proliferation of u-verse message channels & blank stations

[Bic101]

I try to limit the channels in the GUIDE to the ones I most watch, and hide the others. Yet a couple of days ago, there now appears 8 channels called "U-Verse Message Channel" (4 in HD, 4 regular: 122/1122, 248/1248, etc.). Nothing is there except some blurry color photo. Very annoying since I have to go to each TV to hide them (which I did once before,yet appear again). And now another 8 channels called "What's on Multiview" are here (4 n HD, 4 regular: 123/1123, 249/1249, etc.). Again, nothing there but some info on multiviews. I could understand maybe one of each, but getting 16 useless stations is very annoying. I called AT&T,and 4 different people tried to help me, virtually none understanding the issue. I've spent one hour so far trying to figure this out,and no one seems to know anything about the proliferation of these and other ad stations. Personally, the Guide function is terrible, and not as user friendly as the one I had with satellite TV (for example, to hide station 1333, I have to scroll through all of them to get to it, whereas with Dish I had simply to type in the station number and uncheck it. Also, satellite allowed me to choose favorite stations for the Guide, whereas U-Verse has me instead to opt out -- much more labor intensive,esp. since new stations often appear that are not on my service place. You have to hide all the stations not on your plan whereas satellite only showed me the ones I pay for. Final Guide gripe: the HD stations should be next to their non-HD versions,not listed somewhere off a 1000 stations later. In this day and age of computers, you'd think the Guide would be more user friendly. Considering switching back to satellite.

[aviewer]

Bic101 - I agree that the guide/hide/favorites implementation is extremely poor.

Although I believe a favorites guide should be more "favorably" accessed than a "regular" guide I gave it a try & like to use it for perusing my channels.

Do you know it is available via the enter button?

Did you say you do not like it because you would not be aware of any new channels?

You either have to be aware of and remove any new channels or you can skip removing them if you are not aware of them.

I have not seen any good new channels for quite awhile. Maybe at&t could use the message process to alert folks when there is a new channel on their system.

I could not use the hide system, but I can live with the favorites while I look forward to needed improvements.

[Bic101]

My key complaint is the proliferation of useless channels like "UVerse Message Channel" --  "Whats On Multiview" I have 8 of each of them in my GUIDE and they do nothing. Really annoying to have to go individually to hide 16 channels that are essentially blank or ads. They periodically appear even after deleting them.

[aviewer]

Bic101 - If that is your priority try the favorites guide. Those channel will never appear there unless you put them there.

[Bic101]

But how do I get the Favorites menu to show up instead of the Guide of non-hidden stations? I don't want to have to go to Menu, Stations, etc. Is there a quick way to call up Favorites?

[aviewer · Accepted solution]

Bic101 - Yes, the ENTER button(bottom right).

If you press enter while viewing a non-favorite channel, you will get a menu where the first item is to make the channel a favorite.

If you are viewing a favorite channel the first item is to remove it.

The second item is - bring up the favorite guide. So, it is three clicks to get to the favorite guide - enter- down arrow - OK. Just be careful not to remove the channel from the favorites list. The whole usability group was on vacation that day.

[Anonymous]

They are place holders. They do not bother me, due to I do not let them interfere with my life. I see them, and scroll past them to look for what I want to see. Or just skip to the section for those channels I normally watch, or direct tune in the guide to the channel I want to watch, to see what program is on.

Sorry, but there are more important things in life to worry about, than a few place holder channels.

[oufanindallas]

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@gregzoll_1 wrote:
They are place holders. They do not bother me, due to I do not let them interfere with my life. I see them, and scroll past them to look for what I want to see. Or just skip to the section for those channels I normally watch, or direct tune in the guide to the channel I want to watch, to see what program is on.

Sorry, but there are more important things in life to worry about, than a few place holder channels.

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I agree.  New channels, no matter how useless they are never bother me.

[ndavidg]

Seriously? The viewer is expected to go channel by channel and do this? Who has time? And what the OP is saying is that ATT changes it up so you have to do this frequently. Apparently they know you'll be blocking out their shopping channels so they change it up like a spammer replaces VIAGRA with V1AGRA.