what is the purpose of t.v. static?

Question

and what is up with those annoying color bars and ear wrenching tone?

always wanted to know what they meant..

Answer 1

The static I think you mean is not static but a tuning note , with an oscilloscope this can be checked for distortion and level. The coloured bars represent the seven basic colours that you get from the 3 guns--red---blue--- green, these are in descending order of luminance and also correspond to the grey scale when colour is switched off . Handy for setting up the colour correctly.

Answer 2

Television static is actually the noise floor of the frequency you are trying to tune in. for example channel 2 freq. may be 54.25 if there is no video or audio carrier in the bandwidth your tuner or tv will pick up only the noise floor or static. When a video carrier is inserted in the 6 mhz bandwith and an audio carrier is also inserted, they are stronger than the nosie floor and you see a picture. In analog carriers when your video carrier level gets too close to your noise floor you get snowy reception. the lower your video signal gets to the noise floor the snowier or noisier your picture gets. You cant just turn up the video level to make it better either that would cause distortions in the picture. a video signal an audio signal and a color carrier make up 6 mhz of bandwidth in an analog channel so if you turn them up to high they expand out of the 6 mhz and into the next channell. Digital channels are made up a lot differently, thats why you won't see snow ever on a digital channell.

Answer 3

the bars and tone is the station doing color and sound tests not sure about the static..to annoy people?

Answer 4

static really has no purpose..it is simply the poor connection your tyv has to wahat ever channel its trying to bring in...static is just bad reception..most likely from a bad connection..that goes for the colors too..
unless you mean staion check then thats there way to check there signal