OT - Helping Grandma Hook Up Her Samsung 4k LCD - Stuck & Need Help

WeberWho

Sorry for such an off the wall post. My wife's grandma's 25+ year old Sony TV finally went to crap. So after a little researching I found a 40" Samsung 4k Smart TV for her. Will Grandma ever need for 4k TV? Absolutely not. I couldn't pass it up on the price. 4k, 120hz, and being a Smart TV for $299. Way more than she will ever use but the grandchildren will enjoy it!

So here's the issue, the Smart TV is smarter than me. I can't figure it out. My wife's Grandma lives in a senior living apartment and she buys a Directv package for $25/month through her facility. It gives her some 15 cable channels. Her previous setup was straight forward. She had a coaxial cable that ran from her apartment wall to the back of her old Sony Crt TV. Easy enough. So I hooked up her new Samsung lcd the same way. I ran the coaxial cable from the wall to the back of the TV. All is good so far. Now I run into my issue. When going through the initial setup on the tv, I have it scan for channels. It picks up 20+ over the air channels in crystal clear HD. Unfortunately it's not any of the 15 channels my wife's grandma pays for with Directv. I've tried every possible way to find these channels she's paid for. I've tried the cable scanning option and it picks up 2 or 3 of the channels she's paid for but are super grainy. I've rescanned 5 different times with zero luck. How does an old 25 year old Sony Crt tv find the Directv channels but this new tv can't? Does it need some separate tuner or box? No one else uses a box in her apartment complex. Will a new lcd tv not decode this information coming in through a coax cable? I've spent the last two nights at her apartment trying to find her paid cable but having zero luck. Just wondering if anyone has had a same issue or maybe has a suggestion. Thanks for any help!

Hans61

I think you might need a HD box.

cable from the wall doesn't work on HD tV's 

Hans61

Cable from wall to cable box. HDMI cable from box to tv. 

WeberWho

Hans61 said:

I think you might need a HD box.

cable from the wall doesn't work on HD tV's 

Her paid Directv won't be in HD. I'm looking just for the paid channels in general. My Grandma has a Panasonic Plasma TV on the other side of the building and gets non-hd cable from a coaxial cable. I just can't figure out for the life of me why this Samsung tv can't pull it up when scanning. It's crazy

bigalsworth

If push comes to shove calling direct TV could be your best bet.   And maybe this will help.
https://community.sony.com/t5/Television-General/Sony-Bravia-TV-Can-t-find-any-channels/td-p/521928

HeavyG

I don't know anything about DirectTV per se.

If she was getting signals direct from the wall (no box of any kind) on her old tube tv then the complex is not feeding just a digital signal to the outlets they were also sending an analog signal. Old tvs would only read analog signals.

My cable company use to send some basic signals thru the outlet in analog so old tvs would not need a box to see them. They stopped doing that a few years ago and now send only digital signals. If you want to use an old analog tv now you have to use a simple converter box so the signal will be converted to analog.

Do all of her neighbors also still use old tube tv's? If some of them are using new digital tv's I'd take a look at their connections. I'd also ask management about the tv service as they should have the scoop on how to hook things up.

I'd also check the menu settings/options on the new tv to make sure you have told it to look at the right connector and be sure to tell it you are receive signals via cable not over the air or something else.

cazzy

If you grab a 6 foot coaxial and connected it to your TV, you basically can use that copper as an antenna and it will pick up channels.  This however only works if your Antenna is set to "Air". 



You may only get a few channels, but it works.  Since you're connecting the coaxial from the wall, that's a lot more copper and you'll get even more channels.

I have a feeling you need to change it from "Air" to "Cable" and you'll be good to go.



I'll PM you my number...call me anytime and I'll be happy to help you if this doesn't resolve your issue.

billt01

a lot of the newer MONITORS are NOT televisions...

They are, for lack of a better term, stupid and do NOT have tuners built in.

My Vizio M70 does not have a tuner.

buzd504

billt01 said:

a lot of the newer MONITORS are NOT televisions...

They are, for lack of a better term, stupid and do NOT have tuners built in.

My Vizio M70 does not have a tuner.

But if he is picking up antenna stations, then he has a tuner.  I think @cazzy got it right.

billt01

I know this is a bit different, but they may used the same tuners...

SaintJohnsEgger

@cazzy has you on the right track. You are searching for the "cable" stuff on the wrong input channel. You probably want be able to have both at the same time as you will need to switch inputs to which ever you are trying to watch.

My 4K is like that. Switch from HDMI1 to HDMI2 or over to Internet depending on what I want to watch.

