I am familiar with, and even posted responses to, the problems with the Panasonic sat boxes loosing their local channel abilities, but now I have on of those old RCA HD sat boxes that will not tune the local channels, I ran a wire from the diplexer used on it to another nearby HD box and the signal is there, but the RCA wont tune it. I have tried the channel scans, and the various antenna inputs. Does anybody have any other ideas?

thanks

j...

I think you're screwed! That tuner was never very good (I assume you're referring to the DTC-100 and 101)

I had the same damn problem...replace one with Hughes and one with Panasonic...no problem!

Never did figure it out!

avdude

I have installed a lot of these boxes, took a while to figure out but, the DTC 100 was one of the best boxes made and still has the best local area tuning menu there is, as you can view all of the local HDTV channels on one page, Un like all the other boxes that have the flash on flash off single channel only meter. Further there are discrete IR codes for all most every function on the box.

The problem is there are all of these confusing set up options. Make sure the input you are using, say ant "B" is set up in the menu as Air and not cable, (I don’t think you can set both inputs to cable or air at the same time they both have to be different) and further the DTC 100 will default to input "A" or "B" depending on which one you choose in the setup menu. What this does is tell the box to toggle between Satellite and "B" or Satellite and "A" with the factory remote for the sake of convenience.

Further, after you get the right input setup, you have to do a channel search before you can do anything else, I don’t know why, but that is the way it works. (Choose the fast scan option)

Anyway, I have had this problem; It’s just a matter of getting the right menu combination.

Hello. These DTC100 at one time were the only Set-top Boxes out there that would decode HD off-air and HD Directv. And very affordable if you were in that market looking to buy a HD Decoder. Regarding the problem with picking up local channels? I had this problem as well and contacted RCA DTC100 Troubleshooting Hotline. At the time some 5-6 years ago, the technician told me to correct or improve reception to "turn off the off-air guide". This can be found in one of the menu's options. Now trying this did seemed to work somewhat but you will lose the feature of guide info for over-the-air local channels. The previous post was correct. The DTC 100 did have a helpful meter found in the Menu under Assistance and then maybe press Guide?, each local hd channel had a current signal meter reading. This was helpful for tuning, especially if you are the one indoors and not on the roof. If I remember correctly as well, if the box is missing some of the HD local channels...you can punch in the channel by using the remote control and it would remain in it's memory. Try this not only by pressing the new UHF HD channel but go to the Profiles in the Menu and under Off-Air Ant A or B Add the new channel or Erase all the extra non-watchable channels the analog will pick up. One other thing FYI make sure the "HD" button on the front of this receiver is on to get HD reception. Note when this is activated the RF Ch 3 or 4 and All Video Outputs are dead and will not generate (pass) any picture until you turn it off manually or by remote. When in HD mode the only Video being output is RGB. If TV has a Component In must use a Converter to work with this device. Now a few years ago there was suppose to be fix that RCA was going to send down via satellite that was suppose to fix some of the reception software issues. However you need to have a Directv Satellite Dish and probably need Directv service for this. If still not locking in Hd channels, use a larger antennae and place about 20' off ground and shouldn't have a problem. Just make sure the UHF end of the antennae is grande with plenty of elements. Do not use Terk Ant they are JUNK. Good Luck.

Channel Master 4228 8 Bay antennas work the best for Local Reception.

Oh and popcorn is right about the down load, the box needs to be plugged into a dish for about 24 hours sometimes before it upgrades.

This box has worked fine four three or so years (since they first came out with the DTC100), the antenna works for his other HD boxes, and I tested the RG6 going to the box and the HD ant signal is there, the box just isn't tuning. I have tried the channel searches and everything else, so I guess it's time to replace it.