My parents got a new television last week

[DodgerGirl]

A few months ago my parents living room TV finally wore out and so last week my mom found a new living room TV and it arrived Saturday and we set it up today and my parents like the new TV but the remote control is confusing and I would like to know how you can get antenna channels on smart TVs? Because the only thing it has is live TV and Roku and how does these types of remote controls work? Because Dad had trouble switching channels on our new TV and couldn't figure out some of the buttons on the remote control. I am also gonna get a new TV tomorrow and my mom is gonna take my old TV for herself for my parents bedroom. I am so excited at the thought but will miss my old TV though
Dodger

 

[KayMichigan]

Is there a button on the remote that says something like 'Source' or 'Input'? You might also find it in Menu. That usually lets you switch between cable, antenna, HDMI, etc. I only use an antenna on my Smart TV (Amazon Fire) and there's a section in my Settings tab that says Inputs where the Antenna option is listed.

I do sort of miss the days when TVs weren't complicated, all you did was turn them on and turn the channel dial!

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

On our smart TV when you turn it on, there is like a menu that comes up instead of just something to watch. You kind of have click around and choose the input you want and click OK in order to watch something. The rest of our TVs just have that "source" or "input" button and you choose that way.

 

[sam_gordon]

Not really enough information. Yes, you can watch live TV with a smart TV. You need to figure out how to change sources. Our smart TV remotes don't have a source button (yes, older remotes did and that's what you need to do to change sources). Instead, you hit the "Home" button, which brings up a menu, and then you can select what you want to watch.

Not to make things even more confusing, but it would help if you define what you consider "live TV". Is it coming from an antenna? Satellite? Cable? Streaming (YouTubeTV, Hulu Live, etc)?

 

[Rogue1677x]

I literally had to make an illustrated guide for my father and stepmother. She's legally blind and can only see things really enlarged, while my father suffered brain trauma and struggles to remember what he's learned, but can understand reference guides.

We took a photo of the remote, enlarged it, highlighted the important buttons they needed to know about and wrote exactly what they needed to know to use it.

It's overkill for a lot of people but atleast it's decreased the number of angry phone calls I get from my father about how much he hates his tv.

 

[sam_gordon]

It's been a decade, but when my parents came up to take care of the kids while DW and I went on a cruise, I built a booklet with various information (extra curricular schedules, doctor info, friends contacts, etc). I made sure I did step by step on how to run the two TV remotes (living room and bedroom). The living room was a "universal" remotes and I indicated what button to watch satellite, what button to watch OTA, what button to watch DVD/play games, etc.

ETA: @GAN pointed out you did say you wanted antenna channels TV, sorry, should have read closer. Do you have an antenna yet? You'll need to connect the antenna to the TV, and have the TV scan for what's available.

 

[GAN]

A few months ago my parents living room TV finally wore out and so last week my mom found a new living room TV and it arrived Saturday and we set it up today and my parents like the new TV but the remote control is confusing and I would like to know how you can get antenna channels on smart TVs? Because the only thing it has is live TV and Roku and how does these types of remote controls work? Because Dad had trouble switching channels on our new TV and couldn't figure out some of the buttons on the remote control. I am also gonna get a new TV tomorrow and my mom is gonna take my old TV for herself for my parents bedroom. I am so excited at the thought but will miss my old TV though
Dodger

Ok.... so you're saying your parents are looking for live over-the-air channels, which leads me to believe you don't have "cable" or a streaming carrier(like YouTube TV, SlingTV, Hulu Live, etc). The TV should be capable of picking up over the air channels in HD(and possibly still some standard definition), but you'll likely need some type of antenna to get a clear picture. You might find the below website helpful....

https://cordcuttingreport.com/2022/06/07/will-a-tv-antenna-work-on-smart-tv/

 

[dizneegirl]

Antenna channels are under "live TV" on a Roku smart TV. You'll need to have the TV scan for them if it didn't get done when you first set it up. Once you're in the Live TV, you'll have to scroll one at a time to see the channels... there's no way to input a channel number.

