Panasonic TV won't turn on - any ideas?

[miss direct]

I have an old Panasonic TV. Been in storage for a while but I'd now like to use it. Don't mind if it's just to hook up a laptop so I can stream things via HDMI (although having actual TV would be nice too.) It's plugged in, and got the aerial cord in too. New batteries in the remote. I get a green light, but the TV won't turn on, no matter what I press. Am I missing something? Help!

 

[Saul Goodman]

Is there a power button on the TV?

 

[moomoo]

Are you on the correct hdmi setting?

 

[Ax^]

hmm it showing a blinking red light when you turn it on

if its old it will have buttons on the side

 

[miss direct]

Ooh I managed to get it to turn on after following a link that got me to press various buttons at once. But no channels. May be a silly question (as usual), but how do you get a TV to find channels? Is an external arial enough, or is everything digital/boxes these days?

 

[Ax^]

arial if you want the digital box to work, unless your paying for a service

 

[miss direct]

What digital box? I havent got one. Do I need to get one to get tv channels?

 

[Ax^]

how old is this tv

 

[Puddy_Tat]

At the risk of asking a silly question, is it a digital TV?

If it is, there will be a menu feature with something like setup / installation and you need to do a channel scan, and you don't need a separate box between the aerial cable and the telly.

If it's not a digital TV, you will need a set top box between aerial and telly. These boxes were fairly easy to get and (from memory) you could get them for 20 quid or so when the analogue signal turned off (looking it up, i see it was as long ago as 2012 in the UK.) they don't seem to be as readily available now and from a very quick look, may not be a great bet with an elderly telly that might pack up any time soon.

may be worth putting the make / model number in to a search engine - a lot of things have the manuals* online

British Heart Foundation shops did do a fairly cheap set top box (new) when digital telly became compulsory, but not sure if they still do. They will do a range of second hand tellies.

* - i mistyped manul at first. i doubt that one of them would help in this situation and they apparently don't make good pets...

 

[miss direct]

Pretty sure it is digital. It was my Dads and he had a package with the Internet. I did get a channel scan come up but it didn't find any channels (?)

 

[danski]

How is it plugged into the wall?

 

[Ax^]

do you have an aerial socket in the house

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Pretty sure it is digital. It was my Dads and he had a package with the Internet. I did get a channel scan come up but it didn't find any channels (?)

did you do the right scan? with some of them you can try and scan for analogue channels (which won't find anything) or digital channels (which might)

do you know what the aerial / signal is like there?

with old analogue tellies, you could get something even if it was only sound and a very poor picture, with digital you either get a signal or you don't

 

[spitfire]

Model number would help massively. We can answer anything based on that. It is usually located on a sticker round the back.

 

[souljacker]

Have you tried hitting it with a heavy book?

 

[moomoo]

Have you tried hitting it with a heavy book?

Or giving it a hard stare?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Are you in the north?

Only there's a wee problem with the Bilsdale transmitter, following a fire, and whilst services have been restarted for some people in the coverage area, from another site, there is still lots of homes without any TV services.

The blaze at the Bilsdale mast impacted Freeview, DAB, and FM radio signals for more than a million people across North Yorkshire, Teesside and County Durham, and many remain without coverage.

An Arqiva spokesman said: "We are currently undertaking additional works at the Eston Nab site to allow us to extend the coverage area of the signal to cover parts of Darlington, Richmond and Barnard Castle among others which we expect to be complete this week.

Bilsdale transmitter fire: Fire crews gain access to base

Mast operator Arqiva says it can now begin assessing the condition of the mast.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[miss direct]

Thank you everyone. Lots of fiddling and I now have several hundred channels! Glad it works. One day it might get up on the wall instead of the floor but one step at a time!