DTB-H260F Not doing QAM Anymore?

For some reason I wasn't subscribed to this thread. Thanks for the replies everyone.


I just purchased a new Samsung 23" LCD tv. It obviously has a built in tuner, unlike my 2004 tv which needed the Samsung tuner in the title.


However, when scanning for channels, the same thing happens (which is a bit eerily familiar as they are both Samsung products--the screen is painfully familiar ). No channels are found.


If I hook it up through the cable box, I get the normal digital cable programming guide, and I have to put the tv on channel 3, but it doesn't look as good through the coax with that extra hop through the cable box.


I have checked the Baltimore Comcast listings ( http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=793124 ) and there definitely appears to be channels that I should be receiving.


So WHY won't my new TV and my OLD tuner pick up %^&*ing channels????



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Originally Posted by jorwex /forum/post/17416792


For some reason I wasn't subscribed to this thread. Thanks for the replies everyone.


I just purchased a new Samsung 23" LCD tv. It obviously has a built in tuner, unlike my 2004 tv which needed the Samsung tuner in the title.


However, when scanning for channels, the same thing happens (which is a bit eerily familiar as they are both Samsung products--the screen is painfully familiar

). No channels are found.


If I hook it up through the cable box, I get the normal digital cable programming guide, and I have to put the tv on channel 3, but it doesn't look as good through the coax with that extra hop through the cable box.

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Use HDMI or component video from the box to the HDTV; it will look dramatically better than using a coax cable from the box.

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I have checked the Baltimore Comcast listings ( http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=793124 ) and there definitely appears to be channels that I should be receiving.


So WHY won't my new TV and my OLD tuner pick up %^&*ing channels????

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Do you have the coax cable connected to the correct input on the HDTV?


Is there a menu setting for 'cable', as opposed to 'air' or 'antenna' on the HDTV?


Are you using the exact same location to test the cable box and HDTV?



Quote:
Use HDMI or component video from the box to the HDTV; it will look dramatically better than using a coax cable from the box.

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O i meant that since I can't get its built in tuner to work, I was only able to test it using my DCT700 box ( http://broadband.motorola.com/consum...ct700_back.jpg ) , which has only coax. It has RCA, but for some reason I can only get one of the audio channels to work. When I was testing the Samsung tuner, I was using component (no hdmi on my 2004 tv).

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Do you have the coax cable connected to the correct input on the HDTV? Is there a menu setting for 'cable', as opposed to 'air' or 'antenna' on the HDTV?

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Yes I'm using the correct input. Before we had comcast I was using an antenna to pick up local stations. When we got comcast I tried every combination (took a half hour or so) just cuz I thought I was going crazy. First there's a selection for Air, Cable, or Both and then you choose HRC, STD, and whatever the third one is...can't remember....

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Are you using the exact same location to test the cable box and HDTV?

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Yes. Same cable. I did use a Comcast-provided coupler at first, but I took that out when it didn't work, just to be sure.

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What is the model number of the new Samsung TV?

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P2370HD. One sale this month http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...rodid=11480444 . Interesting that it says it has a QAM tuner on the box, but I just read a comment at the costco page for the tv:

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"Just a note to you guys, this model is not equiped with the qam tuner and therefore will have limitations as a tv if not married to a cable box, so mine's going back. I'm glad I purchased at Costco because I know it will be as pleasent returning it as it was purchasing."

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That's bizarre. Every other reference around points to the fact that it does. It would explain the TV not picking up the channels, but still not my other Tuner box.

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I thinnk Rory in link #3 had the right question,

It does appear that you are not getting any cable signal to your TV. This could be caused by a bad cable end connector or by using a splitter that has a bad output port or that filters out different frequency bands on differet output ports and you are using a port desiginagted for broadband or telephone and which filters out the cable frequencies.

I suggest that you see if you can get Comcast to come out and confirm the signal strength at the end of your TV cable connection.

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Are you sure there is actually a signal on the cable you have hooked to the box? It seems strange that you get nothing at all. With Comcast here, using the same unit, I get the local HD stations plus their subchannels and also the digital SD versions of the local stations and an assortment of other standard definition channels. I did have a problem with low signal levels from Comcast in the beginning and had to buy an amplifier.

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The only splitter being used is the one on the outside of the house. It says "BDS103H, 3 Way Digital Splitter. 5-1000 MHz. EMI -130db." It has two -7dB outs and one -3.5. I didn't notice the different dB drops in the past...the one I was testing on was a -7. Still, that shouldn't affect it..might be worth changing around tho. There are no other couplers or splitters before hitting the box--just the one cable. Initially I had it on a switch so I could flip the signal between my comcast box and my Samsung tuner box, but I took that out of the equation to make things simpler when it didn't work at first. It's still disconnected.



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Originally Posted by walford /forum/post/17429258


Try connecting the cable currently going to the DCT 700 to the TV since you know the cable works to the DCT700.

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Unless I misunderstand, that's what I was doing before when I said it wasn't working as expected. Instead of the cable running to my DCT700, I unlplugged it and ran it to my Samsung tuner, and then my new Samsung TV recently. No luck


I'm not sure if it was supplied by comcast. I recently noticed that there's a dish on the roof of this house I'm renting, which explains the crazy double coax wires going everywhere. So Comcast might have reused the dish provided splitter. Are those fundamentally different? That would explain everything.

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Originally Posted by walford /forum/post/17429258


If that works and the splitter is supplied by Comcast then it is there resposibility to replace it. It makes no difference what services they advertise it is the ones they have to provide that count.

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Do they have to provide QAM? I just want to be as learned as possible when I call and make my case.

Since you have a DCT700 from Comcast that means that they are only broadcasting in QAM.

AFAIK they still have to provide unencrypted the local channels. Threfore your TV should be picking them up with a scan using it's digital QAM cable tuner. They should not be broadcasting the local channels in encrypted QAM, and apparently they are not based on your checking of the Baltimore sub forum.

If you still have your home made UHF antenna you might try it to receive the OTA antenna digital channels since you are in the city OTA signal strength should not be an issue.

I don't believe that the DCT700 QAM tuner is more sensitive then the one in your TV, however it might be.

What is true is that Comcast does not have to use PSIP data to provide the same channel number as the broadcaster is using over QAM. OTA channel 2-1 might be actually be on QAM channel 104.2 and might be identified as channel 104-2 in the scan.