Visio 37" HDTV Can not get digital channels w/RF channel inputs

The connection will depend on the stations in your area. Connect the antenna to the lowest RF (coaxial) connector labeled VHF/UHF if you want to watch only the low-power NTSC (analog) stations directly from your antenna. Use the Aux RF connector (upper-most RF connector) if you use the RF out from a digital (ATSC) to analog converter box and don't plan to watch the low-power stations in your area. (If you use the component video output of a converter box, ignore the RF connections.)

If you plan to watch the low-power stations and use a converter box, connect the antenna to the VHF/UHF connector. Connect a second coaxial cable to the To Converter RF connection and connect this to the Antenna In on the converter box. Take a third coaxial cable and connect this to the Antenna Out on the converter box and to the Aux RF cable input on the TV. Press the ANT button on the original remote to switch between the converter box set to channel 3 or 4 and the low-power stations. Remember to change channels with the converter box remote for the ATSC channels. Note: the converter box is used like a cable box with some scrambled channels.

Sony has the documentation for the KF-50WE620 on the product support page: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/televisions-projectors/kf-50we620#manuals . The link to the owner's manual is currently https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W000/W0005867M.pdf . See page 29 for the start of the antenna connections.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

What is the difference between a RF channel and a virtual channel? The RF channel is the channel that the TV station uses to broadcast its signal. Before the conversion to digital, TV stations were normally identified by their channel number, and most people knew that a particular network was on a specific TV channel. While analog broadcasting was being phased out and all TV stations were converting to digital broadcasting, it was necessary for the TV stations to continue to broadcast their analog signals on their original RF channels, and also broadcast their digital signals on a different RF channel. However, since the TV station used their broadcast channel as part of their identification, they wanted to keep using the same channel number. To allow this to happen, the new digital television broadcasting standards (ATSC) provided TV stations the ability to continue to use their original channel number and also tell the TV set to tune to the new RF broadcast channel when their virtual channel number was selected. The original channel number is called the virtual channel number, and it will be followed by a period and a second number (3.1, 7.1, etc.).
One of the benefits of converting to digital for the TV stations is that they now have the ability to transmit more than one program at the same time on the same RF channel. The number of additional channels they can broadcast is determined by the resolution of the program (SD vs. HD, text only, music only, etc.). The second number in their virtual channel number indicates that one of the additional programming sources from the same TV station is being viewed (10.2, 10.3, 10.4, etc.).
When selecting an antenna, it is important to understand the difference between the RF broadcast channel and the virtual channel. Antennas are designed to receive specific ranges of RF channels, and the antenna needs to be selected for the RF channel you wish to receive. TV stations broadcast in two broad frequency ranges, called VHF and UHF. RF channels 2 through 13 are considered VHF, and RF channels 14 through 51 are considered UHF. In order to pick up the channels, the antenna has to be designed for the correct frequency range. It is very common today to find that TV stations using virtual channels 2 through 13 are actually using RF broadcast channels in the UHF range. Although not as common, some TV stations using virtual channels 14 through 51 are actually transmitting in the VHF range. An antenna designed for only UHF channels will not work effectively for RF broadcast channels in the VHF range, and an antenna designed for only VHF channels will not work effectively for RF broadcast channels in the UHF range.

Not sure if your TV is digital or analog, but I think an analog TV does not have the ability to perform auto scan, so you may be able to manually input the channels. As a kid, my dad installed a rotary antenna, and as it rotated and TV pictures displayed on the screen, dad noted the specific spot on the rotary unit; and every time we turned the set on, we just pointed the arrow on the dial on the unit to where dad noted what the channel number was on the unit, and the antenna turned toward that direction, and the pictured appeared on the screen.

First make sure that your Input is TV. Use the Input button on the remote (to the right of 0) or on the side of the TV (lowest button). To watch OTA channels, after connecting the appropriate antenna for your location with a coaxial cable to your Antenna In port, press Menu then use the arrows to select the Setup submenu. Press Enter to access the submenu and select Installation. Then select Terrestrial and then Input Configuration. Here select Antenna as your input. Press Enter to save. Then scan for channels by returning to the Terrestrial sub menu and select Channel Program to scan all available channels.

Since digital signals are either sufficient for your tuner to interpret or give No Signal, you need to select your antenna and point it with care. Go to anntennaweb.org or tvfool.com to get information on the stations that you should be able to get in your location. Antennaweb assumes an outdoor antenna but still gives a conservative list of available stations. TVfool gives stations depending on the color code of the antenna (indoor, outdoor, amplified) and their directions. If you are sharing the antenna signal with multiple TVs, you may need an amplified splitter. (If you do have an amplifier, you may want to test removing it from the line and directly connecting the 37HL17 to the antenna. When amplifiers get damaged they can turn into signal filters which block the signal completely.)

If you have the correct antenna, check if another TV receives the stations. If so, you may have a bad tuner on the TV. (Some TVs have better tuners than others and pick up the stations even with lower signal strength.)

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells
(I use an outdoor antenna and antennaweb indicates that I should only get the stations from 10 miles away. I actually get those from 30 miles away as well. When I set up a neighbor's TVs with indoor antennas, one only gets the stations 10 miles away and the other gets the stations that are 30 miles away. The two antennas couldn't be rotated to the same direction.)

antennas are not analog or digital, just VHF, UHF and they typically connect to a RF coaxial jack on the TVs rear panel. 75ohm silver round jack. Select in your TVs menus, AIR when you want over-the-air TV stations and do a new channel scan to pick up local channels.

