I decided to give my 71' chromacolor a little more use and hooked it up to an Apex Digital to analog converter. Only problem....I get nothing with the box hooked up! Funny thing is i get a few channels in perfectly with out the converter. :scratch2:

But in order to get all of my channels (i get free cable) I need that converter box! Im hoping this is some simple stupid mistake. All i can get is the guide screen and the picture is very snowy.

I feel like an idiot..this should be simple! help please!

First thing I'd do is verify that your converter is set to output on the right RF channel (some have 2,3,4 as you know)

First thing I'd do is verify that your converter is set to output on the right RF channel (some have 2,3,4 as you know)

Yes, this one uses channel 3 or 4. comes in snowy no matter what one i use.

Is the menu from the converter snowy, or just the channels?
jr

Is the menu from the converter snowy, or just the channels?
jr

The menu from the converter. I just tried it on my 62 Packard Bell..same issue. So either I'm doing something wrong or my box is bad.

heres my hook up its very simple:

Cable from wall into converter-

Cable out from converter into Tv.

of course im using one of those cable to antenna adapters. can the issues be there?

Sure can be!

I've seen many a bad 300-75 ohm balun...causing the exact symptoms you're describing.

Perhaps use a VCR or some other source of ch 3 &4 to test your balun and coax cable ?
jr

Ok I had an extra on of those adapters and the picture is better now. The box still wont pick up any of my cable channels though. Even though its plugged directly into the cable! Everything shows up as "invalid channel". Tried the auto scan function and it finds 0 channels..ughh...

Do some of these boxes only convert over the air signals? This really shouldn't be so difficult!

If the Apex is one of those "$40 coupon" boxes for OTA ASTC digital reception, it will not be useful for decoding cable digital channels.
jr

That box MUST be used with antenna. Directional antenna on the roof is best. Run converter box with top cover removed or its life will be very short form the super hot microprocessor chip.

That box MUST be used with antenna. Directional antenna on the roof is best. Run converter box with top cover removed or its life will be very short form the super hot microprocessor chip.

Ah darn! Any recommendations on a box i can use directly for my cable? Andy yea i noticed it got really hot really fast!

"Digital cable" uses a different modulation scheme (QAM) than the over the air digital TV ATSC signals (8VSB) use. Your box won't decode cable signals. It will only decode over the air DTV stations.

...

That box MUST be used with antenna. Directional antenna on the roof is best. Run converter box with top cover removed or its life will be very short form the super hot microprocessor chip.

Yes, and those Apex boxes are junk to begin with. I obtained one for free, when my neighbor went into a nursing home. I think he'd had it only a month or so and it crapped out on me after about a half a week's worth of use. I've got Digitalstream boxes that I've had since before the DTV transition and a Channel Master box that I got shortly after the DTV transition and both of them still work great. The Zenith/Insignia boxes are good, too.

Wait....doesn't cable still provide standard NTSC signals for existing older televisions? I remember Cox advertising to that affect. I have one older TV (but cable ready) hooked up directly to my cable feed and it can tune all the stations I pay for. Even for a pre-cable set, there should be signals on the first 12 channels, so they can be tuned in on any TV.

In my area, Comcast has gone mostly digital. The only channels still being delivered in analog are channels 2-12. Anything above 12 requires one of their digital devices in order to view it, no matter what kind of TV you have. I suspect that within the next year or two, alll channels will be digital only.

Time Warner out around Milwaukee continuues retain its analog service more or less unchanged from years past, and I suspect that many other cable companies are doing the same.

Tom C.

Time Warner out around Milwaukee continuues retain its analog service more or less unchanged from years past, and I suspect that many other cable companies are doing the same.

Tom C.


Time Warner Cable here in northeastern Ohio still has analog service (no cable box) that works with any TV, but I don't think such service will be available too much longer. More and more people are getting new, flat-panel TVs which are equipped to receive digital channels without a box (I just got one today, to replace my 11-year old RCA CTC185), so even cable boxes, Motorola or Scientific Atlanta, et al. ATSC->NTSC converters among them, may not be around much longer either. With FPs having come way down in price over the last few years, and dropping further still every time one turns around, or so it seems (I got mine from Best Buy for under $150), it stands to reason that most people, except TV collectors of course, won't bother having their old sets repaired when they go belly-up; no, they will just get a new FP TV and (gasp!) put the old one out for the trash, although stores such as Best Buy do offer to recycle old sets when their customers get new ones.

