Yesterday, I purchased an Insignia NS-F24TV 24" CRT television from
BestBuy. http://tinyurl.com/2hjzjq While the set is a cheap one, the
user ratings are quite high. After lugging it home and hooking it up, I
discovered a problem. All over-the-air and cable (analog) channels are
in mono.

There is apparently no switch or setting to cause the TV to work in
mono. When I finally go through to India (after 30 minutes on hold
followed by a disconnect and 45 minutes on hold followed by a
disconnect), the genius offered the following suggestions:

1) Call the cable company to see why this TV is in mono while all of the
other TVs in the house are in stereo.

2) Get a cable box with RCA outputs so that I can receive stereo.

Of course I declined in both cases.

There is no cable box. The set is hooked directly to the analog cable.
The TV that this one replaced received all channels in stereo.
Therefore, the problem is not in the delivery of the cable or OTA signals.

I went through the automatic channel programming routine, and that did
not make a difference. The selector is set for cable, rather than air. I
did not set it to air, since the results would be useless.

Don't all current TVs have to receive stereo audio? The set has dual
audio amplifiers and has two front speakers. There are dual RCA audio
inputs on the side and rear of the TV. The only technical limitation on
receiving stereo audio appears to be the internal stereo decoder.

Thinking that the set was defective, I called BestBuy and asked them to
check the display model to see if it was receiving audio in mono. It
was. However, they have their own internal video distribution signal, so
I don't know if their signal has the same MTSC-encoded signal that is
delivered by analog cable and OTA.

Before I return it for a refund, am I overlooking anything? The reviews
on the BestBuy web site do not mention the problem. A web search did not
reveal this problem with this brand. Needless to say, I am dumbfounded
to find a TV with stereo amplifiers and stereo speakers that does not
deliver stereo in a conventional analog signal.