Is there a group for TV problems please? Ours has just gone off and keeps squeaking.
No its a Shop job (get Quote) or get a new LCD one, Samsung or LG. Its the Power supply does that when it gets a short or the EHT is arcing if the room is Damp.. All shop jobs.. Do you have LPG gas heater as they Kill TV's
Thank you. No, we only have a heat pump. The room is quite dry. (The aerial is still there.) It's a Loewe, about ten years old, we think. It would need a box etc for this new digital stuff though. It's the sort with a big tube in it, we think, not a modern flat one. A very good set and perfect picture, before this. The computer and the tape recorder are still going. I'll call the TV man tomorrow. Thanks for your help.
Yes a good German brand TV. The LCD TV come with Freeview, the LG and Samsung have far better supports in playing Videos via the USB port, Sony and Panasonic only support AVI/DivX Yes I don't think that parts are availably for that brand unless its a simple fault.. I think its come to its useful life 10 years is not to bad..
Good LED TVs are now getting quite cheap and the power saving on a good 32" LED vs the Loewe CRT will go a decent way to subsidising the purchase. Also factor in the saving in not having to purchase a Freeview decoder and you are quids in. Geo, it is unlikely to be economic to repair your old TV when you still will need to buy a freeview decoder for it.
Oh, ok. What's the deal on that? ........................................... Over 75 and under the financial limits, I think. And changed from Invalids Benefit to Super. But you can find out exactly somewhere on the internet. We were going to wait until the government let us know about it, but if the TV man says it's stuffed or too expensive to repair we will get a new digital one. I think the aerial is digital, we got a new one a few years ago, but we might need a disc. I've got all your replies saved so we can make up our minds what to get. It must be easy to record programs. Just pressing a few buttons, nothing technical. I'm even dumber with TVs than I am with computers. I suppose all our tapes will now be useless though. A TV man is coming either today or tomorrow. We will see what he thinks. Thank you Geopelia
>, , JohnO says... http://www.goingdigital.co.nz/targeted-assistance-package - part of a post I made in the 'Advice on digital TV please' thread, in reply to Geo's question on info for community services card holders (or something like that).
MySky is like that. I've no experience with FreeView PVRs though. (PVR is a decoder that can be set to record, in particular by simply clicking on a programme in the Electronic Programme Guide). Nonsense. I think you are doing marvelously well. Nope - as long as you new TV has an input your VCR can plug into - which it should. Make sure he doesn't start fixing anything until you approve his estimate. We have a super guy in Meadowbank who seems to be able to repair anything. He tends to turn a way a lot of business where things are just uneconomic to repair.
The TV man called. When he took the cover off and switched the power on, there were bright sparks of thousands of volts sparking and banging away inside. It was the things at the back of the tube. The wire is the one that carries an enormous voltage and sticks on to the back of the tube. He cut out the burnt wire and got the power going, but has had to take the inners away to see what else may have been damaged. He says the new electronic stuff damages more than the old valves. He's going to let us know what it would cost to repair. If it's possible and reasonable we will have it done, otherwise we will get a new set. That will be our fourth since the 1960s. We started with a small black and white one. Three sets in fifty years or so isn't bad. And the others were still working when we replaced them. We shall see. Thanks to all Geopelia
We fix them on the spot use rtv silicone its a simple job.. Never ever seen innards damaged by that kind of fault..
He had to cut the burnt bit of the wire out. It didn't look very simple. Perhaps I haven't described it well enough. We'll see what he thinks when he has inspected it.
Hi Geopelia, Sadly the days of appliances that last for 20+ years are long gone. Sometime before you bought that last set pretty much every company world-wide started designing a planned life-span into their products. With the cheapest brands it's usually not much longer than the warranty period. If you pay a bit (or a lot) more you might get two to five years on top of the warranty period before they fail. It's actually quite easy for the companies to do this and do it they do! Also, with the exception of a small number of minor faults, it's not worth getting post ~1995 electical appliances repaired as, if you replace one faulty module it still won't be long until the next one fails, then the next.... (There's little repairing going on these days, it's all module replacement.) The companies do this as they need people to buy product so that they can stay in business. Back when you and I were young the companies could build great, long-lasting products and would get more business by word-of-mouth, happy customers telling their friends. That was back in the days when most people didn't have a [insert appliance of choice here], it was a brave new world and people were becoming more prosperous and technology was able to make their lives easier. Unfortunately these days, at least in 'developed' countries, most everyone already has that appliance and the only way to get another sale is if it fails. It's called built-in (or planned) obsolescence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-in_obsolescence#Obsolescence_and_durability I deplore this state of affairs but, until the landfills are taller than the skyscrapers, I don't see it changing without legislation - and that's unlikely to happen as long as elections cost money so need donations from business. In some instances, like computers (at least up until the lasy few years) and televisions it's not quite as bas as the jobs required of them are changing quickly, so older hardware often leaves its owner living with some serious conpromises. However, once digital TV achieves market saturation and now that home PCs are plenty powerful enough to do anything that could be asked of them by the home user in the foreseeable future there will be no excuse for those