Unique Problem

[swaffmom]

A buddy of mine sent me your website and info. I have a seemingly unique problem, and I've been trhough a number of people at Sony and at the converter box company I used, with a number of different answers, none of which have worked.

We purchased a Sony Wega 50 inch LCD Projection TV/HD-TV (model KDF-50WE655) about 5 years ago. We've never had cable or a dish, so all the people we checked with when reserching which TV to purchase, etc., said we would be in a very good time period for a regular antenna. They alos said this TV was "ready," which didn't mean a lot to us then, and would be good for years to come. They said in about the next couple of years, everything would be changing to HD, and we would get all those channels free, as they came online. It ended up taking about 5 years.

When we purchased the TV five years ago, we came home and hooked it up, through a surge protecter and VCR. We also purchased an HD antenna, and put it up in our attic, with a wire snaked down through the middle of the wall to our tv set. We auto programmed the channels, ever so often, and we were watching excellent quality TV, with over 30 HD channels, and over 20 analog channels. All of the channels picked up very well, even the analog. We have been successfully watching these channels, with great clarity, for the past 4 to 5 years.

The problem started when I sent in for and received the coupons to get the converter boxes (for our older TVs). I received them about a month ago. As the original date drew closer in February for the conversion, our HD channels were stronger and stronger. I called Sony months ago, and they said our TV had the digital tuners built in, and we wouldn't need a converter box. My husband was watching TV one evening, and he said they did a test and said if your TV turns black, you would need one. Ours turned black, but I later found out, some of our friends who definitely had an old analog 25 year old TV, turned green, so that test must have been messed up. I was told by Sony that it wouldn't hurt to hook up the converter box, but it wasn't required and wouldn't make a difference.

One evening, about a month ago, I decided I would try the box, just to see if it would improve the fade in/fade out we experience sometime. I hooked up the converter box, trhough the surge protecter, and was prompted to run it's program. I did, but it changed the color scheme and channel number format, and we didn't like it as well. So we immediately changed the antenna back, just as it was, hooked to the surge protector through the VCR. This was only a 5 minute change over. It messed up everything. Our analog channels are no longer clear at all. We can only get about 5 digital channels and 6 analog. The digitals that do pick up are very clear. They wouldn't pick up anymore until we direct connected to the back of the TV and not through the VCR or surge protector. We tried a new HD antenna. That didn't work, and we figured if the antenna was bad, none of the few HD channels we can see now would pick up so clear. But we wanted to at least try it. I have also tried auto programming and adding digital channels 10 times on different days. It always picks up the same low number of channels. I tried resetting to factory settings by the customer (followed directions in book exactly). That didn't help. We could hook back up the converter box and see if that would work and put up withe the new color shades, but I don't even know if that will work. Sony said it wouldn't hurt to try, and the people at the converter box company told me it could mess things up worse.

Any assistance you can offer or suggest would be greatly appreciated. I'm at a dead end on what to do next. We can't even pick up many of the analog channels we could pick up clearly before. If I take it in to a Sony service center (they don't send people out), do you think they could reset the digital tuners back to like they were, and it would work? It is so risky hauling something that big and sensitive the 30 or so miles I would need to take it, and that might not even work.

[MrBoylan]

Hi,

Well a long sordid tale to be sure. Just first let's set the record straight. Your TV is not "HD-ready" - that term is reserved for HD-capable displays without a built-in ATSC (digital tuner). Since your TV has a built-in ATSC tuner, it is a full-fledged HDTV, not an HD-ready TV. It is "digital cable ready" because it has a cable card slot, but this is not relevant to the issue at hand, except that maybe it is... (more later).

Also, a digital converter box is not necessary or useful for your TV. They include degraded (standard def) versions of an ATSC tuner. Your tuner is high definition (supports 1080i and 720p). The converter box tuners are standard def (480i only). They are only useful (and necessary) for older analog TVs that do not include their own on-board tuners. But there is no way that the simple act of connecting the converter box to your TV could have broken anything. You probably inadvertantly changed a setting somewhere along the way, or (coincidentally), your built-in ATSC tuner chose this precise moment to fail (less likely, but possible).

And now to your problem... Since your TV has both an over the air (ATSC) and cable (QAM) tuner, it's possible that a rogue menu setting has screwed everything up or maybe you've inadvertantly plugged the cable into the wrong input. Let's hope so.

First of all, in the "Channel" menu, make sure "Channel Fix" is set to OFF. Also, to make sure nothing else is interfering here, plug the cable coming from the antenna directly into the back of the TV (not the VCR or surge suppressor), and while you're at it, double-check the back of the TV and make sure you have plugged the antenna into the "UHF/VHF" input *not* the "Cable" input. They look identical except for the label (and they accept the same coax cable), so double check that it's in the right input and then try the "Digital Channels Add" option again from the channel menu.

Let me know if any of this helps.

-CB

[Daylightdon]

Allow me to throw another apple in the barrel.
One of the elderly single ladies at my church asked me to come over and connect her converter, (TV), box to her television.
The TV was installed in a cabinet which made it difficult to see the back of the set.
After about an hour of struggling with a flashlight in my teeth! connecting and reconnecting her VCR, DVD player, and TV with various cables to what I thought was the right connector, I discovered a THIRD screw type antenna connector. They were NOT grouped, but spread in various places on the back of the set. By the way; it was a CRT set.
UH-OH???
I asked her if she had the instruction manual for her set. She did, and a careful perusal of said manual revealed an analog TV connector, a cable connector, and LO & BEHOLD a DIGITAL TV connector. Removed all the extra cables, connected her TV antenna cable to that connector and WALLA! KCRA channel 3, in full digital 720p. Her TV was DIGITAL. She had bought the box for nothing! She was not aware of the fact that her TV was digital!
She gave the converter box to me and asked me to donate it to anyone in the congregation that could use it!

[BADuHamel]

This is all evidence of the terrible job the industry and the government have done educating the public -- and they've had years!