Digital Converter box not working?

Question

I have had a Magnavox digital converter box hooked up for two weeks now, everything was going fine until yesterday when I could not get any signals on any channels. I exchanged the box for another one but still no signal. I still get signals from analog, but nothing digital. What else could be the problem?

Answer 1

Glenroi could be right that the TV stations had stopped broadcasting in digital for one reason or another.



Another possible reason is that you bought your box from K-Mart (Magnavox is a very cheap brand) and the thing has been bashed around in transit and the tuner inside has been damaged.

The tuner is very sensitive and does not like being mistreated or it has been thrown around by delivery drivers or even store staff themselves.



Any number of reasons can be responsible for the thing not working.

I once bought 4 PS2s in 2 days from K-Mart and not 1 would work - the staff just don't respect the stock.



I would suggest you buy a convetor box made by Strong - they are extremely reliable.

Answer 2

I bought my parents an Apex DT250A for Christmas without looking into it much. This was before I knew much about TV's. Bad decision on my part. The only plus about it is that it has coaxial, composite AV, and S-video output (S-video output isn't available on most converter boxes). Thing is the TV is from 1984 and only has twin-lead connections for UHF and VHF, so it didn't even matter (plus I had to find a 300-to-75 ohm balanced transformer). At least it works, but there's a LOT of dot crawl (could be caused in part by the twin-lead ribbon cable though). Reception isn't great and it only picks up about half the channels it's supposed to, but then again a lot of people are having trouble picking up DTV signals, and they're still using rabbit ears (even though I suggested they hook it up to the roof antenna which hasn't been used since 1993, when they got cable for the main living room TV). The remote control has a very narrow angle and range. Most annoying of all, the thing kind of buzzes when in standby mode. Not all converter boxes are bad though. The Zenith ones are better. Many people can't afford to get new TV's or get satellite (or cable where it's available), and there's absolutely nothing wrong with most of the working analog CRT televisions from five, ten, fifteen, twenty plus years ago.

Answer 3

Either you're not getting a cable signal (if you're using cable) or you're not getting a digital signal. If you were getting digital over the air, it's possible the stations were testing their digital signals and not transmitting now. Check with one of the stations.

Answer 4

You need an Antenna. If you have a digital tv (HDTV) then you don't need a converter box!!!!