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Smokey Joe5
join:2005-02-13
Beaverton, OR

Smokey Joe5

Member

RCA TV's Stuck on SAP

Has anyone heard about this? I have come in contact with a bunch of people with RCA brand tvs that switched to SAP (on or around the 1st) and can't be restored via the TV menu. Power cycling works (most times). I'm sure this is the wrong forum but couldn't find the right one.
bcunningh
join:2005-04-01
Seattle, WA

bcunningh

Member

I've had two in the last couple days. I know the TVs were nearly identical (same menu structure) but I'm not sure what brand they were. I'll keep an eye out.
Smokey Joe5
join:2005-02-13
Beaverton, OR

Smokey Joe5

Member

said by bcunningh:

I've had two in the last couple days. I know the TVs were nearly identical (same menu structure) but I'm not sure what brand they were. I'll keep an eye out.
Thanks. I have an e-mail into RCA tech support and will passs it along as soon as I get a reply

wings10
I Am Legend
Premium Member
join:2004-06-09
South Elgin, IL

wings10

Premium Member

All RCA models? I have an Old RCA 35" from around 1994. No problems with SAP.

egnlsn
Premium Member
join:2003-09-26
Salt Lake City, UT

egnlsn to Smokey Joe5

Premium Member

to Smokey Joe5
said by Smokey Joe5:

Has anyone heard about this? I have come in contact with a bunch of people with RCA brand tvs that switched to SAP (on or around the 1st) and can't be restored via the TV menu. Power cycling works (most times). I'm sure this is the wrong forum but couldn't find the right one.
Interesting -- there is a bit of discussion in a forum comprised of CATV engineers and technicians about this very thing. Started on January 1st. RCA seems to be the only sets affected, and the only fix so far has been to power-cycle the set.
BlueBean0
join:2004-01-19
Edmonton, AB

BlueBean0

Member

Just curious if its a public forum.. I do installs here and would be nice to have a forum to discuss things...

said by Smokey Joe5:

Interesting -- there is a bit of discussion in a forum comprised of CATV engineers and technicians about this very thing. Started on January 1st. RCA seems to be the only sets affected, and the only fix so far has been to power-cycle the set.

egnlsn
Premium Member
join:2003-09-26
Salt Lake City, UT

egnlsn

Premium Member

It is not.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

2 edits

Hayward0 to egnlsn

Premium Member

to egnlsn
said by egnlsn:

Started on January 1st. RCA seems to be the only sets affected, and the only fix so far has been to power-cycle the set.
And why is that such a MIND BOGGLING (but yet DUHHH simple) solution??? About thye first thing I'd think of... when all else fails in this microprocessor world.

On a side note I have turned off my auto clock setting on a DVD recoder that suddenly has taken to now and then flipping to west coast or Mt time... ain't modern tech wonderful.

doug tv guy
@dsl.rcfril.ameritech

doug tv guy to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
have been seeing many sets in my area-northern illinois- doing this also-contacted rca/thomson tech assistance-they told me that "they are aware of the problem and are working on it but dont have a solution yet"-live in an area with 2 different cable suppliers-insight and charter-both do it-maybe has something to do with new digital atsc broadcasting signals? some of the newer hd dlp sets made by lg needed firmware upgrades for sound problems
doug tv guy

doug tv guy to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
seen it in northern illinois on charter and insight cable systems-seems to affect rca ctc 195 and 197 type chassis mostly-seen 7 sets in 2 days-rca tech assist says they are aware of problem and are working on it
Rick565
join:2004-03-20
Round Rock, TX

Rick565 to Smokey Joe5

Member

to Smokey Joe5
i had one all i did was unplug-ed the tv for about 10 sec. and it came back on..weird
truthful0
join:2006-01-03

truthful0

Member

rca says to leave it unplugged for 2 full minutes.

fxef79
@204.181.x.x

fxef79 to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
It's been happening to my RCA 27" since the 1st. Happens on most any channel, but SPIKE TV is the worst. I've read several news articles now that point to the advanced digital signaling coming over the cable for closed captioning... the signal essentially causes a "buffer overrun", and in RCA processors the next memory location is the audio processor controls. It causes SAP to switch on.