What box - satellite/cable/digital-to-analog converter? This tv has a digital (ATSC) tuner built in. So if you are looking for OTA channels, use antennaweb.org or tvfool.com to find out what direction to point your antenna and what antenna you need. Then connect the antenna's coax cable to your TV. Antennaweb is very conservative and assumes an outdoor antenna. tvfool.com will list several more channels and the different antennas that are needed for various distances between your location and the station transmitters.

If you are sharing one antenna between several tvs or tv and other devices, you may need an amplifier in addition to the splitter. (Unfortunately, these can get damaged by surges as well. I've lost certain channels after a lightning strike turned the amp into a filter for one part of the RF signal spectrum.)

Once you have the antenna connected and pointing in the direction of the desired station, you will need to scan for channels. If this is the first time the tv is set up, you will be prompted for menu language, the input type and then asked if you want the TV to auto-scan for channels. Otherwise, hit Menu, use the left and right arrows to get to the Channels menu option and press the + button in the center of the arrow keys. Next use the up and down arrows to set the incoming signal (if needed) - the item is labeled Cable and is a Yes/No (again press + to select item and to enter the change). Continue down to the Auto-program and let that run. You can add/remove channels from the resulting listing with the Channel Skip/Add option just below Auto-program.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

Make sure that one tv doesnt have a built in digital box and the other doesnt because if so, thats why one gets more channels than th other, otherwise, do an auto channel scan, both using the Visio and the HDTV from the same antenna output, if your still missing channles on the HDTV yo u may have a faulty RF receiver on your HDTV. I hope this Helps. Good Luck.

Ok first I can save you some money. Take your "HDTV" antenna back. There is nothing different about the antennas needed receive analog and digital signals. If you got reception without your converter box, use the same antenna with your converter box.

Next let's see if there is a problem with the box. Hook up a television with the antenna. How many stations do you get? Now hook up the same television & antenna, but this time put the converter box between the antenna & the TV. Do not turn on the box. Now how many stations do you get? If the number is different, the box is not allowing the antenna signal to pass through. That is bad. You want your signal to pass through the box so you can still pick up stations that don't broadcast digitally. Some areas of the country will not be covered by digital stations from all major broadcasters when the changeover happens in Feb.

My suspicion is either you did not have the antenna hooked up to the converter box when you searched for channels OR you are in an area that is not yet broadcasting digitally.

I hope this helps you solve your problem. Thank you for using FixYa and feel free to add more questions here by using comments.

You should be watching tv in no time. Email me and let me know how it went I would like to know if I was able to help. [email protected]

1-You didn't say what model tv you have. Is it a HDTV?
2-Are you using an over the air (roof) or set top antenna connected to the tv?
3-Are you getting the no program or weak signal message on all channels?
4-Have you tried first cycling through the source or input button to make sure you are on TV and not on an input. Sometimes if you are on an input and for example the device connected to that input is off you wil get a no signal until you turn the device first but you probably already know that.
5-When you were in the process of scanning for channels assuming you had an over the air antenna connected did you make sure and select the ota option and not cable? if you have an ota antenna and not cable you need to select ota before scanning for channels.

Now assuming you have an ota antenna and you chose ota before scanning or doing a re scan and after the scan you still get the no program or weak signal message that means there is no signal and you may be using the wrong antenna or try moving the antenna in the direction of the television tower if you know where that is or turn in another direction but unless you are using the wrong antena you should get something.

Assuming you received some channels or even if you did not, try to and add channels by hand. Heres how: first you need to know the RF frequency channel or digital channel its transmitting on you just cant input the number of the display channel you want like on a tube at least not initially but you can after you first input the rf or digital channel number first and saving it on your tv then you can just input the display channel number you are used to. Heres how to manually force the tv to enter a channel without a scan or re scan and possibly loosing other channels with a rescan.

Go here http://www.rabbitears.info/search.php and go to state search choose your state from drop down list and click search now do you see the list of stations? on the left you have the display channel (thats the number you usually entered on a regular tv) and next to that is the digital channel (thats the number you need to enter on an hdtv or dtv initially to force the tv to accept the channel because if you just enter the number your used to initially the tv wont find it) the tv should now automatically redirect you to the channel you are normally used to and any digital equivalent and any sub channels for that channel. Now save it into memory in your tv menu channel list. do this for every channel for your area if you were unable to pick up any stations during a scan.

I had a similar problem with an Insignia converter box. This is confusing but . . . I was told by an Insignia person that you can only program the channel that you have on and cannot record a different channel. My output channel is 3. My roof antenna is attached to my converter box "From Antenna" jack. Attach the converter's "To TV (RF)" jack to your VCR's "Antenna Input" jack. Attach "Antenna Output" jack to TV "Antenna Input". You will see your programs on your output channel, but if your VCR is like mine, your VCR may not recognize anything but your output channel, no matter which station is actually showing on the TV. If I want to record a show on channel 7 while I'm gone, I have to make sure the converter station is on 7 and that I choose channel 3 as my channel to record. You cannot program shows to be taped on different stations unless you physically change it on the converter box. I put my VCR on "Record" and flipped the stations from one to the next from my converter remote control and I taped exactly what was on the screen from one station to the next. You cannot tape one thing and watch another. Clear as mud??? Hopefully, not.