# Our TV tells the future

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 18, 2008, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725 "2008-05-18T05:34:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725/1 "2008-05-18T05:34:07Z")

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I can hardly believe it, but here’s the situation:

When our tv goes to black, like when going to a commercial break, there’s a visible box sliding across from left to right, and you can see in negative what the tv will show a few seconds later. I’ve seen it myself, and when it’s dark for a longer time, you can actually read the words that the next commercial will put on the screen.

How can the signal be arriving twice? This is using analog cable.

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725/2 "2008-05-18T06:27:57Z")

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Does this happen on all of your cable channels, or just some?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725/3 "2008-05-18T06:55:31Z")

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This is so far seen to happen on only ABC-7 from Los Angeles.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725/4 "2008-05-18T07:00:43Z")

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Does ABC 7 appear on the same cable channel as its broadcast channel? If so, your TV may be receiving two signals, one over the air, and one sightly delayed.

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**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-tv-tells-the-future/449725/5 "2008-05-18T07:09:51Z")

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Sounds like a weak signal is interlaced with a strong delayed signal. Your TV may be picking up the broadcast of that station, which is often ahead of the Cable’s signal. Anomalies like this are common with analog cable.