A sorted channels setup with a LG 42LB671V TV and a USALS motorized satellite dish

My LG 42LV671V TV is capable of receiving multiple satellites in a USALS motorized satellite setup. However, there are bugs and deficits in LG’s firmware and the correct order of steps to perform to get a proper channel list is not trivial.

Here’s what works for me:

  1. Ideally use a separate, USALS-capable cheapo satellite receiver first to verify your dish setup, ie. the detail adjustments, as it’s easier than with the TV itself.
  2. Make sure you have a recent firmware on your TV. I used the current 05.05.35 successfully.
  3. Add the satellites you’re interested in, eg. Astra 19.2°E, Astra 23.5°E and Hotbird 13.0°E.
  4. Verify the TV’s transponder list behind each satellite against the listings eg. on KingOfSat as the LG has duplicate and partially wrong transponder settings! Yes, this is tedious work but it needs to be done once.
  5. Add an extra satellite close by that you’re not really interested in, eg. 16.0°E. In the satellite settings, go to USALS settings and set your longitude and latitude (eg. for Frankfurt, Germany I use longitude 8.5°E, latitude 50.1°N) and choose “Start”. USALS settings are global, yet for some reason LG chose to make them accessible from a satellite’s settings menu only. Because editing satellite settings makes you lose all previously scanned channels on that satellite and we need to edit one later to reenter the USALS settings, we added this extra satellite.
  6. Scan for channels. Make sure you select a “full search”, not an “Astra 19.2 search”, and “Other provider”, not “Astra”. Network scanning of the satellites is fine. The scan can take more than an hour.
  7. Copy the channel list from the TV to an USB stick.
  8. Copy the unsorted channel list from the USB stick to your PC and keep a copy around for later reuse.
  9. Download/Create ChanSort reference lists for TV and Radio. See the ChanSort Wiki. These will save you a lot of time the next time you have to scan for new/changed channels.
  10. Start ChanSort, open the unsorted channel list and apply the template list for TV, then the one for Radio.
  11. Check channels present multiple times with the same name, eg. “Discovery”, to make sure you got the right one in the sorted list.
  12. Mark all unsorted channels and choose to both hide and skip them.
  13. Save the sorted channel list, choosing to delete unsorted channels.
  14. Copy the sorted channel list from your PC to the USB stick.
  15. Copy the sorted channel list from the USB stick to the 42LB671V TV.
  16. After restart, go to satellite settings and edit the extra satellite, ie. 16.0°E. Go to motor settings and reenter the latitude/longitude settings that got lost because the buggy LG firmware didn’t export them and choose “Start”.
  17. Done!