Comcast Channel Realignment - MA

I live in a suburb of Boston, more specifically Hopkinton. This morning I was browsing my EPG (electronic program guide) and I noticed several channel changes and redundant channels in the HD lineup.

These channels that are listed twice are:

WFXT (Fox) listed as 825 and newly on 806
WLVI (CW 56) listed as 856 and newly on 814
WSBK (Channel 38 - formerly UPN) listed as 838 and newly on 808

I may have these new channel numbers wrong, but you get the idea. It would make sense that these networks would be realigned since CBS is on 804, ABC is on 805, and NBC is on 807.

My question to you folks, is Comcast realigning our channels or is it just my cable going on the fritz?

If they are realigning our channels and have 3 redundant HD channels, not to mention the 2 Olympic HD speciality channels they had two months ago, this would shoot a big hole in their "not enough bandwidth" excuse for not adding more channels.

The digital guide could list the same channel twice without there really being 2 channels. It is not using more bandwidth. Why dual list the channels? That is the question. Maybe they are preparing to move them.

The digital guide could list the same channel twice without there really being 2 channels. It is not using more bandwidth. Why dual list the channels? That is the question. Maybe they are preparing to move them.

I agree. It doesn't seem like the IPG is screwing up and listing two 825s right under each other. It's two different channels.

I don't know if it's using up more bandwidth or not. I would think it would because the channel is listed twice under two different channel numbers.

Why did you say I agree? Does not sound like you agree. If they are the same channel, they do not need to be sent out twice. In the old days, when people used antennaes, and TV was analog, the number corresponded to a frequency. With digital cable, the numbers do not correspond with a specific frequency. It is up to your local cable company to assign numbers to whatever frequency they choose. The frequency for one channel may be assigned more than one number. The cable box takes you to the same frequency from both, or more of the numbers. I saw this more when I had DirecTV. Cable may do it also. It does not mean that extra bandwidth is used to duplicate the same channel. Anybody out there second what I have to say, please? Perhaps it would be more convincing coming from more than one person.