PanaMark, your Pani is capable of displaying the real channel. Panasonic customer support describes how you can do that here:http://www.panasonic.ca/english/customercare/faq/faqanswer.asp?TYPE_NAME=Question%20(s)&CAT_NAME=VIERA%20Televisions&CAT_ID=6&QUESTION_ID=112

Same. But my Bravia doesn't seem to have a ATSC program guide which is pretty lame.

I bought myself a new TV/monitor and got it up and running today.
It's a Samsung T240HD, and so far I'm satisfied.
The tuner is roughly equivalent to my HVR-1250 in terms of sensitivity.
Manufacture date is April 2009, so either they use old chips in this line or it's 6th gen and there aren't any stations close enough to borderline for me to notice a difference (yet).

My test isn't the most scientific, so I'll be doing a side-by-side test using identical cables to see how it fares and update my findings ;)

(Just in case anyone wants to know how good this tuner is when considering this monitor)

KF-42E200A does not have an ATSC tuner according to the manual. Here is a direct link:

http://esupport.sony.com/CA/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=KF42E200A&LOC=3

KF-42E200A does not have an ATSC tuner according to the manual.

Interesting. Sony Style Canada says the same thing:

Tuner: NTSC

It must be a made for Canada model.

As Canada and the U.S.A. have been in the transition process from NTSC analogue to ATSC digital OTA television broadcasting, the individual stations have implemented the PSIP data format standard (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=49384) that provides crucial information to the circuitry and software in the consumer's ATSC tuner. Channel numbers, names, schedules, and other info are provided by the PSIP data streams.

Samsung HDTVs are very popular and generally very good, but the quality of Samsung tuners for DTV has been in question for quite awhile as many reports to this site and on the Internet indicate that they are particularly sensitive to PSIP data format issues while most other brands are not.

The question of this poll is: In your own experience, has your Samsung HDTV or Samsung-equipped DTV tuner shown abnormal PSIP data quality issues?Please post to this thread with your experiences with Samsung ATSC tuners regarding PSIP quality issues. If you are certain that your non-Samsung brand unit has a Samsung ATSC chipset in it please feel free to post here and take the poll.

My mom-in-law's brand new Sammy 32" isn't able to remap (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=377665&postcount=15) CHAN-DT (Global Vancouver) from 22.1 to 8.1 but does all the others properly. All my non-Sammy ATSC tuners do that remap properly.

There is another thread specifically for Samsung ATSC tuners having problems (poll) but other brands I'm sure are having hiccups too.

Our Toshiba seems to have problems with 66-1 CKXT Toronto and 16-7 Rochester (audio only channel). CKXT will randomly add and remove itself from the Tuner's memory. Really annoying. 16-7 from Rochester brings the TV to it's knees. It becomes almost completely non-responsive to remote control or side of set buttons. Model 19AV600U.

Knowing how easily these problems have cropped up, I'd suggest this be seen to much sooner than later, as there obviously seems to be implementation problems with PSIP data and standards compliance.

Cameron

CamDAB it is possible that Toshiba uses a Samsung ATSC chipset in that model. Other than LG and one or two other companies, no mainstream manufacturer makes ATSC chipsets. Everybody else just buys them for use on their own production runs.

CamDAB it is possible that Toshiba uses a Samsung ATSC chipset in that model. Other than LG and one or two other companies, no mainstream manufacturer makes ATSC chipsets. Everybody else just buys them for use on their own production runs.

Uh... maybe... :-) How would you tell without taking apart a brand new set under a multi-year warranty? Not me. :)

Cameron

As mentioned in other threads, my Samsung DTV stb (SIR-T451) has routinely suffered through the CHCH PSIP remap issue discussed above. I was not aware that they (CHCH engineering) briefly corrected the issue back in May however.
I'm not certain of the brand of chipset of my other DTV tuners, but they do remap correctly.

BTW, are we certain that the issue is Samsung tuners? I have wondered that it might be a software/firmware/version issue at the encoding end, or combo of both encoding and receiving end. Not all stations would be using the same gear, and we as consumers would have no way of determining this. It is conceivable that a slight error at the encoding end, would make the remapping issue appear on some tuners and not others. Especially if non-Samsung tuners were used during quality testing.

