I recently bought the Magnavox 2160 and can't seem to hold stations as well as my TV tuner. Does this mean I have a defective tuner in the 2160?

I even switched out my antenna with a larger one. I'm using the Antenna Craft DB8 with a Channel Master 7777. My strongest stations are around 50 on my meter and they come in real good on my TV tuner. But when I switch to the 2160 to record something, they start to come and go, or whatever you call it.

Any ideas?

nothing to add?...move on

It's a very common problem with Funai-made clear-QAM tuners and there's not much you can do about it, short of returning it 'till you find one that works.

The only thing I can think of that might *work* is toggling back and forth quickly between the analog/digital button on the remote, to get all the QAM channels back. But that's about it - if you even call that any kind of acceptable solution. You can try more amping to the signal, or less through attenuation, but there's no guarantee that'll work, either.

It looks like the OP is OTA and not QAM but he brings up a point that I haven't really read about. That is how good the Maggy(or Philips) is for DXing. It sounds more like a low signal strength issue than anything else.

Tomwom, how is your antenna cable hooked up to your devices. I would think you'd want your cable that comes from your antenna to first go to your Maggys RF IN and then take the RF out to feed your TV. If this is how you have yours setup and your TV is holding on to the signal fine but not your Maggy then I'd suspect either a problem with your tuner or just a less sensitive design on the Maggy tuner. Maybe someone else with a 2160 in a low signal strength area can comment on the DXing ability of the 2160. On CECBs DXing ability does seem to vary greatly between different brands, I would think DVDRs could be the same.

OK - sorry - I didn't see the OTA part. I'm just so used to seeing that problem mentioned here, that everytime I see a Funai recorder and "channels dropped" mentioned in the same post, I immediately assume and don't read any closer.

50% is low - very low, actually - and many tuners won't hang onto signals that low. Either that or it's faulty - but it really just sounds like the signal strength.

I know that the Maggy H2080 I tried didn't have as sensitive a tuner as the Philips 3575H I tried, but I attributed that to the 3575H's being slighly internally amped, because they were exactly the same in every other respect (and the 3576H sounds like it kept the same tuner, and then the H2160 is basically just a clone of that).

The 3575H was about equal in sensitivity to my Samsung DTB-H260F, so I doubt if it has anything newer than a 5th generation chip in it. The new CECB's all have 6th. Probably any TV you've bought in the last year does, too.

It looks like the OP is OTA and not QAM but he brings up a point that I haven't really read about. That is how good the Maggy(or Philips) is for DXing. It sounds more like a low signal strength issue than anything else.

Tomwom, how is your antenna cable hooked up to your devices. I would think you'd want your cable that comes from your antenna to first go to your Maggys RF IN and then take the RF out to feed your TV. If this is how you have yours setup and your TV is holding on to the signal fine but not your Maggy then I'd suspect either a problem with your tuner or just a less sensitive design on the Maggy tuner. Maybe someone else with a 2160 in a low signal strength area can comment on the DXing ability of the 2160. On CECBs DXing ability does seem to vary greatly between different brands, I would think DVDRs could be the same.

This is just the way I have my cable hooked up. I saw it mentioned here in another thread that when they do the switch in February that they will boost power on digital broadcasts. If this is true, then I might have a chance that this will work out. I hope so, because I really like the 2160.

am looking to buy the 2160 soon, but I have a SA 8300HD, which Im hoping will help me sort out the channel dropping issues.. Will one of those $40 coupon DTV converter boxes (or cable DVRs) help ppl like me and tomwom from losing channels on 2160.. ?

am looking to buy the 2160 soon, but I have a SA 8300HD, which Im hoping will help me sort out the channel dropping issues.. Will one of those $40 coupon DTV converter boxes (or cable DVRs) help ppl like me and tomwom from losing channels on 2160.. ?

The coupon boxes are OverTheAir tuners that get digital signals and convert them into a form an older television device can use.

The 2160 has its own tuner.

If I'm reading you right, the SA 8300HD is a cable box and DVR used by some cable companies.

You're talking three entirely different things here.

Since the Maggie has its own tuner, it doesn't need help from an external tuner, not OTA, and not cable. (Unless your digital cable channels are scrambled, in which case it'd need a cable box to record them.)

The coupon boxes will do you NO GOOD on cable. They're meant for OTA only.

I've had an experience with the Maggie's twin, the similar Philips unit, where on cable and OTA it was getting "do not dub" flags from the TV stations, meaning you couldn't make a DVD off a hard drive recording so flagged.

Running a coupon box's audio and video lines into the Philips recorder and using the A/V inputs instead of the built-in tuner, I got NO flags.

This is a case where a coupon box would benefit a recorder like the 2160, but I suppose if the 2160's tuner is having trouble with OTA reception, the box might help with that too.

Of course, in such a case you wouldn't need a 2160. Even an older hard drive recorder with an analog tuner and A/V inputs would work with such a coupon box, and you'd still be getting digital OTAs.

The coupon boxes are OverTheAir tuners that get digital signals and convert them into a form an older television device can use.

The 2160 has its own tuner.

If I'm reading you right, the SA 8300HD is a cable box and DVR used by some cable companies.

You're talking three entirely different things here.

Since the Maggie has its own tuner, it doesn't need help from an external tuner, not OTA, and not cable. (Unless your digital cable channels are scrambled, in which case it'd need a cable box to record them.)

The coupon boxes will do you NO GOOD on cable. They're meant for OTA only.

I've had an experience with the Maggie's twin, the similar Philips unit, where on cable and OTA it was getting "do not dub" flags from the TV stations, meaning you couldn't make a DVD off a hard drive recording so flagged.

Running a coupon box's audio and video lines into the Philips recorder and using the A/V inputs instead of the built-in tuner, I got NO flags.

This is a case where a coupon box would benefit a recorder like the 2160, but I suppose if the 2160's tuner is having trouble with OTA reception, the box might help with that too.

Of course, in such a case you wouldn't need a 2160. Even an older hard drive recorder with an analog tuner and A/V inputs would work with such a coupon box, and you'd still be getting digital OTAs.

So what you're saying is that you can bypass the tuner on the 2160 with a coupon tuner, via video lines?

So what you're saying is that you can bypass the tuner on the 2160 with a coupon tuner, via video lines?Yes, of course. You can bypass the tuner with any alternative video source fed into the line inputs, whether it be an STB for cable, sat or FIOS or a CECB for receiving digital OTA (the best in terms of PQ is the CM-7000). Any of these devices will function as an external tuner and therefore have the possibility of being better/worse than the 2160's tuner. The caveat is that you have no control over any external tuner via the 2160 because it does not come with an IR blaster.

I would suggest the Zinwell ZAT-970A, which lets you set 8 event timers that will change the channels on the box for recording.

Thanks fellows.