This week’s question is from Dave, who asks, “I live near three major airports, so planes and helicopters are constantly flying overhead. Is that why I see pixelation when the weather is clear and why recordings from programs aired after midnight are perfect?”
Dave’s suspicion that the busy airports in his area may be causing pixelation on his antenna TV channels is likely correct.
As planes come and go and helicopter blades whirr, over-the-air (OTA) TV signals in the same vicinity can bounce off their shiny metal surfaces. When your TV antenna picks up these ‘bounced’ signals in addition to those coming directly from the broadcast tower, it can cause something called multipath interference.
Car traffic, buildings with mirrored exteriors, bodies of water and even dense moisture in the atmosphere can also cause this type of interference, leading to video and audio breakup or intermittent signal loss.
While multipath interference can be difficult to correct, there are a few things you can try to avoid it:
- Change your TV antenna positioning/style – Changing the angle of your TV antenna to face 45-90 degrees away from your local broadcast towers or switching to a more directional style of TV antenna, may make it harder to pick up the ‘bounced’ signals.
- Reduce the signal strength – Because they’re traveling a shorter distance, ‘bounced’ OTA signals can sometimes overpower ‘real’ OTA signals from the broadcast tower. Reducing the overall antenna signal strength coming into your Tablo by disabling the in-line amplifier or adding an inexpensive attenuator could also help.
- Break out the tinfoil – Creating a DIY reflector with tinfoil or sheet metal and placing it behind your TV antenna can help reflect the ‘bounced’ signals and allow your antenna to focus on the real signals. You can also purchase commercial reflector kits.
If you’re really struggling with multipath interference, you may even want to consider adding a second TV antenna to your setup. However, you’ll need to use the same TV antenna model and equal lengths of coaxial cable running to a combiner to avoid making things worse.
Have a question about watching TV that you’d like answered? Send us a note and you may see your question on the Tablo blog and in an upcoming issue of our newsletter, Stay Tuned!
