I have a Mag/Phillips 51 MP6100D with int ATSC tuner & Dig cab tuner. How do I attach an external HDTV antenna

Question

I'm not asking for a wiring diagram but if you could describe the sequence of the connections I would be grateful. BTW, I'm dealing w/75ohm coax on both the antennae (Zenith) and the cable connections. I don't know exactly what inputs are available on the back of the set and/or whether I should connect the antennae to one of those inputs or go through the cable box. If I go directly into the set how will I access channels? Aren't they somethig like 41.6. Needless to say I'm a newbie & need all the help I can get. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The antenna would attach directly to the 75ohm coax input on the TV set. You'd use the TV's tuner solely for terrestrial HD then. Does your local cable company not carry all your local HD stations or something? Otherwise, I'd hook the cable line directly into the TV provided your cable company supports the internal digital cable tuner, as in they can address it for your subscription channels. If not, then use the antenna direct to the TV, hook up your HD digital cable box using HDMI/DVI or component video cables and you can use both at the same time.

Terrestrial HD stations if the station is set up correctly and your TV maps it correctly will come up as the normal over the air station followed by a period and then the number of the subchannel. 1 would be the main program and any other number are other programs the station is carrying simultaneously. If the station is airing a program in 1080i at the time, it's not likely there will be any subchannels since the HD takes up the whole bandwidth. Sometimes the channels map as the channel numbers of the HD station. For example, our channel 3 here is actually transmitted on channel 15, and some TV's map it as 15.1 instead of 3.1. If you just set up your TV to auto find the channels you'll see them just by pressing the channel up/down buttons. Our TV with the internal tuner puts the analog stations first and then once you flip past all of them the digital channels show up, then it goes 3.1 3.2 3.3 then to the next station like 5.1 5.2 etc. You can press right on the remote 3 dot 1 and it will go right to it. Also on cable, our local stations map up around channel 91 or something like 91.1, 91.2, 92.1 etc. but again you just channel surf and you'll find them and eventually remember what they are.