I'm in Southwest Florida.

Pupavatz
@58.xx.69.ip.alltel.n

Pupavatz

Anon

I have a 37" RCA television that is approx a 1998 or 1999 and this morning at 12:15am on Spike TV all of the sudden all I could hear was static. I look at other channels at some have voice overs stating my TV was in SAP mode, even though neither my VCR or the TV were set in it. I get 2 channels in english (TBS and a local NBC news channel) and approx 3 in spanish (HBO, Cartoon Network and one other). We actually spent our entire time watching the Panthers game using a Radio for the audio while we had the TV muted. So right now the TV is unplugged letting it reset. Hopefully this looked over quick fix is resolving the problem.

(Im in North Carolina btw)

Chapel Hill
@sprint-hsd.net

Chapel Hill to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
We also had a problem with a RCA TV (SAP) and turning off power for 2 minutes fixed the problem.

IKnowICanSolveThis to egnlsn

Anon

to egnlsn
Do you have the link to this forum? SCTE site or elsewhere? Any further info I could look at? I've heard reports that maybe VCR filtering corrects the problem? I'm wondering if using a different setting in a DCT or VCR for example filters the signaling to the point at which a television can handle it. I'm interested in the program or commercial causing this if anyone has more information on what was playing at the time of failure. I'd like to do a little research on this and any further info would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking for a better interim fix than power-cycling. If anyone has more info please let me know.

Thanks in advance

Bill Elza
@zoominternet.net

Bill Elza

Anon

We have seen a large number of these complaints to sets in our area. Four different cable systems no off-air broadcasts are affected. Spike TV has been the common source on both cable and satellite. Channels 3,5 remain with sound ok so usually the VCR interface will work. Channel 13 will be there, but all switched to SAP.
Using external tuner with video inputs is a work around. When the bad signal is being broadcast you may have to reset the unit multiple times (unplug to reset) in just one hour which is too annoying to put up with. RCA techline assist acted like it was news to them. We have started to defeat CC option to make them usable.

egnlsn
Premium Member
join:2003-09-26
Salt Lake City, UT

egnlsn to IKnowICanSolveThis

Premium Member

to IKnowICanSolveThis
IKnowICanSolveThis; IM me with your E-mail address.

A couple of posts from The List:

"Adding more info gathered today from Field Techs and others. Kansas City is also finding the problem on GE and Proscan. Have been told by RCA repair rep that this affects all products made by Thompson. He also said this is a problem that crops up every year, where the microprocessor suddenly goes through some sort of program cycle, ending up stuck in either mute or SAP. Power cord power cycle usually fixes the problem. Call Center has been advised.

We have one Tech who has a 1997 RCA set who, upon getting the email on this, remarked his set has done this every year since he purchased it.

So far it appears our network is whole, just a rash of errant CPEs... Continuing to monitor..."

and

"We have seen the problem with both direct RF connections to RCA TVs and through DCTs. However, it only happens with the RF connection of the DCT. If the output of the DCT is switched to baseband then the audio works."

dougtvguy
@dsl.rcfril.ameritech

dougtvguy to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
cutting lead of electrolytic capacitor feeding video into
tv microprocessor will disable close captioning-have not tried yet but have talked to a customer who said he would call back if sound goofed up again-will try it if he does to see if it stops problem

doug tv guy
@dsl.rcfril.ameritech

doug tv guy to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
found possible explaination as to why this is happening
go here and read--»www.iwaynet.net/~nesda/S ··· CTC.html
doug tv guy

doug tv guy to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
also saw on another forum that if a vcr is recording the program that is being watched when tv looses sound,you can play back tape and cause the problem to occur at will-hmmmmm

botmfeedr
@comcast.net

botmfeedr to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
This happened to me today. GE 31" television. Unplugging worked.

doug tv guy
@tds.net

doug tv guy to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
called customer on set that i removed capacitor from-set no longer switches to sap

portage e
@dsl.akrnoh.ameritech

1 edit

portage e to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
SYMPTOM: SET JUMPS TO SAP MODE FEW CHANNELS OR NO CHANNELS
HAVE AUIDO OTHERS HISS.

