Toshiba loses reception for channels after a minute or so

[tmedearis80501]

Recently, my Toshiba TV started losing reception on several channels after a minute or so. For example, if I tune to channel 7, all is good for a minute and then it loses reception. If I then switch to channel 6 and back to 7, reception is good for a minute and then it loses reception again. This repeats again and again. I tried a different antenna... same result. I scanned for channels. This did not help. Do you think my tuner has gone bad? The system worked well (antenna in the attic) for probably 10 years or so, but has slowly gotten worse and worse. Any suggestions? Some channels do not have this problem but not many. Some do not come in at all.

 

[rgd1101]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from tmedearis80501 : "Channels come in for a minute and then reception lost"

I have a Toshiba 40" tv.. probably about 10 years old. I have had it hooked up to an antenna in the attic for all that time. Over the past couple years, reception on some channels seemed to change, so I moved the antenna, and that usually helped. Now, I have several channels that will have a good signal for a minute or so and then lose reception. When this happens, if I switch from, say channel 7 to channel 6 and then back to channel 7, I get reception again... for about a minute and the process repeats. Is this a sign of an antenna problem or could the TV tuner be going out, or something else? Thank you very much.

Terry

 

[americanaudiophile]

On most TVs you can check the signal strength of each channel. If the ones that are dropping out are the ones with low signal then there may be an issue with the antenna.
Since your antenna is in the attic it's not subject to wear due to weather but it and coax antenna wire do lose some signal due to age. You could try a signal amplifier (not a distribution amplifier) or if you have a passive splitter replacing that with an active one.