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In your area/country, did you have a word or phrase to describe the static white noise on a television set not tuned to a channel? (upload.wikimedia.org)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

104 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Bonus points if there's a known onomatopoeia to describe the sound.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What prompted this question is some Japanese TV service ended this past weekend for a relative and the word to describe the static noise was "sand storm".

Thought it might be interesting to hear what it's called elsewhere.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So Japan still uses analog broadcast TV? Maybe it's different for other US TVs, but since the switch to the digital broadcast system my TVs show black when a channel is not available. Snow has gone the way of the old test pattern of years ago.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Analog went offline in Japan around 2010/2011 if my memory serves me correctly, but some still have digital receivers that works with the RF jack. Now more or less it's out of style and the static is just proverbial.