fields either. Personally, as I'm basically house-bound (not just for medical reasons but also increasingly financial ones as well) I'm trying to teach myself how to repair stereo equipment - specifically HiHi gear made from about 1976 to around 2000. Amplifiers in particular from that era are as goos as, and much better in most cases - anything that you can buy from most non-specialist audio stores and, crucially for me, aren't made with SM components and lead-free solder. (Meaning that they can be repaired by hand.) I think that, especially with 'retro-chic' and the fact that trained repair technitions are a dying breed, there could be a niche there for me - refurbishing and re-capping 'classic' HiFi gear - but only if I can keep audio gear from that period out of the landfills! In my own life I have a clothes drier that must be 40+ years old. It's one of the very first 'electronic' driers that came onto the market (at least in NZ) - a Kelvinator 405 E. Electronics were so new then that it has a stylised atom logo with orbiting electrons. I've repaired it several times over the years - and it was made to be repairable. I've stuck with it so long as it has a heat-sensor that's positioned in the exhaust air so that, when the clothes are dry (you can turn a knob to set exactly *how* dry you want them) it switches to 10 minutes of cool tumbling, then stops. No guessing with a timer and wasting huge amounts of power. I don't plan on replacing it soon but then again I only use it a few times a year these days. There's no way that a modern drier could be made to last as long as this one has lasted. I also drive a 28 year-old car.... Similarly the automobile industry has adopted planned obsolescence so anything much newer wouldn't last anywhere near as long. I do what I can, where I can to rebel against it but it's not even a drop in the ocean. To return to the point of this thread - I saw that someone else suggested that you buy a new LCD LED TV with built-in Freeview and I'm afraid that I concurr. It's really the only thing that makes sense. There's no point throwing money at an older TV that's going to keep failing every year - especially one that's going to be horrendously expensive to repair like a Loewe. The other option is to get a free or near-free CRT TV (with a tube, like yours) and wait until next year when you'll get a free Freeview box. However you'll always be behind the 8-ball if you stay with a CRT TV now that yours is playing up. The disadvantage to doing this latter thing is that you'll still be using old technology that isn't designed to last, with a seperate 'set-top' box and a tangle of wires - complexity that I'm sure you don't need. My advice Geo, for what it's worth, is to buy a Samsung LED LCD TV with built-in Freeview. Going with an LED one will give you a better picture and cost less power to run and Samsung have proved to be a reliable company in my experience. I know that you're at the mercy of 'the TV man' to a large extent but don't foget that any advice he gives you is going to be coloured by the fact that he wants to continue to make a living off you (and his other customers). His advice might not be the best advice for you. If you do decide to get a new TV and are confused by the bewildering array of choices (and who isn't?) *and* if there's nobody from these groups who lives nearer to you who can go shopping with you or check on prices etc. amd advise you I humbly offer my assistance - even if it only consists of researching what I think is the best TV for you to buy. However, if you need the help and it's not forthcoming from someone more local to you I'm prepared to come shopping with you, advise you and bargain on your behalf. Best, -- Shaun. "Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a cozy little classification in the DSM." David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
Thank you, that's very kind. The TV man found a chip had been damaged and has got it going now, he's bringing it back today or tomorrow. I don't know the name of the chip yet. We'll keep this one for a while unless it breaks down again, it is quite a while yet before the change over, and I think we will get a Samsung then from The Good Guys, it depends on whether they deliver and set it up etc. We've found them very good for other items, and they are handy locally. Hubby likes them. Your advice is much appreciated Geopelia
Quite so. However the Hyundai SD 42" plasma that I purchased back in 2006 is, much to my annoyance, still going strong! With TVs, the technology has advanced so quickly, that it actually doesn't matter if they only last 5 years. My 5 year old TV is now totally obsolete - SD only, and no digital tuner!
Sounds like you are sorted, Geo. And by the time analog TV closes down. LCD TV's will have plummeted even further in price.
Yes the Samsung's have USB port that lets you play many Video formats, Sony and Panasonic don't Plus never ever think about Sony even a shop that sells them think they are Crap, they don't come with a Manual its all in the TV, very hard to read the manual and set it up as you cant do both.
Heh! It's not often you hear of folks complaining because their appliances *haven't* broken down. ;-) Yep, as I said further down in my post to Geopelia both PCs and TVs seem to have now reached a plateau where an average PC of today's specs will do anything most people could want in the foreseeable future and, with TVs (other than 3D <barf>) a good 32" or better 1080p LCD LED TV (Samsung 5 Series being my pick) with freeview tuner should last many years as far as technological advances go. As said, I feel that we've reached a plateau now and, as long as you've got the above specs or better I don't think you'll be busting to upgrade anytime in the near future. As usual, all in my opinion only. ;-) -- Shaun. "Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a cozy little classification in the DSM." David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
The TV man has put the TV back together and it's working as well as ever - touch wood. The chip is TDA2177 or something near that. The sparking had affected it. He will come and install a new TV if the firm I buy one from doesn't have their own installer. So we will hang on and see what happens with this one for now. Hubby is delighted it's back, he was lost without it. Now we can watch the Rugby! Thanks to all. Geopelia
