After patiently awaiting for two years I was finally able to purchase a 50" HDTV for the living room. It's a Panasonic TH=50PX80U and I'm having a little trouble picking up the HD programming from my cable company on that TV. My cable company is generous enough to offer NBC, CBS, and KET (PBS) in high definition, however the new Panasonic TV will not pick them up and gives me a "Scrambled Program" message when I put it on those channels (5-1, 57-1, and 35-3 respectively). My Ölevia and Sanyo HDTV's pick them up just fine with no problems, but the Panasonic will not. I have the basic cable package from my local cable company and there is no set top box, the cable just plugs into a jack into the wall and then into the back of the TV. I'm also certain the channels are through my cable and not antenna because when the cable is out (or I disconnect the cable from the back of the TV) I receive a "No Signal" message. Any ideas?
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HDTV not picking up HD programming
- Thread starter GSMiller
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At the beginning of next year, all broadcast must be digital. My advice is to ditch the cable and take the free and flawless signal you'll get over the air. That's what I do and have been doing for the last three years. I also have an Apple TV, which takes care of any shows on cable I might happen to be addicted to. It's much cheaper, and you watch when you want.
You'll have to get an antenna or get the HD programming from your cable company. I'm assuming since you're in Kentucky you're either using Insight or Time Warner. I had Insight when I was living in Lexington, and their HD channels are in the 700s. I have Directv now, and if you live in Louisville, you'll get the local HD channels from them, otherwise you have to use an antenna.
Most cable companies offer the local networks in HD for free without having to buy a digital package or own a digital box. They don't advertise this and becasue of that, most people don't know it's available with just basic cable.
If your other two HDTV's pick up the free HD through basic fine, then it's a problem with a setting in the Panasonic and probably not the cable companies fault.
I wish we could ditch cable... but the gf and I watch about 10 hours of HGTV/Bravo a week 
If I could find them online easily then we could.
I'd pay $5 a channel a month if I could watch them without all that other crap tagged on. Then our cable would only be $10 a month
If I could find them online easily then we could.
I'd pay $5 a channel a month if I could watch them without all that other crap tagged on. Then our cable would only be $10 a month
If you're getting HD through your local cable company without using a cable box, then (IIRC) it's using something called QAM, however they're usually not on the same channels that you'd expect.
People with the Series 3 TiVo (which records HD signal) have the same issue. QAM channels themselves come in on completely different channel numbers than what's listed in the TV Guide thing and there's no way to tell the TiVo that channel 5-1 is really on channel 993. (for example)
Your Panny should have a feature that goes out and looks for all channels. You might try that and see what it finds in the super high numbers.
Seeing as how this may be a Panasonic specific issue, I may email their tech support and see what can be done to fix the issue. It's a shame I won't be able to watch CSI New York in HD on it tonight though
Yes it's quite tempting but my Mom wouldn't get her Lifetime over the antenna so that's a no go
Nope, I don't have the digital cable package, but as I said I can't figure out why my other HDTV's pick up the HD channels and the Panasonic doesn't.
My cable company is actually TVS Cable, based out of Hindman. I've switched to the antenna source from cable and all of those channels are broadcast in 480i :-(
Exactly! My cable company doesn't broadcast as offering any HD channels whatsoever and I even emailed them back in the summer and they told me that at current they had no HD content, and as it happens, the three stations broadcast in HD are local.
Yeah my cable isn't the best quality on the planet, but if I switched to satellite I would pay almost twice as much and not even get all the channels I do with cable. Dish Network and DirecTV don't even broadcast the local news station or weather, only for Lexington (which is 80 miles to the west, their weather doesn't quite apply).
Yeah I have tried looking online for listings for those channels and they're not even recognized. I had the TV automatically search for and add all available channels, and it actually added a bunch of music channels (where only music is played and there's no video) but 5-1 and 57-1 weren't recognized. That was how I actually found out I received those stations in HD, my Ölevia found and added them during the setup.
Yes it's quite tempting but my Mom wouldn't get her Lifetime over the antenna so that's a no go
Nope, I don't have the digital cable package, but as I said I can't figure out why my other HDTV's pick up the HD channels and the Panasonic doesn't.
My cable company is actually TVS Cable, based out of Hindman. I've switched to the antenna source from cable and all of those channels are broadcast in 480i :-(
Exactly! My cable company doesn't broadcast as offering any HD channels whatsoever and I even emailed them back in the summer and they told me that at current they had no HD content, and as it happens, the three stations broadcast in HD are local.
I wish we could ditch cable... but the gf and I watch about 10 hours of HGTV/Bravo a week
If I could find them online easily then we could.
I'd pay $5 a channel a month if I could watch them without all that other crap tagged on. Then our cable would only be $10 a month
Yeah my cable isn't the best quality on the planet, but if I switched to satellite I would pay almost twice as much and not even get all the channels I do with cable. Dish Network and DirecTV don't even broadcast the local news station or weather, only for Lexington (which is 80 miles to the west, their weather doesn't quite apply).
Yeah I have tried looking online for listings for those channels and they're not even recognized. I had the TV automatically search for and add all available channels, and it actually added a bunch of music channels (where only music is played and there's no video) but 5-1 and 57-1 weren't recognized. That was how I actually found out I received those stations in HD, my Ölevia found and added them during the setup.
Hey guys/gals, I just figured I'd post how everything is going with the TV...
After nothing I tried seemed to resolve my issue, I decided to email Panasonic about the problem. I emailed Panasonic the first time on the 23rd, waited a week and got no response. So I emailed them again and used a different email address and did get a response on November 1st. They suggested I do the stuff I had already before (reset the TV, reprogram the channels, so I tried resetting the TV again, didn't work, and reprogramming the channels manually, didn't work. They responded and asked if I tried reprogramming all the channels and I had when I first got the TV but hadn't since resetting it so I figured I'd give it a shot and that time it FOUND the HD channels. Instead of them being 5-1, 35-3, and 57-1 like on my Olevia, they were in the 100's (for instance, instead of CBS being 57-1, it's 101-1). That still leaves me wondering why the TV didn't find them after I reprogrammed all the channels the first time, but who knows.
After nothing I tried seemed to resolve my issue, I decided to email Panasonic about the problem. I emailed Panasonic the first time on the 23rd, waited a week and got no response. So I emailed them again and used a different email address and did get a response on November 1st. They suggested I do the stuff I had already before (reset the TV, reprogram the channels, so I tried resetting the TV again, didn't work, and reprogramming the channels manually, didn't work. They responded and asked if I tried reprogramming all the channels and I had when I first got the TV but hadn't since resetting it so I figured I'd give it a shot and that time it FOUND the HD channels. Instead of them being 5-1, 35-3, and 57-1 like on my Olevia, they were in the 100's (for instance, instead of CBS being 57-1, it's 101-1). That still leaves me wondering why the TV didn't find them after I reprogrammed all the channels the first time, but who knows.
Glad to hear you're up and running! The cable channel #'s are assigned by the cable companies, not the stations, so maybe this was the issue for the # thing. Have you seen if the Olevia picks them up on the 100's or the other #'s? Weird. Anyhow, welcome back to the wonderful world of HD!