Need some advice...

[Jim5506]

Is the Antenna or the Cable input set as the Digital TV input.

Page 85 of the Manual PDF appears to indicate that switching between the two inputs is not automatic, and must be set in: Menu - Preferences - Digital TV input.

 

[Mastadon]

Thank you for that, but it is already set to digital antenna. I believe that I have exhausted all my options in the menu of the Zenith. I have also hooked up some "rabbit ears" style antenna to the receiver at the suggestion of the store that sold me the Winegard. They say that I should get at least a couple of channels with those. Still absolutely nothing, so I am pretty much resigned to the fact that there is a problem with the digital antenna tuner section of the Zenith. Thanks for all the help with troubleshooting this so far.

 

[charper1]

I have that antenna in question and can vouch that it works very well; not that it helps you much, but at least you know that it works flawlessly. Do you know anyone with HD OTA near you where you could ask them to test out your Zenith?

 

[Mastadon]

No, but the guy who sold me the Zenith- refurbished off Ebay- said that he will test the Digital Antenna tuner if I ship it back to him. If he can verify that is the problem, he will ship me another unit. I'm betting something was overlooked on the reassembly of the tuner.

 

[dougruss]

This may be a Silly Question.... but when you had everything hooked up,did you go into the Zenith(Receiver) Menu and see anything about a "EZ Channel Scan" ?
Did you attempt a Channel Scan at all?
If you didn't ....try it !

Check page 84 of this PDF :http://www.directv.com/learn/pdf/System_Manuals/Zenith/Zenith_DTV1080.pdf

 

[Mastadon]

Yes, I did many E-Z channel scans, many different settings. On top of that, if you press, for ex. 2-1, it would recognize it and take you into the digital antenna tuner. I appeciate all the brainstorming, but I think that this tuner is back in the mail tomorrow.

 

[VIPERS-PIT]

I would try a amp.

Also not all digital tuners are equal. the one in my TV and the one in my H10 did not get the stations I was after. When I upgraded to the H20 BOOM there they are clear as a bell!

Also my ANT is 45 feet off the ground! the higher the better, but moving it 5 feet higher can not guarantee a improved picture, best thing you can do is try as many things as possible within reason.

 

[Timsks]

Looking for some simple advice... I am currently receiving my OTA HD with the Zenith Silver Sensor indoor antenna. It works about 60-75% of the time very well. I am in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) area, and according to antennaweb I'm only 11 miles from the transmitters, putting me in the yellow" zone. The signal strength generally measures in the 80% range according to my Dish Network receiver. Right behind our house is a set of train tracks and whenever a train runs by (frequently!) it completely breaks up the reception and becomes heavily pixelized and sometmes drops the signal completely. My question is whether I should consider a better antenna and mount it outdoors which I'm sure would help solve the problem, or would it be worthwhile to try a signal-boosting amplifier first which would be much easier. And if so, what sort of amplifier might be recommended in my case? (The selection of amplifiers out there is slightly overwhelming to me!)

 

[NightHawk]

Right behind our house is a set of train tracks and whenever a train runs by (frequently!) it completely breaks up the reception and becomes heavily pixelized and sometmes drops the signal completely. My question is whether I should consider a better antenna and mount it outdoors which I'm sure would help solve the problem, or would it be worthwhile to try a signal-boosting amplifier first which would be much easier!

The amplifier is not at all likely to solve your issue. A larger higher-gain antenna might. The multipath from the moving train can only be nulled by proper positioning of a more directional beam pattern and higher antenna elevation.

 

[Mastadon]

Ok, I finally got the tuner back from Cali. Without rotating the antenna, it picked up two channels, barely. I rotated 360 degrees for the strongest channel, but it wouldn't pick up more than one third of the signal bar. At the strongest point the channel will play for about 3-5 seconds with audio, and the signal freezes and screws up often. I know I probably need an amp, but I don't want to overboost this channel. Does it sound like I can look at the strongest fringe amplifiers safely?

By the way, the digital antenna tuner was defective causing my previos problem, and the channel looks super clear for the time it is picking up!