I have a Legacy & Gen 4. Both are 4 tuner and each has its own dedicated antenna. I live in one of the most congested air corridors in the US comprising LGA, JFK & EWR. I live with EWR situated approximately 1/2 way between me and the NYC broadcast towers. I have many take off and landing approach aircraft flying overhead at altitudes of 2000 ft up to about 4500 ft. There is also heavy helicopter traffic out of LDJ just to the SE.
Frequently I notice pixilation at times when wind or weather should not be a factor. I seldom see pixelation on items recorded between 12:00am & 6:00am when air traffic is minimal.
My question is … Does the high level of aircraft contribute to the amount of pixelization that I experience?
Depending on the altitude, planes can cause problems. You can get multipath issues, where you get both the original signal, and a reflection. Since they are slightly out of sync, that causes interference. On analog TV, that would cause ghosting. With digital, it just makes it hard to decode.
Yes it definitely sounds like the aircraft traffic could be part of the problem. Planes and helicopters can cause brief signal reflections or interruptions when they pass between your antenna and the broadcast towers. This is called multipath interference and it is pretty common in areas with heavy air traffic like yours.
Since you don’t see much pixelation late at night when flights are minimal that kind of supports the idea. You might be able to reduce it by slightly adjusting your antenna angle or height to minimize reflections. Some people also find that using a higher gain directional antenna or adding a signal filter helps smooth things out. It might take a bit of trial and error but you can usually improve it with a few small tweaks.