What Should I Do?

If you are one of the 72 million Americans who rely on an antenna to watch free, over-the-air television, you’ll need to rescan your television set or converter box anytime after your local stations move frequencies. Rescanning is when your TV finds all of the available channels in your area. You do not need to purchase new equipment or services to rescan. If you are a cable or satellite subscriber you do not need to take action. Your service provider will do it for you.

Because stations are required to move at different times, you may need to rescan more than once. If you haven’t rescanned your TV recently, you may discover TV channels that you didn’t know you were missing.

How to Rescan Your Antenna TV

1. Select Scan or Autotune from your TV or converter box control menu to start the scanning process. 
2. Your TV will do the rest. This process usually takes a few minutes to complete.

Once your rescan is complete you will still find your favorite stations on the same channel number as before. If you have rescanning difficulties, you can usually find instructions by selecting the Set-Up or Menu button on your television or converter box remote control. 

Still having issues? Consult the TV or converter box owner’s manual for detailed instructions on how to run a channel scan, or contact customer service for your TV or converter box manufacturer. For additional assistance, contact the FCC’s consumer hotline at 1-888-225-5322 and press prompt number 6. This is a government call center not affiliated with WROC-TV/RochesterFirst.com

Television and Antenna Manufacturer Resources

Because specific rescan procedures may vary by manufacturer, we’ve provided links below to the online support pages of many popular brands. 

• Channel Master Antennas
• DISH Network DTVPAL
• Elemental (Includes Channel Scan Video Instructions)
• Funai (Includes support manuals for Sylvania, Emerson, Durabrand, Symphonic and Funai television sets)
• Haier
• Hisense
• Hitachi
• Insignia (Includes YouTube Video)
• Insignia NS-DXA1-APT
• JVC
• LG
• Magnavox (This will redirect you to the Funai website)
• Panasonic
• Philips
• Polaroid
• Proscan
• Samsung
• Sanyo
• Sceptre
• Sharp
• Sony
• Symphonic (This will redirect you to the Funai website)
• TCL
• Toshiba
• Vizio
• Westinghouse
• Zenith

Information provided by TVAnswers.org