Not to be a smart a$$, just that I did the same thing. I have a samsung plasma and it does show the "searching for signal" message until I push the button on the remote for the menu to come up. My first few times I pushed the wrong button on the remote (I think it's labeled "setup") until I figured out that was not how you bring up the menu. The menu was also set to shut off at something like 10 seconds, so while I turned my head and looked back I would be staring at the "searching for signal" message and wondering what the heck was going on. Just some thoughts since we are trying everything...