Some TV's get cable, some do not...WHY?!?!?

Some regions/countries have different channel ferquencies/formats.
Check that its set for usa?

Since many non OTA suppliers (Dish, comcast, etc.) use some form of converter "box" along with HDMI output, I suspect the rational is no need for QAM tuner, that's done by the converter box.

Notice what some of the TV's in hotels are like. NO power switch, volume, nor any tuner, all done through the remote and the cable box. It's just a display unit.

How is the signal split between the TVs ?

Yes your correct, that was the part I was thinking about, mfg do not have to include QAM capability in the TV tuner

Our company was involved in the digital TV "evolution" on the standard committees.

OTA and cable companies were fighting each other on the encoding, and finally went seperate ways with QAM for cable and OTA with ATSC. IIRC when sets were first introduced FCC required tuners to support both standards, sounds like that is no longer the case.

Sorry state of affairs when in correct technical information is published about consumer goods,
Problem figured out,

A little late since OP has discovered the answer to his question.

Yes, the earlier model Vizio tvs had a better tuner (let's say supertuner), that was more capable than later models, or most other brand tvs.

I have one that I used at home, and now in FW bedroom. It will always pull more channels, get better reception than others. When at home, hooked to my cable provider, that Vizio would act as a decoder, allowing me to get some premium channels that I was not subscribed to.

Jerry

IN addition to all the above there are basically 3 television standards
NTSC: The old Analog TV from last century.. Most all TV's can process this.
ATSC: The new Didital broadcast standard mandated by Federal Rules. And all TV's sold in the USA must either be capable of reception of ATSC or Clearly labeled ANALOG ONLY.

Cable companies mostly QAM today (And yes I know what all that alphabet soup means) however there is no mandate a Television be able to decode it. Plus SOME cable companies encrypt (Thou this is not your problem)

ELEMENT TVs.. the last TV to be made in the USA were not able to decode QAM.
I do not know if Element is still making 'em or not..

But one assumes that other companies may make like TV's as well.

Also.. I did not look to see if it's addressed. but there are ways to screw up the wiring..

Some years ago. back in the days of 300ohm Flat lead instead of Coax.. Airstream trailers with more than one TV.. One would get some stations. the other would get other stations but neither would get 'em all... Well the man the antenna company sent out to figure it out was a firend of mine.

He found that electricians had wired up the TV leads Following good electrical practice.. Well there's a difference between 60 Hz and 60 Mhz He put in proper signal splitters nad low and behold everything worked. (At 60 HZ you simply splice the wires together. at 60Mhz (and above) that don't work Channel 2 is ABOUT 60MHz (actually a pair of frequencies just below 60Mhz.. TV goes up into much higher frquencies)

...and the verdict is in. Although a simple search on the Internet will tell you that ALL Vizio TV's are equipped with QAM Tuners, they are not. I spoke with a Vizio rep who confirmed that the D32h-J04 does NOT have the QAM Tuner as expected. I believe that solves this puzzle. So, those of you who walk people down the path of checking cables, boxes, spitters, etc...have them first check if the Tuner is QAM. Consider this issue done.

KMartinCPA1966 wrote:
Yes, yes, and yes... INPUT was set correctly, scanned on "Antenna" and "Cable", walked through the set up several times and had the Vizio rep on the phone with me for over 45min. I'm beginning to think it has something to do with 2018 models/tuners vs newer models/tuners. Guys, seriously, not user error here...I'm above average on technology...but can't for the life of me figure out the answer. Thought maybe a TV or Cable Guru could educate me...

my TV tuner from around early 2000's has no problem scanning, nor does a recent TV we bought. those stds were defined 20+ years ago.