The problem occuring in the CTC 195,197,203 Chassis is in fact caused by the broadcasting
companies. A non standard signal originating in a particular '' XDS box " in the transmition
chain (XDS means extra digital services) and includes closed captioning,auto clock set,program
guides,VIR color levels ect, all broadcast in the vertical interval) the signal originating in this XBR
box made by the "XYZ" company (names deleted) has 2 extra bits. It causes a buffer overflow
in the micro and mutes the sound. This XBR box does not truncate the data stream and the extra bits
get broadcast there. This problem can be corrected.
echohotel330
join:2006-01-30
Canton, OH

echohotel330 to Smokey Joe5

Member

to Smokey Joe5
From what I heard, it was only RCA televisions with the GUIDE Plus feature. They did some kind of software update that caused certain channels to lose all audio. From what I understand, it was nationwide and indiscriminat to any one cable system. Unplugging the TV and plugging it back in is a temporary fix, but the problem will recure until RCA comes up with a patch. It may have been fixed already, as far as I know...

MnMax
@smig.net

MnMax to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
This sound off thing is also affecting RCA TV's in Minnesota. Thanks in advance for any update information

UHF
All static, all day, Forever
MVM
join:2002-05-24

UHF to portage e

MVM

to portage e
said by portage e :

the signal originating in this XBR
box made by the "XYZ" company (names deleted) has 2 extra bits.
Is this the box that generates the TV Guide data? If so, I'd be very interested in knowing the make/model of the box in question.

ShariPDX
@qwest.net

ShariPDX to Smokey Joe5

Anon

to Smokey Joe5
from another forum about this ..

Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 03:13 am:

To all: I am a Customer Support Rep. at Thomson. (RCA & GE Electronics) We still do not have a resolution to the problem, and this forum actually has some more info. than we have. I can ASSURE you this, Thomson is working very hard on correcting this problem, but I must repeat what RandyM states - It IS NOT a problem created by RCA. He is correct in saying there is a dataproblem produced by the host station that
downloads guide plus to certain models of tv sets. We have also heard MANY other theories, most of which are completely insane. To those of you who cannot resolve your problem by unplug/replug, or, if the tv does respond to this "fix" - but only last a short while - NOTE: THE PROBLEM IS STILL BEING WORKED ON. UNPLUGGING AND REPLUGGING WILL NOT FIX YOUR SET!!! IT IS ONLY A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. From what we have been told, they are getting closer to reaching a resolution, but it will get worse before it gets better. WE at Thomson are all aware of the problem but unfortunately have not been given the "actual" source of the issue. Until the real source is located, and a resolution has been found, We will not be made aware of it due to the chance of wrong information being told to consumers. Yes, it seems to be with cable customers with older model TV's, and Spike TV is mentioned the most, with guide plus as a feature to the tv. This problem is also occuring with other brands of tv's. As soon as a fix is found, I will post one here. Be patient, as we are trying to be too!
thomson_rep
join:2006-02-25
Colbert, OK

thomson_rep to Smokey Joe5

Member

to Smokey Joe5
I am a Customer Support Rep. at Thomson. (RCA & GE
Electronics) We still do not have a resolution to the SAP problem. Keep in mind, that this goes for anyone who's audio has switched to SAP, static or NO audio on some channels, as well as NO audio on Television programming, but on commercials. I can ASSURE you this, Thomson is working very hard on correcting this problem. To those of you who cannot resolve your problem by unplug/replug, or, if the TV does respond to this "fix" - but only last a short while - NOTE: THE PROBLEM IS STILL BEING WORKED ON. UNPLUGGING AND REPLUGGING WILL NOT FIX YOUR SET!!! IT IS ONLY A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. WE at Thomson are all aware of the problem but unfortunately have not been given the "actual" source of the issue, as we DO NOT KNOW what casued the issue. We are working diligently to find out what caused the issue and how to resolve it. Until the real source is located, and a resolution has been found, all we can say is be patient. Yes, it seems to be with cable customers with older model TV's, and Spike TV as well as the Speed Channel being mentioned the most; with Guide Plus as a feature to the TV in some cases. As soon as a fix is found, I will post one here. Be patient, as we are trying to be AS WELL!