I have a Sony 55" Grand Wega that had been working flawlessly for over a year and a half. The problem is that my analog channels keep losing and regaining signal over and over. It happens like this...any channel 2-73 on my Comcast system will work when I change to that channel. After a few seconds, the picture starts deteriorating and finally loses it's signal. The picture immediately comes back just fine for a few seconds, then it loses signal again. It just does this continually, over and over in a vicious loop. It is not always consistent...sometimes the channel will work for about 5 minutes, and then start to gradually get worse, then lose signal, and immediately gain it back if I turn the channel. I spoke to a technician who suggested that it may be a bad NTSC tuner or QBox (?). All my digital channels and HD channels continue to work with no problems. I have tried connecting to other outlets in the house to rule out a bad wall outlet, and the problem follows the tv. Other non-HD tv's in the house work with no problems. Another weird thing the technician had me try...enable picture-in-picture while this is happening. If I do PIP, the channel looks fine on the small picture (and stays fine), but the larger picture loses signal. Any thoughts on what may be happening?
Are you sure you're not a closet cableguy? lol. Everything you've done indicates there is something wrong with the tuner in your grand wega. The problem follows the TV, other non-hd tv's in the house work perfectly fine, the problem is the TV.
Cableguy, thanks for the feedback. I am humbled that you would refer to me as a closet cableguy. I posted on this forum when I first got my HDTV, and you were instrumental in helping me solve the problem that I had out of the box. What you are doing on this forum is providing an invaluable service...please keep up the good work. Your comments are greatly apprecitated! Now, it sounds like I've got a $500-600 repair bill on the horizon.
UPDATE: After posting back in January '07, the problem mysteriously went away, and all was well. In early December '07, after almost a year of working with no issues, the problem reappeared. I contact Comcast and scheduled a service call, but they did not show during the time alotted. I spoke to a technician by phone, and asked if they could check the signal quality coming into my home, and he said he would talk to his supervisor and get back with me. I never received a callback, but the problem disappeared 2 days later. I still don't know if Comcast made any changes. Anyways, I thought I was free and clear until 2 weeks later, the problem is back. This has to be a Comcast issue, doesn't it? If the analog tuner in my tv is bad, wouldn't it stay bad? I contacted Comcast, and scheduled them again this weekend, so hopefully this can be resolved. Has anyone else had this problem?
Mark Deavers, This does sound like a tuner issue. Tuners have a circuit called AGC (Automatic Gain Control) and AFC (Automatic Frequency Control)and PPL or PLL (Phase Lock Loop), sometimes they fail and your done, other times they fluctuate depending on control voltages and the issue will appear intermittent.
Not that this is your issue, but it does read this way.
After experiencing the problem once again (and correcting itself once again), I have figured what is causing the problem. It is the weather! The problem disappears as it gets warmer, and returns as the weather gets colder. Call me crazy, but the problem occurred during the winter months, and continued until spring. As soon as we had a couple of warm days, the problem went away. Maybe I just need to move to Florida.
I seem to be having a similar problem with my Mistubishi WS-55517 CRT. I'm hoping that it isn't anything serious but ocassionaly our tv seems to lose the analog signal that we have here with comcast. The digital signal is just fine of course but the analog signal takes a while to tune in. Once it gets the signal it tends to be just fine but it seems to go out and back into signal for no apparent reason...Typically, this signal lose only happens when we first turn the tv on in the morning and usually only lasts for 5-10 minutes...the analog picture is just in black and white and it looks like the tv needs to track in. Any thoughts??? We just purchased the tv from an individual here locally. No problems until the other day...
If your NTSC tuner is bad, my guess is that it will cost you @ $600 or more for the tuner and labor. Ironically, the tuner to my Sony only acts up when the weather variables change. It has been fine now for a few months.
Well, I switched to Comcast Digital and my problems are all solved for now. I'm hoping that the tuner isn't slowly eroding away or something. The digital signals come in just fine- so for now no worries!! Thank goodness for the digital switch or I would be experiencing some buyers remorse!
