Yesterday, I purchased an Insignia NS-F24TV 24" CRT television from BestBuy.
There is apparently no switch or setting to cause the TV to work in mono. When I finally go through to India (after 30 minutes on hold followed by a disconnect and 45 minutes on hold followed by a disconnect), the genius offered the following suggestions:
1) Call the cable company to see why this TV is in mono while all of the other TVs in the house are in stereo.2) Get a cable box with RCA outputs so that I can receive stereo.
Of course I declined in both cases.
There is no cable box. The set is hooked directly to the analog cable. The TV that this one replaced received all channels in stereo. Therefore, the problem is not in the delivery of the cable or OTA signals.
I went through the automatic channel programming routine, and that did not make a difference. The selector is set for cable, rather than air. I did not set it to air, since the results would be useless.
Don't all current TVs have to receive stereo audio? The set has dual audio amplifiers and has two front speakers. There are dual RCA audio inputs on the side and rear of the TV. The only technical limitation on receiving stereo audio appears to be the internal stereo decoder.
Thinking that the set was defective, I called BestBuy and asked them to check the display model to see if it was receiving audio in mono. It was. However, they have their own internal video distribution signal, so I don't know if their signal has the same MTSC-encoded signal that is delivered by analog cable and OTA.
Before I return it for a refund, am I overlooking anything? The reviews on the BestBuy web site do not mention the problem. A web search did not reveal this problem with this brand. Needless to say, I am dumbfounded to find a TV with stereo amplifiers and stereo speakers that does not deliver stereo in a conventional analog signal.