I have an older TV and use an antenna, so bought a digital converter box four years ago for The Big Switch. The box has been getting finicky, and at this point doesn’t seem to be working at all – even when I can get it to actually turn on (as opposed to just having the light turn from red to green), it just says “no program,” “no program,” or “weak signal” regardless of what channel I turn to. Turning things off and on again was working for a while – last night I got it to work by flipping the surge protector off and on. Today I can’t get TV at all. Makes no difference whether I’m controlling from the box itself of via the remote. Yes, all the wires are snugly connected.
The TV itself is fine – I can watch a DVD no problem.
Can I just get a new converter box, or do I need to bite the bullet and buy a digital TV? I would really rather spend $50 to deal with this rather than $250 if possible.
Short version, I guess, is – do the digital converter boxes go bad?
It sounds like the TV works fine; if there was a problem with it’s receiver circuits, it would affect DVD playback as well. I don’t know much about DTV converter boxes (most of what I know comes from opening discarded electronics), but the red light and other symptoms certainly suggest there is something wrong with it. If I had a guess, I would say failing electrolytic capacitors, which are an issue in many electronics (I once found a DTV box with this failure mode, although I don’t know how its operation was affected), especially if they run hot and/or are poorly designed; this often results in weird symptoms including gradual failure and failure to turn on properly.
My mom got two of the boxes during that gov’t coupon dealie. First box died after a few months of having it hooked up. 2nd identical box is still working.
But it’s still a hassle compared to when they were using analog. All or nothing is not a great situation with rabbit ears. Much better to just live with a snowy picture than SIGNAL NOT FOUND and having to rearrange things trying to get stuff to come in.
It could be a bad box and you just need a new one, or it could be that your antenna isn’t positioned optimally. Because of the all or nothing nature of the digital signal, sometimes it’s hard to tell. Have you tried adjusting your antenna?
This site can offer some location-specific guidance on how to position it optimally.
I agree it’s likely the converter box. If the ONLY thing you did was power the box off and back on by flipping the switch…I don’t see many other options for what could go wrong.
I’d go by a new one and try it out. Keep the receipt just in case it doesn’t help for one reason or another. But I suspect it will.
-D/a
if twickster has had it for four years, and it’s just recently started flaking out; then it’s probably safe to assume the antenna isn’t the source of the problem.
No, I don’t think it’s the antenna – I live within a couple of miles of most of the main antennas. Either the light goes on but the converter doesn’t start (just black snow on the TV), or if I can get it to start, it doesn’t pick up a single channel.
I’ll get a new converter box and, as** D/A** suggests, keep the receipt.
Also…if it does turn out to be the converter box (as seems likely)…the old one is probably fixable. I doubt it would be worth spending the money to do so unless you have a friend locally who wants to work on it.
Here in South Florida, we have a recycling system called ARC Broward - they use old and broken electronics as a means to train and employee people with disabilities.
It might be worth checking for something like that to donate the old one.
-D/a
make sure to give the box lots of room for air, don’t block the vents and don’t have stuff right next to it. heat causes electronics to deteriorate and some converter box designs were not ventilated as good as they should be.