There appears to be a spike in over-the-air channels producing an annoying and unpleasant greenish looking tint in the picture. The tint can be seen under certain conditions, most notably during black & white programming. The tint is not related to the viewer’s reception or their devices and is usually being produced from the broadcasting station.
When does the green tint occur?
- During camera pans
- During fast action scenes
- During fade ins/outs
Where can it be seen?
- During black & white shows, commercials, etc.
- On light black/gray objects
- On light brown/tan objects
- Sometimes can be seen on a plan white background

The first frame of the tiger appears as it should in black & white. As the video advances over to the next few frames while the camera pans on the tiger, the green tint appears. This is probably due to the channel exceeding it’s given bandwidth.
Under minor conditions, the green tint is light and is usually brief. Under extreme conditions, the tint is greener and can be almost constant rather than occasional. You may also notice a quick blur effect in the entire picture from time to time, usually appearing during camera cuts. Another side effect is a thin black bar on the far right side of the screen which is normally not visible unless the picture isn’t being over-scanned.

The thin black bar on the right side of the picture, seen when the picture isn’t being over-scanned.
The cause of the green tint is likely being produced by the encoder that the station uses for the affected channel. Perhaps it’s not configured correctly and is allowing more bandwidth than the maximum that’s allowed, possibly corrupting MPEG data. This makes sense as the causes of the green tint described above usually require additional bandwidth in order to keep the picture as minimally compressed as possible.
Because most broadcast stations carry more than one channel (subchannels), the green tint may not affect every channel that the station carries. Common channels affected by the green tint are usually ones in 480i standard definition, but 1080i high definition channels are also affected, though the green tint’s effects are less noticeable.
If you notice a green tint in any broadcast channel and it bothers you, you should contact the station (engineer if possible) and let them know about it. Tell them about the green tint, when & where it occurs and the affected channel. They may tell you to re-scan your TV or adjust your antenna, which is a bunch of nonsense. The worst possible case is that they won’t do anything about it, but if they get enough complaints from other viewers, then they may look into the problem.