For a great number of people, a few hours in front of the TV after a long hard day is all it takes to heal a broken soul and body. It just feels good to relax and unwind and enjoy some of your favourite TV shows, whatever they might be. Also, a lot of people still have movie nights with family once a week, where they pop some popcorn, order a pizza and just sit in front of the TV and enjoy their time together. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Well, we hope this doesn’t sound familiar, but since you’re here, it probably does, but – isn’t it annoying when your TV just starts acting out in the middle of whatever it is that you’re watching? There aren’t a lot of things that can ruin your time in front of the TV other than the TV itself.
Now, to be fair, more often than not, it’s not the TV that’s the one to blame – it’s aerial. If you’re one of the people that simply does not want to waste money on cable television or subscription services, you most likely have an aerial mounted somewhere, and sometimes, well, that same aerial can cause you some problems.
So, how do you know if it’s time for a new one? Well, from our experience, there are some pretty clear tell-tale signs that will tell you that you need a new antenna. Here they are.
1. Snowy Image
Unless you’re watching a Christmas movie or a documentary about the lives of fishermen in Alaska, there shouldn’t be any snow on your TV screen. All jokes aside, we’ve all witnessed snowy image on our television set, and it is one of the most annoying things ever. You can’t see anything, everything’s all foggy and grey, and ten times out of ten – a snowy picture indicates that it is time for you to get a new aerial.
A snowy image occurs when your antenna can’t pick up the signal well enough to turn it into a picture worth watching. To be fair, sometimes that’s due to improper installation or a lack of amplifier, but if the problem just appears out of nowhere, well, it’s the aerial that’s starting to fail, and you need to get a new one.
2. Low-Quality Image
Sometimes, the image on your TV doesn’t need to be snowy – it’s just bad. It’s blurry, the colours are off and that kind of stuff. Now, to be fair, once again, it could just be that you need an amplifier to give your antenna a much-needed boost, but if the problem had just appeared out of the blue when it wasn’t there before – it is not likely that anything but the aerial is causing you this issue. It could be that the cables are failing or that the amplifier is failing, but that wouldn’t generally affect only a channel or two, which is what usually happens, so if the image starts going bad – it’s time for shopping.
3. Failing Channels
Most of the time, people ignore these issues until they literally begin losing channels. According to tayloraerials.co.uk, most of the time, people rarely call for professional help when the image starts losing quality, but they wait until they can’t watch TV at all.
This usually happens when people sit in front of the TV, and they start browsing channels, only to realize that half of the channels are missing. The problem is, once this happens, it is probably too late to fix the antenna. If it had gone this far, your only option is to just go out and buy a new one.
4. Sound Issues
It doesn’t always have to be the picture that is failing – it could be sound, too. Antennas pick up the signal that goes into the TV, where it is transformed into an audio-visual experience, and because of it, failure of any of the two could indicate problems with your antenna. To be fair, most of the time, it’s the video that fails first, and we’re stuck with a channel that only broadcasts sound, but it could be the other way around, too. So, if this happens, don’t worry – nothing’s wrong with TV speakers. It’s the aerial that’s failing.
5. Freezing
You’ve probably experienced freezing if you watch something online, but the difference is when you watch something online, and it freezes, it’s usually because your internet connection is bad and the video is buffering. Once it downloads all the data it needs, the media will simply resume, and you won’t miss anything.
That’s not how it works with the TV. The signal isn’t divided into packets that you can just download and subsequently access. You’re receiving the signal in real-time, so when the broadcast freezes and comes back to life, you won’t resume watching where you’ve left off. It will simply resume along the line, and whatever it was that you were watching – you will have missed it.
This problem almost exclusively happens because your aerial is failing – especially if it happens often. If it happens once, that’s fine – the problem’s on the other end. But if it keeps happening, that’s a sign you need a new aerial.
6. No Signal/Searching For Signal
If you turn on your TV and you get the message that it’s “searching for signal” or something along those lines – that’s a clear sign that the aerial is failing and that you need a new one. A TV should start broadcasting the program as soon as you turn it on. You could wait for a second or two, depending on the TV you own, but it should never be longer than that.
Also, if you just lose signal mid-way through watching something, that’s also a sign of the antenna failing. To be fair, this could also happen if your coaxial cable is failing, but if you change the cable and the problem keep appearing – it is quite obvious what you need to do next.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several clear signs that indicate that you need a new antenna. Some of them are more obvious than the others, and some of them don’t necessarily mean that it’s the aerial that’s failing, but with these six – the verdict is pretty clear. Hopefully, this has been helpful.