HD signal Interference from a Smart TV

[RadioFlyerMan]

It's a common thing for me to fly from my driveway in front of my house. And from time to time, I noticed my screen resolution getting pixelated from a reduced bandwidth, sometimes at close range. And it would sometimes be "jumpy", with brief hesitations. Sometimes, not always, I'd get the usual message regarding "signal interference". I live in the boonies, with few local sources of signal, as compared to living in downtown LA. So I wondered... Why some flights are good, and then some are bad?

While doing some RF amp testing on my RC, I figure out what has been going on. And it includes my wife! Apparently I've been getting the interference while she's watching Netflix!

A quick search on local Wifi signal interference found this post...

Fight with Gum trees

Hi all, Nearly smashed the drone (Mavric Pro) to pieces and how it is unscathed is beyond me. Although I do need a new set of propellers. I took off with good GPS connection, my wifi to the house was off, as I have found that it interferes with the controller. I went to circle the house to...

mavicpilots.com

To add to that conversation, I recorded the event in a video. This is an observation (with the assistance of the boss) of the signal interference from a smart TV when it's caching a movie from Netflix. Netflix is loaded and the movie is selected. The flat line is before the Play button is pressed. Pausing the movie will still cause interference as the TV continues to communicate with the WiFi router. When returning to the Netflix Home screen, the interference disappears.

The RC and MPP were located in the front of the house in the driveway. The TV was about 25 feet away from the RC, mounted on an exterior front wall of the house, between two large windows. This test was conducted without amplified RF signals from the RC. Although not included in this video, the same interference was observed with amplified RF output on the RC.

Bottom line for me... either fly far away from the house, or wait till my wife goes shopping!

 

[Maviac]

Interesting. I fly 3 places: boonies (no problem, great range), small town (same), and big city (not great range, maybe 1500 ft before I lose it). I know that in my small town scenario, at least my own family is streaming Netflix, and I’d assume a few others are as well. What kind of WiFi system are you using? Maybe it’s overpowered? Unless you need to have wifi while down the street, you can dial down the power. Still, very strange.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Interesting. I fly 3 places: boonies (no problem, great range), small town (same), and big city (not great range, maybe 1500 ft before I lose it). I know that in my small town scenario, at least my own family is streaming Netflix, and I’d assume a few others are as well. What kind of WiFi system are you using? Maybe it’s overpowered? Unless you need to have wifi while down the street, you can dial down the power. Still, very strange.

Just the usual ZyXEL PK5001Z off the shelf router offered by CenturyTel in Mi. It's on the 2nd floor of the house. The thing is, it has to reach the basement where I'm writing this right now. Also, I have countless other devices interacting with the router constantly, during which I get a flat line. It's not the router, it's the TV. To exacerbate the issue, my launch point is right on top of the TV's signal area. Tomorrow, I'll go to the back yard area and I predict I should get a flat line then. I've got plenty of room with 15 acres. We'll see...

 

[Smokieflies]

I not an electronics expert, but unless you have wireless speakers hooked up to your TV, I do not think it will broadcast anything that would cause a signal loss. I would suspect the router too. Could be
that it is using a different band with when sending to the TV. My router is dual band.

Thanks for sharing your findings, something to keep in consideration when flying around houses and buildings.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I not an electronics expert, but unless you have wireless speakers hooked up to your TV, I do not think it will broadcast anything that would cause a signal loss. I would suspect the router too. Could be
that it is using a different band with when sending to the TV. My router is dual band.

Thanks for sharing your findings, something to keep in consideration when flying around houses and buildings.

I'm not an expert too. All I know is when I turn the TV off, all of the interference on the graph goes to zero. Although there may be ways to technically mitigate it, the simplest thing for me to do is be far away from the house (maybe a couple hundred feet), or just turn it off. Easy Peasy.