Watching TV has been one of the most fun forms of entertainment for a long time. It is an activity that can help you pass time with ease while watching either funny or educational content on your screen.
Long gone are the times where people had to go to the nearest cinema and pay a lot of money just to watch one film, so now we have a new era of home-entertainment that everyone can afford. Besides, with the spread of the current COVID-19 virus, most of us are not even allowed to leave our homes, so watching television is one of the few things that we can do in our free time.
However, it sometimes happens that our TV reception is not working as it should, and this disrupts our watching experience quite a lot. In times like these, we wish that we were all professionals in the technology area so that we can fix our problem and just continue enjoying the interesting content served on our screens, but that is rarely the case, otherwise, you wouldn’t be here reading this article in the first place.
Luckily, we’ve put together this short and concise guide of things that you can do if you are currently in a similar scenario, so why not stick around until the end and hopefully fix your problem? Here’s what you need to know.
Contents
1. Check your wiring
Source: Crutchfield
Whenever we face an issue with the technology in our homes, we always tend to start exaggerating the problem, but that’s the last thing that we should do in a time like this. There’s a reason why the very popular “just restart it” advice is given out so much, even by the most professional tech gurus.
Sometimes the problem is very insignificant, so instead of taking more advanced measures, start with the baby steps. If you already tried restarting your entire system, it’s time to move on the second step, and that’s checking your wiring. This often works with alarm systems, according to alarm-cctv.co.uk and TVs aren’t an exception.
Our TV Reception system is often exposed to natural elements such as wind, rain, hail and sometimes even thunder if you are unfortunate enough, so the wires can be easily damaged if they are exposed to all these things. Before paying hundreds for a new device, maybe you just need to replace the wire that costs like five dollars.
If the cable is not damaged, maybe some other part of the wiring is misplaced or taken out of place. Check everything, including if it’s powered up properly.
2. Set-up a proper Aerial
Source: Wikipedia
Without a proper Aerial, you shouldn’t expect much from your reception. Since technology is evolving quite a lot in the past couple of years, there are some new and much-improved versions of these things available on the market for an affordable price. If you are currently using a cheaper or a very old aerial, and you think that it’s finally the time to make the upgrade and you are from Leeds, make sure to check this in case you need TV aerial installation. This can sometimes be the night-day difference when it comes to the reception, so don’t allow an older and not-functional aerial to ruin your TV viewing experience.
You can also set-up and Aerial all by yourself, but we don’t recommend this unless you have a lot of previous experience doing something like this.
3. Try a signal-boosting device
Source: Tom’s Guide
If you’ve already tried a bunch of things, and none of them seem to work, maybe it’s time to call in the secret “joker” of the TV reception world, which is the signal-boosting device. However, before purchasing one, there are some things that you need to know about.
The signal-boosters will make your reception better, but they also increase the risk of interference, so this is basically like a double-edged sword. We’re not saying that signal interference is going to happen one hundred percent, but it is possible.
However, if everything ends up going smoothly, and you don’t get any interference, your signal will be stronger and much better than before, allowing you to watch your favorite content without any interruptions.
These devices don’t cost a lot of money, and they are quite available on the market because a lot of people request them, so the brands keep making them.
4. Consider buying a pre-amplifier
Source: Pinterest
If you are using the same antenna for a lot of different TV’s in your home, which is the case with larger houses and a lot of family members, you might be experiencing the issues with your reception because you don’t have a proper splitter.
The quality of the signal-splitter is as important as the quality of the signal you’re receiving from your provider. You should understand that the “bottlenecking” is happening because the splitter is not able to direct the signal properly and equally, meaning that some devices in your home will get an unfair advantage, while the others will suffer from a poor-quality picture.
You can combine this with the signal-boosting device as well, to get the best possible experience, but it’s an investment that’s going to cost a bit, so make sure that you have a small budget ready for this task.
5. Changing your operator
Source: Lemax
Last but not least, if you’ve tried all of the options that we listed above in this guide, and you are sure that the problem is not on your end, maybe it is time to try a different operator, or a provider, whatever you wish to call it.
Just like with internet providers, there are different price and quality ranges in the world of TV Signal Providers. The truth is that you get what you pay for, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. Sometimes a company is overrated and overpriced, and the signal they’re delivering is not worth your money. If you are experiencing something like this, the last thing that you should consider trying is completely switching to a different operator.
It might seem like a difficult task to do at first, but you will have such an enjoyable time after you’re done with all that. Make sure that you check these things in-detail before spending your money on amplifiers, splitters or signal-boosters because if it’s the fault of your provider, you’ve spent all that cash for nothing.
