video Hits One                     | 11218   | 
|        85 |         2 | 591000000 | 62      | TCM      | Turner Classic Movies                    | 12852   | 
|        85 |         3 | 591000000 | 53      | SCIFI    | Sci-Fi Channel                           | 11097   | 
|        85 |         4 | 591000000 | 59      | HISTORY  | The History Channel                      | 14771   | 
|        85 |         5 | 591000000 | 25      | MSNBC    | MSNBC                                    | 16300   | 
|        85 |         7 | 591000000 | 50      | DISN     | Disney Channel                           | 10171   | 
|        85 |         8 | 591000000 | 66      | AMC      | AMC                                      | 10021   | 
|        85 |         9 | 591000000 | 27      | ESPN2    | ESPN2                                    | 12444   | 
|        85 |        10 | 591000000 | 32      | MTV2     | MTV2: Music Television                   | 16361   | 
|        85 |        11 | 591000000 | 55      | E        | E! Entertainment Television              | 10989   | 
|        86 |         1 | 597000000 | 64      | ANIMAL   | Animal Planet                            | 16331   | 
|        86 |         2 | 597000000 | 39      | TWC      | The Weather Channel                      | 11187   | 
|        86 |         3 | 597000000 | 67      | SPIKETV  | SPIKE TV                                 | 11163   | 
|        86 |         4 | 597000000 | 37      | CNBC     | CNBC                                     | 10139   | 
|        86 |         5 | 597000000 | 28      | ESPNEWS  | ESPNEWS                                  | 16485   | 
|        86 |         6 | 597000000 | 57      | DSC      | The Discovery Channel                    | 11150   | 
|        86 |         7 | 597000000 | 54      | COMEDY   | Comedy Central                           | 10149   | 
|        86 |         8 | 597000000 | 74      | FX       | FX Networks Inc.                         | 14321   | 
|        86 |         9 | 597000000 | 31      | FSNE     | Fox Sports New England                   | 11104   | 
|        86 |        10 | 597000000 | 38      | COURT    | Court TV                                 | 10153   | 
|        87 |         9 | 603000000 | 52      | TVLAND   | TV Land                                  | 16123   | 
|        87 |        10 | 603000000 | 73      | WE       | Women's Entertainment                    | 16409   | 
|        87 |        11 | 603000000 | 9       | WENH     | WENH -  New Hampshire Public             | 11418   | 
|        88 |         9 | 609000000 | 29      | ESPNCL   | ESPN Classic                             | 15451   | 
|        88 |        10 | 609000000 | 61      | FOOD     | Food Network                             | 12574   | 
|        88 |        11 | 609000000 | 72      | CSPAN2   | Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network 2 | 10162   | 
|        88 |        12 | 609000000 | 14      | WGBX     | WGBX                                     | 11463   | 
|        90 |         1 | 621000000 | 160     | WCVBDT   | WCVBDT                                   | 19596   | 
|        90 |         2 | 621000000 | 162     | WHDHDT   | WHDHDT                                   | 20358   | 
|        91 |         2 | 627000000 | 163     | WFXTDT   | WFXTDT                                   | 20362   | 
|        91 |         3 | 627000000 | 164     | WGBHDT2  | WGBHDT2                                  | 36037   | 
|        91 |         4 | 627000000 | 2       | WGBH     | WGBH                                     | 11460   | 
|        93 |         2 | 639000000 | 161     | WBZDT    | WBZDT                                    | 20431   | 
|        93 |        41 | 639000000 | 166     | ESPNHD   | ESPNHD                                   | 32645   | 
|        96 |         3 |  99000000 | 3       | LOOR003  | Local Origination - LOOR003              | 23311   | 
|        96 |        13 |  99000000 | 13      | LOOR013  | Local Origination - LOOR013              | 23321   | 
|        96 |        15 |  99000000 | 15      | LOOR015  | Local Origination - LOOR015              | 23323   | 
|        96 |        83 |  99000000 | 83      | LOOR083  | Local Origination - LOOR083              | 23391   | 
|       103 |         6 | 669000000 | 42      | LIFE     | Lifetime                                 | 10918   | 
|       103 |         7 | 669000000 | 30      | NESN     | New England Sports Network               | 10996   | 
|       103 |         8 | 669000000 | 56      | AETV     | A & E Network                            | 10035   | 
|       103 |         9 | 669000000 | 41      | USA      | USA Network                              | 11207   | 
|       103 |        10 | 669000000 | 40      | TBS      | Turner Broadcasting System               | 11867   | 
