While a dish is an option in my neck of the woods I’m financially stuck with an antenna, which I really don’t mind. I just minded the antenna a lot less on the old* TV - the kind with one knob for VHF and a second knob for UHF.
See, on the old* TV, when PBS faded out during hot, humid, summer weather one could still pick up either partial words or partial pictures (if one turned the volume up really loud and squinted sideways at the screen).
On the new* TV - the one with the buttons - if PBS gets too staticky the screen turns blue. Squinting and volume control is not an option.
This irks me.
Who decided blue was better than static…and why does the blue even appear?
[sub]*‘Old’ and ‘new’ are relative terms. The old TV was a 20" RCA (with two channel knobs and varistors for vertical and horizontal hold, color, and contrast) which sat in our living room during most of my growing-up years; the new TV is whatever I’ve watched since leaving home
*How do you spell ‘staticky’?[/sub]
I’m not exactly stupid or technologically inept, but if you could coach your response in words even a five-year-old could understand, I’d really appreciate it.
Dunno about who first offered blue-screening as an option, but most TVs do have an option to turn it off, somehow. Unfortunately, the method will tend to depend on the manufacturere and model, so if it’s not mentioned in the instructions, you may be SOL.
This is the video equivalent of the FM squelch which turns off the audio output when the signal is too low and there’s too much noise. Audio noise is much more irritating than video noise but I guess manufacturers have decided blocking weak signals is something the public likes. I cannot think of any technical reason which would make such a feature desirable. My computer TV card does this and it bothers me only so slightly. The worst part is when it alternates fast between TV signal and blue screen which happens quite often. That is definitely worse than just bad signal video. At any rate, if the question is what to do about it, the only thing I can think is get a better TV antenna. A good directional antenna will do wonders to your reception.
There is another good reason for the screens to substitute a solid color field when it decides it is not getting a signal.
New set almost always display their controls as a text and menus on the screen. This text generally overlays the existing picture. Trying to display any of the menu text over a non existant picture will result in the text being completely unreadable/unusable.
The reason for this is that to overlay text on the screen, the tv has to be able to reliably detect the horizontal and vertical synch signal embeded in the broadcast. So, the tv switches to a “test pattern” when it can’t detect the synch signals in the incoming broadcast. The screen goes blue (or green or whatever), but will be able to operate the tv to get to another channel, etc.
The worst isn’t when it does it for static, either. On my mom’s TV, it was almost impossible to watch Babylon 5, because it would blue out whenever a jumpgate opened. And if there was an option to turn it off, it required the remote, which we had lost.
scotth, if the onscreen menus are the reason for bluescreening, why not just bluescreen when the viewer is trying to access a menu?
Even the onscreen volume and channel indicator are considered onscreen menus.
As to why the designers chose to run “video muting” all the time the signal was poor instead of just when an on screen display is active, you would have to ask them. I suspect it is simply cheaper this way.
They probably just built a circuit that switches to the bluescreen when it looses horizontal synch.
The reason is simple economics. It’s cheaper this way. Old TV sets could easily get weak signals and display a reasonable picture. (A couple years ago I had a 1972 model that still had tubes. It could get stations 100 miles away on rabbit ears.) But such circuits cost a couple bucks. Along comes cable TV and the makers’ logic is: 90+% of the market is either on cable on in a city close to the antennas, so put in the cheapest tuners possible. The trend accelarated in the last 10 years when everybody started making TV sets etc. in the most absolutely cheapest, crappiest way. Anything to save a nickel.
One suggestion to chique: try using your VCR as the tuner. Although some VCRs also do the blue screen thing.
I know that many TVs & VCRs have a “service mode” jumper or switch inside that turns it off so that the technician can make adjustments. But opening up your VCR or TV could void your warranty and void your life.