Converter Box?

Question

I have a 1987 Sony TV that works great and the converter box will not work on it. I even went & bought more expenive rabbit ears and it still won't work. What is it I need to do?

Answer 1

I'm using my converter box on a 1984 Mitsubishi TV and it works great.

Forgive me if I state the obvious, but here's a list of possibilities.

You're too far from the TV stations. Check antennaweb, below.

You don't have the box hooked up properly. It should connect either by coax, with your TV set to channel 3 or 4, or with AV cables, with your TV set to Video or Line input. You'll select channels with the remote control for the converter box, not the TV channel control.

You need to run the channel scan program on the converter box so it records the channels you receive. Try re-reading the converter box installation instructions again - you may have missed something.

Answer 2

Make sure your TV is on channel 3.  It's just like playing a movie from your VCR.

Also, on mine, there is a power button that changes the front from red to blue and vice versa.  Red means you are on analog, and blue means you are on digital.

You still use the TV to house the antenna, but you connect the antenna to the converter box electrically.

Answer 3

You have to tell us how you have it connected and what you have done to set it up so we have a chance to figure out what you've done wrong.

Without any information I can only guess that you haven't switched the Sony to channel 3 or 4 (which ever one the switch on the back of the converter is set for).

You might need a better antenna.  With digital, its all or nothing.  Either you have a perfect picture or nothing....there is no fuzzy snowy in between.

If you are seeing snow, then something IS NOT connected right or is not turned on.  If the converter box is on, you should see a black screen instead of snow.

Is the converter plugged in?

Is the converter turned on?

Is the 3 you see on the screen from the tv or from the converter box?  I think it must be from the TV.  Are you sure the converter box is configured to use channel 3?  Maybe its set for channel 4.

Did you run the auto scan of the converter box?  can you see the menus of the converter box on the tv?