ARCHIVED: About traditional cable TV in campus housing at IU Bloomington

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Overview

Important:
This information is about traditional cable TV service. For details about online content, see About streaming and mobile TV for campus housing residents at IUB, IUPUI, and IUSB.

Traditional, through-the-wall cable TV service is provided as part of your housing contract at Indiana University Bloomington, and includes a selection of television and information channels as well as foreign language satellite feeds.

Setup

For this service, your TV needs a QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) tuner, which lets your TV receive digital channels without a set-top box.

Note:
If your TV does not have a QAM tuner, you could purchase a new(er) QAM-capable TV. You could also purchase a QAM-capable converter box to connect an older, analog TV to the digital system, but UITS does not recommend this.
  1. Using a coaxial cable, connect your TV's input to the nearest threaded wall jack. (If your TV has more than one input, use the one labeled "Cable In", "CATV", "Antenna", "RF In", or something similar.)
  2. Power on your TV.
  3. Set your TV's input selector to use the appropriate input, and then scan for available channels. For instructions, consult your TV's user manual. Although the exact steps involved are different for each make and model, generally the process is as follows:
    1. Access the TV's menu (commonly by pressing MENU or SETUP on the TVs remote control).
    2. Find and select Media, Channels, Setup, Programming, or something similar.
    3. Find and select Channel Manager, Auto Channel Search, Channel Scan, Auto Program, or something similar.
    4. If prompted to choose between Antenna (or Air or Broadcast) and Cable, select Cable.
    5. If prompted, choose to scan digital channels only.

    If the scan completes successfully, your TV should find a large number of channels beyond numbers 2 through 13.

Troubleshooting

  1. Make sure your TV is cable-ready. If you're using an older TV, you may need to purchase a converter box. Many local discount or electronic stores in town sell converter boxes.
  2. Check the back of your TV. Look for a switch labeled "Cable" (or "CATV") on one side and "Air" (or "Antenna") on the other. Choose CATV/cable or STD/standard.
    Note:
    If you can't find a switch, you can possibly set the same option from your remote control. Using the remote, press the Menu button. Make sure the tuner is set to Cable or STD (standard cable TV). If you see other options like STD/IRC/HRC, choose STD.
  3. Your coaxial cable may be defective. Replace it with another cable, and then try rescanning again.

Get help

Call IU's cable repair service at 812-855-2111, option 2.

This is document alwi in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2021-04-14 14:58:32.