A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.


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Doctor Evil wrote:
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

maybe someone nearby has one of these ?

https://www.tvbgone.com/buy.php?PHPS...5cc1943195063b



RT

"Doctor Evil" wrote in message
...
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs?

Not usually - mobiles use radio while remotes use IR.
Is he sure it only goes off when the mobile is in the same room?

Alan.

Doctor Evil wrote:
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

Sounds more like coincidence and that the TV has simply developed a fault.

I suppose it's possible, though not very likely, that RF from the phone
is causing interference problems with the the TVs circuitry.
Tried removing the phone, or at least turning it off?

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

Doctor Evil wrote:
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV
just switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the
remote control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room
affect the remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he
got a mobile phone.

Mobile phone's IR port active and somehow controlling the TV? I know some
apps can be written to use IR ports of PDAs etc to control IR devices...

D

"Doctor Evil" wrote in message
...
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.



I'd think it unlikely, but some fault finding can be easily carried out.

What you've written doesn't necessarily indicate that there is or isn't a
problem with the remote control either.

How often does the tv switch off - frequently/ reliably, rarely, it's
happened once? If its the latter two you may have difficulty finding the
fault at all - user error is also a possibility if the tv has a "sleep" or
timer mode - ie switch itself off after 1 hour.

Switch off phone - does it still happen? Yes - phone in the clear. No -
case still unproven (unless it normally happens so frequently that it is
obvious that the phone is the cause).

Remove batteries from remote control. Still happens? Then the remote's in
the clear.

Stick something opaque over the IR sensor on the TV (elastoplast or
something?). If it still happens then likely it's a fault within the TV.


I've never had a problem with any of our tvs (all with remotes, variety of
vintages) where they switched themselves off, even when the RF interference
from mobiles, DECT phones etc is visible on the screen. Of course this
doesn't mean to say it can't or doesn't happen, but with more mobiles than
people in the country now it'd surely be a problem that would have surfaced
by now.


--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

I know that if i put my mobile on top of my clock radio, when it rings
or receives a text message, the alarm on the clock radio turns on for
some strange reason. Maybe its the same kind of thing

"Doctor Evil" wrote in message
...
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

I have this problem with my wireless mouse, it looses communication with its
basestation, but only if the phone is sat within a foot or so of the mouse.
So unless the phone is sat on the TV I would not think that thats the
problem.

Regards Jeff

In article ,
Doctor Evil wrote:
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

TV remotes are normally infra red. But mobile phones put out quite large
bursts of RF when contacting their base station, and poorly screened etc
electronics will often pick this up if the two are close. My car radio
does - even when listening to a CD. And that interference could have near
any odd effect.

Try separating them by about 6 ft minimum.

FWIW, Orange seem to me rather worse than others. But I've got no
explanation as to why.

--
*Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Hi All
I have this problem with my wireless mouse, it looses communication with
its
basestation, but only if the phone is sat within a foot or so of the
mouse.

Strange this. We just got a wireless doorbell which goes off all by
itself - once at 4:30 am! I've changed the 'code' twice (little tabs inside
bell push & bell that are removed or moved) and it hasn't gone off since.

I wonder if a mobile could have been triggering it?

Dave

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 12:12:41 +0100, Doctor Evil wrote:

A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

Have they got an energy saving bulb in the light of the room ? These give
out Infra Red and can cause false signals.

Dave

For what we are about to balls up may common sense prevent us doing it
again
in the future!!

Dave Stanton wrote:

Have they got an energy saving bulb in the light of the room ? These give
out Infra Red and can cause false signals.

???

All bulbs give out IR, but incandescent ones give out a hell of a lot
more IR than CFs.


--
Grunff

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 20:22:27 +0100, Grunff wrote:

Dave Stanton wrote:

Have they got an energy saving bulb in the light of the room ? These
give out Infra Red and can cause false signals.

???

All bulbs give out IR, but incandescent ones give out a hell of a lot more
IR than CFs.

Give you that, but when energy saving bulbs came out, they were noted for
causing similar problems. Tv trade press had a field day.

DAve

--
For what we are about to balls up may common sense prevent us doing it
again
in the future!!

