I used to subscribe to cable since I still had an old analog TV. I have a rewards credit card and had saved up enough miles to purchase a new RCA 19" LED HDTV DVD combination by cashing in my points. So actually the TV was free. All I had to buy was an HDTV antenna to receive the free programs. The antenna cost me about $41.00.
I had previously subscribed to basic cable and I love not having to pay the cable company to watch TV. I live in an apartment complex and we are not allowed to install outdoor antennas.
The only thing I've noticed is at certain times of the day and night I'm getting interference on the TV screen. Would anybody know if this interference might be caused by cell phone use?
I would greatly appreciate all feedback!
By Marjorie from Lewiston, NY
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Anything from a microwave, vacuum cleaner, mobile and cordless phones, baby monitor, sewing machine, PC or laptop, WI-FI, to an X-Box or similar can cause interference to one of these indoor HDTV antennas.
You can test this by running any of the above whilst your TV is on. If you get interference you have your 'culprit'.
But you live in an apartment and the interference could be coming from one of your neighbouring apartments. Keep a log of when and how intense the interference is occurring and then decide if you want to post a note at the community bulletin board or mailboxes to let people know you are having the problem-they might take steps to reduce the amount of interference they are causing (but probably not as people can be rather indifferent about things like reducing the interference they cause if it means they might want to be more careful about nuking dinner or playing online games).
The maker of your antenna (mine was an RCA, beautiful thing!) will usually put some info in the owner's manual, and a whole lot more on their website, so I'd say that is your first source of solving the problem.
The following links were helpful to me when I experienced a similar problem whilst living in an apartment for a short time in the US. The solution for me was to relocate the antenna, btw:
www.dtvusaforum.com/
When a guy lived in our neighborhood with a ham radio it always interfered. When he moved, it went away.
Sometimes I was able to watch tv channels through my indoor antenna, and sometimes they just disappear and a message says check the connection/no signal. Until few days ago, I noticed that I can watch my channels when my android tv box is turned off (is connected with hdmi). When I turn it on, the previous message pops up, no channels.
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