OTA issue

[Yragha]

It really sounds like the local TV (TV1) is generating some sort of RF interference to the OTA module when it is on. Best to check the connector on the cable coming from the antenna to make sure it's not loose, or has a "twist on" connector...

To rephrase; sounds like there's plenty of signal getting to the OTA module until... you turn on the TV set. Some sort of "noise" is being generated by the set is stronger than the weaker signals coming from the antenna. This interference is over powering, or "drowning" the real signal. Most times this is due to a bad connector.

One more question, you drew a set top "rabbit" ears antenna. Is that what your parents are using, or is it an outside antenna? It's entirely possible that if it's a set of rabbit ears, the "noise" is going directly into the antenna & not the cable. If this is the case, I'd suggest moving the antenna from where it is to see if it still happens. For troubleshooting, a 50ft cable w/ ends from WalMart isn't too expensive. Get one of those & a barrel connector, put the antenna where TV2 is, see if you get all the channels w/ TV1 on, then turn on TV2 to see if they disappear like you have now...

Bad connector from ?

Thanks, I'll try this out. They originally were using the DB2, we now have a Radio Shack (local store here in Texas) amplified antenna but nothing has changed.

As I mentioned above, I would use my OTA module on the 722 and always get 100% signal with this same HDTV. The minute I switched tv's with them, ISSUES!

 

[Barry Erick]

AMplified antenna? Why? I've seen that do this problem with digital OTA. Analog could take a super amplified signal. Digital gets shot with too much amplification. Just try some other item... a wire or cheap rabit ears as a test.

 

[tempVAdish]

Bad connector from ?

Thanks, I'll try this out. They originally were using the DB2, we now have a Radio Shack (local store here in Texas) amplified antenna but nothing has changed.

As I mentioned above, I would use my OTA module on the 722 and always get 100% signal with this same HDTV. The minute I switched tv's with them, ISSUES!

Bad connector on the cable from the "amplified" antenna. If it's an amplified table top antenna, I'll bet the antenna is picking up noise from the TV.

You say that you used the same TV at your house, what type of antenna set up did you have there? Was the TV in question in the same location as the antenna on in a different room?

I'd almost bet money that if you relocate the antenna away from the TV in question, or turn down the gain on the amplifier (if there's a knob for it), this issue will go away.

I'm at work, so may not get to reply right away, but keep me posted... I've worked on antennas and radios for many years & you'll be surprised what will cause interference & poor reception

 

[Yragha]

I won't be at my parents house til Saturday. Please keep checking this thread, I would like your continued help along with all the others. This issue must get resolved. I used a DB2, and DB4 "inside" at my place with this same TV. Of course, the antenna was a good 10 ft or more away. Now, the antenna (both the DB2 and now the radio shack one) sits about 2 feet away.

The thing is, these same antennas had no issues on the old SD set.

 

[Yragha]

Cleared out the OTA module and had it rescan to 0, hooked up the antenna and picked up 9 stations. lol.

Cleared out the OTA module and had it rescan to 0, hooked up new NON AMPLIFIED ANTENNA and pick up 6 stations.

Tried moving both antennas around the room and still nothing.

What next?

My parents are at their wits end, they enjoy specifically 3 off air stations and if they can't get these via the OTA module which currently is the case they may be forced to cancel Dish. Do you think an online chat would "or" could possibly help this? I think nothing short of switching out 222k's will make them happy. They as well continue to get error code 002 on sunny days as well.

 

[DishSubLA]

Make certain that the OTA is connected to the ATSC IN and NOT the Ch. 3 OUT. If you have the OTA connected to the Ch. 3 OUT, that would explain why when TV 1 is ON it would seem to be blasting RF, and when it TV1 is OFF it may not.

Please double-check and confirm that the OTA is in the OTA IN and NOT the Ch. 3 RF OUT.

 

[Yragha]

It's connected correctly, checked that last week.

 

[Jim5506]

Have you tried a component connection from the 222k to the TV instead of HDMI?

It could be an HDMI problem.

 

[tempVAdish]

Cleared out the OTA module and had it rescan to 0, hooked up the antenna and picked up 9 stations. lol.

Cleared out the OTA module and had it rescan to 0, hooked up new NON AMPLIFIED ANTENNA and pick up 6 stations.

Tried moving both antennas around the room and still nothing.

What next?

My parents are at their wits end, they enjoy specifically 3 off air stations and if they can't get these via the OTA module which currently is the case they may be forced to cancel Dish. Do you think an online chat would "or" could possibly help this? I think nothing short of switching out 222k's will make them happy. They as well continue to get error code 002 on sunny days as well.

Ok, try this if you would. Just for troubleshooting purposes, remove the rabbit ears from the OTA module & connect to the TV antenna input. Using the TV's tuner, see if you get the channels that disappear when you turn that TV on the way it is now. Don't use any splitters or other hardware, straight to the TV. If this works and you get all the channels on that TV, it could be something in the distribution setup (splitters, diplexers, etc) that's perhaps defective & allowing the noise to get into the system... Is there any way you can post a picture of the connections & the hardware for the distribution??

Thanks.

 

[Yragha]

I will this weekend.

Thanks

 

[Yragha]

Have you tried a component connection from the 222k to the TV instead of HDMI?

It could be an HDMI problem.

Actually on the 222k HDMI volume leveling is still troublesome so they've always used Component cables because SD & HD are all the same volume while HDMI are not. Tried both, no change.

 

[KAB]

Actually on the 222k HDMI volume leveling is still troublesome so they've always used Component cables because SD & HD are all the same volume while HDMI are not. Tried both, no change.

