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RavenPeggy · 10-11-2014, 08:43 AM

We just purchased a 2005 Sea Breeze 8321LX that has two 'old' TV's - one above the front seats and one in the bedroom, plus an RCA DVD/VHS player and a Winegard video distribution switch in the front cabinet. The previous owners had them connected thru a Dish box and a Radio Shack Remote Controlled A/B Switch, which they left on board.

I have figured out how to get the DVD to player work on the main TV but can't get TV channels when we connect to cable at a campground. When the TV is turned on, it says 'no signal' no matter which button is pressed on the Winegard box for the main TV. The bedroom TV turns on but I can't get channels nor the DVD player.

There are 3 'cable' wires coming out of a holel in the back of the cabinet next to the TV - two are white and one is black. I have no idea what they connect to/from and can't figure out how to access them to see where they go.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Firebug5 · 10-11-2014, 08:52 AM

Welcome to the site! Be sure to take a look at the National RV section for more information than you can ever imagine concerning your coach.

There are several experts that will help you as soon as they see your request for help with the audio/visual questions.

When you are ready to get rid of the big monster TV, there are several good threads on this site with pictures explaining how to remove the beast, and then replace with a much lighter, thinner LED TV. This will get rid of most of the overhead squeaks as you drive, and help the front of the coach by eliminating the 80-100 pounds of weight the old TV places on the front cage. Feel free to PM me with any questions about this procedure.

Good luck, it will not be long before the experts chime in to assist with your question. Again, welcome to the site! Good luck with your National!

Bruce

Jim A · 10-11-2014, 09:51 AM

I would buy one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Put one of the caps on where you connect the campground cable, and verify which of the coax lines comes from there. Quick and easy.

Then disconnect the bedroom TV coax from the Winegard box, and verify the signal at the bedroom TV.

It may not completely solve your problem, but it will eliminate quite a few possibilities.

Scarab0088 · 10-11-2014, 10:32 AM

This is a very specific question for your RV, so it is now in the National RV Owners Forum...where owners with this model RV would frequent.

Best luck

wa8yxm · 10-11-2014, 11:02 AM

A common thing that I feel should never be done is going to be described below.

You either have a wall plate with a 12 volt outlet, Light (LED) Switch and antenna connection or a Matrix Switch (Box Of Many Buttons BOMB) or both.

On the back of the wall switch there are usually 3 cables, the one in the middle is CABLE input. (The switch (like the bomb) is a multi-function device selecting between OTA antenna, (ON) and Cable (OFF) and splitting the signal between front and rear (and occasionally outside) TV.

The BOMB.. ALso has a jack on the back marked CABLE, and performs all those same functions,,, and more (DVD/VCR (or DVR) Sat AUX sources and possible 3 or 4 televisions)

What the Prior owner may have done is remove the cable from the CABLE jack and re-task (extended it to) for Satellite LNB.. This is bad for several reasons.

YOU described one (Won't work for cable any more)
Another is it is often lowest bidder RG-59... 59 is high loss, lowest bidder higher still.

RG-6, epically quality, is way lower loss.

You need to restore the park cable to the original connections then things will work as designed.. IF you wish to put in SAT later.. Run a brand new RG-6 for that. if you wish to distribute a single receiver, Run two, (one from the connections area to teh sat receiver, and one running back to teh connections area from the TV-OUT coax jack if the receiver has one (not all do) Works well. Though even at channel 3 there is loss in that el-cheapo 59.. USUALLY the Sat receiver pushes hard enough though.

Gerryl · 10-11-2014, 11:09 AM

I have a 2000 34' Seabreeze. I completely changed everything up front at the TV cabinet. Turned out real nice. If you call me I would be glad to walk you thru what you need to do. I will also send you pics of what I did. I replaced the front tv with a flatscreen mounted on an articulating arm.
I also moved the Electric outlet from the right cabinet to the space behind the tv. Once you remove that big anchor (old Tv) there is loads of space in that hole. Now my Dish receiver sits nicely in there also. In the right cabinet, I installed a DVR/DVD player.
As Bruce (firebug5) said, the best thing you can do up there is replace that old Tv. Those old Tvs are suspected of being the cause of the windshield stress cracks that are inherent to the Nationals. You should search for that thread also so you are aware of that.
I sent you a PM with my phone #.
PS, I used to have those A/B switches in my house and had to replace them several times as they wear out over time.

Firebug5 · 10-11-2014, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerryl

I have a 2000 34' Seabreeze. I completely changed everything up front at the TV cabinet. Turned out real nice. If you call me I would be glad to walk you thru what you need to do. I will also send you pics of what I did. I replaced the front tv with a flatscreen mounted on an articulating arm.
I also moved the Electric outlet from the right cabinet to the space behind the tv. Once you remove that big anchor (old Tv) there is loads of space in that hole. Now my Dish receiver sits nicely in there also. In the right cabinet, I installed a DVR/DVD player.
As Bruce (firebug5) said, the best thing you can do up there is replace that old Tv. Those old Tvs are suspected of being the cause of the windshield stress cracks that are inherent to the Nationals. You should search for that thread also so you are aware of that.
I sent you a PM with my phone #.
PS, I used to have those A/B switches in my house and had to replace them several times as they wear out over time.

When are you doing our TV, Gerry? Already got it out, just waiting on you to visit beautiful, colorful, Colorado. . .

Gerryl · 10-11-2014, 01:28 PM

What r u waiting for, snow? You probably already got some of that where you are. I sent you all the pictures. Did you order the articulating arm and buy the flatscreen yet? Cmon lets get to it before we get old.
Incidentally, that articulating arm works great because you can undo the Velcro and pull the TV over to the side so that you can view it from the couch even if the slide is in.

wsw · 10-12-2014, 06:15 PM

I had the same thing happen to me. I ended up running all the cables down one by one. I have five wires in the BR tv. 10-cable in from outside, 9 - goes to front. 4 - satelite. one to tv, and white 2 - from front winegard switch. I wired a dvd player to the outside outlet and just plugged each on into a tv one at a time until i got a signal. The outside cable outlet actually ended up in my bedroom as #10. A cable 9 actually went to the front tv from the rear tv. I had to put a splitter to get cable to the front from the back. Luckily all my cables were rg6, and worked. Best of luck.

RavenPeggy · 10-13-2014, 05:24 PM

Since I didn't begin to understand the technical stuff in your replies, I think we will just follow Gerryl's advice and get new ones when we get to OR in a week or so.

Gerryl - I will definitely call you when we are ready as we can't even figure out how to get the old 4-ton Sony out of the cabinet.

Gerryl · 10-14-2014, 08:32 AM

Removal of mine was easy. Firebug5's was apparently a harder job as his had some kind of metal lip holding his in but between the two of us, we should be able to walk you through the whole thing and make it easier for you.
I toyed with the idea of going with a bigger TV than I finally chose, but I am very happy with the one I finally did put in. Don't remember the size but I can measure it when you call. It is a Visio with the speakers out the front and I believe it is a 19".
I got rid of the video distribution switch altogether because you can use splitters to achieve a better result.

Firebug5 · 10-14-2014, 10:37 AM

19" sounds small, Gerry. I thought we discussed using 32" vizio's, let me know.

Bruce

Gerryl · 10-16-2014, 11:11 AM

I just measured the TV. It must be a 22" as it measures 21.5" diagionaly. 20.25 across. Finally got the pics to post. If you look close you can see the Velcro that I have screwed to the cabinet that wraps around the front sides of the Tv. That holds the TV from vibrating out while driving.