I have been having some pixelization on my TV picture in the past week or so, and I finally got frustrated enough to get the ladder out of the garage and climb up on the roof to adjust my antenna.
I have been pretty pleased with my picture quality in general, but a week or so ago, I started getting pretty bad pixelization and signal breakup from KXAS-TV (NBC5) in Dallas (the media partner of The Dallas Morning News).
I tried rotating the antenna an inch or so either way, but I did not have a good way to see the signal strength from up on the ladder.
My TiVo Bolt OTA has a signal strength meter, but it does not work. Every channel I tune to shows 72% strength, which is not right.
There is another diagnostic screen on the TiVo that does show the actual signal strength, so I have been asking my wife to stand in the doorway and relay the signal strength numbers while I am up on the ladder.
I have been using my compass app on the iPhone and a list of antenna tower locations, showing the compass heading (222 degrees for NBC5 from my house).
I am not sure why, but at my house, the signal from NBC5 fluctuates by the second. The other major networks’ signals are pretty solid.
I found a resource to help on the iOS app store with an app called TV Towers ($1.99), which can show you all the local towers on a map and point you toward the tower as you rotate your phone.
The app uses your phone’s GPS to pinpoint your location to help with accuracy.
The TV Towers app just reaffirmed that I was pointing in the right direction, but I still had some dropouts.
I also researched a signal strength solution involving an HDHomerun external TV tuner.
The HDHomerun is a tuner box that takes your antenna input and uses your home’s network to allow you to watch TV through an app on your Apple TV or Roku or even smartphone.