All of this makes me wonder what us VK members will do when, not if, all cable TV (even broadcast channels) goes 100-percent digital, with no analog signals to be found. That day may not be far off, as I read recently in an article posted here by a VK member, in response to a question of mine about QAM vs. clear QAM cable channels, that analog cable is being phased out; the article, however, did not specify when the cutoff date will be. My best guess is that we will have no choice eventually but to test our vintage sets using a VCR or DVD player.

In my area, Comcast has gone mostly digital. The only channels still being delivered in analog are channels 2-12. Anything above 12 requires one of their digital devices in order to view it, no matter what kind of TV you have. I suspect that within the next year or two, alll channels will be digital only.


I don't know about that. All late-model flat-panel TVs are set up to receive, without a cable box, nearly everything carried on today's cable systems; my Insignia 19" FP, for example, can and does receive almost every channel carried by Time Warner Cable in my area outside Cleveland. While it will always (in the foreseeable future, anyway) be necessary to either use a converter or have the cable company remove a trap from the cable line to receive movie channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, et al. the use of converter boxes to receive regular unscrambled cable channels will diminish, to the point where very few people, except us VK members with vintage sets, will have to use such boxes ahead of their TV's own tuner. Since the new FPs are all equipped for reception of most cable channels offered today, I can see a day coming when there will be little or no need for these boxes anymore, as more people buy flat-panel TVs to replace worn-out CRT sets.

What I do, cheap and dirty, is take the Y/C out and audio out from my Bell satellite receiver and put it into an SVHS, then take the VCR's RF out into my GE802 and 1957 Admiral colour set.

With digital cable you need a digital cable box.. for Satellite you need the provider's box, except for increasingly rare free-to-air satellite, and even then the satelite receiver may not have a channel 3/4 output. Also I've wired up luma and chroma feeds directly into a vintage colour set (an Electrohome.)

I don't know about that. All late-model flat-panel TVs are set up to receive, without a cable box, nearly everything carried on today's cable systems;

Not in Canada, ALL channels, including digital versions of the basic 2-13, are scrambled. The only unscrambled C-Qam channels on most providers here are, ironically, Movies on demand.

My best guess is that we will have no choice eventually but to test our vintage sets using a VCR or DVD player.

Did you completely miss the OTA analog to digital transition?

Hint: CECB.


.

Did you completely miss the OTA analog to digital transition?

Hint: CECB.


.

In ten days Canada goes all digital; half the people I know had no knowledge of this fact until I told them. There are constant PSAs on TV announcing the switchover...

All major stations are already on ATSC, 100% of my OTA viewing is HD. Canada is actually far ahead of where the States was just before their switchover.

(Edit) WKBW in Buffalo just went HD THIS WEEK.. (Only network feeds were HD before) CBC has been HD since 2005... and most Toronto stations have been HD since 2008.

Did you completely miss the OTA analog to digital transition?

Hint: CECB.


.


No, I didn't miss it. I knew about the transition long before it actually happened (who could not have known about it, especially near the deadline, with all the PSAs regarding the transition -- especially one I vividly remember here in northeastern Ohio for "The Big Switch", that local television stations ran?). What I meant was that if you don't want to use an ATSC->NTSC converter box on your TV, a VCR or DVD is the only other option to get test signals. I think of Doug, drh4683, who has dozens of vintage sets. Unless he has just one box he transfers from one old set to another, I can't see how he can test his sets on NTSC over-the-air TV signals, unless of course there are still analog NTSC stations in the Chicago area; however, he did mention a channel 6 station (right next to WMAQ-TV, NBC channel 5 -- how on earth do they not interfere with each other?). Now that I think of it, however, I seem to remember him mentioning in one of his recent posts that the Chicago area still has several NTSC analog stations, all UHF independents.

he did mention a channel 6 station (right next to WMAQ-TV, NBC channel 5 -- how on earth do they not interfere with each other?).

