I have an odd problem with one of my TVs, and maybe this is the right forum to get help.
We're in a rural area with no cable or broadcast TV, so we have two satellite systems, DishNetwork and 4DTV/C-Band. The receivers are in the basement and we use a modulator to send the signal to all the TVs in the house. The small dish is channel 3, and the big dish is channel 55 on all the sets. We have UHF remotes and those little pyramid-shaped IR boosters so the remotes work everywhere. The setup is about 4 years old
When we switch channels (55 to 3 or vice versa) there's sometimes a moment of scramble/static before it pulls in the new channel.
The problem is that ONE of the sets goes out quite frequently, as in blue screen. I have to wiggle the coax to get it to come back. This has been happening for about two years and seems to be getting worse. One TV stopped accepting a signal at all, from any hookup. Then we went through two more sets in the same place. I change the coax every couple months. A new set and/or coax helps for a few hours or days, then it's going out all the time again. Cheap coax, expensive coax, it's all the same. It's happened with three TVs now.
I have put a Coax inline signal booster, then a signal reducer (powered with a knob), then a powered booster, which helps the best. They reduce the frequency of outages; without any device the TV won't come back at all. It occurred to me recently that all the sets we've had in that spot were TV/VCR combos. The other non-combo sets can take some static and keep a picture, but the combos get static and "save us" by going blue and staying that way.
I think the problem is that the set(s) won't come back from the occasional picture loss. Is there a way to stop it from going blue when there's static? It's a Panasonic 20" VCR combo, like the PV-C2063 at
And why does wiggling the coax help? If I have to get another set, how would I know whether it will go blue when there's picture loss? We have 4 sets in the house, and it's just in that one spot that this happens.