Negative TV

Check your connections. Are you using cable (F-type), RGBY, HDMI, 75-ohm?

If you have strands of cable messed up or missing, or not-quite-connected connectors, you can have this problem.

If it is an LCD, you could have your backlight damaged on the screen.

We really need some more info about your TV and connections to help more ;)

you might ty to adjust the contrast of the picture,and the tint and bightness. But if the picture is ok on DVD, perhaps your coax needs replaced. how old is the trailer. your hookups (coax connection) could also have some corrosion. Give me a little more info on th trailer and also do you have 1 connection or 2?

Sounds like it's time for a new television.

OTA broadcasts have been digital for years now - there's no polarity to get messed up. poor reception (caused by bad coax, etc) would leads to pixelation or just a "frozen" picture.


image from quepublishing.com

Mine does that you have to angle the tv better for better viewing

13"? I'm thinking you have an old tube TV still? Maybe it's just time for a new TV.

jarata1 wrote:
Mine does that you have to angle the tv better for better viewing

Oh ya, good idea. I've noticed the picture on my LCD looks funny too if I view it from an extreme angle. That would be a simple fix for the OP

We had an old Poloroid Television (one of the very early flat screens), and it did that too. Poloroid is about the only way to really describe what's happening too. Remember the clear plastic screens you use to be able to put over your computer monitor so no one could see what was on your screen except the person sitting directly in front of it. To everyone else on the side, the screen turned black??? This is the same for the television, same principle as poloroid sun glasses. Think of the screen as a venetian blind. When the blind is open horizontal, someone standing directly in front of it can see through. When at an angle, all they can see are metal blinds.

Angle the television better. I think those older televisions were called "Plasma" screens.

Before that, all televisions used the Catho-Ray tube. A beam of light flashed 60 times a second over predefined horizontal rows across the back of the picture tub where a phosporous backing would glow. When color was introduced, the "ray" had three colors that passed those same horizontal lines, Red, Green, Blue, and a mix of those colors made ever color on the screen, cycling 60 times a second over and over across the back of the tube. Those old screens could be seen at any angle. When Plasma came out, the resolution was extremely sharp compared to the the old Catho-Ray technology, but whoever was watching, also had be directly in front of the screen. Everyone else off to the side would see a black-and-white or a color negative form of the image. Or go black completely.

skipro wrote:
We have a 13 inch, RCA TV in the trailer. Whenever we use it, whether on OTA or cable, the

picture looks like an old negative photo. You have to stand in just the right place to see it properly.

Surprisingly, most ads and any DVD we watch looks fine. Is there any adjustment that can be made to clear things up or is it tiem for a new TV?
Thanks.

Had the same thing when I bought my first flat screen TV. If you laid down on the coach all you saw was black silhouettes like you mention. Sit at the dinette and the same thing. Boy was I ticked off too.

It is the TV itself. The smaller and cheaper the TV the more problems you have where the only way to get a clear pictures is to 'stand' right up in 'front' of it. :R

I went back to get another TV and literally squatted down in front of them and moved to off to the side and surprisingly over half of them had the black screen when you were in those positions.

These Flat screen TV's were originally designed for people to sit in front of them on a couch in a house. No one sits right underneath a wall mounted TV at home like we are forced to do in an RV.

If you do the up down left right test in the store you will find the more expensive TV's will allow you to be off to the side and below it without the picture going black.

I've never found as good of a picture as what I used to get from my 1999 32 inch Zenith Tube TV that I had in my house. My new TV in the house has a blury picture. The one in the camper is better but, the colors are not that good and the sound is just horrendous. I've given up.

(To get good sound in the house I have it hooked into my stereo, or else that sound is bad too)

More expensive TV's use a more expensive IPS panel which has a much wider viewing angle compared to the much less expensive and more common TN panel, designed to be viewed pretty much straight on.

IPS and TN refer to how the liquid crystals are arranged on the glass panel.