After the transition, WMAQ is transmitting on channel 29 instead of ch 5. UHF, in general, works better for DTV transmission than Lo-Band VHF. They still retain the "Ch 5" branding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMAQ-TV

jr

Not in Canada, ALL channels, including digital versions of the basic 2-13, are scrambled. The only unscrambled C-Qam channels on most providers here are, ironically, Movies on demand.


I meant all cable systems in the US. Should have mentioned that in my post.

I am actually surprised that Canada's communications authority has decided to scramble nearly everything on the country's cable systems, including local channels 2-13. Why didn't they leave the local channels unscrambled, so people without cable or converter boxes can still see them? :scratch2: Here in the US, we still have a basic level of cable service that currently provides unscrambled local channels; however, I recently read online (at elgato.com) that analog cable service in the US will be phased out soon, meaning that all cable systems in this country will be 100 percent digital -- no exceptions. I am not sure, however, what the actual cutoff date will be. The Canadian government must remember that there are people in Canada who cannot afford cable or even converter boxes, the same situation as we had here in the US before the DTV transition and immediately afterward. There are people in the US who gave up watching TV altogether, starting the day of the DTV transition; this could and probably will happen in Canada as well, if programming, including local channels, are all but completely scrambled. What kind of equipment will be required to watch cable TV in Canada once the DTV transition is underway there? Will flat panel TVs, with their digital ATSC tuners (as are replacing analog NTSC TVs in the US), work on Canadian cable systems without a cable box? :scratch2:

I meant all cable systems in the US. Should have mentioned that in my post.

I am actually surprised that Canada's communications authority has decided to scramble nearly everything on the country's cable systems, including local channels 2-13. Why didn't they leave the local channels unscrambled, so people without cable or converter boxes can still see them? :scratch2: Here in the US, we still have a basic level of cable service that currently provides unscrambled local channels; however, I recently read online (at elgato.com) that analog cable service in the US will be phased out soon, meaning that all cable systems in this country will be 100 percent digital -- no exceptions. I am not sure, however, what the actual cutoff date will be. The Canadian government must remember that there are people in Canada who cannot afford cable or even converter boxes, the same situation as we had here in the US before the DTV transition and immediately afterward. There are people in the US who gave up watching TV altogether, starting the day of the DTV transition; this could and probably will happen in Canada as well, if programming, including local channels, are all but completely scrambled. What kind of equipment will be required to watch cable TV in Canada once the DTV transition is underway there? Will flat panel TVs, with their digital ATSC tuners (as are replacing analog NTSC TVs in the US), work on Canadian cable systems without a cable box? :scratch2:

The same TVs and standards are used in Canada and the US. Like the US, analog channels on cable are not scrambled, so they will still be usable by legacy sets for quite a while. But. as you say, eventually all analog signals will be removed to allow for more HD channels. All digital versions of basic analog channels are scrambled by many - though not all - providers. There is no proviso by the CRTC that C-Qam basic channels MUST be Clear, unlike FCC rules.

One thing different is that in Canada most repeaters and small stations can remain analog for the next several years, so analog stations will still be receivable from locations outside major cities - also by Americans near the border in many areas. But many stations with that choice are preferring to go ATSC anyway, since most programming is digital and HD. In Toronto's case, a few area services, such as TVOntario, are doing a "Hot Switch." going from analog to digital overnight on the same physical channel. August 31 and September 1 are being planned as "dark days" with no important programs or first runs airing those days, to allow for any technical delays or problems.

It was my understanding that cable systems in the US had to continue to carry local stations in NTSC analog until 2012. If Comcast has stopped doing that, I am not sure they are behaving legally. Here, I have Time Warner which still has the basic suite of stations in NTSC analog. However, I do not have many of my antique TVs on cable, only 3 or 4.

Most of my antique TVs that are restored are on the DTV converter boxes. These are working fine as we are in a major drought here in Texas with no storms. When that changes, I am sure the DTV boxes will crap out as over the air DTV is prone to do. I have a modern set with DTV built in and it craps out on over the air signals also, so the converter boxes are not the issue. Over the air DTV is the issue-unreliable by design.

The main worry that I see for people in the US using their antique sets(or modern DTV sets for that matter) , is how long is broadcast TV going to last. The cellphone companies are forever pressuring the FCC and US government to give them more spectrum, taking it away from the DTV broadcasters.