We have a pretty, modern, flat screen TV in the living room. It works well with the cable box.
My husband decided to drag out an old analog TV. He went to our cable provider and got a digital adaptor. The guy gave him a little box and a very simple remote and told him to hook it up and he’d have TV in his man-cave.
He dug out some coaxial cable and hooked it up.
The TV came on, with a message saying that we have an interruption in service. We don’t. The living room TV is working just fine.
I got frustrated with the whole thing (hubby included, he is testing the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.)
So, I came here to ask my virtual friends what we could possibly be doing wrong. (Because, obviously, it couldn’t be that the cable company gave him defective equipment. :smack:)
I found the code for the TV to work with the remote. It turns on and off. That’s all the instruction that came home with him.
I suggested he use an different cable outlet. It’s possible the one he’s using was damaged in our flood a couple years ago.
I read the little bit that Comcast offers about digital adaptors. It basicly said plug it in, it should work, but no premium channels. (we don’t have them anyway.)
That’s all I’ve got. I’m counting on you. Don’t fail me now.
try the box and tv at a different location to let you know if they work. that is what i would suggest too.
after you know it works then you need to examine the wall jack and cable to the man-cave. pull the face plate off and see if the cable is connected to the jack. is the cable still connected somewhere on the other end?
Does the TV allow you to select inputs? If so, is it set to receive “cable,” “air,” “video,” “aux” or something else? Try selecting different inputs and see if it comes in on a different one.
You didn’t mention activating the digital adapter.
The adapters decode an encrypted TV signal. In order to prevent unauthorized parties from stealing cable service, they come deactivated. After you hook up the adapter you have to call Comcast or log into their web site to have them send an activation signal down the line.
The same is true for all of their devices such as DVRs, M-cards, and set top boxes. They have to be activated remotely by sending a signal down the cable after they are installed.
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What socket on the TV did you plug it into ?
Also, it would also have to go to the matching socket (match by socket type) on the decoder… RF to RF… or composite to composite, or whatever
Also you have to be able to tell the TV to go to that source…
And if you did use RF (radio frequency, as if it was received from the antenna…), you’d have to tune the TV to listen to that frequency.
If the adapter was plugged into the wrong input on the TV or the TV was tuned to the wrong source, they wouldn’t have seen the message. The adapter couldn’t have displayed it on their screen.
Thank you that was very helpful. He’s talking to Comcast now. You’d think the guy at the Comcast store would have told him that. Actually, he might have. Just because he has two ears doesn’t mean he listens twice as much as he talks.
( I love him, I really do, but today he is vexing me.)
Your post glosses over some pertinent facts.
I’m guessing that the ‘adapter box’ is to adapt the signal OUT of your cable box for an analog TV. It isn’t a standalone cable box. I’ve never heard of such an adapter having any remote though. And if that is what it is, he’ll only be able to watch what is on the main TV.
The digital-analog adapters I’m familiar with are for use with antennas for digital / HD TV - and they do have remotes. They don’t have anything to do with cable TV service.
It is a stand alone adaptor from our cable company. It delivers the same channels we pay for, except it can’t do premium channels.
Read Alley Dweller’s link.