Before you grab the phone, there are some practical things you can do, and knowledge you can arm yourself with, that may get your system running, or determine what the actual problem is that needs repair.
1. Nothing Turns On
Check all power connections. If you have connected everything into a surge protector, make sure the surge protector itself is turned on and plugged into the wall. Believe it or not, this is one of most common reasons that home theater systems and/or televisions don't power up the first time.
2. No TV Reception
Make sure your antenna, Cable, or Satellite box is connected correctly to your Television. If you have a standard Cable or Satellite box, make sure it is connected to the antenna/cable connection on your TV and that your TV is turned to channel 3 or 4 (depending on area).
If you have a High-definition Cable or Satellite box and an HDTV, make sure you have the box connected to your TV via HDMI, DVI, or Component Video Connections.
In addition, if have your HD Cable or Satellite video and audio outputs routed through a Home Theater Receiver to the TV, make sure your Home Theater Receiver is turned on and set to the appropriate input so that HD-Cable or Satellite signal is routed to the TV.
3. The Picture Quality is Poor
If the picture is grainy or snowy, this could be the result of an incomplete cable connection or bad cable. Try a different cable and see if the result is the same. If you are on Cable, your cable company usually provides free service to check your main cable line for any defects. If using an antenna, change the position of the antenna to get better reception, or try a better antenna.
Another factor is watching analog signals on an HDTV.
4. Improper or No Color
First, check to see if the color is bad across all input sources. If so, make sure you have your Televisions' color settings set to your preferences. If everything looks good except, say, your DVD player, and it is connected to your TV via Component Video Connections (which is composed of three cables - Red, Green, and Blue), make sure they are matched up correctly with the Component (Red, Green, and Blue) connections on your TV. This is a common mistake as it is sometimes hard to distinguish the Green and Blue connectors if the lighting in the connection area is dim.
5. The HDMI Connection Doesn't Work
You have a DVD, Blu-ray Disc player, or other component with an HDMI output connected to an HDMI-equipped TV, but when you turn them both on, you don't get an image on the screen. This occurs sometimes because the source and the TV are not communicating. A successful HDMI connection requires that the source component and TV be able to recognize each other, which is referred to as the "HDMI handshake".
One solution to this is to turn on the source component first and then the TV, or turn on the TV first and then the source component. If the connection still doesn't work, try another HDMI cable.
However, if changing the cable doesn't solve the problem, then this would be the proper time to make an inquiry to the source component's tech support number, or the appropriate support website page, to see if there are any firmware upgrades that are available that would enable the connection to work. Such upgrades downloaded directly to a Blu-ray Disc player if it has an internet connection, or you can download it to your PC and burn it to either a CD or DVD for installation.
6. The Surround Sound Doesn't Seem Right
The first thing to check: Is the DVD, TV program, or other programming source in surround sound? Next check all of your speaker connections and make sure they are done correctly, according to the channel and polarity.
The next thing to check is how you have your DVD player, Cable, or Satellite box connected to your Home Theater Receiver. To access true Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound, you need to have either a Digital Optical, Digital Coaxial, or 5.1 channel analog connection going from the source component to your Home Theater Receiver. The reason for this is that only these connections are able to transfer a true Dolby Digital or DTS-encoded soundtrack.
If you have the traditional RCA analog stereo cables connected from your DVD Player, or other source component, connected to your Home Theater Receiver, the only way to access surround sound is with the Dolby Prologic II, IIx, or DTS Neo:6 setting, if available. These processing schemes can extract surround sound from any two-channel audio source, including CDs, Cassette Tapes, and Vinyl Records. When using this method with DVDs, it wouldn't be the same as a true Dolby Digital or DTS signal you would get from one the digital or 5.1 channel analog audio connections, but it is much better than a standard two-channel result.
Now, the last thing you have to remember with surround sound is, that even with true surround sound material, surround sound is not present at all times. During periods of mainly dialog, most of the sound may come from the center speaker only, with some ambient sounds coming from the rest of the speakers. As the action on the screen gets more complicated, such as explosions, crowds, etc... or when the music soundtrack becomes more a part of the film, you will notice more sound coming from the side and/or rear speakers.
Also, all newer Home Theater Receivers offer an option to balance the sound coming from your speakers, which will optimize the surround sound experience. Using the setup menu on many Home Theater Receivers, the user can set speaker distance, speaker size, and speaker channel level in relation to the listenng position.
In addition, here are some reference articles that can aid in setting up correct speaker balance: How Do I Position My Loudspeakers and Subwoofer For My Home Theater System? and Correcting Low Center Channel Dialog.
Proceed to Page 2 - Correcting Radio Reception, DVD, and Turntable Problems - Final Take