My Sam DLP has a problem with Whatever CH is doing with re-mapping, ie. it doesn't work. the rare times it did re-map to 11.1, it reverted back to 18.1 with no ID, next day.

On the other hand, I've had Audio only subchannels show up on my Sammy, that I can't get on my Toshiba 37 510u or my Bell EVu tuners.

Got another problem, anybody with other tuners may have.
To ADD a channel on the sammy, enter the TX channel, it finds the new station and re-maps it, adds to the list.
I can't add TX ch 23 (51.1), because i already have a station re-mapped to 23.1
The Bell tuner will do an Add Scan, doesn't wipe out the already added channels, just adds new.
The toshiba found 51.1 when i entered 23.

Any Ideas?

This may sound odd, but can you manually tell your TV that analog channel 23 is there? My Panny TV lets me do that, and will let me tune to RF channel 23 even if there is something mapped to 23-1 (which in my case there is - WUCW).

In my case there's nothing there on RF 23 so all I get is snow, but I'm confident if there were something there it would pick it up and map it (after which I could remove analog 23).

This may sound odd, but can you manually tell your TV that analog channel 23 is there? My Panny TV lets me do that, and will let me tune to RF channel 23 even if there is something mapped to 23-1 (which in my case there is - WUCW).

In my case there's nothing there on RF 23 so all I get is snow, but I'm confident if there were something there it would pick it up and map it (after which I could remove analog 23).
thanx, but nope, tried that.

I just did a complete re-scan, 30 DTV, 15 analog.

Now i gotta spend 1/2 hour deleteing analogs and useless subchannels, then creating a favorite list from scratch.

P.S. It found everything available, but CFTO-DT. I entered 40 and it found it, re-mapped and added to the list.
51.1,2,3,4 were all mapped.

The question of this poll is: In your own experience, has your Samsung HDTV or Samsung-equipped DTV tuner shown abnormal PSIP data quality issues?

My built-in ATSC tuner was unable to lock onto either of the OMNIs here in Ottawa despite having near perfect signal strength and excellent analog reception. The problem seems to have been corrected as of this morning, though.

I just got a samsung and it has the same issues mentioned above.
(when it comes in) CHCH was shown as 11.1 for one day, back to 18.1 now.
Also, if I rescan and ION is too weak, I can't manually enter 23 to add it back. I have to wait until I know ION is good, then start a new scan. I can add any channel as long as it's not already remapped.
I guess that's the downside of the "convenience" of being able to just hit "9" and it will go to 9.1 (etc.)
I'd prefer it like my viewsonic, having to hit 9-1 so that I could access physical 23 when needed.

If I hit 23-0, it just attempts to tune analog, doesn't bother with digital.

Even better is to have a menu option to manually add a physical channel. That way you get the best of both worlds (direct tuning and adding manually).

If I hit 23-0, it just attempts to tune analog, doesn't bother with digital.

That is what I think is supposed to happen. Our Toshiba 19AV600U does this and I prefer that.

Having the ability to view the analogue I find is a huge advantage in sorting out bizarre reception issues such as when there is a faint analogue below a digital etc. It also comes in handy checking for impulse and other types of interference. Note that on a good clear channel with a strong digital signal, the noise is "bright", no bars or any discernible patterns of any kind. If you see any moving horizontal bars moving vertically, you know there's an analogue signal buried in there somewhere and will mess up a weak digital channel.

Also, I *think* I've able to tell when an analogue of moderate strength has a digital underneath it. There's this strange smearing of noise across the picture but NO BARS underneath. Very interesting. These observations will all become a thing of the past when both countries are fully digital.

Cameron

I agree with both of you.
That's why I like viewsonic's menu.
You can hit '9' and go to analog 9, you can hit '9-1' to go to 9.1 and you can go to the extended menu and scan an individual RF channel.
Samsung's firmware just plain sucks in comparison.

Anyone know what is the significance of "channel strength" and "signal strength" in the parameters of a Sharp Acquos TV? WTFM says you can select one or the other. It does not explain why.