|       103 |        11 | 669000000 | 49      | NIK      | Nickelodeon                              | 11006   | 
|       104 |         8 | 675000000 | 71      | CSPAN    | Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network   | 10161   | 
|       104 |         9 | 675000000 | 63      | FMC      | Fox Movie Channel                        | 14988   | 
|       104 |        10 | 675000000 | 70      | FAM      | ABC Family                               | 10093   | 
|       104 |        11 | 675000000 | 60      | HGTV     | Home & Garden Television                 | 14902   | 
|       104 |        12 | 675000000 | 48      | WGNSAT   | WGN/UVTV Satellite Group                 | 17098   | 
|       105 |        10 | 681000000 | 75      | TRAV     | The Travel Channel                       | 11180   | 
|       105 |        11 | 681000000 | 36      | CMTV     | Country Music Television                 | 10138   | 
|       105 |        12 | 681000000 | 20      | WYDN     | WYDN - Ch. 48 (Boston)                   | 24915   | 
|       106 |         8 | 687000000 | 58      | TLC      | The Learning Channel                     | 11158   | 
|       106 |        15 | 687000000 | 86      | EWTN     | Eternal Word Television Network          | 10183   | 
|       107 |         2 | 693000000 | 65      | BRAVO    | Bravo                                    | 10057   | 
|       107 |         8 | 693000000 | 153     | BLOOM    | Bloomberg Television                     | 14755   | 
|       110 |         6 | 711000000 | 35      | NECN     | New England Cable News                   | 11000   | 
|       110 |         7 | 711000000 | 6       | WFXT     | WFXT                                     | 11456   | 
|       110 |         8 | 711000000 | 33      | CNN      | Cable News Network                       | 10142   | 
|       110 |         9 | 711000000 | 11      | WSBK     | WSBK                                     | 11832   | 
|       110 |        10 | 711000000 | 69      | FNC      | Fox News Channel                         | 16374   | 
|       110 |        11 | 711000000 | 26      | ESPN     | ESPN                                     | 10179   | 
|       111 |         5 | 717000000 | 170     | NESNHD   | NESNHD                                   | 35038   | 
|       113 |         2 | 729000000 | 159     | WSBKDT   | WSBKDT                                   | 32723   | 
|       113 |         3 | 729000000 | 94      | WGBXDT2  | WGBXDT2 (WGBX-DT2)                       | 34154   | 
|       113 |         4 | 729000000 | 156     | WLVIDT   | WLVIDT                                   | 32633   | 
|       113 |         5 | 729000000 | 95      | WGBXDT3  | WGBXDT3 (WGBX-DT3)                       | 34156   | 
|       115 |         2 | 741000000 | 4       | WBZ      | WBZ                                      | 11325   | 
|       115 |         7 | 741000000 | 47      | LMN      | Lifetime Movie Network                   | 18480   | 
|       115 |        10 | 741000000 | 85      | BCTC     | Boston Catholic Television Center        | 15691   | 
|       117 |         2 | 753000000 | 78      | ABCNEWS  | ABC News Now                             | 44096   | 
|       118 |         5 | 759000000 | 5       | WCVB     | WCVB                                     | 11369   | 
|       118 |         6 | 759000000 | 43      | TNT      | Turner Network TV                        | 11164   | 
|       118 |         8 | 759000000 | 34      | CNNH     | CNN Headline News                        | 10145   | 
|       118 |         9 | 759000000 | 10      | WLVI     | WLVI                                     | 11659   | 
|       118 |        10 | 759000000 | 7       | WHDH     | WHDH                                     | 11502   | 
|       118 |        11 | 759000000 | 51      | TOON     | Cartoon Network                          | 12131   | 
|       119 |        20 | 765000000 | 45      | MTV      | MTV - Music Television                   | 10986   | 
|       120 |         3 | 771000000 | 173     | TNTHD    | TNTHD                                    | 42642   | 
+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+----------+------------------------------------------+---------+

Generated via:
select transportid as phys_chan, serviceid, frequency, c.channum, c.callsign, c.name, c.xmltvid from dtv_multiplex as m join channel as c on (m.mplexid = c.mplexid) order by transportid, serviceid;

Or in channels.conf form:

LOOR083:99000000:QAM_256:0:0:83
LOOR003:99000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
LOOR013:99000000:QAM_256:0:0:13
LOOR015:99000000:QAM_256:0:0:15
FOODHD:543000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
TBSHD:543000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
HGTVHD:549000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
ESPN2HD:555000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
NGCHD:573000000:QAM_256:0:0:15
