# How to get all available OTA digital channels



## rynning

My father-in-law lives in a rural area without cable or dish and just got an HD TV ("Element" but I think this applies to most of them). All but one digital channel according to antennaWeb.org are located to the east. So with his old directional antenna pointing to the east his TV will scan and find all but that one channel and map them as subs. If I type in the missing digital channel (in this case 6.1), it obviously can't tune to it because it was never mapped correctly. If I type in the "true" frequency, it won't tune to that either because the TV thinks it's an analog channel. (Am I right?)

Is there anyway to tune to that missing digital channel without rescanning with the antenna pointing to its location? Is his only option to get a multi-directional antenna?

(I don't believe this TV has a way to "add" channels which might try to scan for subs. It only has a way to "skip" channels that shows the analog and digital ones it has already mapped.)


----------



## gfrang

You can try to scan it over.my tv lets you to add channels
the problem might be that the sub might not be live. Digital channels are still in transistion
and go on and off reg.


----------



## rynning

Thanks, but if the digital channel is working and can only be successfully scanned when the antenna is pointed to it, is there a way to tune to it without re-scanning for all channels?

In other words, can I get this TV to tune to a digital channel without scanning for all digital channels?


----------



## scooper

Depends on the TV. Some TVs/tuners will let you add a channel manually. In order for this to work, you need to know the ACTUAL on-air channel the digital station is on. After you do the scan for the majority, rotate the antenna to receive the strays and manually add them.

www.antennaweb.org should be able to give you an idea of the info required.


----------



## gfrang

Yea i look deep in the instruction manual to see if there is a way to add channels.
on my sony it has a add channels. I would contact the manufacture also


----------



## gfrang

I just thought of one other thing you can try. Maybe if you turn the antenna in between the two locations it might scan all channels in, if you look at the signal meter you might find a spot were it will work


----------



## rynning

Thanks, but are you sure your Sony can add digital channels manually? If you ask it to add (for example) 6.1, it wouldn't know what frequency that is actually mapped to and how.


----------



## gfrang

rynning said:


> Thanks, but are you sure your Sony can add digital channels manually? If you ask it to add (for example) 6.1, it wouldn't know what frequency that is actually mapped to and how.


No i cant add channels manually buy i can do a add scan, what a add scan will do is instead of erasing what you prev. scaned it will add to it. The reason you cant type in channels in whit out scaning them in is they are in a virtual channel when you scan then in it finds the freq. and recovers channel info. if you cant find a add scan then i would play whit the rotor and find a spot where it might find all channels you need .
after that if it works and say you want to tune to say ch6 you will have to turn the antenna to that location to get that channel
when you look for scan types in menu it might say (add channels)or (serch for channels) the first scan you should do.


----------



## rynning

Thanks. I'll look more closely, but I doubt this low-end set has the ability to "add-scan"...


----------



## scooper

Like I said - you need to find out the "real" channel the digital station is broadcasting on for the manual add to work. My cheap Olevia will let me manually add channels (both analog AND digital) this way. After you find the channel , the digital should use it's virtual channel.


----------

