TCL 55" LED interference or ??

[maxvalutech]

A neighbour asked me to look at their main TV "as it is pixelating". Went in and set turned on and operated perfectly. Asked them to send me pics next time problem occurred so today two arrived and are shown below. They had antenna man in and he okayed that source as good. They have a small set as well and it goes OK. I will test with various inputs and also retune as matter of course but do have a suspicion could be local interference from some nearby source. Any observation or pointer for this problem welcomed.

[R_J]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

That looks like a signal loss problem, not the tv's fault but tuner sensitivity does vary between makes/models which could explain the difference between the 2 tv's

[nomoresonys]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

When you have this pixelation turn the channel, if other channels come in ok, then probably just signal loss as stated, try different antenna or moving antenna if possible.

[CapLeaker]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

Look at the BER?

[maxvalutech]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

Hi CapLeaker I don't have anything for testing bit error rate sorry and we are very close to the digital transmitter which would be only a few kms as the crow flies.I get good signal for some sets in my garage with just an old split two wire lead hanging down! Have advised owner to retune and see if factory reset is on normal menu. The problem is intermittent so I'm not inclined to blame set at this stage. Also I don't know what the antenna guy did to give it an aok. Will look at the input etc myself when I get the chance as they both work. And for a second you had me worried with Ber - beyond economic repair!!

[R_J]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

Check the menu, some tv's have a diagnostic function when in tuner mode. I could not find the manual for tcl 55"

[maxvalutech]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

Spot on R_J as I saw they were home so went and had a look at menu where a good diagnostic of signal showed all channels near or at 100 for strength out of 100 whereas quality was only showing 5 out of 100 with an intermittent jump to 41 but then straight down again. So it appears tuner is not converting the very strong signal into a quality output??? Perhaps voltage regulator not working right or cap gone off but this is outside my limited experience area so pointers very welcome. Of course my thinking may be awry and could it still be antenna or wiring.?? Sorry didn't get model as set against wall but think it may be 55P20US. Owner couldn't find handbook and some menu items including reset needed password. Did a retune but exactly the same. Set didn't show fault in the 30mins I had it on.

[nomoresonys]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

Had a similar fluctuating issue been a while back, iirc had a bad antenna connection, maybe try this for password: default password is 1234. You can change it to a
new one.
-
The super password is 0423. If you forget your code.

[budwich]

Re: TCL 55" LED interference or ??

well, of course, you have now found that you have "strength but no integrity"... :-)

basically, it might be that the incoming signal is "over whelming" the tuner section of the tv.... since you have no way of knowing if "100%" is actually "150%". "Quality" is only somewhat related to signal signal strength in that "no or very little strength", will more likely provide "little or no quality" but the other way around isn't as true.

Further, you indicate that "they have a smaller set and it works OK", was it moved to the same location / wiring? Still further, how is the antenna feeding the sets? Is there an external antenna "amp" with dual outputs? or just a splitter?

IF just a splitter, try a quality replacement, if an amp (with dual outputs), try swapping the outputs. Further, if perhaps the signal strength is "overwhelming" try adding a "2 tap" splitter to that run which should "half the signal" and see if that changes anything (especially now that you know about the menu items for signal diagnostics).

Experiencing an RV trailer environment with an antenna, one sees lots of "wide varying" antenna situations that also are somewhat confusing... ie. see good to reasonable signal strength but the picture breaking up here and there on some channels, others with similar strength are fine. Thus, related to this, what channel numbers (all?) have issue. To this point, check the location of channel transmitters versus your location and see if there is something in between. Of course, this "investigation" would be only worthwhile if there are "channel differences" and you have exhausted some of the other suggestions.