# My VCR controls the weather

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-vcr-controls-the-weather/73681>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 24, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-vcr-controls-the-weather/73681 "2001-07-24T21:57:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JFMichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@JFMichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFMichael)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-vcr-controls-the-weather/73681/1 "2001-07-24T21:57:24Z")

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OK, so maybe not the REAL weather. But when the television is turned to a channel that is NOT the channel it needs to be on to recieve the picture from the VCR (i.e. 3 or 4), the channel gets “snowy,” or fuzzy. Is this to alert me to the severly dangerous threat that my VCR is on, or what? I see no reason it needs to affect the quality of the picture on other channels, unless it is jealous of them or something. What is the purpose of this? Thank you.

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-vcr-controls-the-weather/73681/2 "2001-07-25T04:34:40Z")

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Does it do this even when the VCR is off? If you’re asking “why does the VCR not let my TV tune-in signals _not_ on channel 3 while it’s turned on”, then there is a simple explanation. When you’re using the VCR’s tuner, it receives the channel it’s tuned to, and then re-modulates it up to channel 3’s frequency. This has _only_ that channel on it because to do otherwise would require a lot of effort to build it that way, combining the other signals and the newly-created channel 3. And no one cares enough to pay more money for a VCR that lets you tune other channels while it’s tuned to one of them.

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**Author:** ![JFMichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@JFMichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFMichael)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-vcr-controls-the-weather/73681/3 "2001-07-26T01:51:23Z")

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Yes, that is exactly what I was asking. Thank you for clearing up something I have been wondering about for quite a while.