The remotes are very simple (and annoying) - most everything gets done through the on-screen menus.

You can probably find some sort of instructions or manual if you go to the manufacturer's website, and search for the TV model.

 

[Imzadi]

The TV should be capable of picking up over the air channels in HD(and possibly still some standard definition), but you'll likely need some type of antenna to get a clear picture.

An antenna may have come with the TV. Look in the box. It's a FLAT (usually black) sheet. You probably think it's just extra unneeded packaging. It's not the old metal rabbit ears antenna that people think of when they think of TV antennas.

It will probably look like this:

 

[sam_gordon]

An antenna may have come with the TV. Look in the box. It's a FLAT (usually black) sheet. You probably think it's just extra unneeded packaging. It's not the old metal rabbit ears antenna that people think of when they think of TV antennas.

It will probably look like this:

Do ANY TVs ship with antennas? I've unpacked a lot of TVs over the last couple of years, and I don't remember seeing any antenna.

OP, that doesn't mean there's not one, but I wouldn't be surprised if you don't find one. I assume since you're replacing a TV, you already have an antenna that works, you're not replacing it, correct?

 

[kdonnel]

The original ATSC standard is being replaced with ATSC 3.0 or NextGen TV. I have not kept up with the transition but know it is ongoing.

Antennas remain compatible but in markets that have migrated to ATSC 3.0 they only have to simultaneously broadcast the original ATSC for 5 years.

If your parents are users of antenna broadcasts, they might want to look at the specs of the TV to ensure it has an ATSC 3.0 or NextGen TV tuner for near future proofing.

 

[sam_gordon]

If your parents are users of antenna broadcasts, they might want to look at the specs of the TV to ensure it has an ATSC 3.0 or NextGen TV tuner for near future proofing.

If the TV they got doesn't have an ATSC 3.0/NextGen tuner, don't worry. You can get stand alone tuners for that when you need it.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Many new TVs have buttons that help, like ours has Netflix & Disney+ etc and so when all else fails I just hit one of those buttons and can generally navigate from there . We had multiple remotes in the past, sometimes it helped ME to put stickers on buttons & other times it was easier for ME to just get a generic remote and put the originals away in a drawer. Everyone else in the house seems to be remote gifted, I get irked easily and want to just throw it all away, so there's that...

 

[prairie_girl]

Many new TVs have buttons that help, like ours has Netflix & Disney+ etc and so when all else fails I just hit one of those buttons and can generally navigate from there . We had multiple remotes in the past, sometimes it helped ME to put stickers on buttons & other times it was easier for ME to just get a generic remote and put the originals away in a drawer. Everyone else in the house seems to be remote gifted, I get irked easily and want to just throw it all away, so there's that...

We got a new tv last month and the remote has buttons for Netflix, Disney+, YouTube and a few others as well. I didn’t think it was a big deal when I was researching it, but they’re super handy to have.

 

[tvguy]

OP said they had a TV before so I would guess they had an antenna before.
Sounds like they just need to do a Scan for the new TV to find the channels. Not like the old days where you just plug in a TV and it is ready to go. On my Samsung you hit the little house emblem on the remote, select SOURCES, and select TV and it should prompt you to do a scan which will take less than 5 minutes.

 

[tvguy]

An antenna may have come with the TV. Look in the box. It's a FLAT (usually black) sheet. You probably think it's just extra unneeded packaging. It's not the old metal rabbit ears antenna that people think of when they think of TV antennas.

It will probably look like this:

LOL. I have Rabbit Ears. I have seen so many different shaped over the air antennas in the past year, hard to say what they will look at. I probably should upgrade mine, but it gets most of the channels.....It does have issues with the two local stations that did not move to UHF when they went digital One being the one I worked for. We lost about 20% of our audience. Digital sucks. A digital signal doesn't travel as far, and it's either there, or it's not. Not like analog where I could watch San Francisco and Redding TV stations along with my local Sacramento stations. The distant stations were just fuzzy, but watchable.
Biggest mistake I made 9 years ago when I reroofed was letting the roofer talk me into not putting my outdoor antenna on a 20 foot mast back up.