WeberWho

@Hans6 @bigalsworth @HeavyG @cazzy @billt01

Thank you all for the help and suggestions.

Cazzy I've tried scanning under the cable option a few times. I am able to pull 2 or 3 channels out of the 15 she pays for but they are snowy looking. 

My wife's Grandma had the facility person come over yesterday afternoon and mess with it. I think I had better luck than he did. He said no other residents are having any issues. (I'm guessing the other residents don't have newer TV's) 

Could it be the TV only accepts a digital signal? I'm assuming the coax cable is only analog? My grandma on the other end of the building has a Panasonic Plasma. It's around 4 years old. Maybe her TV accepts analog cable since it's older and I shouldn't be comparing it to hers.

Thanks again for any help! 

bigalsworth

Coax can be digital, its coax that people run from their satellites to their receivers.  If it is something that feeds the whole apartment building then maybe it is a very outdated service provided.  Direct tv may be able to help with your problem since they are the ones sending the signal.

What model of samsung is it?  It will help troubleshoot

WeberWho

bigalsworth said:

Coax can be digital, its coax that people run from their satellites to their receivers.  If it is something that feeds the whole apartment building then maybe it is a very outdated service provided.  Direct tv may be able to help with your problem since they are the ones sending the signal.

What model of samsung is it?  It will help troubleshoot

@bigalsworth It's a Samsung KU6290 Series UN40KU6290F 

I've looked around the Web but haven't found much information with people having similar situations. 

bigalsworth

You might need to get this.  The info on the RF In (terrestrial/cable input) says that it accepts analogue signals often used for connecting cable TV.  The problem might be that the cable may be digital not analogue so it does not work through that input.

http://https//hdguru.com/what-is-rvu-youll-want-to-know/

kl8ton

Some in depth stuff here:
http://www.dbstalk.com/community/index.php?threads/directv-feed-in-a-nursing-home-question.201302/#post-3071527

I was curious what the "head end" of a nursing home system would look like if in each room the coax went from wall to tv (no receiver box).  Scroll down in that link to see pics.  There is quite a bit of in depth discussion in that thread.  I would probably return the tv and try to find a make/model that is known working that you see in another residents room.

WeberWho

bigalsworth said:

You might need to get this.  The info on the RF In (terrestrial/cable input) says that it accepts analogue signals often used for connecting cable TV.  The problem might be that the cable may be digital not analogue so it does not work through that input.

http://https//hdguru.com/what-is-rvu-youll-want-to-know/

Thanks for the info @bigalsworth I'll see if anyone knows what kind of cable runs over to her apartment. Is there some type of converter box that converts digital to analogue? 

bigalsworth

you might be better off returning the TV if it is an option and getting an even cheaper and less techy one.

WeberWho

bigalsworth said:

you might be better off returning the TV if it is an option and getting an even cheaper and less techy one.

@bigalsworth Dang. I just might have to. Everything else around the price wasn't too impressive which is kind of a downer. Not sure what else I can do at this point. 

bigalsworth

If you have to pay more to buy a box of some sort the deal won't be so great anymore.  There are digital to analogue boxes though that are cheap
http://https//www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-AT102-Digital-Converter-Box/54655846#about-item

Thats assuming that I am right that it is a digital signal coming in.

WeberWho

@bigalsworth It turns out that the signal coming in to her apartment is analogue. Here's the kicker, the guy who runs maintenance came back and checked the coax box in her apartment and said it was bad. He's getting parts tomorrow. Maybe the reason why a few channels were trying to push through when scanning for cable channels. I'm hoping this is the problem. I'm going to plug in her old tv at my house and see if anything is wrong with it. It could have been just a bad connection with her old tube. Fingers crossed! Analogue to analogue should be a green light. We will see tomorrow I guess. Thanks again 

bigalsworth

that would be sweet, hope it works out

SaintJohnsEgger

You could also keep the 4K for your house and give her your tv if it will work for her.

WeberWho

bigalsworth said:

that would be sweet, hope it works out

I'm feeling a little more confident:

Her old TV is working without any issues here at my house. It doesn't look so good in the photo but that's just my camera phone messing with the image. At least I can give her old TV back if the new one doesn't pan out. 

WeberWho

SaintJohnsEgger said:

You could also keep the 4K for your house and give her your tv if it will work for her.

I like your thinking SaintJohnsEgger.  A little too small to switch out for the one here in the house. The basement needs remodeling. So I'm holding off for an additional TV. I was drooling over some of them when shopping though