Joined May 2004
L5: Journeyman
Forum Thread
Tuning OTA TV channels... can you FORCE the TV to tune a channel you know is there?
November 14, 2021 at
02:40 PM
Hi...
My mom has a Panasonic plasma TV (circa 2010, works fine otherwise) and an RCA Silver amplified antenna. She only uses them to watch a Chinese channel for the daily one hour news show. But she also wants to watch Dancing with the Stars this season because Suni Lee is on it.
The problem:
When I put the antenna in position A and do an auto tune, it finds the Chinese channel, but not ABC (!!). If I put it in position B (closer to the window), it finds ABC but not the Chinese channel. I tried multiple other positions, but it always only finds one of the two, usually ABC instead of the Chinese channel (63.4, I think)!
Any suggestions on what I can do? If I do the scan and save, then move the antenna to an one of the alternate positions, the scanned/saved channels still work. But I have no way to add the missing channel. Even if I hit the channel on the remote, the TV doesn't seem to know how to tune it unless it was saved via scan. VERY frustrating. Esp when at one point, I could not tune her Chinese channel for almost an hour, regardless of positioning... then suddenly it popped up.
This is in NYC, if that matters.
TIA for any help you can provide.
My mom has a Panasonic plasma TV (circa 2010, works fine otherwise) and an RCA Silver amplified antenna. She only uses them to watch a Chinese channel for the daily one hour news show. But she also wants to watch Dancing with the Stars this season because Suni Lee is on it.
The problem:
When I put the antenna in position A and do an auto tune, it finds the Chinese channel, but not ABC (!!). If I put it in position B (closer to the window), it finds ABC but not the Chinese channel. I tried multiple other positions, but it always only finds one of the two, usually ABC instead of the Chinese channel (63.4, I think)!
Any suggestions on what I can do? If I do the scan and save, then move the antenna to an one of the alternate positions, the scanned/saved channels still work. But I have no way to add the missing channel. Even if I hit the channel on the remote, the TV doesn't seem to know how to tune it unless it was saved via scan. VERY frustrating. Esp when at one point, I could not tune her Chinese channel for almost an hour, regardless of positioning... then suddenly it popped up.
This is in NYC, if that matters.
TIA for any help you can provide.
About the OP
9 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Channels like 63.4 are "virtual channel numbers" which have a corresponding "real channel number". The real channel actually corresponds to the RF frequency unlike the virtual number. On some TV's you can type in the real channel number to force the TV to try to tune it, but it doesn't always work. All the high rise bldgs could complicate reception.
Most likely she'll need a different antenna, installed as high as you can manage. Pop the address / zip into https://www.antennaweb.
My mom has a Panasonic plasma TV (circa 2010, works fine otherwise) and an RCA Silver amplified antenna. She only uses them to watch a Chinese channel for the daily one hour news show. But she also wants to watch Dancing with the Stars this season because Suni Lee is on it.
The problem:
When I put the antenna in position A and do an auto tune, it finds the Chinese channel, but not ABC (!!). If I put it in position B (closer to the window), it finds ABC but not the Chinese channel. I tried multiple other positions, but it always only finds one of the two, usually ABC instead of the Chinese channel (63.4, I think)!
Any suggestions on what I can do? If I do the scan and save, then move the antenna to an one of the alternate positions, the scanned/saved channels still work. But I have no way to add the missing channel. Even if I hit the channel on the remote, the TV doesn't seem to know how to tune it unless it was saved via scan. VERY frustrating. Esp when at one point, I could not tune her Chinese channel for almost an hour, regardless of positioning... then suddenly it popped up.
This is in NYC, if that matters.
TIA for any help you can provide.
If you dig into the specs for an antenna, you'll hopefully find a beam width specified and gain listed in decibels. Some antennas don't pick up VHF signals, only UHF.
Imagine 2 broadcast towers that are 90 degrees apart, you've get an antenna with a 22 degree beam width. You'll have to pick one to aim the antenna towards you won't be able to get both without. It can be possible to combine signals from multiple antennas, but if there are overlapping channels in the two areas you'll have problems.
Metropolitan areas with lots of tall buildings can be challenging environments with lots of odd signal reflections. It's also often hard for many people to put antennas outdoors, in attics, or on rooftops in apartment / townhome type environments.
I
I
It does look like the OP's local ABC station (speculation without a more accurate location) is in the VHF band it's likely poor VHF performance of their current antenna is a significant issue.
https://abc.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars
Here are a few antennas at Walmart that have a decent chance of working better than what she currently has:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ClearS...t=In-store (best bet)
https://www.walmart.com/ip/onn-In...t=In-store
https://www.walmart.com/ip/onn-De...t=In-store
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I bought her the RCA Silver Amplified antenna:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-SL.../167111340
I thought since its "multidirectional" I shouldn't have to worry too much about positioning/directing... but...
I installed this same model in her bedroom TV, which DOES pick up both channels! But she prefers to watch in the living room, with the bigger TV, comfier seating and it is literally less than 40 feet away*.
She lives in the lower east side of Manhattan, near the Brooklyn Bridge, zip code is 10038. Yes, there are a number of tall (15 stories or more) buildings around, she lives on the 7th floor.
No cable and no wifi.
Edit - * I just realized how unnecessary this comment was, given that moving the antenna a foot or two was enough to change what we were able to auto tune.
I bought her the RCA Silver Amplified antenna:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-SL.../167111340
I thought since its "multidirectional" I shouldn't have to worry too much about positioning/directing... but...
I installed this same model in her bedroom TV, which DOES pick up both channels! But she prefers to watch in the living room, with the bigger TV, comfier seating and . And it is literally less than 40 feet away.
She lives in the lower east side of Manhattan, near the Brooklyn Bridge, zip code is 10038. Yes, there are a number of tall (15 stories or more) buildings around, she lives on the 7th floor.
No cable and no wifi.
Unfortunately the two you care the most about WABC-TV and WMBC-TV (i think) require some special considerations.
WABC has the strongest signal of all of the channels, but is kind of in the middle of the VHF band (bottom of VHF-Hi). So you need good VHF performance. VHF = Lower frequency = longer wavelength = a physically larger / longer antenna is needed
WMBC, based on what tvfool shows, could have issues due to an adjacent channel and could have multi path interference due to a reflected signal if the database is accurate. A more directional antenna could help.
Placement and positioning of the antenna will make a significant difference. The signal you get from a more directional antenna is actually stronger. You could potentially run coax from somewhere else like the top of a closet or behind a curtain over to the TV or even use a splitter to distribute the signal to multiple TVs (weakens the signal). The classic rabbit ears antennas could actually work pretty well for her. I'd expect the 3 antennas I linked above to probably do better than the one you have. Mohu has potential too. Ideally aim the antenna NNE.
Ideally every antenna would come with a graph of gain vs frequency conducted using some standard process, instead we just get whatever the marketing dept spins. I can't find it at the moment, but there used to be a site that have a bunch of independent testing data for some popular antennas (mostly rooftop / attic antennas).
TV Fool report for zip code @ 70 ft https://www.tvfool.com/?option=co...c3
you can put in the exact address here if you want: https://www.tvfool.com/index.php?...&I