How is the digital TV reception in your location? Is the broadcast as clear as expected? This time I will discuss six types of interference that can affect your Digital TV reception and how does the TV signal should travel from your local transmitter to your antenna, so that the broadcast quality is a perfect clear picture.
There may be a mountain between the transmitter and your tv antenna which can affect the reception quality and distance also not to be forgotten. Several other factors can affect the success of receiving certain TV station broadcasts, assuming that you have used the correct TV antenna and in your area the digital tv signal actually exists, so let's get it on..
1. Indoor Antenna vs Wall Material
The first to be the most important concern is your antenna vs the wall of your house! There are several things that can affect it, first is what building materials are in your walls? The TV signal does not travel well through building materials and if you are using an indoors one it will likely to attenuate the tv signal.
Some TV stations may not show up or may not get a good picture even if you have the greatest antenna in the world and are correctly tuned to the TV frequency. If you have tried to catch the signal with all your effort, it will be in vain, because no signal is going through your home wall materials which are generally a CONCRETE.
Using an indoor antenna inside the house won't really work! Maybe some of you are in apartment complexes, there are a number of things you can do to improve your indoor reception if you are restricted to using only indoor antennas that are mounted on a wall like that super magic digital antenna ad video.
2. Powerline Interference Around the House
One way to improve your Digital TV reception, if you are restricted only to use an indoor antenna, is to find other factors that can interfere with TV broadcasts. The mains cable network next to the house, for example, especially high voltage power lines, is also quite influential. It happened to me a few months ago when I was at a friend's house, and he was complaining about the receiption of his new indoor digital antenna. Then I tried to bring the indoor antenna back to my home and the results were very clear.
In the end, I tried a decent outdoor antenna antenna and no matter where the antenna was placed, beside the wall or even on the roof top, there was still some interference at one of the TV stations where the broadcast was pixelate, aka grumpy. So I suspect that the digital STB or the receiver is not suitable with the power lines, because when I use my own receiver (which is much more expensive) the results are just fine.
What i've found that the digital tuner on the cheap STB didn't do a good job coding the weaker TV signal or maybe at the certain TV frequency that collided with the harmonics from the electricity power lines. It couldn't be filtered properly !
3. House Electronics Appliances
What may disturb you are some common electronic appliances in your home, including microwaves, blenders and even today's LED light bulbs. I had this problem firsthand about a year and a half ago when I first moved house. Every time I turn on the microwave, I will lose several TV stations, grumpy and can't enjoy the TV broadcasts.
If you are in this situation and you want to use an indoor antenna I highly recommend stopping using this model, switch to the UHF outdoor antenna as usual while still using Analog TV.
But if you don't have the option to use an outdoor antenna, then if you want your TV to receive the best picture, you have to choose whether to watch TV or cook. You can turn on the microwave oven and turn off the TV or completely remove the microwave or other sources that can interfere with your Digital TV signal. So watching clear tv all day but hungry stomach. Delivery order is the solution ...
4. Trees
Maybe if the tree is only one or two it won't be a problem, but what if your house is around a dense forest? On rainy and windy days you will notice that certain TV stations are getting pixelated and uncomfortable to see because the tree obstruction interferes with the TV signal. If you are in that situation then you really need to get a really good outdoor antenna and put it in an unobstructed position path to the TV station's tower.
5. Airplanes And Cars Pass
Another factor that interferes with your TV receiption is an airplane passing overhead and this is more often occurs if you are using a small antenna or indoors one, and your house happens to be near the airport.
What happens is that the television signal is reflected by the plane and your antenna starts to pick up too much signal otherwise known as MULTIPATH interference (multiple reflections) and the digital television tuner can't handle it so you end up with a bunch of pixels in the image, aka grumpy or no signal at all. if you are in a very unlucky situation. Even though the DVB-T2 standard fixes the multipath problem, it will be affected if the multipath is too much.
The solution is to use an external antenna with very good alignment or a rotatable antenna. Don't forget to point the antenna out of a path that airplanes often pass. Apart from airplanes that make you feel bad, this one also causes a lot of interference, namely cars passing on the road in front of the house, especially if you use an indoor antenna.
6. Cellulars Tower 4G LTE / 5G
This will be a problem if the 700mhz frequency is free from Analog TV signal and used for 4G / 5G cellular. So broadcasts on channel 40s and above are vulnerable to BTS signal interference if you are in a location near a cellular BTS tower. The characteristic of this interference is a pixelate image with regular pauses, for example 10 seconds or 30 seconds. This indicates that there is a wild emission from the leaking BTS devices.
Now it's still safe in some country in asia because the 700 mhz frequency hasn't been used by cellular because the Analog Swith Off or digital migration hasn't finished yet. But if the time comes the solution is to use the LTE filter as shown above.