View Full Version : OTA HD and Digital Channels gone!
Got a new Mits, 52" DLP with and internal HD tuner a little over a month ago. Have been enjoying "over the air" HDTV and digital channels during that time, every once and a while a my NBC station had a glitch but overall everything was good. FFWD to last Sunday Night, "Poof” gone! None of the digital or HDTV channels that I was getting exists anymore, complicated by the fact that I panicked and made the TV scan for new channels and I lost those points I had. My question is it possible the internal tuner took a dump? Did the stations go offline (all Salt Lake City channels, I live 60 miles a way in Brigham City)? Did my antenna's UHF take a crap? Can I check the UHF on the antenna??
Any thoughts or help will be much appreciated
Norm
Start with the easy stuff. Do you still have a connection to your antenna? Did the coax come undone or get cut? Do you get any reception out of that antenna at all?
Next, is the UHF antenna amplified or do you have a pre-amp in line? If so, does it still have power? If not, check the AC connection for it. If it's just a standard UHF antenna with no amp, it didn't go bad... just a hunk of metal.
Most likely, you lost connection to the antenna with a problem in your coax. Maybe a bad end or cut. Maybe the balun (part on the antenna that connects the coax) on your antenna went bad.
If you've verified that you are getting UHF reception with that antenna, then perhaps it's a tuner issue.
I should have mentioned this at first, I did check the connections at the tv and the power at the amplifier both are good. I still get all the anologe (sp?) stations that I got before but the digitals are MIA. I am leaning towards a tunner problem. Any other thoughts? Oh yea tonight I will be checking the conection on the annena.
Norm
Paul Mohr
04-06-2005, 04:16 PM
I can think of two things that could have happened. One, somehow your tv input got changed from Over the Air reception to Cable or something like that. Check that and make sure it is still set to atenna or over the air.
If it's not that my guess would be it's a reception problem. I highly doubt all of the stations went off the air at the same time. And your atenna doesn't really have to be bad per say. You might have some sort of interference issue you didn't have before, or it may have just moved somehow. Has it been really windy out? Could be a bad cable or amplifier as well.
How is your non digital reception? The same or worse?
Digital stations don't work like regular broadcast channels. They either come in or they don't. They don't come in crappy with bad reception, they just drop out and you get nothing. And you are a fair distance away for OTA reception.
Something else to keep in mind is that most digital stations don't have any where near the power as thier anolog counter parts. While most stations are converting over, there is nothing that states how much power they need to run. So it's often much less then thier anolog one is. This is why you might get the regular channel great, but can't get the digital signal.
Paul
Paul Mohr
04-06-2005, 04:17 PM
You posted while I was typing, sorry I suggested things you already tried.
Paul
Norm,
What model TV? I'm curios about the tuner setup.
I am interested in you comment about getting digital channel all the way of nothing at all, when I had a glitch everyonce and a while in the NBC affiliate the picture would stall or cut up into parts then it would recover. Paul I will also check the cable vs. annt. setting to see if I hit a wrong button.
Again the over the air anologe channels still come in fine, which puzzels me.
Raff I have a mits. DLP 52525 I can't find anywhere a way to check the tunners settings or if it even has settings.
Thanks agian for ideas you've given and any more you might have.
Norm
Paul Mohr
04-06-2005, 06:21 PM
Digital tv is a lot like digital satilite (DSS/DishNetwork). If you have a weak signal the feed will digatize, freeze and drop out. If this is happening you either are barely getting the channel because of the distance and power of the transmitter, or your atenna is not pointing in the best direction. Also sometimes tilting the antenna can make a difference as well.
This is why I was wondering if was really windy out lately. If your mast bent a little bit it would tilt your atenna making it more critical on directionality.
If you still get all your anolog channels it is a bit more confusing. It could be that you lost just enough signal strength to lose the digital stations, but not the anolog ones.
Outside antenna, or in an attic?
The only way I know of checking signal strength is to use a meter and I doubt they are very cheap. You would also have to know what it was before in order to have something to compare it too.
You may have to have someone come out to check it. They most likely have something that will send a small signal to test your tv reciever. I don't know with it being digital though, I don't know for sure how all that works.
Good luck, let us know what you eventually find.
Paul
Norm,
Any update? Did you find any coax or antenna issues?
strangersonmyflight
04-14-2005, 12:03 AM
Fwiw, I had the same experience as you did, except with only one HD channel. On Mon, pretty much 8:00 pm on the dot, Fox ota digital went "out" in the Orange Co. area. It hasn't been up since. The analog vhf for Fox is still there. Other digital ota channels are there. Just no Fox HD channel. Checking a little further, there isn't even a blank station transmission- just zero signal where a station used to be. It's weird! I thought maybe they are just working on the tower or something- be back in a day, probably... Still dead as a doornail. I wonder whatsup?
Have had a lot of things going on lately and have not had time to research the problem, from the looks of this weekend I still probably won't get a chance. I think I am having antenna issues and I am going to upgrade the wiring and possibly the antenna. Will fill you in when I get a chance to do it. On a side note years ago I worked for a company where all the locations were hooked up thru a sattellite uplink, we always had issues in the spring and fall for a few week period due to the position of the earth and sunspot interferance, would this affect VHF and UHF?? Or even dish users?
Norm
On a side note years ago I worked for a company where all the locations were hooked up thru a sattellite uplink, we always had issues in the spring and fall for a few week period due to the position of the earth and sunspot interferance, would this affect VHF and UHF?? Or even dish users?
What you're asking about is Solar Transit. It actually occurs every March and October, and it mainly effects Sat dishes. We're past that now, but since you asked, here's a web site with a time table.
http://outageschedules.beradio.com/galaxy_4r/
