Resolved Bedroom TV Doesn't See Antennae

[Boat Bum]

Hi thanks for reading.

2015 Bay Star with the stock Sony Bravia TVs. The front TV sees the antennae fine and pulls in channels, the rear TV does not. The rear TV does work with the connected DVD player but when I go into setup the antennae selection is grayed out (can't select).

There is a junction box at the front TV that let's me select Front/Rear/Outside TV (no outside TV) and I make sure to select bedroom TV/Antennae, just the way it works for the front, but nothing. I tried using the front connection to the rear and that didn't work. I recall the one time I had cable available it worked for the front and not the back.

I am not the original owner and can't say if it ever worked. I think at this point I need to remove the TV to ensure all cable are securely connected or confirm they never were.

Any thoughts appreciated, thanks,

Chet

 

[Neal]

The coax would probably need to be verified connected but there are also likely splitters in your coach. Mine has one in the basement forward of my pegboard (Ventana) and also one on the back wall under the kitchen sink.

 

[Boat Bum]

I did indeed find a splitter going to the rear bedroom all appeared good as far as I could follow it. I really think the next step is to verify the connections on the back of the TV. It's pretty solidly attached.

 

[Neal]

Should just be four screws you access from the front but that's my setup, shouldn't be too hard I don't think.

 

[Boat Bum]

I do see some mounting screws on the front, I guess it's go time; thanks!

 

[Stuart W]

has it ever worked with the antenna? If not you need to do a channel scan in tv setup

 

[Boat Bum]

Channel scan returns zero channels

 

[Stuart W]

Channel scan returns zero channels

As Neal had mentioned there are splitters, what I have found is there are multiple splitters to accommodate various stages of production ( not just one cable from point A to B) and I have found lose connections and also where the center wire did not seat in the connection. They are typically found on the top of storage compartments, in the liquid tank compartments and under the kitchen sink.
To eliminate the TV you could connect a coax with a double female fitting from one of the other TV’s coax.
Also check online to see if the tv needs a firmware update

 

[Neal]

I did a search on Amazon for some type of tester. This is the cheapest one I found:

Amazon.com

 

[Boat Bum]

As Neal had mentioned there are splitters, what I have found is there are multiple splitters to accommodate various stages of production ( not just one cable from point A to B) and I have found lose connections and also where the center wire did not seat in the connection. They are typically found on the top of storage compartments, in the liquid tank compartments and under the kitchen sink.
To eliminate the TV you could connect a coax with a double female fitting from one of the other TV’s coax.
Also check online to see if the tv needs a firmware update

I will ultimately run the known good working antennae connection to it to test if it comes to that. Thanks!

 

[Boat Bum]

I did a search on Amazon for some type of tester. This is the cheapest one I found:

Amazon.com

Thanks for your efforts, that's a handy tester to have.

 

[Stuart W]

Thanks for your efforts, that's a handy tester to have.

This would tell him if the signal is getting to back of the bedroom tv, but if it indicates no signal then it’s back to tracing cables and splitters. Potentially you could screw the tester on at various connections to isolate the particular section at fault

 

[Neal]

I'm no coax or TV expert but I recently changed the TV's in my coach and it made a world of difference. This just tells me there is a technology change in the coax provider (digital signals) vs. older TV technology, or so I assume. I have a post on this site about improving coax and I found the splitters Newmar used were of a narrower band and digital coax requires a higher band range so I changed my splitters which also helped, as well as terminated unused ports. I think some campgrounds are piping in digital coax which may be different from older technology???

Tip - Improving COAX cable connectivity in your RV or Motorhome

I was at a campground earlier this year and had issues with the cable TV as they are all digital cable. I struggled in my 2017 Newmar Ventana to get a good picture on all TV's and there number of channels being detected in the channel search was inconsistent. It was time to investigate. There...

rvforums.com

 

[Boat Bum]

This would tell him if the signal is getting to back of the bedroom tv, but if it indicates no signal then it’s back to tracing cables and splitters. Potentially you could screw the tester on at various connections to isolate the particular section at fault

I hadn't even considered being able to test all the intermediate splitters and such along the way as well as the end point connection; brilliant!

 

[Boat Bum]

I'm no coax or TV expert but I recently changed the TV's in my coach and it made a world of difference. This just tells me there is a technology change in the coax provider (digital signals) vs. older TV technology, or so I assume. I have a post on this site about improving coax and I found the splitters Newmar used were of a narrower band and digital coax requires a higher band range so I changed my splitters which also helped, as well as terminated unused ports. I think some campgrounds are piping in digital coax which may be different from older technology???

Tip - Improving COAX cable connectivity in your RV or Motorhome

I was at a campground earlier this year and had issues with the cable TV as they are all digital cable. I struggled in my 2017 Newmar Ventana to get a good picture on all TV's and there number of channels being detected in the channel search was inconsistent. It was time to investigate. There...

rvforums.com

I had read this months earlier when I first started troubleshooting. As a result of reading this I found a splitter that was just being used to connect 2 coax together, which I replaced with a single connector. I assumed they just used it as it was handy but thought, hmm, should there have been another coax on the unused splitter connection?

 

[Boat Bum]

My coax tester will be here tomorrow, gotta love Amazon Prime. Thanks, Neal!

 

[Boat Bum]

Fixed!

The coax tool was invaluable but alas, the TV had to come down. It was actually quite easy to remove, 3 screws top and bottom; the special bit for their screws makes all the difference.

Since I am not the original owner I can only hope Newmar didn't release it like this, the splitter behind the TV was not connected to the TV, instead there was a coax connected to it (TV) coming from behind the wall.

I removed the coax from the TV and put it in one of the splitter's outputs, the other output I connected to the TV, the input came from a wall plate marked Roof Mount. It now see the antennae and pulls in channels when I scan.

It's great feeling when you figure this stuff out.