Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - GE 31GT657 NO OTA Reception

Hello all, I'm setting up an older GE 31GT657 TV that for some reason does not pick up any OTA stations. It was setup to cable and had been working okay in that mode. Another TV in the same spot, same antenna coax works fine with OTA.

Adjusting AIR/Cable setting doesn't help. Just black screen on all channels. Any way to factory reset? Place to download manual? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

First hook it back up to cable to make sure its still working.Something may have jarred lose inside when it was moved.You should at least get snow on the screen even with no antenna hooked up.

Had to move it to another apartment to check for cable and yes it does work. However antenna doesn't work even after I change the mode from cable to air.

All black screen, testing channels, only one comes in and very very poorly. It isn't antenna placement, cause another TV with same cable works great. Almost like its not good at detecting signal.

It does have remnants of cable programming (labels and stored channels). It probably has nothing to do with it, but I would like to reset if possible.

Have you done a channel scan?
You can go into the menu and remove the channel names.
It is very possible that you have a bad tuner.I have seen the rca tuners lose there low vhf,high vhf,uhf,and cable with only 1 section affected and the other parts of the tuner still function ok.Good news is its usually just a bad solder connection in the tuner itself.
On a different note:It's coming closer to time for the DTV switch.You can always use a Digital Converter Box .Hook it up to your antenna and then to the tv using the A/V jacks.The picture is amazingly clear even on the analog tvs.:)

Channel scan defaults the cable/air setting back to cable and then erases all channels (since it cannot find any). I do believe its either software needing to be reset or a bad tuner.

I did think about a converter box. Do they all generally have RCA connections, or are they just coax/coax? Any suggestions on model and locations to get?

Thanks again for the help.

I know the one I have has RF out and A/V out . I think its pretty much the norm.You can find them in most retail outlets.

The CECBs(coupon elgible convertot box) all have a CH 3/4 output.

Just an update. Seems like tuner was hosed. Analog converter box connected to RCA jacks worked just fine.

Thanks all.

A tuner can be easily damaged. The most common causes are too much signal (greater than +15dB) and improper grounding, causing voltage spikes on the cable.

Depending on how close you are to the transmitter, an OTA antenna can produce a potentially damaging signal. My house is six miles from a UHF transmitter and the OTA signal for that station is +26dB. I had to install a 12dB attenuator on the line.

Many times the first thing people do if they have bad reception with the antenna is run to Radio Shack and buy a booster or amp. Worse, they think that more is better and crank it all the way to full power when they turn it on. (A better method is to start with the amp all the way down and slowly bring up the gain until the picture clears up.)

I know it's too late for your TV, Snipes, but maybe this will help someone else in the future.