brewtownska
05-16-2007, 10:17 PM
I'm looking for someone in our SE Wisconsin area who has Time Warner Cable AND using a Samsung SIR-T451 to pick up the QAM channels. I bought one on Ebay and it arrived today, but so far I've had no luck picking up OTA or QAM channels.
To give a little background, I live in Waukesha on a busy street near the airport. I have a Samsung SIR-360 box that works using a Silver Sensor style UHF antenna on top of my a/v center via OTA, but the reception is spotty due to the traffic that drives by in front of my house (my living room is the closest room to the road). I can see whenever the reception breaks up, it's due to a car or truck driving by. At the moment I can't get the antenna up higher to where it helps. I've thought about putting the antenna in the attic and running cable down to the box, but haven't actually attempted it. After doing some Ebay homework, it sounds like the Samsung SIR-T451 handles QAM, so I found a deal on Ebay and bought one. I liked this idea better than trying to upgrade to TWC digital cable, as I'd be paying for the increased service AND a set-top box. I currently have just analog cable and Roadrunner. From searching the board, I think there are people with ONLY Roadrunner (no cable) who are also able to pick up locals via QAM, so I'm fairly sure my setup should be able to pick up something.
I first connected the box to an old computer monitor, set the switches to RGB and 720p, then connected the TWC signal to the RF input on back. Scanned using STD cable, which got hungup at like channel 101. I reset and tried again. I could see it bypassing pretty much all the channels until I got to about 78, then I started seeing many of the channels showing "added". Thing is, once it finished the scan, going to any of those channels in the 70's, 80's, and 90's produced nothing. Some of the channels will show at 70-0 up through like 70-14. I can't find anything on any of those channels. Only once did I find anything, and that was after letting the channel sit there for over a minute (which researching the internet) and all of a sudden some sort of porn came up. I've heard that sometimes pay-per-view channels show up via QAM, so maybe that was someone local that had ordered it and I was able to get it. It disappeared within about 10 seconds, and that's the only signal I've seen all night. I have also scanned for channels using the other CATV formats: HRC and IRC, but no luck.
I attempted the same scans connecting this to my TV in the bedroom, this time using composite cables (yellow, red, white) and switching the switch in back of the tuner to be 481i (analog). I was able to get the menus and do all my scans, yet still nothing. I got the bright idea to attempt finding the OTA channels using my antenna, so I unhooked it from the living room and brought it to the bedroom to try. Still nothing. The odd thing is that I didn't find ANY channels that way when scanning OTA. I'm sure my signal is worse in the bedroom (has to go through all the walls in the house), but I would think I'd get SOMETHING, even if it was just the PSIP data saying the channel exists. But nothing was found.
My gut feeling is the box is a dud (it was from one of those liquidators online that buy all the returns, test them, and resell). It was just shown as tested - powers on, displays video - so it's possible they had the same problems I do now. I think this place will allow me to exhange it for another one, so I'd go that route if I have to. I'm just hoping to find someone local who has the same cable system as me, using the same box, and maybe give me any pointers on good/bad things they've experienced using this setup. I have 7 days to arrange a swap with the Ebay seller, so I'd like to gather some local info in that time before determining if I need to send it back. Sounds like another option for me to try is the Samsung DTB-260F if I can't get this one to work.
Thanks ahead of time for any help!
Mike
To give a little background, I live in Waukesha on a busy street near the airport. I have a Samsung SIR-360 box that works using a Silver Sensor style UHF antenna on top of my a/v center via OTA, but the reception is spotty due to the traffic that drives by in front of my house (my living room is the closest room to the road). I can see whenever the reception breaks up, it's due to a car or truck driving by. At the moment I can't get the antenna up higher to where it helps. I've thought about putting the antenna in the attic and running cable down to the box, but haven't actually attempted it. After doing some Ebay homework, it sounds like the Samsung SIR-T451 handles QAM, so I found a deal on Ebay and bought one. I liked this idea better than trying to upgrade to TWC digital cable, as I'd be paying for the increased service AND a set-top box. I currently have just analog cable and Roadrunner. From searching the board, I think there are people with ONLY Roadrunner (no cable) who are also able to pick up locals via QAM, so I'm fairly sure my setup should be able to pick up something.
I first connected the box to an old computer monitor, set the switches to RGB and 720p, then connected the TWC signal to the RF input on back. Scanned using STD cable, which got hungup at like channel 101. I reset and tried again. I could see it bypassing pretty much all the channels until I got to about 78, then I started seeing many of the channels showing "added". Thing is, once it finished the scan, going to any of those channels in the 70's, 80's, and 90's produced nothing. Some of the channels will show at 70-0 up through like 70-14. I can't find anything on any of those channels. Only once did I find anything, and that was after letting the channel sit there for over a minute (which researching the internet) and all of a sudden some sort of porn came up. I've heard that sometimes pay-per-view channels show up via QAM, so maybe that was someone local that had ordered it and I was able to get it. It disappeared within about 10 seconds, and that's the only signal I've seen all night. I have also scanned for channels using the other CATV formats: HRC and IRC, but no luck.
I attempted the same scans connecting this to my TV in the bedroom, this time using composite cables (yellow, red, white) and switching the switch in back of the tuner to be 481i (analog). I was able to get the menus and do all my scans, yet still nothing. I got the bright idea to attempt finding the OTA channels using my antenna, so I unhooked it from the living room and brought it to the bedroom to try. Still nothing. The odd thing is that I didn't find ANY channels that way when scanning OTA. I'm sure my signal is worse in the bedroom (has to go through all the walls in the house), but I would think I'd get SOMETHING, even if it was just the PSIP data saying the channel exists. But nothing was found.
My gut feeling is the box is a dud (it was from one of those liquidators online that buy all the returns, test them, and resell). It was just shown as tested - powers on, displays video - so it's possible they had the same problems I do now. I think this place will allow me to exhange it for another one, so I'd go that route if I have to. I'm just hoping to find someone local who has the same cable system as me, using the same box, and maybe give me any pointers on good/bad things they've experienced using this setup. I have 7 days to arrange a swap with the Ebay seller, so I'd like to gather some local info in that time before determining if I need to send it back. Sounds like another option for me to try is the Samsung DTB-260F if I can't get this one to work.
Thanks ahead of time for any help!
Mike