There are many reasons why you may experience poor digital television reception, causing the TV picture to pixelate or display no signal on the TV screen. Below we have listed some of the more common issues that can cause this.
An incorrectly setup antenna.
Ensure that your antenna is the right one for the television services being broadcast.
Pointing towards the transmitter that provides you the strongest signal.
Correctly polarised, either horizontally or vertically.
Poorly maintained television reception equipment.
Is your antenna in good condition with no missing elements.
Are connectors properly terminated and not loose or badly fitting plugs.
Is the coax cable of good quality RG6 Quad and not old brown air core cable.
A week television signal.
If you live some distance from the TV transmitter servicing your area, the signal maybe weak by the time it reaches you. If this is the case, you may need to install a high gain antenna to strengthen the signal. In areas where the signal is very weak, viewers may also need to install a mast head amplifier or booster to receive an adequate signal.
Television Signal that is too Strong.
In some areas viewers may find that the signal they are receiving is too strong. This can overload reception equipment, which can cause the picture to pixelate or drop out. This situation can arise if a new local transmitter is setup in an area where viewers have previously been using a masthead amplifier or booster to receive their signal from a more distant transmitter. In this situation, viewers will need to remove their masthead amplifier or booster. More rarely, some viewers that live close to a transmitter may need to install an attenuator on the input to their TV or DVD Recorder which will reduce the strength of the signal even further.
Not Watching the Best Channel.
In areas where there is more than one transmitter, your digital TV might pick up the same channel more than once from different transmitters. If this happens, you need to make sure you are watching the channel with the strongest signal. However, because of the way the auto-tuning function works on digital TV's and DVD recorders, the channel with the strongest signal might not be in the channel number you would expect to find it in. In this situation, you will need to manually Retune your digital TV or DVD Recorder.
4G LTE Interference.
With the roll out of the new 4G wireless telecommunications signals in 2013, many of these transmitters were installed on mobile phone towers, this can cause extensive TV interference as the old TV equipment is cut to pass these frequencies. Ensure that antennas or amplifiers have built in 4G LTE filters to block these wireless communications to prevent overloading of the amplifier or TV front end.
Signal Obstructions.
Some viewers may find that the signal from a transmitter serving their area is obstructed from reaching their antenna by features in the local landscape. These might include terrain (hills and mountains), tall buildings or other structures, and dense trees.
Impulse Noise.
Impulse noise may be generated by a range of sources, such as light switches, car engines and electric motors in electrical appliances.