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QAM without STB

I was receiving local channels in HD with the digital QAM tuner in my HD TV until a few days ago. Almost all the channels have disappeared. The STB's work OK, but one of my TVs did not have an STB, it was connected directly to the cable. It only receives 2.1, 4.3 and a handful of other channels. Any idea how to get them back?

Comments

philhu

Rescan your channels

FiOS seems to like to change internal channel allocations on Clear QAM

jim_the_runner

I did that, but I will try again. Thanks.

philhu

Well, I only get a handful too

My locals in SD

The weather channel

Weatherscan

All the Musicchoice channels

Thats it

Keyboards

It is possible that they have removed or fowled up the PSIP information (remapping information so you tune 2.1 not the QAM channel).

Try looking in the 72.xx to 75.xx QAM channel range and see if the channels are there (this is typically where Verizon has placed the local HD channels).

JanetInNJ

This just happened to me yesterday! I have an 15" Insignia (BestBuy) LCD tv in my kitchen. It is connected to the cable, but not to an STB. This TV gets sub-channels (2-1, NBC is 4-1, 4-2, 4-3 and so on). Now I get 2.1, then it jumps to 4-4, then 7-3. I finally found my networks up around 63-1000 and up. Very weird. I tryed running the auto channel feature. That didn't help. If I go to the manual add, these channels aren't listed. I tried unplugging everything to reset it and that didn't do anything either.

I have not called Tech Support yet and don't know if I will. I guess I'll just have to get used to new locations.

The STBs work fine. No problems there.

Janet in NJ

jim_the_runner

Hi Janet:

Thanks for the info. I spent quite a while with tech support and they were basically clueless on this specific issue and insisted I could receive no signal without some form of STB. I was for the longest time getting CBS on 2.1, NBC on 4.1, etc. All via the channel autoscan feature. They all suddenly disappeared a week or so ago (except 2.1). My STBs all work fine as you indicated. Interesting note, my Mom still has cable and she is still getting an analog signal for her tube TV. I'll have to drag the little HD set over there and see what autoscan finds. Thanks again for the feedback, glad to see I'm not going whacko!!!!

Jim

JanetInNJ

No, Jim -- you're not going whacko. I thought I was, too. I have the cable that comes into the house attached to a splitter. Then one cable from the splitter to the HD DVR in the living room and the other cable from the splitter to the kitchen TV. I should probably mention that by connecting this TV this way, I don't get every channel on that TV. That is okay. It's in the kitchen and I don't watch it all that much. There really is no place to put an STB there. If I ran the cable from the STB, I would have to watch whatever they are watching in the living room and I don't always want to do that.

I guess this channel switch must have something to do with the switch to digital tv. I need to sit down and figure out what channel is at what location.

Good luck. I hope they don't change anything else.

AlanLinde

Before seeing this thread just now I started another thread yesterday on a variation of this. Ive just got fios with a settop box and new lcd tv with qam & analog tuner. Before fios, I got good local digital signals with rabbit ears connected to the 'antenna' coax input. With the settop box on the hmdi input all is fine. But if I connect the fios coax into the tv instead of the box, I get nothing. A scan (tv set to antenna input) results in zero channels found.

Do I have to enter (sub)channels manually in order for the set to see them?? What is going on?

Alan

Teasip

FWIW, I was playing around with mine yesterday morning while awaiting my M card deliveries for my new TiVo's and found my locals up in the 60's. They did not show up in the channels received listing however.

AlanLinde

With help on another thread I got my set to find the unencrypted channels with direct connection of the coax cable to the tv coax input (a stupid mistake on my part was the problem).

I get all the local (Washington DC) channels just where they are for rabbit ears. It doesn't give 2 or 22 (B'more)in those channels but they are there up in the high numbers as mentions above.

So as far as my test went (this was just a check to see if I buy a second set would I really need a settop box), Verizon is doing it all more or less correctly; certainly no complaints from me.

Alan

Dirwin

I finally spoke to a knowledgable FIOS network engineer who informed me that the PSIP (Program and System Info Protocol) was removed temporarily to support the digital tv transition. This is the look-up table that tells your QAM tuner capable tv which channels correspond to which broadcast channels as well as the programming info for the program guide. Without this info your tv can only provide the obscure channel numbers (72-1025) instead of CBS-Ch 2. The PSIP is supposed to be restored after the Feb 17 transition but now that the transition has been delayed to June he had no idea when it would be restored.

jim_the_runner

Thanks for the update. This is good news.

TR-Tim

I found the same problem, thanks for giving the solution. It is a real pain trying to relate the obscure numbers with the common numbers, but once you do it is all good. Thanks to the guy who got the answer. The customer service guy I talked to was doing his best but was in the end cluelessI knew more than he did. AS usual, the people online know more than the people running the system. Viva the Internet!!

Dirwin

Service has been restored. Apparently the PSIP (program & system info protocol) which was temporarily removed in preparation for the DTV transition (see my previous post), is now back. You will need to re-scan, but this time, instead of getting obscure channel numbers (like 74-1025), actual channel designations and program information is once again available. We may have to go through this again prior to the new June transition date.

JanetInNJ

I'm glad I thought to check the forum today and see if there was any news. I ran my auto channel search and all channels are back to normal. I had a feeling it had something to do with the switch to digital. I guess it will happen again in June.

Janet

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