[gsteever]

HELP!!


I have a Sony HD-100 receiver and I am having problems with OTA on my unit. I had a custom antenna built to receive all the OTA channels here in the Indianapolis area. The antenna person used a spectrum analyzer to detect and test each channel so I should be okay from this standpoint.


Within my receiver's menu, SYSTEM/ANTENNA, I can test each OTA channel signal strength, resulting in 100% and locked status. Within my reciever's menu, SYSTEM/NON-SATELITE, I go through the process of auto detecting the digital TV channels. The status bar progresses and pauses indicating it has detected the channels but at the end of the process no channels are listed.


My question is do you think there is a problem with my receiver? Is there a manual way I can add these OTA channels to the receiver?


I talked to Sony on the phone and they have sent the question to their engineering department but I thought I would post this info here for feedback.


If any of you who use the HD-100 receiver could review what you did to get your OTA working, I would appreciate step-by-step feedback on how / what you did during the initial install / setup.


Regards,

Geoff

 

[chewitt]

I had the same problem and would be interested in understanding how to do this

 

[gsteever]

You mention you "had" the same problem.......


Did you ever get it working?


Does anyone know if there has to be a HDTV broadcast during the time of auto program for it to be detected?

 

[chewitt]

I did not get any stations, but I also do not know if there were any signals that I could receive at the time. I live in NYC and used the RS double bow-tie indoor antenna. Whether I will be able to get anything is uncertain. I was hoping for CBS broadcast from the Empire State Building.

 

[Barry928]

You could be 100% locked to a ghost/reflected signal. Try turning the rotor a little bit away from the peak signal strength towards the transmitting tower and use the manual add scan for new channels with add/skip stations - auto add.

 

[gsteever]

I doubt it, I can actually see the antenna towers from my front lawn. They are about two or three miles away without anything between us to reflect the signal. In addition, I am unable to detect any of the five channels in the city. Three of the channels come from the towers I mentioned but the other two are located somewhere else. I am at 98-100% on all five channels so I suspect a hardware issue.


Thanks for your suggestion though; I sent my receiver in for repairs last week. Hopefully Sony will detect something wrong and get it back to me before the bowl games start!

 

[chewitt]

I think I'm doing it wrong. I don't see any menu that tells you how good an OTA signal is, only for the satellite signal.

 

[Barry928]

When your in the antenna menu push the select key while the cursor is sitting on the "antenna" button which is the top of the 3 menus and this will open the choice for off air signal meter.

 

[AntAltMike]

Is your antenna lead hooked to the "antenna" input rather than to the "cable TV" input? When you initiated the "automatic detect" function, did you initiate it for broadcast channels rather than for cable TV? When the status bar seems to indicate that the auto detect is checking something out (which is admittedly conjecture on our part), it just may be that it is evaluating a broadcast DTV signal to determine if it is a cable DTV signal and rejects it because it is too far off-frequency. Cable and broadcast UHF channels overlap but are offset by 2Mz, or one-third of a channel width, from one another. Analog cable TV tuners will usually "capture" analog broadcast signals, but the digital 8VSB cable TV tuners I have tested will not capture digital 8VSB broadcast TV signals.


Can you confirm that your antenna is furnishing signal by hooking that antenna lead directly to a TV and viewing analog programming?


Is the analog programming that you know to be broadcast from the same towers ghost free? If it is not, then the digital signals are not ghost free either.


Your input may be too strong. You can buy a cheap attenuator (variable or fixed) and cut the input signal level down if you suspect that it is above the maximum input level for your receiver.


I didn't think that the Sony HD-100 had a signal meter. Are you sure that you are not checking the DirecTV signal strength of the identically numbered DirecTV-sourced local station?


The ghosts can be a problem. Spectrum analyzers can demonstrate signal level and flatness across the channel, but don't demonstrate a quality signal. With all due respects to your custom antenna builder, there are a lot of people who are new to the off-air antenna business who have sophisticated test gear but don't yet fully understand how to use it and don't always realize that they don't know how to use it. Most residential situations do not require a "custom" antenna. For someone near the towers, you will either be lucky and can get them all with a cheap directional antenna if they are in the same general direction or with a cheap omnidirectional antenna if the are not, or you are suffering from reflected signals for which there is often not a simple, convenient remedy since each reflection path is unique. If you have

 

[chewitt]

Excellent advice! I located the menu for signal strength for digital OTA channels. Channel 56 UHF is CBS here in NYC and they are broadcasting HDTV. I get a locked signal strength of 77. Problem is I cant add the channel to the guide. Auto add doesnt pick it up. Manual add/remove lets me "x" ANLG56 but it wont show up on the channel guide. You can add DGTL 1, 2, 3 etc, but no DGTL 56.


I think I'm almost there since I am getting signal from my RS double bow-tie. The logic of the Sony and inadequate help menus are holding me back.


Further thought/education?

 

[Barry928]

(longshot) Look at the channel choices one more time in the add channel menu but this time look at every channel box not just around 56 because the station is probably emulating a different channel number. See if you can find any new DIGT that was not there before your scan.