Anyone else's digital TV signal get affected by the rain???

[PinkPussyCat]

Last year dh decided to buy an all-singing all-dancing hulking great 42inch plasma TV.

BUT

Whenever it is raining it gets loads of interference/sparking and sometimes loses signal altogether. Is this something to do with the local transmitter? It's not our aerial as that's in the loft and is safe from weather. Could the problem be 'cured' by installing Freesat?

Hope someone can help as it is driving me barmy!

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Rain can interfere with the signal as it travels from transmitter to you. That does sound a bit extreme though, but perhaps you are a long way from your local transmitter and it's struggling at the best of times.

Freesat can also be affected by rain, but probably much less so you should be better off.

You might want to check first if your aerial is a proper digital one as there are differences. Also I don't suppose any aerial cable connections are getting wet are they?

we found that freeview was distorted by the rain less than sky.

But yes, rain makes it go all fuzzy and pixellated. Thunderstorms turn it off completely - but that's okay because ten minutes after the telly has gone, all the power goes off anyway, so it's like an early warning system.

Don't know if there is anything you can actually DO about it. It may be worth chatting to your local tv aerial guy and asking for advice.

Thank you - I was beginning to think it was just us!

Squonk - Pixellated! That's the word I was looking for!
I should really try asking neighbours what theirs is like but they all have sky (we just have freeview) so maybe difficult to say...

God I hope there aren't any connections getting wet.

Trust me to have a fairweather telly (in Scotland too)

Any others have similar experiences?

Our satellite used to get badly affected by weather. The first time it started happening it turned out that part of the LNB (the sticky out bit in the middle of the dish) had water leaked into it and it was faulty.

The second time it was found that a neighbour's tree had grown considerably and every time the wind picked up (mostly compounded with rainy weather - we picked up on the rain but not the wind) we'd get terrible reception as the leaves and branches would get in the way of the signal. A simple repositioning solved the issue and we've had no problems since.

You say it's not your aerial - but have you checked that there's not any loose connections... nothing where water might be getting in? Sometimes it can be other reasons why the technical fault is coinciding with bad weather.

Freeview when it rains here is terrible. Does your tv also have analogue? If so switch over to it and your signal should be ok - but you'll only have the 5 channels.

We've got Sky because the freeview signal was so bad in bad weather and during the summer (something to do with the leaves on the trees apparantly)

yes it affects us badly, we basically loose all chamnnels but bbc. I did some research into this last year, its something to do with wet trees.

Could it also be a factor with the position of the aerial. If it's inside the loft, then is it getting enough height to get a decent signal (I should temper that with the disclaimer that I know sod all about how aerials work, I just know that when we lived in a valley our signal was absolutely crap).

RD may have a point, when we had an ariel in the loft the signal was awful, much better on the roof. We lose Channel 5 in bad weather, sometimes it's a blessing tbh.

The Effect of Trees on Television Signal

"Trees can have a serious effect on television reception. The effect can be reduced or avoided by careful species selection and siting of new trees. Where established trees cause a problem the choice and siting of aerials may provide an acceptable solution."

Def worth getting an aerial guy in - if they rule out actual electrical fault then they may be able to site the aerial in a better position for you.

Due to the mountains/trees/rain/snow we rarely receive a signal. Occasionally we can get Channel 4 but it is very fuzzy.
We have patchy mobile phone reception too plus the weather can affect broadband.
(Scottish mid-Highland area)

Jeez - wet trees eh? Who knew?!

Haven't tried the analogue - not even sure this TV has it actually. I might get my wee 20 year old portable from the bedroom. So much for cutting edge technology!

Thank you all, I will probably need to get an aerial guy in, it's been like this for a while...

we cant get itv when it rains

My Free View stations are all effected by rain on my digital CRT TV(HOME) and my digital flat screen TV (Caravan). In both cases I do not have a dish aerial but a standard aerial suitable for digital and analogue reception. Having traveled in my caravan this last two years over most of England and Wales I find in rainy weather reception on digital is poor.
Surly the organisation who are arranging the Digital Switchover realise analogue is the only system which unaffected by rainy weather, and when there are poor weather conditions it is then you need good TV reception.
Has the system been properly tested in all weather conditions or is this another cockup.
HD is another area which I hope works for all.

Digital is far more prone to weather interference (not just rain) than analogue. Even an extremely hot day can be a problem (yeah right, so thats going to happen).

The dirty secret of digital TV that they don't want us all to know

Sky dish deffo affected by weather patterns. Its cable connection been blown out by high winds on a couple of occasions.