Am I missing something when it comes to TV reception?I

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sluggermike

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Sep 30, 2009
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I have a Winegard type antenna and a Vizio digital TV.  I can't seem to get any reception when my fellow RV neighbors are getting reception over the air.  I'm beginning to wonder if I am missing some type of converter or power supply?  If my TV was an analog type then I could understand the converter box, but it is digital.  Any ideas?
 
Mike, first make sure the antenna coax is connected correctly and that your antenna amplifier is ON.

Go outside and see which direction all the other folks have their antenna pointing.  Point yours the same way.

Now go back inside and select the setup menu on your TV, select the proper input and do a channel 'SCAN'.  This should only take a few minutes and it should result in being able to select and view all the channels available in your area.  You'll have to do this each time you relocate to a different park.

If this doesn't work, you either have a bad connection somewhere or a defective component.

Without knowing the brand and model of TV that you are using, it's difficult to go into more detail.
 
Make sure you have pushed the little button on the cover plate near where your tv connects to the co-axil cable and plugins.  This activates/deactivates the antenna when you are hooked up to cable and not using your antenna.  If you don't have it set properly, you will not get reception or a lot of snow on your screen.  Then as sluggermike said, go to your tv settings and make sure you are selecting antenna versus cable for input source.  My tv then has a scan function that will pick up local channels within range of your antenna.  Once you complete these steps and turn your antenna to best reception direction, you should be in business.
 
I've had the same problem and I just didn't have the input set to OTA versus cable.  It sounds like you have everything you need (digital TV, etc.) so it should be a setting or a bad cable somewhere.  Hooking it directly to the TV would answer that question.
 
Just before our trip to Alaska this summer I decided to update the old, heavy CRT TV to a flat panel LED/LCD TV.  Did the hookups and turned it on.  Got most of the local channels available in the LA area with no problem.  Didn't turn on the amplifier or raise and point the Winegard antenna and got a beautiful picture and sound.  So, with my simple thought process I thought I had it wired.  However on the road things were different.  I couldn't get much of anything anywhere, like I said from LA to Alaska and back.  On the road I played with it a little, changing connections, new scans, etc.  No joy!  Got home and went though the setup again.  Again, beautiful picture without amp or antenna movement.

Getting ready for a local trip in the next few weeks and hope the way I have it setup here will work in the Salton Sea area, after a new scan.  It was frustrating being gone for over 2 1/2 months not being able to see the the news.  Probably didn't really miss that much, but you still want to know whats happening.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions.  I moved to a new RV camp ground in Utah.  They didn't have any cable and so I tried to get a signal over the air.  No luck.  Tomorrow I will call Vizio to see if I have a wrong setting.  I will let you know what I find out.
 
Wandering said:
I have a digital TV.  I had to add a digital tuner box because the TV tuner was analog.  My unit is a 2007.

WOW. Sometimes I'm dense, but I'm really trying to figure what is being said here.

If your TV doesn't have a digital tuner, then WHAT parts make it a digital TV?
 
The OP said it was digital.  The rest are just speculating as usual or relating their analog experiences to confuse folks  ;D
 
eeaton1 said:
The OP said it was digital.  The rest are just speculating as usual or relating their analog experiences to confuse folks  ;D

Many people confuse the terms LCD and LED TV with the term Digital TV. 

The true Digital TV has a digital tuner. native 16:9 screen aspect ratio, HD (720-1080) screen resolution and Dolby surround sound capability.

Some LCD models are simply HD monitors (with NO tuner) while many of the early ones had analog tuners.

I don't think anyone here was intentionally trying to "confuse" anyone.  I suspect they were actually trying to clear up the confusion. JMHO
 
n7qvu said:
WOW. Sometimes I'm dense, but I'm really trying to figure what is being said here.

If your TV doesn't have a digital tuner, then WHAT parts make it a digital TV?

I will make it easy for you... For oh, at least 20 years, many TV's have been "DIGITAL" but the encryption format is QAM (I know the Q is Quadature and M is modulation, not sure what the A is)  This is the digital format used on CABLE TV.

Over the air is ATSC (American Television Standards Comittee) and completly different, Requires a different decoder.  Dang few televisons are upgradable to a new digital format (You need like an Amiga 2000 with a TV tuner front end to do that, and alas, they don't make the Amiga any more). (The Amiga 2000 is a computer by the way.. One that puts the PC (Poor Computer) to shame, but alas, Commodore blew the marketing so......).

(I used to sell them)

Thus, if, like me, you have an older "Digital TV" you still need a new Digital converter to watch OVER THE AIR digital TV.


