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No OTA reception on VIZIO with built in tuners

post #1 of 11
1/7/11 at 6:08am
Thread Starter 
I have an 47" Vizio (model E470VL) with built in ATSC, NTSC and QAM tuners. The Vizio is only receiving input from my Panasonic DVD recorder via an HDMI cable. Thus the RF input on my Vizio is open and not connected to anything.

I am trying to set the TV up to receive OTA broadcasts, but when I set the tuner to digital and have the TV scan channels 2 - 69, the TV doesn't find anything. Do I need to attach an antenna to my RF input or is something wrong the internal setup?

A side note: my DVD recorder (also with internal tuners) is able to pick up OTA broadcasts (it labels the channels 81 - 118 including FOX, CBS, ABC and NBC) if I use the DTV source. Also the DVD recorder receives through its RF input, cable from the wall when I use the TV source (different from the DTV).

So if I can get OTA (with weird channel numbers) through my DVD recorder why can't I set up my TV to directly receive OTA?

Thanks,
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post #2 of 11
1/7/11 at 7:01am
Unless you are sitting on the transmission towers, you will need an antenna for OTA...

see a website called TVFOOL for help.

After re-reading your post, it sounds like you are picking up channels from the QAM section of your cable somehow.

You could try the cable directly to the TV and do a search and see what comes up..this will be using your QAM tuner of your TV, which is digital from the cable. OTA is different.
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post #3 of 11
1/7/11 at 7:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brazilperu View Post

...I am trying to set the TV up to receive OTA broadcasts, but when I set the tuner to digital and have the TV scan channels 2 - 69, the TV doesn't find anything. Do I need to attach an antenna to my RF input or is something wrong the internal setup?

Uh, yes.

What kind of antenna you need, depends on where you live. Enter your address at:
http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?opti...pper&Itemid=29
Post a link to the results page back in this forum. Your address will not appear on the results page.
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post #4 of 11
1/7/11 at 7:15am
Thread Starter 
Ok that make senses. I actually have an winegard antenna being delivered as we speak. I just was experimenting last night and discovered that my DVD recorder was getting something additional and different from the normal cable channels. For instance here in NC we have UNC tv (University of North Carolina). With cable you only get 1 UNC channel, with the DVD recorder I am getting 5 or 6 different UNC channels.

I suppose I could test the QAM theory by unplugging the cable from the RF in my DVD recorder and see if I still get channels 81 through 118.

Either way, I think that you have established that to get OTA broadcasts an internal tuner is not sufficient and an antenna is a must.

Thanks,
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post #5 of 11
1/7/11 at 7:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by arxaw View Post

Uh, yes.

What kind of antenna you need, depends on where you live. Enter your address at:
http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?opti...pper&Itemid=29
Post a link to the results page back in this forum. Your address will not appear on the results page.


I have done all of the antenna research through http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/location/ and I am getting one delivered today. As the VIZIO instructions aren't clear and I got something through my DVD recorder, I trying to be cheap and wanted to return the antenna.

Thanks for clearing everything up,
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post #6 of 11
1/7/11 at 8:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brazilperu View Post

For instance here in NC we have UNC tv (University of North Carolina). With cable you only get 1 UNC channel, with the DVD recorder I am getting 5 or 6 different UNC channels.

UNC-TV has three OTA channels: UNC-TV (primary channel, in HD), UNC-KD (kids channel, in SD), and UNC-EX ("Explorer Channel", in SD). All of these are also available on cable. Another SD channel appears only on Time Warner Cable: UNC-MX. (see http://www.unctv.org/whatson/viewUNCTV.html). TWC probably also provides an analog version of the main UNC-TV channel, which would make a total of five.

(Although I live in South Carolina, I can get the three OTA channels pretty well from Asheville.)

Quote:


I suppose I could test the QAM theory by unplugging the cable from the RF in my DVD recorder and see if I still get channels 81 through 118.

With those channel numbers, they must be clear-QAM channels from your cable connection. True OTA channel numbers don't run that high, only up to 69. This is for the re-mapped virtual channel numbers that you'll see in your channel list; the real OTA channel numbers, which you normally don't see, run up to only 51.
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post #7 of 11
1/7/11 at 8:16am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbell View Post

UNC-TV has three OTA channels: UNC-TV (primary channel, in HD), UNC-KD (kids channel, in SD), and UNC-EX ("Explorer Channel", in SD). All of these are also available on cable. Another SD channel appears only on Time Warner Cable: UNC-MX. (see http://www.unctv.org/whatson/viewUNCTV.html). TWC probably also provides an analog version of the main UNC-TV channel, which would make a total of five.

(Although I live in South Carolina, I can get the three OTA channels pretty well from Asheville.)



With those channel numbers, they must be clear-QAM channels from your cable connection. True OTA channel numbers don't run that high, only up to 69. This is for the re-mapped virtual channel numbers that you'll see in your channel list; the real OTA channel numbers, which you normally don't see, run up to only 51.

So a silly question in light of the QAM tuner is am I getting HD signal from Time Warner? I pay for what the call broadcast cable (channels 3 - 23 for only $10.00 per month), no cable box, and no HD fee. Yes I could call TWC and ask. Not to say I don't trust TWC to know about QAM, but I don't trust them.

I can tell when I compare FOX (cable channel 8) to FOX (QAM tuner channel 115-1) that the QAM FOX is a much clearer picture, but I haven't seen a football game yet to determine if it is HD or if it is just a cleaner image.

Any ideas if I am getting HD from Time Warner Cable through my QAM?
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post #8 of 11
1/7/11 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brazilperu View Post

Any ideas if I am getting HD from Time Warner Cable through my QAM?

You should be getting at least the local channels HD that TWC carries in clear QAM, on the Vizio. They are usually a "**-1" number, ** meaning the one or two digit number used by the local station followed by a dash or dot and the number one.
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post #9 of 11
1/7/11 at 12:16pm
Channel 3-23 are analog chnnels not digital channels. All digital channels have x-x format since and -x number is the digital sub channel channel name such as 4-1 as compared to analog channel 4 from the same broadcaster.
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post #10 of 11
1/7/11 at 6:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by brazilperu View Post

I have done all of the antenna research through http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/location/ and I am getting one delivered today. ,

That site sucks to tell you the truth. Tells you NOTHING about what you can really get in or not. tvfool.com is better.
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post #11 of 11
1/8/11 at 7:28am
With your Panasonic DVD Recorder you can also loop the RF through it. That is RF IN to DVDR and RF OUT of DVDR to your TV.
If you have a combo DVDR(with VHS) you'll want to make sure you've disabled the RF modulator. If the RF modulator is ON you'll only get channel 3 or 4 from your DVDR.
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