I just bought my Sony-Bravia television in March and cannot get all of my local channels. I do have Dish Network and all the channels come in fine, but when it storms and Dish Network is down, I switch to local television stations to watch. My paperworks shows that I do not have to have a converter box, however, when I autoscanned my new TV I could not receive my locals - so I purchased a converter box. Even with the converter box I can only pickup one local out of the 8 that are available here in Arkansas.
Can anyone help?
Do you have an antenna hooked up? You'll need one hooked to your converter box because the digital signal is so much more difficult to tune in to. This may help:
www.antennaweb.org
If you live closer than 15 miles, rabbit ears
If you live closer than 20 miles, omnidirectional
If you live closer than 50 miles, midrange outdoor (oldschool arial w/ rotator)
Further than 80 miles, you'll need a long range with rotator, perhaps
even an amplifier to go with it. Print off what your results were on
antenna web and bring it to a RadioShack or a local antenna store and
they should be able to point you to the right antenna for your
particular location.
SOURCE: hdtv qam tuner
More often than not the problem is with the Cable co. They ALWAYS blame the tv. I have had many many problems with the signal quality coming from that co. Here is the most likley cause. The cable signal is probably very Weak. This can be caused by a weak signal coming from the cabls co. or a bad cable inside your home. The age of the cable can effect the signal quality.Note: The cable co is only required to provide a Digital signal. Some companies allow free HD signals and some charge for that signal. The correct approach to this issue is to get with the Cox and ask the if they provide free Hd channels without a box. If they say no then you will have to get a HD cable box to watch HD programs. Themn if they say yes then you need to ask them to send out a tech and test the signal coming from the Head End all the way to your set. If the signal flucuates then you will get inconsistant scanning results.
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I have an outside antenna that I use to watch my local stations and it is connected to my TV.
If my Dish Network is not working I go through my input button to TV to watch my local channels. This is how I watched them when I had my old 32 inch Sony when Dish was out due to storms.
It was my understanding that once local television stations went digital that you would not be able to pick up those channels unless you have one of those converter boxes. That's why I decided to buy a new television because I was told that with the newer televisions they were already equipped with a tuner to receive those digital stations and that I didn't need a converter box.
When I connected my new TV and ran the autochannel scan, I receive all my DIsh Network Channels including local ones. However, when I go through my input button to watch regular TV all I get is a snowy picture.
So I went back to where I bought the TV and the salemans said I still needed to buy a converter box. So I bought one and followed the instructions to install. I went to Channel 3 and hit the channel scan button. It scanned for about 25 minutes and only found one channel out of the 8 that are available for my area.
Does living in the country make a difference?
I'm at work right now and do not have my Model number with me. I will bring it with me tomorrow. Thanks Crikett
We have the same problem about receiving local channels prior to upgrading to a new tv and dish. We were told that we would get those local channels we had before and then after we got the dish in we were informed that we couldn't get those local channels via the dish because the FCC limits the local channels and the area that those original local channels are transmitted. We received the original channels for over 30 years on a Channel Master antenna and now we can't get them because of the upgrade to digital. Now we have local channels from another area of our state that we don't even frequent. Good luck getting this solved. Just another way for the Government to control our lives.
First- Give me your Model number. If your set does not have an ATSC tuner in it then it will not receive the digital stations without a converter box with over the air stations. So post your Make and Model number for me.
What are you using for recepton for your local channels?
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