Now this is something strange.

We have a couple of NEC flat screen HDTVs. A NLT-32HDB2 and a NLT-46HDB2. All of a sudden, both of them have an issue with the Prime / Ch 7 signal. As soon as the TVs go to Prime, 7Two, 7Mate, etc, the channel change controls lock. We can’t change channel, either via the remote or via the controls on the TV. A lot of the functions on the TV are unavailable.

After numerous attempts of switching off, powering off & unplugging, I managed to get it to rescan for channels. At the end of the scan it defaults to SBS and full control is restored. Everything is fine until I go to one of the 7 channels then the problem returns.

It is the same for both TVs: all is normal unless you go to 7. The only thing we are doing now is deleting all of the Prime related channels.

Any idea what might cause this?

Divine Angel said:

nah – I already contacted the Greys and they were flummoxed, too.

Are they smrt tv’s, if so perhaps an update from the manufacturers was faulty and is causing the problem.
See if googling your brand and model of tv and the problems reveals others with the problem and is some solution exists

Cymek said:

Are they smrt tv’s, if so perhaps an update from the manufacturers was faulty and is causing the problem.
See if googling your brand and model of tv and the problems reveals others with the problem and is some solution exists

I don’t think so. They are NEC TVs, probably about 10 years old. Not smart TVs.

Have a look here, Obviousman:
http://www.austech.info/showthread.php/73232-nec-nlt-40hdb2-problems

There’re several other people having the same issue; there are some suggestions as to causes, and possible solutions.

Ah! Thank you very much!

I had done a lot of Google searching but couldn’t find anything related.

Turns out it is because 7 is transmitting in MPEG-4 whilst the others are MPEG-2; a lot of older TVs cannot handle the MPEG-4 signal. Channel 7 apparently has the attitude of “well, go get yourself a new TV”.

They are going to lose a lot of viewers who can’t afford a new TV.

You can get a STB that will get around this but again, some people can’t afford it / won’t know how to work it.

How interesting! I didn’t think a different signal strength would be able to lock the TV like Obviousman has described.

Obviousman said:

Turns out it is because 7 is transmitting in MPEG-4 whilst the others are MPEG-2; a lot of older TVs cannot handle the MPEG-4 signal. Channel 7 apparently has the attitude of “well, go get yourself a new TV”.

They are going to lose a lot of viewers who can’t afford a new TV.

You can get a STB that will get around this but again, some people can’t afford it / won’t know how to work it.

It is a similar thing with Macromedia Flash. Most sites are too useless to offer any other.

When html5 should be safer.