Doctor Evil wrote:
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

Chances of mobile phone / infrared interference randomly generating a
compatible "off" code for the remote control circuits of this TV is
slight. I'd expect other funnies like channel changes & picture / volume
variations as well, if it is the mobile.

I'd suspect that the TV itself has a fault, maybe in the overvoltage
protection circutry of the power supply section. Whether it's the mobile
phone triggering it, or some other reason (dodgy solder joint, dried out
PSU capacitors, cooked components) is something that an experienced
relatively expensive repair person will find. If it's not a cherished
item, skip it....

---

Adrian

Dave Stanton wrote:

Give you that, but when energy saving bulbs came out, they were noted for
causing similar problems. Tv trade press had a field day.


Sounds like an urban myth to me. Two points come to mind:

1. I can't see how any bulb could produce the correct code in IR to
cause an appliance to 'do something'.

2. Despite having numerous CF bulbs around the house, and numerous IR
controlled devices (TVs, VCR, DVD, CD, amp etc), I've never experienced
such an effect, nor have I heard of anyone who has experienced it.


--
Grunff

Grunff wrote:

???

All bulbs give out IR, but incandescent ones give out a hell of a lot
more IR [...]

Amplitude modulated at 100 Hz and relatively harmless to I-R controls.

... than CFs.

Amplitude modulated at tens of kHz, i.e. in the range of carrier
frequencies typically used by I-R remotes.

--
Andy

Grunff wrote:

Sounds like an urban myth to me. Two points come to mind:

1. I can't see how any bulb could produce the correct code in IR to
cause an appliance to 'do something'.

2. Despite having numerous CF bulbs around the house, and numerous IR
controlled devices (TVs, VCR, DVD, CD, amp etc), I've never experienced
such an effect, nor have I heard of anyone who has experienced it.


Maybe this NEMA report will convince you that it's not a complete myth:

http://www.nema.org/stds/LSD3.cfm

Lee




--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

Lee wrote:

Basically that report says the same as Andy posted.

This is the relevant bit:

"The infrared radiation is emitted at wavelengths between 800 and 1200
nanometers These wavelengths fall within the sensitivity band, or range,
of IR receivers used for TV, cable boxes, VCRs, etc."

and
"In addition to the IR at the fundamental excitation and power
frequencies, the harmonics (or integer multiples) of the excitation
frequency or power frequency can also cause an interference if they fall
into the carrier frequency range of an IR receiver. There are
instances of a compact fluorescent lamp operating at about 19 kHz [...]
interfering with IR receivers at 38 kHz and 56 kHz."

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

Lee wrote:

Maybe this NEMA report will convince you that it's not a complete myth:

http://www.nema.org/stds/LSD3.cfm



Hmmm, yes, maybe it will convince me... :-)


--
Grunff

In article , Grunff
writes
Dave Stanton wrote:

Give you that, but when energy saving bulbs came out, they were noted for
causing similar problems. Tv trade press had a field day.


Sounds like an urban myth to me. Two points come to mind:

1. I can't see how any bulb could produce the correct code in IR to
cause an appliance to 'do something'.

It sounds unlikely, but random noise can do all sorts of weird stuff.
Theoretically there is every possible code in the noise, so the chances
are that a valid code will come along sooner or later. It can even get
past error detection protocols.


--
Tim Mitchell

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:40:20 +0100, Tim Mitchell
wrote:

It sounds unlikely, but random noise can do all sorts of weird stuff.
Theoretically there is every possible code in the noise, so the chances
are that a valid code will come along sooner or later. It can even get
past error detection protocols.

A few months ago I was sat watching the TV when it suddenly switched
itself off. At first I thought it was a power outage but then noticed
the VCR was still on, and showing the correct time (this one doesn't
maintain time without mains). I also noticed that the sun came out at
the same time the TV switched off. I turned the TV back on and the
same thing happened a minute or so later. I then realised that the sun
was shining off the window of the house opposite, straight at the TV.
Its never happened before or since.

I thought it was rather kewl at the time... )

G

In message , Grunff
writes
Dave Stanton wrote:

Have they got an energy saving bulb in the light of the room ? These give
out Infra Red and can cause false signals.

???

All bulbs give out IR, but incandescent ones give out a hell of a lot
more IR than CFs.

