Now that the (original) DTV transition deadline has come and gone, I’m wondering if you actually had any customers call you up to have a converter box installed or to see if they needed any upgrade.

Did you do any DTV upgrades?

A couple asking if they were ok.

Installed 10+ UHF antenna’s. Most of the antenna’s calls were a result of doing a talk radio show on the DTV transition.

Installed 5+ converter box’s. Non of the converters we’ve seen sold locally and they don’t have analog pass-thru, which is needed in this area. They have to cut the converter box off, change inputs to TV and change channels. Sold some universal remotes!

Oh man ...

Missouri man, angered over DTV switch, shoots his TV set

NBC—The digital transition has left some confused, but a Joplin man was down right frustrated with the switch. So frustrated, in fact, that he peppered his television set with gunfire.

Police responded to the man’s house Wednesday after reports of shots being fired inside.

Turns out the 70-year-old gunman was livid over losing cable and could not get his digital converter box to work. Police took Walter Hoover into custody after a brief standoff and charged him with unlawful use of a firearm.

Hoover’s wife told police that he had been drinking before the incident.

That’s crazy. Fortunately no1 was hurt in the process. Remember this: Man shoots wife while installing satellite TV system

Officials are trying to decide whether to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while trying to install a satellite TV system in their home.

Thirty-four-year-old Patsy Long of Deep Water was pronounced dead Saturday evening after being shot in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired the shot from the inside of their home after several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.

I just did one today and it was less than pleasant.

I was dealing with multiple converter boxes from Zenith and Insignia, although the boxes were identical aside from the logo. Each box picked up different channels.

We got the best picture on the most channels by running the RG6 from the antenna, to the converter box, to the VCR and then finally to the TV.

I have no logical explanation as to why it worked best this way, if anyone has any input, I’m all ears.

I’ve done a bunch of these upgrades in NYC, with just about all types of converters from Zenith to Insignia and found that the Samsung converters are the best, they even get the digital music channels.  But it’s generally hit or miss for no apparent reason, I’ve done apartments with several bedrooms and some rooms get some channels while other rooms get zip…........go figure.

We ran into an interesting scenario this week. We had installed a converter box for a client some time ago, and everything was working well. After the transition, the client complained that they could only get two channels. We forced a rescan, and the box now picks up all channels.

Just in case anyone runs into similar issues - save yourself some troubleshooting time and force a channel scan if things aren’t working right!

I’ve done a few DTV upgrades in apartment buildings. In my opinion, it’s very difficult to distribute, in some buildings you’re very lucky to have good signal in 12+ floors, while in others you can’t even get the signal to go down 3 floors!! It’s very frustrating when you have older people breathing down your neck cause they can’t watch there news, and its always the channels that they love that are missing, go figure!

I believe it has to do with the quality of wire that was ran through the building. If the wire is in good shape so are you! When one T.V. has all channels and the others don’t, try changing the splitters, the UHF/DTV signals operate at a higher frequencies than most splitters don’t handle. If you still don’t have all channels try the line, and if it still doesn’t work RUN!!!!

inspiredelectronics - 18 June 2009 07:48 AM

We ran into an interesting scenario this week. We had installed a converter box for a client some time ago, and everything was working well. After the transition, the client complained that they could only get two channels. We forced a rescan, and the box now picks up all channels.

Just in case anyone runs into similar issues - save yourself some troubleshooting time and force a channel scan if things aren’t working right!

This happened because after June 12th most networks switched there broadcast frequency!