TV's not working

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Nick Pasich

Active member
Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Posts
25
I just bought a 2016 Dutchman Denali 335RLK. It has a main TV in the back above the fireplace. It has a TV in the bedroom and it has a TV outside.  We just took our first trip with this rig. The TV in the main part of the rig worked fine.  However, neither of the other 2 TVs could/would receive a signal.  On both TV's i scrolled through the sources and check each one. I thought that the first choice which is TV would be the one to go with. No signal. 

In the storage area on the rig, there are 2 coax inputs. one is labeled satellite.  The campground cable I screwed into the other input which gave me a signal on the main TV. 

The TV in the bedroom has 2 coax connection, which I assume are cable and satellite.  Same with the outside TV.  Yet, no matter what I screw into , I don't get a signal.  I spoke with another RV owner and he said that theres a switch in his control panel for selecting TV source.  My panel doesn't have that.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Help!!

P.S.  On this rig and other rigs that I've owned, nea the bedroom TV where the crank up Over-the-air antenna is mounted, theres a push button and I don't know what that is for.
 
The pushbutton switches between the roof antenna and cable input as the feed to the TVs. Apparently its in the cable position, since one tv works ok. Typically the roof antenna and the cable coax come together at that wall  plate (which is basically just a A/B switch) and it selects which of the two signal sources go onward to the tvs.

Are you sure you don't have a switch box somewhere that selects which signal source goes to which tv?  Often there is a "box of many buttons" that allows one tv to be receiving signal from (for example) a DVD player while another receives cable or satellite. Most rigs that have multiple sources (DVD, antenna, cable, satellite) have such a video source box.
 
Nick Pasich said:
The TV in the main part of the rig worked fine.  However, neither of the other 2 TVs could/would receive a signal . . . The campground cable I screwed into the other input which gave me a signal on the main TV. 

The campground cable may be using digital cable, and those 2 TVs that aren't receiving signals may not have QAM digital tuners.

Even the newest TV may not be equipped with a QAM tuner.
 
As Zulu said...  Digital cable may not work.
Since 200x all TV's sold in the use must be able to receive ATSC (over the air digital) but QAM (Cable Digital) (Oh by the way I know what all that stands for)  Of course back when that law went into effect NOT ONE Television was assembled in the USA. Believe it or not.. Today ELEMENT Tv's are made.. Right here in Michigan (Among other places) but.. THEY DO NOT Decode QAM. ATSC yes but not QAM.

Strange.

Now.  With 3 TV's you have one of two setups.. And this is the "Factory" version.
One is a wall plate. it has a 12 volt outlet. (useless or nearly so) a switch and LED and and Antenna connector. LED on = OVER THE AIR antenna  OFF = Cable

THe other is a Matrix Switch or "Box of many buttons"  This box normally has the buttons arranged in secitons labeled with things like MAIN TV,, VCR (or DVR) TV-2  TV-3 and AUX  (may not have all those sections)

And in each section you have "Source" buttons. ANT/SAT/CABLE/DVR(VCR)/CD/AUX (Again you may not have all and no DVR/VCR button in that section.... of course. also no DVD in that section).

Switches can get dirty.

Next part:

YOu saiod the bedroom/outside TV"s had TWO coax connections. Are they labeled? And did you mean on TV (Which is how you typed it) or On the wall (Which I Think is what you meant)

If two then one is likely for Satellite. but .. No guarantee.

Finally. If you are not the original owner.. THe prior owner may have made major changes. I did however I also left most of the original wiring intact (Factory manual still works, but with three DVR's and a host of other features.. I made a few additions).
 
Nothing sucks worse than not being able to keep a rig at my residence.  So, I do believe that the outside TV is plugged into a non-labeled coax connector, and the other connector is labeled satellite.

As far as the campground having digital cable only.  I don't think so because, when I set up at a campground, I always do a channel scan to see what all channels are available.  During this process. it shows which ones are digital and which ones aren't and I know that 'some' of the channels were not digital.

I do not see where there could be a box with all of the source selections. Also,  I would guess that the people I bought the rig from did not modify the original setup. 

I will contact Dutchman and see of they can shed any light on this problem.
 
It's fairly common to have RV tvs wired with two coax inputs to each tv, one for satellite and one for everything else (cable, antenna, DVD, etc.).  It's also fairly common for the outside tv to have a more limited set of source, or for it to simply mimic one of the other tvs (receives the same signal as chosen for the other one).  I have no idea what design Dutchman may have chosen for your trailer, but the Denali is a well-equipped model and I would expect it to have all the nice features.

Looking at the Denali brochure, it appears there is no DVD player, so they can get by with one coax for satellite and one for cable/antenna, depending on the position of the pushbutton switch on the antenna wall plate. That would mean you select one of the two inputs using the TV's own source selector. Have you determined which tv inputs have are used for each of the two coax?

Since you have one cable inlet to the RV, there must be a splitter somewhere to route the signal to the coax for each tv. Is there a cabinet or storage bay somewhere that maybe contains some cables and a splitter?
 
"I do not see where there could be a box with all of the source selections. Also,  I would guess that the people I bought the rig from did not modify the original setup."

Are you sure?  This is one of the first systems that gets messed with in an RV.  Normally there is a dedicated coax cable that goes to the main TV from the "source", see prior comments.  It has been my experience that the output to the outside and bedroom TV leave the "source" as one cable and has a splitter along the way, one side to outside TV, one side to bedroom TV.  Since these are the two TVs you are having trouble with I suspect that this cable from the source has been disconnected or messed with. We could use more info on your "panel," check behind it for any loose or disconnected cables. A schematic of the cable system from Dutchman would also help.
 
Ok, describe the area around your MAIN Television..As an example of what I mean

Ok looking at the published floor plan for that model you have an "Ent Center" opposite the couch. There appears to be a TV. and an 3 cabinets, one overhead one either side of the TV. The "Media Center" will be in one of those cabinets in all likely hook.  This page shows a couple of Digital Video Switches. NOTE yours will likely look much different (These appear to have two rows of buttons)

And you might have an older RF switch.

YOu may also have cable issues.

 
John from Detriot:  The entertainment center directly across from the TV has the 1 shelf with a door on it, Nothing inside electrical. The other 2 cubbys are empty.  To the left of the TV is a Fussion slide in deck that has a DVD player, AM/FM radio, plus Aux In , USB Port.      I do not have to turn that unit on to watch TV on the main TV. However, if I do turn it on I get the TV sound  out of the 4 speakers in that room.

Gary RV_Wizard:  The unit in the living area has a DVD player built into it.  The TV in the bedroom has a DVD player built into it.  All of the TV's have booklets that were given to me as part of the paperwork that came with the trailer.   

I may not be able to verify any of the information all of you have given to me for a few days but I will print this  conversation out and explore all of it when I can get time to visit my 5th wheel!!

 
I just bought a 2016 Dutchman Denali 335RLK. It has a main TV in the back above the fireplace. It has a TV in the bedroom and it has a TV outside.  We just took our first trip with this rig. The TV in the main part of the rig worked fine.  However, neither of the other 2 TVs could/would receive a signal.  On both TV's i scrolled through the sources and check each one. I thought that the first choice which is TV would be the one to go with. No signal. 

Bud can you share some more details. Like @John From Detroit said, the area around your primary tv and things of that nature. Just grab your phone and upload a pic.
 
Back
Top Bottom