And it's not normally a digitally coded signal (unless you have very
peculiar power to your lighting

--
geoff

In article , raden
writes
In message , Grunff
writes
Dave Stanton wrote:

Have they got an energy saving bulb in the light of the room ? These give
out Infra Red and can cause false signals.

???

All bulbs give out IR, but incandescent ones give out a hell of a lot
more IR than CFs.

And it's not normally a digitally coded signal (unless you have very
peculiar power to your lighting

But it can be, to a digital receiver everything can be interpreted as a
digitally coded signal. If it's above the threshold, it's a 1. If below,
it's a zero. If it's wavering about the threshold, voila, it's a digital
pulse stream.

CF lamps flicker at just about the right frequency to fool infra red
receivers.
--
Tim Mitchell

"Doctor Evil" wrote in message ...
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.


_________________________________________
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More than 120,000 groups
Unlimited download
http://www.usenetzone.com to open account

The only way a mobile phone might affect the TV controls is if the
infrared control electronics inside the TV are susceptible to radio
interference and not properly shielded. If the mobile phone has
anything to do with it, it would almost certainly have to be
transmitting.
Else someone nearby is using one of those new IR gismos shown on the
news that can turn off most TV sets.
M.K.

"Jeff" wrote in message ...
"Doctor Evil" wrote in message
...
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

I have this problem with my wireless mouse, it looses communication with its
basestation, but only if the phone is sat within a foot or so of the mouse.
So unless the phone is sat on the TV I would not think that thats the
problem.

Regards Jeff

BTW, I had some real intermittent problems with a computer mouse until
I twigged that it wouldn't work properly in direct sunlight. The
plastic wasn't opaque enough to shield the internal sensors from the
sunlight.
M.K.

In article ,
markzoom wrote:
The only way a mobile phone might affect the TV controls is if the
infrared control electronics inside the TV are susceptible to radio
interference and not properly shielded. If the mobile phone has
anything to do with it, it would almost certainly have to be
transmitting.

Strangely enough, I get more problems with them in terms of breakthrough
onto sound gear when they're twittering to the nearest base station rather
than actually being used. IIRC, they up their ERP to make a connection,
then drop it down afterwards.

--
*You can't have everything, where would you put it?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
markzoom wrote:
The only way a mobile phone might affect the TV controls is if the
infrared control electronics inside the TV are susceptible to radio
interference and not properly shielded. If the mobile phone has
anything to do with it, it would almost certainly have to be
transmitting.

Strangely enough, I get more problems with them in terms of breakthrough
onto sound gear when they're twittering to the nearest base station rather
than actually being used. IIRC, they up their ERP to make a connection,
then drop it down afterwards.

The sequence you hear is them training to find the optimal level. At the
end it should be a little quieter.

Have you had one of the 3G phones break through yet ? The modulation
scheme is supposed to slave more continuously to the received level but I
expect in real life there will still be problems.

"Derek *" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 21:08:03 +0100, Adrian C wrote:

Doctor Evil wrote:
A neighbour has a Toshiba 10" screen TV, the portable job. The TV just
switches itself off for no reason indicating a problem with the remote
control side of things. Do mobile phones in the same room affect the
remotes of TVs? It just happens that this started when he got a mobile
phone.

Chances of mobile phone / infrared interference randomly generating a
compatible "off" code for the remote control circuits of this TV is
slight. I'd expect other funnies like channel changes & picture / volume
variations as well, if it is the mobile.

I'd suspect that the TV itself has a fault, maybe in the overvoltage
protection circutry of the power supply section. Whether it's the mobile
phone triggering it, or some other reason (dodgy solder joint, dried out
PSU capacitors, cooked components) is something that an experienced
relatively expensive repair person will find. If it's not a cherished
item, skip it....


My mother's TV had a habit of switching itself off. I swapped it and
brought it away to investigate. No problems in my house.

The cause turned out to be arcing at the pins of the 13a plug, plugged
into a very old and tired socket. The sound and picture weren't
affected.

So its worth replacing the plug and lead then to eliminate this part. Or
this could be a TV power supply problem.



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The message
from "Doctor Evil" contains these words:

My mother's TV had a habit of switching itself off. I swapped it and
brought it away to investigate. No problems in my house.

The cause turned out to be arcing at the pins of the 13a plug, plugged
into a very old and tired socket. The sound and picture weren't
affected.

