7/31/10 - MY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN CABLE CHANNEL TUNING
My cableco just made a single digital channel change in my Basic Cable lineup, moving digital channel 78.1 to 77.2. I discovered this ONLY by noticing my old 78-300 missing on my HDTV and doing an auto-scan in it to see if the cableco had moved it somewhere else. The TV scan did re-tune that station but it was now on 77-300 (RF77-2).
Special note: As yet, unexplained, the channel ID I saw on my VIZIO HDTV FIRST was 77-300 (RF77-2), but later, after the procedure described below, the RF number disappeared! So, pay close attention to the channel numbers as you FIRST see them on your HDTV.
So, I had to go into each of my PhilMag DVDRs to make the tuning and timer changes that entailed. I used the Manual Channel Preset menu to enter major digital 77, the main RF channel number, expecting it to pick up 77.2, the RF subchannel number shown in the HDTV display.
In the process, I discovered that both my original 2160 and 3575 acted much differently than before in digital channel tuning: they no longer immediately picked up all tunable subchannels after Adding the new major channel # in the Manual Channel Preset menu.
After I Deleted the old digital 78 and Added 77 in the Manual Channel Preset menu, the CH+/- button just surfed to 77.1 subchannel and showed "Scrambled" then went on to 79.1. It didn't show the new 77.2. WTH!?
So, I direct-entered 77.2 on the DVDR and it tuned that new channel. Then, surprisingly, the CH+/- button WOULD surf to 77.2 in normal sequence, except this time I saw it bounce from 77.1 to 77.2. Apparently, this "taught" the tuner that only 77.2 was tunable, not 77.1, since, on next surf thru, it didn't bounce or even SHOW the previous Scrambled 77.1. WTH AGAIN... normally it takes an Auto Channel Preset to clear out the "Scrambled" channels!?
I also noticed my 2160 didn't have another new channel, 66.4, so I again added digital 66 in my Manual Preset menu, and it did the same thing... could NOT surf to 66.4 until I direct-entered 66.4 in the DVDR, then surfed again... and, again, the same story: the previous Scrambled 66.1 was gone! WTH AGAIN AGAIN!?
AND, there's more... when I entered all channels directly and went to surf, I lost digital tuning altogether at first, seeing only the typical blue screen. I had to toggle to analog and back to digital tuner to get digital tuning back. It seemed to lose tuning when I got to the newly changed channels, but it became OK again after toggling after each tuning loss. SO... the tuner might also be learning the rest of the cableco game and getting reoriented to the new channel layout? #$%@!
I'm beginning to think this digital cable channel tuning thing is like a relational database with a bunch of "IF" functions! 
I believe the cablecos are still playing "hide-the-channel" games that force us into their nether world of evil and engage in mortal combat until we drive them out of our home TV kingdom and take Prince Chizeledabs or Princess Hoochiemamma for our lifelong partner and watch TV again in peace on our newly installed antenna!
So, if you're on cable and have digital channels your HDTV can tune but your PhilMag units can't, I recommend these steps before trying any other Tuning procedure:
- Find and write down the cable and RF channel numbers your HDTV tunes, like my 77-300 (RF77-2).
The RF number can be the same or diff. and it makes a diff. in procedure, so make sure you note the "RF" channel number in your HDTV's display upon first tuning a digital channel cuz that may change on later surfing thru that channel!
- Open the Channel > Manual Channel Preset menu.
If the main channel numbers (TV and RF) seen in Step 1 above are the same, enter that main channel number on the keypad and, when allowed (takes a few sec for tuning), press arrow then OK keys to put checkmark in the "Add" box. Then press Back/Return repeatedly to get out of menus and back on live TV. Surf thru the just-added channel(s) and see if they're tunable.
If not tunable and the RF number was different, use same Manual Preset procedure and enter THAT number, back out of menus and surf to see results.
- If no joy, direct enter the RF channel plus subchannel numbers in sequence (77.1, 77.2, 77.3 to at least 77.10) until you see a tunable channel.
This is a last-gasp effort to "teach" the tuner that a tunable channel is there (hopefully).
- If no joy again, check your list of channel numbers and see if any indicate a duplicate analog/digital or digital/digital channel.
Examples are ABC on analog 6 AND on DTV 75, or two DTV duplicates like DTV 3 (CH 3) and DTV 3 (CH 72). Those indicate a possible tuning interference that prevents either from being tuned with CH+/- surfing. The remedy for that is described here.
- If you lose digital tuning altogether while surfing your new channel lineup, press and hold the DTV/TV button to toggle to the analog tuner and back to the digital tuner, which should restore digital channel tuning.
If your tuner acts like mine, it should automatically add that channel to button memory, and maybe even delete Scrambled subchannels, as mine did.
I have yet to do an Auto Channel Preset to see if that does its usual job of "cleaning up" the channel memory for CH+/- button surfing.