 

[kdonnel]

Digital sucks. A digital signal doesn't travel as far, and it's either there, or it's not. Not like analog where I could watch San Francisco and Redding TV stations along with my local Sacramento stations. The distant stations were just fuzzy, but watchable.

Digital is great!

I see it as a positive that that you can't watch fuzzy channels. Its either great or not at all!

It's not that the signal doesn't travel as far, RF is RF, it does not know if the signal being carried is analog or digital.

What did happen in some markets is that stations were given different frequencies to broadcast digital on that in theory had a similar RF profile and performance to their existing analog frequency. Some stations went from VHF to UHF, other from UHF to VHF, and others remained VHF and UHF. That meant that an antenna that worked great before the conversion might not be appropriate after the conversion.

In the Atlanta area during the first ATSC conversion all the digital stations were UHF except for one which was assigned a VHF frequency. This meant that if you lived within about 30 miles of the one VHF channels broadcast antenna, you could get a UHF only antenna for best success for all the other channels and cross your fingers that the VHF channel also worked. All the people who had giant VHF antenna needed new better performing UHF antenna.

A UHF antenna can be much smaller than a VHF antenna. That flat panel antenna shown earlier in this thread is probably a UHF only antenna. VHF antenna need to be larger because of how RF works. Think of the old rabbit ears (VHF) vs the bowtie (UHF) antennas.

I still have a Channel Master UHF only antenna in my attic.



8 bow tie antennas wired together and some chicken wire.

 

[fla4fun]

Mine you go through a menu. There is a button on the remote specifically for the input menu. I have an antenna, a DVD Player and an old DVR (that I only keep for the programs recorded already) so when I push that button, I have three options to select from. I think I have three more empty slots I could use and when I do, those will show up as well when I press the button.

 

[figaro2tigger]

At Thanksgiving, finally retired the tube tv for a new Amazon Fire TV.
Using mostly antenna tv. Took the old rabbit ears and plugged them on the back using the old adapter. There are 3 ea holes in the top that the antenna rod fits inside.
With the government supplied converter, I had over 30 channels.
When I turned on the tv, it "walked" me through signing it into my home wifi. Since it is an Amazon tv, I signed it into my Amazon acct.
Choosing the house (home) button, I use the circle at the top to go left or right on the menu.
Click in the center to choose the option.
The magnifying glass has wifi channels.

The next option on the left has a box with a arrow that says Inputs. The 1st choice underneath is antenna. Bottom click on the top circle to go down and choose it. You may be prompted to scan for channels.
There are HDMI options if you want to add a gaming system or dvd player, etc.

Going back to the HOME, looking to the right are options for Netflix, Prime Video (Amazon), Freevee and more. There are shortcut buttons on the remote for these as well.

When I scroll down the tv "guide", after the now more than 50 Antenna channels, there are also over 100 free stations!

After a couple of times, the set "remembers" what you watched last and usually shows those under the HOME button if you want a shortcut.

I enter contests and had won a free year of Netflix with no ads (had to enter the code by last November, so used it as an excuse to "upgrade"}. Clicking on Netflix had the same easy prompts as when I started up the set, it's a nice extra.

IF your screem is blank when you sign on sometime, don't panic. Shut the tv off at the power source (I have mine plugged into a surge protector and just shut off the surge protector ) leave it off for a couple of minutes and then turn it back on. You may have to go to home, then scroll to input, then antenna, but it will "remember" your last channels again after that. This has happened 3 times (usually after a power outage) so far, but startled me.

hth ENJOY!!!!!!

 

[starry_solo]

Ok, we have a smart TV that can get over the air channels, with an antenna, but you need to push a specific button in the menu to do so and you had to do it every time you turned on the TV.

Parents didn't want to use it so I got them a flat screen regular TV.