VODDM:573000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
WGBXDT4:573000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
HSN:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
WNEU:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
QVC:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
SHOPNBC:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
BET:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:12
WUTF:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
LOOR008:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
WMFP:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:4
WZMY:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
GALA:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:13
WUNI:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:7
RTPI:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:14
WBPX:585000000:QAM_256:0:0:6
ESPN2:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
AMC:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
MSNBC:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
DISN:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:7
TCM:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
SCIFI:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
E:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
MTV2:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
HISTORY:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:4
VH1:591000000:QAM_256:0:0:1
SPIKETV:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
CNBC:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:4
ESPNEWS:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
ANIMAL:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:1
FX:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
FSNE:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
TWC:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
COMEDY:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:7
DSC:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:6
COURT:597000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
TVLAND:603000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
WENH:603000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
WE:603000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
CSPAN2:609000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
FOOD:609000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
ESPNCL:609000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
WGBX:609000000:QAM_256:0:0:12
WCVBDT:621000000:QAM_256:0:0:1
WHDHDT:621000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
WGBHDT2:627000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
WGBH:627000000:QAM_256:0:0:4
WFXTDT:627000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
WBZDT:639000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
ESPNHD:639000000:QAM_256:0:0:41
NIK:669000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
LIFE:669000000:QAM_256:0:0:6
AETV:669000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
TBS:669000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
NESN:669000000:QAM_256:0:0:7
USA:669000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
HGTV:675000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
WGNSAT:675000000:QAM_256:0:0:12
FMC:675000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
FAM:675000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
CSPAN:675000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
WYDN:681000000:QAM_256:0:0:12
TRAV:681000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
CMTV:681000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
EWTN:687000000:QAM_256:0:0:15
TLC:687000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
BRAVO:693000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
BLOOM:693000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
WSBK:711000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
CNN:711000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
ESPN:711000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
WFXT:711000000:QAM_256:0:0:7
FNC:711000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
NECN:711000000:QAM_256:0:0:6
NESNHD:717000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
WGBXDT2:729000000:QAM_256:0:0:3
WGBXDT3:729000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
WLVIDT:729000000:QAM_256:0:0:4
WSBKDT:729000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
WBZ:741000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
LMN:741000000:QAM_256:0:0:7
BCTC:741000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
ABCNEWS:753000000:QAM_256:0:0:2
TNT:759000000:QAM_256:0:0:6
WCVB:759000000:QAM_256:0:0:5
WHDH:759000000:QAM_256:0:0:10
CNNH:759000000:QAM_256:0:0:8
TOON:759000000:QAM_256:0:0:11
WLVI:759000000:QAM_256:0:0:9
MTV:765000000:QAM_256:0:0:20
TNTHD:771000000:QAM_256:0:0:3


James Knight --- foom@fuhm.net