Digital TV is driving me crazy!

I have 2 TVs on converter boxes (analog passthrough). Before June 12, the signals came in great. After June 12, I suddenly had trouble getting channel 2 to come in on either set, although other channels came in clean and clear. I figured it had something to do with signal direction so I searched and found a helpful website that provided a graph. In one column for channel 2, it gave the number “33.” So, I decided to try entering 33 as the channel number, and in came Channel 2! Great! Now I had all the channels!

However, over the next few weeks, I noticed that channels 7 through 13 were cutting out and giving me “No signal” messages because the signals were weak. They were fine before! Now it seems signal strength is being limited by the FCC, so many people are being completely cut off from access to free TV signals, while others struggle to get at least some shows on stations they used to get fine in analog! What kind of progress is this?

I live near a busy airport, digital signals are now constantly affected (analog disruption had been minimal, if any)! Since I find that digital signals don’t bend like analog did, signals are constantly being “stalled” and disrupted for a variety of reasons. And not only video, audio cuts out too, so you can’t even follow a show by sound! In other words, for many people it is now impossible to simply turn on a TV and enjoy your favorite show anymore!

Which brings me to: Is signal strength going to be increased, or do I need to stand and hold my antenna (sometimes that works) or attach a potato battery to it? Are signal boosters/spreaders going to be placed on cell phone towers to provide better TV signal coverage in our homes, or do we all have to shell out to buy mini-TVs and wander the streets looking for hotspots? Are we all going to go back to reading newspapers and hardcopy books and listen to news, weather, and talk shows on radio, or be forced to pay cable prices to enjoy TV signals that, at one time, used to be free, and a right!

If you are interested in help here there are a few things we need to know.

First is your TVFool plot. Go to TV Fool and enter your address and how high your antenna is off the ground.

We also need to know which type or model of antenna you are using, how high it is off the ground.

Can you put up an outdoor antenna if you don't have one now?

You also mentioned living near an airport which can be really hard to deal with reflections of TV signals off the airplanes breaking up the picture.

Did any of your stations switch from vhf to uhf and vice versa? The only way to know is by finding out the real channel numbers they use. Virtual channels with the . and - are useless.

It could be that your antenna is only suitable for one band.

Originally Posted by staticMHZ

Did any of your stations switch from vhf to uhf and vice versa? The only way to know is by finding out the real channel numbers they use. Virtual channels with the . and - are useless.

It could be that your antenna is only suitable for one band.

Most folks that come to use for help need us to tell them if their stations moved to VHF, why we need the TVFool report to then look up on the FCC Query