Which Set Top Tuner Now???

OK Mike, thanks. I'll try again tomorrow, I may have one of the cables switched. The names and colors of the different ports are not the same on both units. There are 5 composite jacks, 3 component jacks, an HDMI port, and the two RF terminals. I have a Vizio D40f-G9 TV that is only about 4 years old. But one problem is that the manual and the TV do not have the same jack layout, so I have had to extrapolate to get things going, and like I said, there was a lot of probability of not having the right cable going to the right place. Thanks for the help...

Benny - W5TYZ
 
HI Rabbit....
I received my new Mediasonic 150 STB from Amazon about an hour ago...Sunday delivery. That thing is smooth as glass. I already picked up 4 more channels that I was not able to get with my Smart TVwhich is a total of 49 now with several dup's and 3 times as many as I scanned with my HD Silicon Dust STB, at 1/3rd the price and it has a built-in DVR.

Glad to hear that it picks up more channels.

I just found out that all channels are showing up as B&W, no color at all. What happened. This is on my just installed Mediasonic -150. What did I not get connected?

Benny - W5TYZ

But sorry to hear that you are having problems. I bought the HW150 because it has a built-in power supply. Tyler the Antenna Man uses the HW130 which is less expensive but has a separate wall wart power supply.



see time stamp 3:55 in video
 
Rabbit, Do you have to connect all of the ports on the back of the 150? The QUICK START-UP,
Guide labels all of the connecting cords as "Optional" so...Which ones do you not have to use?
 
OK.....Gother going...I had the pb/pr cables switched...I'm still wondering if you need 100% cabling. I would think the HDMI cable would carry everything you need, but all it does here is change the screen resolution...

Benny - W5TYZ
 
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Rabbit, Do you have to connect all of the ports on the back of the 150? The QUICK START-UP,
Guide labels all of the connecting cords as "Optional" so...Which ones do you not have to use?
No, you do not have to connect all ports to your TV.

What is the brand and model number of the TV? Maybe I can find the manual for it on line.

There are three ways you can connect the HW150 to your TV. Which way you use depends upon what input connections your TV has.

GOOD: Composite
Uses Video out (yellow) and L and R audio

BETTER: Component
Uses the 3 connectors on the top row Y/Pb/Pr for video and L and R audio

BEST Quality: HDMI for video and audio

Mediasonic HW-150 RearPanel.jpg
Mediasonic HW-150 QSG Conections2.jpg



73,
W4...
ex-W2...
ex-DL4..
 
Last edited:
No, you do not have to connect all ports to your TV.

What is the brand and model number of the TV? Maybe I can find the manual for it on line.

There are three ways you can connect the HW150 to your TV. Which way you use depends upon what input connections your TV has.

GOOD: Composite
Uses Video out (yellow) and L and R audio

BETTER: Component
Uses the 3 connectors on the top row Y/Pb/Pr for video and L and R audio

BEST Quality: HDMI for video and audio

View attachment 149886
Rabbit...My TV is a VIZIO D40f-G9
 
I downloaded the manual. I think you might have the tv format set to pal. If you do picture would be black and white. It needs set to ntsc. Get in your menu, press picture, scroll down to tv format and set the tv format.
 
OK Rabbit...Everything is where it's supposed, Picture is good on all 45 channels now. Thanks for the help.....

Benny - W5TYZ
Thanks for the update, Benny. Glad to hear it's working for you.

I was almost ready to say if HDMI doesn't work, use component. Fortunately, the HW150 has component OUT and your TV has component IN. The HW130 doesn't have component OUT.

73,
rabbit
 
Your TV connections:

View attachment 149906
View attachment 149907

The HW130 doesn't have component output like the HW150:

View attachment 149908
The above terminal layout is what was giving me problems...Even though that is listed as my TV, it is not. I have 2 HDMI ports, and the rest of the ports are not the same...Anyway I left the HDMI cable attached and removed all the other cables and everything is working like it should. I don't know why the rear panel layout is not the same as what I have. Also the HomeWorkz manual leaves out some of the procedures for connecting. Live and learn.. Thanks again.

Benny - W5TYZ
 
Hello, Benny; welcome to the forum.

Your rabbitears.info signal report:
RabbitEars.Info

I suggest you try the Mediasonic HW-150. It has a tuner that is at least as sensitive as my SONY TV and is able to add a channel after scan.

View attachment 149803

View attachment 149804

It also has a signal quality scale (SNR/MER) that shows the Digital Cliff (SNR 15 dB) at 39-40% which is helpful with antenna experiments.

View attachment 149805

View attachment 149806
Hi Rabbit...
In one of your attachments above it shows the S-N Ratio%..I have not been able to bring up that screen. I can open a screen that looks like it but there is no S-Noise R%
What do I need to do?

Benny - W5TYZ
 
Hi Rabbit...
In one of your attachments above it shows the S-N Ratio%..I have not been able to bring up that screen. I can open a screen that looks like it but there is no S-Noise R%
What do I need to do?

Benny - W5TY
Yeah, the manual isn't very clear about that. If the tuner has already picked up that channel, all you have to do is press the remote control INFO button twice. I edited that from the manual:

Mediasonic HW150 INFO Button_1.jpg


If the tuner has not yet picked up that channel in a scan, you have to use the Manual Search screen in the menu. If the tuner picks up that channel in a Manual Search, the Signal Quality Bar will also show in the Manual Search window.
 
Yeah, the manual isn't very clear about that. If the tuner has already picked up that channel, all you have to do is press the remote control INFO button twice. I edited that from the manual:

View attachment 150011

If the tuner has not yet picked up that channel in a scan, you have to use the Manual Search screen in the menu. If the tuner picks up that channel in a Manual Search, the Signal Quality Bar will also show in the Manual Search window.
OK....I DON'T HAVE ANY TROUBLE FINDING THE "QUALITY BAR". ONE OF YOUR ATTACHMENTS, THE COLORED ATTACHMENT ABOVE SHOWS S-N RATIO, WHICH SHOULD SHOW SOMETHING 50% OR 60%. Sorry for the caps... I'm not screaming, I just didn't know I had hit the caps lock bar. Look up in one of your first posts to me about the Mediasonic 150, and the screenshot is there...
Benny - W5TYZ
 
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