A little freaky...

[miche61]

Okay, here's the story/.
For the last week, I have come home and found our tv on in our family room. I know it was off when we left. The first time it happened, I looked around the house to make sure no one had come (just to watch tv?) into our house. The kids thought maybe the cat was turning on the tv because he was lonely. It has happened often enought that this morning, the tv was not turned on before school. The remote was put away in the tv armoire, and the kids shut the armoire, hiding the tv.
Well, just now I was sitting here reading the DIS, minding my own business, and I hear the tv turn on!!!!! The cat is no where to be seen, and I have no idea how or why it turned on. I thought that maybe we have a poltergeist, DD is 12. But luckily our priest is coming to bless our house in two weeks, so if there is such thing, that should take care of it? I hope!

 

[Big V]

That happened to us just last week and come to find out that somehow the timer was set on the TV. Check the timer once.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I would have to concur with Big V about the timer. Check your settings.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I agree with the other posters. Check the timer on the TV. I had a TV that started to click on at 12:30Am every night. Scared the bejeezus out of me, it went on like this for a week, until I discovered the "alarm" feature of the TV was set to 12:30 AM.

 

[phorsenuf]

Do you have Tivo or DVR? Do you have something set up to record around this time of the day?
I set my DVR up to record my soaps which start at 1:00 and for some reason when it started recording it would turn my TV on.

Freaked me out too when it first started happening! LOL

 

[RickinNYC]

Get out.....

 

[Disney1fan2002]

Get out.....

 

[Jennifer S]

I had that happen w/ a TV. It stopped all on it's own. Never found out why. It is freaky!!

 

[jfulcer]

Older TVs (well, for that matter new ones) can have problems with their circuitry and have this happen. I had a good friend that ran a TV repair place and he was called ALL the time for the 'poltergeists'. Switching out some circuit board or another solved 100% of the calls.

Of course, if a poltergeist operates by 'breaking' the circuitry, that kinda shoots that story.

 

[debster812]

Big V has a VERY good suggestion about the timer, if you TV has one.

You can also check the batteries in the remote (when they start to go they can act a bit flakey)

Also, unplug the TV from the wall the next time you leave the house for a few hours. For whatever reason, sometimes the microprocessors will 'lock' and disconnecting them from their power supply will help to reset.

Debbie<------who used to work in an AV Service Center, and has almost seen it all with regards to wacked out appliances.....

 

[NMAmy]

Get out.....

When the house tells you to get out, it's always a good idea to pay attention. (That's the lesson dd learned this summer when we watched Amityville Horror in one of our odder mother/daughter bonding moments.)

My tv comes on by itself occasionally. I'm pretty sure it's the tv that's possessed, though, not the house since the tv's always done this and it's about 3 years old--we've only lived in the house for a year.

 

[Feralpeg]

We've had that happen as well. I think it has to do with electrical surges or static electricity. DD has an old doll that will just start crying occassionally, especially when it storms. I'm sure it is static electricity setting it off.

 

[tinaluis]

How close is your house to your neighbor's? Sometimes the neighbors can control our TV with their remote. They change a channel and our TV changes too. Fortunately, they just remodeled their basement and put in a nice media room and watch most of their TV down there now. It was getting a little annoying LOL!

 

[puffkin]

How close is your house to your neighbor's? Sometimes the neighbors can control our TV with their remote. They change a channel and our TV changes too. Fortunately, they just remodeled their basement and put in a nice media room and watch most of their TV down there now. It was getting a little annoying LOL!

This is what I was thinking, I have heard of this happening before.

 

[sunsprinkle24]

DD has an old doll that will just start crying occassionally, especially when it storms

 

[Frantasmic]

This happened in my house. It turned out to be the neighbors, whom we know. They were very excited about getting DISH and we knew the hubby was really hooked on the History Channel.

All of a sudden, our TV was automatically switching to the History Channel.

There is a modulator you can plug in the back of the DISH receiver (found at Radio Shack) that reduces other frequencies somehow and reduces the interference. It worked for us, but it was freaky in the beginning.

 

[ilovepcot]

We've had that happen as well. I think it has to do with electrical surges or static electricity. DD has an old doll that will just start crying occassionally, especially when it storms. I'm sure it is static electricity setting it off.

I actually got cold chills reading that!!!!

 

[sorcerormickey]

DD has an old doll that will just start crying occassionally, especially when it storms

PEG PLEASE SAY YOU ARE KIDDING!!!!!!!!! I would be out of there so fast! Doesn't it give you the creeps??

 

[halestrm]

We've had that happen as well. I think it has to do with electrical surges or static electricity. DD has an old doll that will just start crying occassionally, especially when it storms. I'm sure it is static electricity setting it off.

Please tell me the doll was one with a voice box built into it!

 

[miche61]

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone. Mystery solved, someone had set the timer. I knew it wasn't because our houses were so close- because they aren't. The kids will be disappointed when they find out that the cat wasn't turning it on, so it wouldn't be so lonely.

I knew I could get some help here.