Problems After TV Change Out

Isn't there an iPhone/iPad app that will show you the direction of broadcast towers based on your current location? Seems I remember reading about one, but can't remember details. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

good job tracking it down

thanks for the feedback

Tested the second (bedroom) TV, and it works great.

Thanks again.

Jim

Thanks for letting us know you solved the problem.

Have you tested the second television yet?

Good job! I knew you would find it was simply a cabling issue. If you have an on/off switch on the controller you can verify that you have the right connection to the roof top antenna by turning the power off and the TV signal should disappear. You can also confirm that the antenna is receiving the proper power by going on the roof and disconnecting the coax from the head of the antenna. Use a volt meter to verify that you have at least 12V DC in the center wire. If you do then you have the connections correct and you will get the best reception. If you have less than 12V you need to find out why. If you have no voltage you still have something wired wrong. When you reconnect the coax, squirt just a bit of di-electric grease in there first and you will maintain a healthy connection for years to come.

To all who responded, "Thanks". I found the problem. Finally, I removed all the connections to the Winegard video controller. Then I eliminated all cables that did not have the capacity to carry a signal baed on their origin. Then I tried all cables, regardless of how they were tagged , and found that the cable marked "Satellite" was in fact the "Antenna" cable. When I plugged "Satellite" into "from TV Antenna", I immediately received 21 channels !. Why, or by whom the cables were mislabeled is a mystery. When I removed the digital converter, I should have noticed that the cables being removed were mislabeled. But, I did not. Anyway, mystery solved and another takes it place. Why the wrong labels, either from the factory or from some video add on shop used by the coach's first owner. Thanks again.

USMC46 wrote:
Just removed old Sony Tvs and had new digital TVs installed in my coach. I was picking up local TV stations here in Nappanee. I cannot get any stations now. I'm still using the Winegard Entertainment Select unit to select antenna, cable, etc. The only change to any electronics was that I removed the old converter I had installed after the switch to digital by TV stations. The TV is a Visio. Any ideas ? Do I need to add another electronic component ? When I do the scan for channels, it finds no channels. There is reception in the area on antennas. Any advice appreciated.

We need some answers to help you. You replaced at least two TV's.

Did you have a separate digital tuner for each old TV? If not both would use the same tuner with same program showing on both sets. Were the old TV's both working at this location right before the change-out?

How could you get by this long without knowing where the antenna power button for the amplifier was located? It was needed for over the air signals to watch any television.

Your problem was caused when you removed the digital tuner. Did you miss removing the second tuner? The cable input to the digital-tuner should have been connected directly to the new television. If too short the input and output cables should have been connected together.

In any case at least one of the new sets should easily get the channels picked up by the old TVs.

It is always recommended the all TV's, amplifier, are turned off when making cable connections. It is possible short out the amplifier if it was left turned on while doing the change-out work.

Use a volt-meter to check voltage at the antenna coaxial connection (around 12.0 + volts). If you have voltage there the amplifier is working. Now check the voltage found at the connection to each television after making sure the proper switch-box buttons were pushed to allow the signal to reach that TV. If you don't see 12+ volts the coaxial cables not tightly connected or routed correctly for that television.

If this doesn't help you need an expert to straighten out your mess. You are already "behind the 8-ball" when dealing with a Class A with all cables hidden behind the TV's and cable-switch-box (or behind switch-plate). One loose connection and "No joy".

You might need to rotate your antenna in the direction of the TV transmitters. You can use antenna locators such as: Locator

You may skip the first part of this post;;;;;

If you have the wall plate above I would suggest replacing it with the Sensar Pro (about 100 bucks) this is a direct replacement, comes with everything you need including instructions (one page). and peforms a ton of functions.

1: Scanner, picks up multiple stations, remembers them and displays them upon reaquest (next function) picks strongest and displays it's signal strength, You can then point the antenna toward that transmitter.. In many markets the transmitters are "Clustered" so pointing to one points to all.

2: LIST (shows all signals found, you use buttons to scroll through the list)

3: Specific channel,, Use buttons to pick channel, Top display shows strength.

3: Gain: adjustable zero to 20, 10 is unity,, BOOSTS the signal even more if needed.

4: Volume: you know that annoying sat finder that goes BEEP BEEP BEEP, well this can do it for OTA tv, useful if you can not easily see the display while pointing the batwing.

0 (yes zero) OFF: selects cable input. NOTE, display will turn off after so many seconds of no button push, this is not the same as OFF.

Works great

This next part is IMPORTANT. ****************

Sequence when I pull into a new park.

Turn on display on Sensar Pro and crank up antenna, Either let it pick a channel (Someplace I have not been before) or pick one myself (If I know the best to pick) Peak the signal by rotating the antenna,

Now go to TV,, I have two TVs and Two digital converters.. Depending on the length of the move I may do one of them different.

On the front DTV-pal converter I choose SETUP, Point antenna, and continue (this puts it in scan mode) and let it find the channels. You should know about that since you used to use a converter.

on the TV.. Well, for a short move I may not re-scan but for a long move I will (IE: Michigan to South carolina) epically since some of the stored data needs to be changed (IE: Chan 7 in SC is really on RF-channel 7 but in MI I think 7 broadcasts on 41 and RF-chan 7 is 2 on the display, PS, You do not need to know that, TV does)

So on the Dynex I go to MENU, channels, make sure I'm set to ANTENNA, (not cable) and then SCAN all channels. (I have the option of scanning both digital an analog, or digital only) I do both.

On the who knows who made it that uses the same On/off and volume codes (Same remote codes) the menu sequence is different but the process is the same.

When doing a short move (SC to SC) I use "Find New Channels" since on the TV's it does not matter.. (I always re-scan on the DTV-pal though,, They need better software). but with the TV's I only do this if it's a major move.

(Short moves here are like 17 miles.. in Mi it's 60.. but none of the channels duplicate so I can use ADD.)

There are two things that you have to make sure are set properly. The antenna/cable switch set to antenna and the Visio set to Antenna in the source menu. Then scan. And don't forget, if you don't have a signal direction finder it is a process of turn the antenna, scan, turn and scan over and over until you find the correct direction (or look where the other antennas in the campground are pointed). I have a Visio and get all of the available channels for an area. If all that you did was take the converter box off the Sony, removed the Sony, removed the converter box and screwed the coax that went into the converter box into the back of the Visio all should work just as before - only better.