Interference on my new LED TV
April 16th, 2010I’ve just bought a new Samsung LED TV (actually my first flatscreen) but immediately noticed that some of the channels had a strange diagonal interference pattern across them. I get my TV via cable which runs through the VCR into the TV.
After reading up about the problem I decided to try turning the VCR off and sure enough the interference immediately disappeared .
Maybe I’ll invest in a hard disk recorder now so i can get rid of the old VCR.
June 1st, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Hi Bob,
Thanks, I have found your web site informative and straight forward.
During my time operating a small electrical contracting business, I had experience installing high end AV systems for a Danish Company named Bang & Olufsen. I learned that nothing annoyed a customer more than outlaying large sums of hard earned cash only to have indifferent or poor television reception. I spent many hours spent tracing reception faults, and found that a few simple faults were often the cause of reception problems.
Cheap manufactured RF cables were so often a case of faults that I refused to use them and would insist on making up my own. Such faults would cause lines on channels broadcast at particular frequency ranges, as you describe.
VCR’s in the RF path would cause interference if the RF output channel of the VCR was close enough to broadcast channels, we learned to reprogram the VCR output frequency well away from broadcast channels. This fault is referred to as intermodulation.
Faulty AC power supplies in devices connected to the same power circuits ( in those days fax machines seemed to be troublesome) could generate RF interference at broadcast frequencies.
As you have alluded, the humble VCR is a product that has had it’s day, however I would be surprised if any of today’s AV products prove to be as enduring as it has.
Regards Phillip Armstrong
New Zealand