Component, optical, HDMI, the leveling problem is the same. It is the nature of HD audio ouput vs SD. The equalizing feature just does not work as it was hoped.

 

[Yragha]

Ok, try this if you would. Just for troubleshooting purposes, remove the rabbit ears from the OTA module & connect to the TV antenna input. Using the TV's tuner, see if you get the channels that disappear when you turn that TV on the way it is now. Don't use any splitters or other hardware, straight to the TV. If this works and you get all the channels on that TV, it could be something in the distribution setup (splitters, diplexers, etc) that's perhaps defective & allowing the noise to get into the system... Is there any way you can post a picture of the connections & the hardware for the distribution??

Thanks.

Connected antenna straight to the HDTV, got the same amount of pitiful channels. Should be getting nearly 70, brought in half (36). The ones that did come in never show a signal strength beyond 75%, before the switch to the new HDTV set the old SDTV always showed in the 90's.

An interference issue?

I'm clueless.

 

[mmcl26554]

It seems your 42" TV is putting out a frequency which is interfering with your TV reception. You might be better off with a roof top antenna connected directly to your dish receiver OTA module. If all your channels are UHF (channels 14-69) than an antenna for UHF is fine, however, it any of your channels are 2-13 (remember some channels which were 2-13 may now be actually broadcasting on a UHF channel but still reporting the VHF channel) then you will need an antenna capable of receiving VHF also. Don't worry about getting an antenna for Digital or HD, you only need to know VHF and/or UHF.
M

 

[Yragha]

It seems your 42" TV is putting out a frequency which is interfering with your TV reception. You might be better off with a roof top antenna connected directly to your dish receiver OTA module. If all your channels are UHF (channels 14-69) than an antenna for UHF is fine, however, it any of your channels are 2-13 (remember some channels which were 2-13 may now be actually broadcasting on a UHF channel but still reporting the VHF channel) then you will need an antenna capable of receiving VHF also. Don't worry about getting an antenna for Digital or HD, you only need to know VHF and/or UHF.
M

Good point, BUT...

Before giving this TV away to my parents at my place this TV with a DB2 always brought in 65+ channels using the 722k, same OTA module and 99% signal strength.

Explain that one. Again, I'm befuddled. lol

 

[tempVAdish]

It seems your 42" TV is putting out a frequency which is interfering with your TV reception. You might be better off with a roof top antenna connected directly to your dish receiver OTA module. If all your channels are UHF (channels 14-69) than an antenna for UHF is fine, however, it any of your channels are 2-13 (remember some channels which were 2-13 may now be actually broadcasting on a UHF channel but still reporting the VHF channel) then you will need an antenna capable of receiving VHF also. Don't worry about getting an antenna for Digital or HD, you only need to know VHF and/or UHF.
M

Good point, BUT...

Before giving this TV away to my parents at my place this TV with a DB2 always brought in 65+ channels using the 722k, same OTA module and 99% signal strength.

Explain that one. Again, I'm befuddled. lol

I have to agree with mmcl26554, it would seem as though your TV, and not the OTA module, is the one causing the problem. The TV itself is emitting an RF noise and causing interference to the signal on your antenna. Since you're not using the same antenna you had at your house, I cannot say that it's a defect in the TV. It can still be an issue with the "amplifier" in your current antenna. There are good amplifiers, and there are bad amplifiers. The good ones are designed to amplify the signals you want, the bad ones amplify everything, including any noise from TV's, blenders, cars, and even wireless routers (it happened to me). It sounds like maybe you have one of the not so good amplifiers. Here is what I would do now; 1- Try to find your old antenna that worked before & see if it works for your parents, if it does, you're back in business; 2- like I suggested a few posts back, move the antenna as far away from that TV as you can, rooftop like mentioned above is even better, if you get further away & the signals are better you're back in business; 3- carry your TV to a repair shop & have it checked out. It's very possible that in the move to your parents' house an RF shield, or other ground, could have developed a broken solder joint causing the interference to "leak" out the TV. This will be hard to find unless it's blatantly obvious to the eyes

I think you've done good troubleshooting this and I think with all confidence, we've ruled out the OTA module. I'll keep watching for any posts, but the 3 above suggestions are all I can come up with right now (too many 12-13hr days @ work )

 

[mmcl26554]

Since the change over to digital there have been a lot of strangeness. Case in point: at my Son's home you can see the antennas of 2 of the VHF stations I wanted to get with a Rabbit ears antenna. You would thing this would be no problem, well I could get only one of them! I moved the antenna 5 feet across the room and both came in. It seems that digital is much more sensitive to multi path signals which would just cause ghosting on an analog TV, but may kill the signal on digital. The point is that although you have identified this is really strange, and it if the signal was still analog, but it's a whole new world with digital. Please try what TempVAdish suggested and I think you will get it all back.

 

[Yragha]

It's late and without re-reading my own thread, I have recently bought a non amplified cheap antenna for $10 at Walmart. It's giving us the best signal as I mentioned above around 75% but still only half the channels. I used a DB2 at my place, I used the same "model" DB2 (just different actual antenna) at my parents before and now, have tried two other amplified before this past weekend going the cheapo way.

 

[Yragha]

Did every test known to man, thanks to everyone!!! Even switched out the 222k for the 722k with no change but I really wanted the DVR.

The Geek squad (Best Buy) is coming out to replace the main board and tuner ... does this make sense to anyone with knowledge and will this more than likely fix the issue????

Thank goodness I had the 4-yr warranty.

 

[Tampa8]

Not out of the question.