[mythtv-users] OT: Did I fry my digital TV tuner?

Alen Edwards allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com
Fri Jul 11 14:52:21 UTC 2008


Richard Shaw wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 12:24 AM, Alen Edwards
> <allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com> wrote:
>> Richard Shaw wrote:
>>> Well, I'm not sure but I think I fried the digital tuner in my new LCD
>>> TV. I was a victim of the HDHomerun bad power supply so I figured I'd
>>> hook up my nifty medium directional antenna in my attic to the TV
>>> while my LiveTV in Myth is out of commission.
>>>
>>> Well I did a channel scan and if found a few digital channels but not
>>> all I expected. At first I thought I had a weak signal because of that
>>> but I noticed that all the analog stations looked REALLY good for
>>> analog. So I tried putting in a splitter (one end connected to my HDHR
>>> so it would be terminated) and it didn't help, then I tried two
>>> splitters, no go...
>>>
>>> Most channel it found during the auto scan it would not show a picture
>>> "No Video or Audio" and the ones it did were "blocky" but not in the
>>> normal signal glitch way but with crazy colors in the blocks... I then
>>> tried connecting it back to the original antenna I had it on (not much
>>> better than rabbit ears) which picked up all the digital channels but
>>> frequently had signal issues but things did not return to normal. I
>>> still can't tune hardly any digital stations and the ones it does
>>> "tune" are the weird blocky type.
>>>
>>> So I'm pretty sure I fried my digital tuner (analog still works fine)
>>> but wanted to look for confirmation here...
>>>
>>> Richard
>> It is really hard to understand what you are saying.  For one thing, how
>> on earth can a splitter help?  Also, if your HDHR is out of commission,
>> how did you do a channel scan?  Basically, I have no idea what you are
>> saying or asking.  That said, I seriously doubt you fried your tuner
>> unless you felt a shock from static at some point or did something you
>> are not telling us about.
>>
>> Allen
>> _______________________________________________
> '
> Sorry, it was late last night and I probably wasn't clear... My HDHR
> is out of commission because of a bad power supply so I was going to
> use the digital tuner in my TV until my replacement power supply shows
> up. I had the "good" antenna connected to the HDHR and a crappy one
> hooked up to the TV directly... It got all the channels but didn't
> always get a good signal.
> 
> Since the HDHR is temporarily out of commission I hooked up my good
> antenna to the TV but it didn't work as expected. It didn't find all
> the digital channels that the HDHR found when doing a channel scan and
> the ones it did find it couldn't tune to. Since the analog channels
> were coming in really well I figured it couldn't be too low of a
> signal strength so I figured it was to high and tried to use splitters
> to bring the signal strength down but nothing worked.
> 
> Then I decided to hook the crappy antenna back up to it and forget
> about it. That's when I noticed I couldn't tune the same channels I
> could before with the same setup.
> 
> I hope that clears it up.. I apologize, sometimes I have trouble
> getting everything out coherently, especially at night after getting
> the kids to bed.
> 
> Richard
> 

This is a wag but take a look at the connector on the antenna lead and 
see if the center pin wire has been bent and is shorting out to the nut.

If you  put in a splitter where you had a barrel, look there too.

The other remote possibility is that the diameters of the center 
conductors are different between your two antennas and you opened up the 
connector on the TV so it doesn't make contact with the old cable.  You 
might try one of the push on connectors that you screw onto the antenna 
cable.

These are the good outcomes.  However, if your analog signals are coming 
in wall and your digital ones are not, that is indeed not good.  The 
only other thing I can think of that is a good outcome is to unplug the 
TV and see if it resets itself into a good state.  You know what the the 
bad outcome is.

Good luck,

Allen


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