Help with QAM on TWC with Samsung SIR-T451

[brewtownska]

I'm looking for someone in our SE Wisconsin area who has Time Warner Cable AND using a Samsung SIR-T451 to pick up the QAM channels.  I bought one on Ebay and it arrived today, but so far I've had no luck picking up OTA or QAM channels.

To give a little background, I live in Waukesha on a busy street near the airport.  I have a Samsung SIR-360 box that works using a Silver Sensor style UHF antenna on top of my a/v center via OTA, but the reception is spotty due to the traffic that drives by in front of my house (my living room is the closest room to the road).  I can see whenever the reception breaks up, it's due to a car or truck driving by.  At the moment I can't get the antenna up higher to where it helps.  I've thought about putting the antenna in the attic and running cable down to the box, but haven't actually attempted it.  After doing some Ebay homework, it sounds like the Samsung SIR-T451 handles QAM, so I found a deal on Ebay and bought one.  I liked this idea better than trying to upgrade to TWC digital cable, as I'd be paying for the increased service AND a set-top box.  I currently have just analog cable and Roadrunner.  From searching the board, I think there are people with ONLY Roadrunner (no cable) who are also able to pick up locals via QAM, so I'm fairly sure my setup should be able to pick up something.

I first connected the box to an old computer monitor, set the switches to RGB and 720p, then connected the TWC signal to the RF input on back.  Scanned using STD cable, which got hungup at like channel 101.  I reset and tried again.  I could see it bypassing pretty much all the channels until I got to about 78, then I started seeing many of the channels showing "added".  Thing is, once it finished the scan, going to any of those channels in the 70's, 80's, and 90's produced nothing.  Some of the channels will show at 70-0 up through like 70-14.  I can't find anything on any of those channels.  Only once did I find anything, and that was after letting the channel sit there for over a minute (which researching the internet) and all of a sudden some sort of porn came up.  I've heard that sometimes pay-per-view channels show up via QAM, so maybe that was someone local that had ordered it and I was able to get it.  It disappeared within about 10 seconds, and that's the only signal I've seen all night.  I have also scanned for channels using the other CATV formats: HRC and IRC, but no luck.

I attempted the same scans connecting this to my TV in the bedroom, this time using composite cables (yellow, red, white) and switching the switch in back of the tuner to be 481i (analog).  I was able to get the menus and do all my scans, yet still nothing.  I got the bright idea to attempt finding the OTA channels using my antenna, so I unhooked it from the living room and brought it to the bedroom to try.  Still nothing.  The odd thing is that I didn't find ANY channels that way when scanning OTA.  I'm sure my signal is worse in the bedroom (has to go through all the walls in the house), but I would think I'd get SOMETHING, even if it was just the PSIP data saying the channel exists.  But nothing was found.

My gut feeling is the box is a dud (it was from one of those liquidators online that buy all the returns, test them, and resell).  It was just shown as tested - powers on, displays video - so it's possible they had the same problems I do now.  I think this place will allow me to exhange it for another one, so I'd go that route if I have to.  I'm just hoping to find someone local who has the same cable system as me, using the same box, and maybe give me any pointers on good/bad things they've experienced using this setup.  I have 7 days to arrange a swap with the Ebay seller, so I'd like to gather some local info in that time before determining if I need to send it back.  Sounds like another option for me to try is the Samsung DTB-260F if I can't get this one to work.

Thanks ahead of time for any help!

Mike

[HDefinicktion]

Well, initially it seems like it may be a dud.  The only advice that I can offer is that I have analog cable, no road runner and I am able to pull in the signal with a QAM tuner.  However, my brother who had just road runner, and no cable tv, was not.  It almost seemed like there was a filter installed on his line, that is not on mine.  From some of the reviews that I have read, they have noted on subpar QAM performance.  Not sure if that means the quality, or the ability to even receive broadcasts.  If you have the ability to return it for another, I guess that is not a bad option to determine if the box is bad, or if there are other factors.

After the cable scan, have you tried entering the unencrypted channel numbers in?  What happens?

[brewtownska]

If I keep an eye on the cable scan and write down some of the channels listed as "added", then type in one of them after the scan, I still get nothing.  For instance, if I go straight to channel 83, it defaults to either 83-0 or 83-1.  On some of the channels, if I hit channel up I'll see the next subchannels (83-2, 83-3, up to like 83-14), but other channels might only have 2 subchannels.  I doubt the box is just randomly making those things up...maybe this is an instance where I have a filter on my line like your brother.  It's finding the channel locations on the scan, but when I actually try to go to the channel, it's encrypted therefore no picture.  Thinking back a bit, there were a few months (between roommates) where I cancelled cable but kept Roadrunner.  I'd get a few channels of analog that still came through (probably frequencies that Roadrunner needed to communicate).  NBC on channel 4 was one that came in, and I know that's a frequency used by roadrunner because I get a little static on that channel whenever I'm downloading something.  The other channels I saw at that time were up in the high 70's and some in the 90's.