I should point out some other mis-conceptions.

LCD (or LED or Plasma)  These are almost always Digital but see above, the TV in front of me is an LCD but it is not ATSC compatable without the adapter.

Flat Screen.. Yes, The TV in front of me is also a flat screen.

NOW: If your TV is HD (Wide screen) I do not know if it is ATSC compatable or not, my LCD flat screen digital CABLE ready TV is an older NTSC format.  But I do know they were advertising HDTV's before the ATSC standard became official.
 
But I do know they were advertising HDTV's before the ATSC standard became official.

My first HDTV (three 7" CRTs, 64" rear projection, still works very well indeed) I bought in 2001, and the ATSC tuner was optional -- since Pioneer wanted $2500 for it, I passed. I later picked up a Samsung ATSC tuner set top box. Is the TV digital? Well, it has some computerization and digital ciruitry in it, so I suppose you could attach that label, but all TV signal handling is of analog signals (component for the HD), even though there is likely at least some digital circuitry involved. Several years later I picked up a cheap 17" LCD-screen TV with only an analog tuner for my desktop. Is it digital? Much of the circuitry is, but the video signal is analog (component input for HD).

So how to define digital? IMHO, the term should refer to the tuner and the type of signal it handles, but...
 
Since the Op was asking about OTA reception, HERE'S a simple description of digital vs analog TV tuners.

Just to put some more 'crap-in-the-gap', there is a lot of confusion with the terms HD and Digital, as well.  A digital tuner is definitely required to receive HD OTA, but they are two very different things.

I read JFD's explanation, but since I've misplaced my decoder ring, I have no idea what he said.
 
sluggermike said:
I have a Winegard type antenna and a Vizio digital TV.  I can't seem to get any reception when my fellow RV neighbors are getting reception over the air.  I'm beginning to wonder if I am missing some type of converter or power supply?  If my TV was an analog type then I could understand the converter box, but it is digital.  Any ideas?

Mike,

It depends on your rig but there are lots of things to check and plenty of things to go wrong.

On MY rig I have to do two things: 1) hook up a jumper in the little cubby where a satellite box might go if I have one.  2) Turn on the pre-amp, which runs on 12v, by pushing in the little black button as described upthread.

Aside from that you can and should check the security of all the cable connections and check the operation of the TV itself by connecting it to an antenna that you know works.


digital analog QAM ATSC NTSC blah blah blah

Hoom well if you modulate a digital signal well is it still digital?  Behaves muchlike any other modulated signal of similar wavelength at that point.

ATSC is a container format can be run using any number of combinations of audio and video codecs over any of a number of modulation schemes.  Typically it's run with MPEG-2 over 8vsb for broadcast television and, typically, MPEG-4 (H.264) over either 64-QAM or 256-QAM for cable.
 
Lou>>A digital tuner is definitely required to receive HD OTA

A digital tuner(since 2009) is 'also' needed to receive SD(standard def)TV OTA.

  [Just thought someone might read into this as "I don't want HD, therefore I don't need a digital tuner".]
 
n7qvu said:
Lou>>A digital tuner is definitely required to receive HD OTA

A digital tuner(since 2009) is 'also' needed to receive SD(standard def)TV OTA.

  [Just thought someone might read into this as "I don't want HD, therefore I don't need a digital tuner".]

My point exactly.... confusion abounds.

BTW - After reading Jammer's reply, I take back a statement I made in an earlier reply.  It seems there are those who delight in intentionally adding confusion. ;)
 
Just Lou said:
I read JFD's explanation, but since I've misplaced my decoder ring, I have no idea what he said.

I will make it easy Lou.

The television I have in front of me qualifies as a Digital Flat Screen LCD TV, Since it can receive digital CABLE, it's flat, and it is LCD.

It is not HD, and it can not decode ATSC.  (I use an external coverter)

That simple,,

LCD does not equal Digital over the air

Flat screen, Likewise

Digital.. Likewise in many cases.

That is all I'm saying

The only thing that means Digital Over the air ready is ATSC or Digital OTA.
 
Our TV is LCD,flat,analog tuner,and has an HDMI port to display HD.  All generalizations are wrong :)
 
My TV is not LCD, not LED, not a combination of the two, but it is HD

John, (JFD) I'm well aware of what all the acronyms mean, and how they relate.  I guess I need to post using the full editor and include a lot of them little "yeller fellers"  ;) :D ;D ::) :-\ :eek: 8) in my speech so you will know when I'm being facetious.

My previous point was that none of the extraneous crap we've all been throwing around clarifies the answer to the OP's question. 
 
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