Digital TV Signals-receiving

[ldn354]

I purchased a Panasonic DVD Recorder Model DMR-EZ37V about 6 weeks ago. It has 2 tuners-one for Analog TV signals and one for Digital TV Signals. I watched the digital tuner to see the digital TV signals in my area.
About 4 days ago, the recorder stopped receiving the digital stations-my analog stations are still coming in fine. I reset the unit as per the instructions but, the digital stations didn't return. I reset it again but there was no change.
I called Panasonic Customer Service-they basically said that my "supplier" was responsible for any problem. I explained that I live in a rural area beyond cable and that all of the digital stations could not have stopped broadcasting at the same time.
They basically shrugged and acted like I had been lucky to ever pick up a digital signal and told me to check the antenna connections and to try to reset the unit again.
I don't understand why I received digital signals for 6 weeks and now can't get them. There were 12 digital stations from 6 locations and can't believe they've all stopped (according to Panasonic anyway.)
Is there something wrong with the recorder-still records fine and I still receive analog signals fine. Should I disconnect the antenna and reconnect it? Any ideas? Thanks.

[edDV]

I purchased a Panasonic DVD Recorder Model DMR-EZ37V about 6 weeks ago. It has 2 tuners-one for Analog TV signals and one for Digital TV Signals. I watched the digital tuner to see the digital TV signals in my area.
About 4 days ago, the recorder stopped receiving the digital stations-my analog stations are still coming in fine. I reset the unit as per the instructions but, the digital stations didn't return. I reset it again but there was no change.
I called Panasonic Customer Service-they basically said that my "supplier" was responsible for any problem. I explained that I live in a rural area beyond cable and that all of the digital stations could not have stopped broadcasting at the same time.
They basically shrugged and acted like I had been lucky to ever pick up a digital signal and told me to check the antenna connections and to try to reset the unit again.
I don't understand why I received digital signals for 6 weeks and now can't get them. There were 12 digital stations from 6 locations and can't believe they've all stopped (according to Panasonic anyway.)
Is there something wrong with the recorder-still records fine and I still receive analog signals fine. Should I disconnect the antenna and reconnect it? Any ideas? Thanks.

I think they were saying you should return the unit to the retailer and get another. If the purchase is beyond the return limit, then ask for an RMA to return it to Panasonic. When you ask for an RMA they get serious about "other issues" that could be the problem. I can't think of a reason digital reception should stop when analog continues unless your tuner has separate input for digital and that input got disconnected. Also, did you rescan the digital channels?

[guns1inger]

If your infrastructure is anything like our rural infrastructure then you may find that all signals run through a single repeater tower with multiple dishes on it. If that tower fails for whatever reason - loss of power etc - then everything running through it stops until it is repaired. You may receive analogue signals from different repeaters at different strengths, but because of the nature of digital reception, it could go while analogue signals remain.

[edDV]

Life in the outback. I only wish I had RF reception.

[ldn354]

Thank you for your replies. To edDV: I didn't make it clear-I did rescan the digital channels-several times. And what they meant by "supplier" was a cable TV supplier which didn't apply in my case. The digital & analog channels come in on the same cable from my antenna and use the same connection.
To gunslinger: there are channels from different directions and different cities and I've tried to rescan them with no luck. I don't think they use the same repeater tower.

[edDV]

Your antenna needs to be pointed at the station transmitter for a scan to work. I'd use www.antennaweb.org to locate the stations (distance and direction) from your street address and enter the channel numbers ("frequency asssignment") manually. Then find tha station by pointing the antenna. Channel number is the right column on the antennaweb listing not the station number given on air.

How far away are the transmitters and what antenna are you using?

[ldn354]

The transmitters are different directions and distances away-one is 20 miles
ENE, another is 30 miles NE, another is 35 miles NW, and the last is 45 miles NW. This recorder doesn't allow manual entry of stations-its only by a channel scan.
I'm using an outside antenna mounted on 15 ft high pole next to the roof of my house.
As I've said, I'm still puzzled as to why they worked for 6 weeks and then suddenly quit.

[edDV]

The transmitters are different directions and distances away-one is 20 miles
ENE, another is 30 miles NE, another is 35 miles NW, and the last is 45 miles NW. This recorder doesn't allow manual entry of stations-its only by a channel scan.
I'm using an outside antenna mounted on 15 ft high pole next to the roof of my house.
As I've said, I'm still puzzled as to why they worked for 6 weeks and then suddenly quit.

Maybe the antenna, connection or the tuner itself.

[qz3fwd]

Could be a bad coax cable also. I was getting crappy cable reception and the comcrap guy replaced the coax and fixed the issue. (Cable was only 4 years old)

[ldn354]

Thank you for the help. I disconnected the antenna cable and reconnected to the DVD recorder.
Then I rescanned and was able to pick up the digital channels once more. I don't know what caused the problem but it has been working the past week.