What I'll do tonight after work is try again.  In the back of my mind I'm crossing my fingers that the moist weather yesterday may have been an issue for it.  It got delivered yesterday during the rain (via FedEx in a sealed box).  Maybe I should have left it sit overnight, but you know how it is when there's a new toy...

It seems odd to me that I can't get OTA channels on it either, especially when I know I can pick up all of the locals via my indoor antenna (of course they break up sometimes), so that also makes me lean towards it being a dud.

Do you know any of the specific channel assignments for the locals on QAM?  For instance, WDJT on OTA is channel freq 46 (remaps to 58-1 on my OTA box), but what is it on TWC QAM...maybe something like 82-2 (I've also seen people show that as 82.2 or .822, so I guess it depends on how the box shows it).  I guess knowing a specific channel I should get (one of the main locals, 4, 6, 12, 58) and where it exists on QAM might help me test.  If not for this box (which might be a dud), for a future box.

[HDefinicktion]

Well, I turned on my TV and got the QAM channels for you to try first, as there are so many channels on the QAM tuner that you cant received because of encryption.  I took the long way of just flipping channels until something popped up awhile ago.  Here is what I have....

ABC 109-12
CBS 109-5
WMLW 109-41
FOX 103-2
NBC 103-1 or 103-4 I cant remember...

I know what you are talking about when you canceled cable...my brother had the same thing, about ten channels on his TV, when he only had road runner, i remember he could see NBC, Discovery, TBS, and a few others...must have something to do with a filter that they put on the line.

[brewtownska]

HDefinicktion, you da man!

Following your listing of channels, I plugged the 451 in last night, didn't even bother to rescan, and surfed over to a few of the channels you listed...and it worked!  I guess just knowing where the needles in the haystack were was all I needed.  Here's what I found in the 10 minutes I got to play with it (more testing tonight, as well as verifying the OTA works).

78-1 was a preview channel for TWC
103-1 FoxHD
103-2 NBCHD
103-3 NBCWeatherPlus
109-1 ABCHD
109-2 ?? (possibly WMLW, though I didn't watch long enough to find out)
109-3 CBSHD

Thanks for the quick responses.  You saved me from having to go through the hassle of a return process.

Mike

[HDefinicktion]

Mike, I am glad it worked.  I hate returning things.  I am going to have to update my list, as TWC must have changed some of the channels since I last used my QAM tuner.  I usually use OTA, unless the weather is bad.  Thanks for posting the channels.

Nick

[brewtownska]

Guys, I found a HD movie on TWC QAM 102.3 today.  After some searching on the actors, looks like the movie is "Liberty Stands Still".  Any idea if this is a Pay-per-view movie or a legit channel?
I'm using a Samsung DTC-H260f (the Samsung T-451 was too slow for me, so I bought this other model on Ebay).  The box says the program comes in as 1080i.

If this is a PPV movie, have others found channels open up periodically via QAM.  If so, what channels have you seen used?  If there's a few common ones used, I'll save the channel #'s and check them out once in a while.

[LoadStar]

Guys, I found a HD movie on TWC QAM 102.3 today.  After some searching on the actors, looks like the movie is "Liberty Stands Still".  Any idea if this is a Pay-per-view movie or a legit channel?

"Liberty Stands Still" was on HDNet Movies (channel 548) earlier this afternoon.

[flash]

Here are few others I just found tonight........

0-104
WxPlus

0-505
WDJT HD

0-506
WITI HD

0-512
WISN HD

1-4
WTMJ HD

Thanks for posting your channels 'cause it forced me to finally get mine to work. ( It only took 5 months for me to do it.) :rock:

[brewtownska]

flash,

It's interesting on how each tuner shows the channels differently.  The Sammy 451 showed 103-1 as WITI HD (Fox), but my Sammy h260f shows it like yours, 0-506.  I'll have to rescan Thursday or Friday once they add channels 18 & 24 to the hi-def list to see if they made it as open QAM.  I assume they will, because those are channels we can get free OTA.

Also note that I lost the HDNet Movies channel (102.3) a day after I posted here that I could get it.  I don't know if that's coincidence or not, but I think I'll keep my mouth shut on those channels in the future so the TWC gods don't see it and turn it off

Mike

[kevbeck122]

I've seen HDNet and HDNet movies pop up every so often on the QAM tuner.. usually on the weekends.  It's happened at least two times for me.