So its worth replacing the plug and lead then to eliminate this part. Or
this could be a TV power supply problem.


I see Drivel is still getting 0 out of 10 in the comprehension stakes.

--
Roger

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 22:51:44 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
markzoom wrote:
The only way a mobile phone might affect the TV controls is if the
infrared control electronics inside the TV are susceptible to radio
interference and not properly shielded. If the mobile phone has
anything to do with it, it would almost certainly have to be
transmitting.

Strangely enough, I get more problems with them in terms of breakthrough
onto sound gear when they're twittering to the nearest base station rather
than actually being used. IIRC, they up their ERP to make a connection,
then drop it down afterwards.

If I put mine on my bedside table it breaks through onto the clock
radio, even when it is off (ie - it's plugged in, but not playing or
programmed to play).
--
On-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk

(Waterways World site of the month, April 2001)

In article ,
Nick Atty wrote:
Strangely enough, I get more problems with them in terms of
breakthrough onto sound gear when they're twittering to the nearest
base station rather than actually being used. IIRC, they up their ERP
to make a connection, then drop it down afterwards.

If I put mine on my bedside table it breaks through onto the clock
radio, even when it is off (ie - it's plugged in, but not playing or
programmed to play).

If it really annoys you, borrow an Orange phone and see if this still does
it. Orange doesn't give problems with my sound gear. Think they use a
different frequency.

--
*All men are idiots, and I married their King.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 09:46:03 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

If I put mine on my bedside table it breaks through onto the clock
radio, even when it is off (ie - it's plugged in, but not playing or
programmed to play).

If it really annoys you, borrow an Orange phone and see if this still does
it. Orange doesn't give problems with my sound gear. Think they use a
different frequency.

It is Orange. And they don't.
--
On-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk

(Waterways World site of the month, April 2001)

"Nick Atty" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 09:46:03 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

If I put mine on my bedside table it breaks through onto the
clock
radio, even when it is off (ie - it's plugged in, but not playing
or
programmed to play).

If it really annoys you, borrow an Orange phone and see if this
still does
it. Orange doesn't give problems with my sound gear. Think they use
a
different frequency.

It is Orange. And they don't.

Same here, my Orange phone doesn't, but what ever the next door
neighbours network is does....

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Nick Atty wrote:

Strangely enough, I get more problems with them in terms of
breakthrough onto sound gear when they're twittering to the nearest
base station rather than actually being used. IIRC, they up their ERP
to make a connection, then drop it down afterwards.


If I put mine on my bedside table it breaks through onto the clock
radio, even when it is off (ie - it's plugged in, but not playing or
programmed to play).


If it really annoys you, borrow an Orange phone and see if this still does
it. Orange doesn't give problems with my sound gear. Think they use a
different frequency.

Being exclusively orange...

- yes, they use 1800 Mhz appx instead of 900 Mhz appx..

- no they still interfere with everything they get close to.

Nick Atty wrote:

On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 09:46:03 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


If I put mine on my bedside table it breaks through onto the clock
radio, even when it is off (ie - it's plugged in, but not playing or
programmed to play).

If it really annoys you, borrow an Orange phone and see if this still does
it. Orange doesn't give problems with my sound gear. Think they use a
different frequency.


It is Orange. And they don't.

They do actually. Well leastways there are two mobile bands in Europe,
the orginal around 900MHz, but orange came late and had to use 1800 IIRC.

Makes a standrad orange phone less useful in certain places like e.g.
tha channel islands.

Most are dual band thase days tho.

Or tri band as the USA is on yet another freq.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
If it really annoys you, borrow an Orange phone and see if this still
does it. Orange doesn't give problems with my sound gear. Think they
use a different frequency.

Being exclusively orange...

- yes, they use 1800 Mhz appx instead of 900 Mhz appx..

- no they still interfere with everything they get close to.

Right. Of course much of the sound gear I use is balanced, so should be
fairly immune to cable induced signals. The problem is more likely a mic I
use a fair bit - it uses an RF system for the inbuilt amplifier. It will
pick up the 'tweets' from a phone the actors have about their person -
swearing blind it is actually switched off, and not just on silent. But
Orange appear ok.

--
*Learn from your parents' mistakes - use birth control

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.