Trouble with DVD Recorder recognizing cable channels

[Marianne777]

Have a Lite-On 1107HC1 Recorder, and APEX TV. After having done the autoscan of channels in the set-up, the Recorder will only recognize two channels (5 & 6). Have the cable (no cable box) wires going correctly as instructed. This also happened (same two channels) with another recorder (Memorex), which I returned because I thought it was faulty, but now not sure, since the same problem is happening. Any ideas?

[BJ_M]

make sure you are set to cable , not air, in setup or input select

[Marianne777]

Thanks for the reply, but it doesn't help. I was definitely set on cable. Any other ideas? Makes no sense to me....

[yoda313]

Can you manually add channels??

I have that exact dvd recorder and I recently got analog cable without a box. I have it plugged in straight to the dvd recorder and I get all my channels.

Have you called the cable company about this?

Like I said see if you can manually add channels. Might be a pain but if it works you should only have to do it once (or again later if you have a power outage).

[SingSing]

The cable signal level is too low. You just have set it up by hand, 5 minutes work. Or call the cable company or buy an amp, but it don't always work because the noise floor is too high.

[Marianne777]

Thanks for this info -- actually, I am not finished setting it all in manually (takes a lot longer than 5 minutes to input 80 channels, as each one needs to be "fine-tuned" on this recorder, but it does seem to be working. If I did call my cable company, what is it that I should tell them, and do you know what they would or could do to fix this? Thanks...

[jameshgross]

You will only get the service from your cable supplier that you demand.
There is no reason to tolerate low signal levels and high noise floor.
The service tech can quickly test the quality of the signal comming into the house.
You are responsible for it after that.
Make sure that there are not several splitters in the system.
You should be able to trace the cable in the house.
Remenber that each splitter will reduce the signal level by half, or more depending on the slpits.
So it does not take very many to reduce the signal to minimums.
What they can do is: Add/replace on pole amps or remove attinuators or replace defective downdrops.
fix bad connectors the list is endless.

[jameshgross]

One other thing the cable tech can do is find illegal taps on the system. That can greatly reduce signal level.