Video FAQ - Antennas, TV's and Accessories

Amplified antennas will bring in signals from further away; the greater the amplification, the better the signal. A 75 Ohm connection is the single coaxial cable, such as used by the cable company. A 300 Ohm connection has separate "u" shaped connectors to be attached to screw terminals on the back of the television.
You can look up pricing and on-line information for these antennas by clicking on the catalog number (the number starting with 150-) above or by typing the catalog number into the Search box at the top of the page at http://www.radioshack.com/

Answer: The chart below compares the features for our current coaxial antenna / cable amplifiers.

• Gain indicates the amount of amplification (in decibels).
• Outputs is the number of outputs; multiple outputs indicate that it is a distribution amplifier.
• "Y" under VHF means that the amplifier amplifies VHF-TV/FM (channels 2-13)
• "Y" under UHF means that the amplifier amplifies UHF-TV (channels 14-69)
• "Y" under Cable means that the amplifier amplifies cable channels.

The 150-1169, 150-1197 and 150-1171 are Bi-directional cable amplifiers, designed for use with cable systems that have pay-per-view, digital cable and/or cable modems.

Material Specifications:

Molded Insulators: High-impact ABS Resin (DOW - Magnum 545 or similar)

• You may be using too-powerful of an antenna.
• To determine the antenna range you actually require, we recommend that you consult AntennaWeb, the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) website.
• If the antenna range is significantly larger than the distance to your stations, you would need to either replace the new antenna with a less-powerful antenna or use a Signal Attenuator (Cat. No. 15-678).

If you replaced the antenna with the same or a comparably-powered antenna:

• Check all connections.
• Be sure you have connected any power adapters required in the installation instructions.

1. Clip the antenna to the dish.

• The TV42 should install in minutes on any 18" satellite dish.
• The patent-pending clips secure the antenna to dish quickly and easily -- no tools are required.

2. Attach the cables.

• Connect four cables (included) from TV42 to your dual LNB hookup.
• Connect the 75 Ohm lead into your home. No extra cables to route!

1. In order to use the PiP feature you need two INPUTS. One method uses both the RCA inputs and the Coax/75 ohms cable input.
2. After you have both inputs connected, turn on the TV and press the PiP button.
3. When you get the picture from the coaxial (75 ohm) connection, press the SWAP button.
4. Then, swap the picture to the other input. You may have to press the WHO/INPUT button to get the other Picture on the TV screen.
5. You should get the picture from the RCA connection as you press the LINE/INPUT button, with the picture from the coaxial connection.

• Cable in to the Cable Converter
• Audio out from the Cable Converter to the VCR
• Video out from the Cable Converter to the VCR
• Audio out from the VCR to the Audio input on the RCA Receiver
• Video out from the VCR to the Video input on your television

Answer: You probably need to program the tuner.  This is generally done through the MENU options on the TV; you should consult the manual for your particular TV for specific instructions.  Please refer to the on-line list of RadioShack Television manuals.

• Blue or black screens usually indicate an external input has been selected.
• Snow usually indicates that the TV or antenna input has been selected.

HDTV 1080 (1080 lines of resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
HDTV 720 (720 lines of resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
SDTV (480 lines of resolution, 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio)

HDTV is an improvement over SDTV (Standard-definition Digital Television) in that it has a higher resolution picture and a wider aspect ratio (screen width vs. screen height).   Additionally, the digital nature of this format means that if you can receive the signal, there should not be "snow" or other interference issues such as are experienced with analog signals.

Since more pixels mean more visual information, an increase in pixels means a sharper picture.  In the past, a sharper picture was just ... sharper.  But with digital television, there's a way to quantify just how sharp it is.

From the minimum of 300,000 pixels all the way up to about a million pixels is called Standard-definition Digital Television (SDTV).  High-definition Digital Television (HDTV) starts at around a million pixels and can go all the way up to 2 million -- almost ten times the resolution of today's TV.

Answer: We do not sell an HDTV-ready television or monitor at this time, due to the currently narrow market and high price for these items.  We anticipate that as the market for HDTV matures, we will be carrying these in the future. We do not have a timetable for this availability, however.

Answer: You will need to use a Y-adapter cable with a 1/8" stereo plug on one end and two RCA plugs on the other end, such as the 420-2550 3' Cable or the 420-2551 6' Cable. Connect the cable's red plug to the component's video output jack and its white plug to the component's audio output jack. Then, plug the cable's mini plug into the TV's AUDIO/VIDEO jack.

1. Press MENU on the remote control to display the main menu.
2. Repeatedly press CH /, CH /, VOL -<, or VOL +> on the remote control to select CH, then press MENU. The SET UP CHANNEL menu appears.
3. If necessary, press CH / or CH / on the remote control to highlight ANTENNA SYSTEM;, then press VOL +> to display the broadcast system (TV or CATV).
4. Press CH / to highlight AUTO SET, then press VOL + >. CH AUTO SET PROCEEDING appears, and the TV/VCR's tuner scans through the channels and stores all the active channels in your area.  The currently tuned channel number appears.   After scanning all the channels, CH AUTO SET COMPLETED appears, and the tuner stops on the lowest-numbered active channel.
5. To review the stored channels, repeatedly press CH / or CH / on the remote control.

If there is no pin on the back, then you will need to unplug the TV for a few minutes and then plug it back in.

If you still get a demo running , go to the menu screen and go to guide setup to turn the demo off.

• If you used a Passive Splitter, you probably need to either replace it with a Distribution Amplifier or add a Signal Amplifier.
• If you used a 75-ohm Distribution Amplifier, you may have unterminated outputs.  Any output not connected to a video device should be terminated using a Terminating Resistor (Cat. No. 15-1144).

The 150-1244 is a store-stocked item and can be either purchased through your local store, ordered through our Catalog Order Center at 800-843-7422, Option 2, (Catalog, Parts and Accessory Ordering) or ordered on-line at http://www.radioshack.com/ by clicking on the catalog number above.

You can get instructions on connecting a device with composite audio/video out to a TV with only coaxial end by clicking on Getting Connected. This is a .pdf document; you will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view it. You can click here to get a copy of the reader.

• Max gain: 26 dB
• Gain Control: +/- 10dB
• Max Output: 96dB mV
• Noise Figure: 8 dB

• Nominal Gain: 20 dB (25 dB max)
• Control Range: -10 dB +/- 2 dB

Digital Audio Cable with RCA-style Plugs

• 3' Cable (Cat. No. 420-2679)
• 6' Cable (Cat. No. 420-2680)
• 12' Cable (Cat. No. 420-2682)

Fiber-Optic Cable with Toslink Connectors

• 6' Cable (Cat. No. 150-1581)
• 12' Cable (Cat. No. 150-1582)

We offer the following Component Video cables:

• 6' Cable (Cat. No. 150-1563)
• 12' Cable (Cat. No. 150-1564)

These are store-stocked items and can be either purchased through your local store, ordered through our Catalog Order Center at 800-843-7422, Option 2, (Catalog, Parts and Accessory Ordering) or ordered on-line at http://www.radioshack.com/ by entering the catalog number in the search field at the top of the screen.