Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with TV and electronics

Table Hockey in the dark?

DrAlbin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:12:18 -0800

Table Hockey in the dark? I was cleaning out my workshop today and came across two identical devices packed in separate bags, that for the life of me (or Google), I can not figure out what they are. There isn’t a pic link, because it really didn’t get to me until I got to work, and now I have hours to ponder with no answers.

Please me-fites, you’re our only hope.

They were in a crate filled with cables (computer, stereo, TV (Direct TV + Cable)). One end there was a 6-8” piece of black plastic shaped like a hockey stick, But with uniform thickness throughout, near the bent end (think: on the top of the hockey stick blade) there are 2 clear LED’s protruding from the plastic. On the other end (think; hockey stick butt end) there was a wire (approx 4 ft long) terminating with a 3.5mm male stereo jack. (Headphone jack). I hooked it up to my phone, just to see if maybe the lights would light up when sound was played, to no avail.

Anyone have any ideas? Or proof that you are the Google ninja?

Playing iPod Videos an TV

gm2007 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:34:42 -0800

How do I play videos from my iPod Nano on my Phillips television? My Phillips is a flat screen and has a USB port on the side, which my iPod can dock to. When I connect them, the television even recognizes that an iPod is connected, but doesn't seem to know what to do with it. Any ideas?

Should I fix my LCD TV or replace it?

underthehat — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:33:34 -0800

Should I fix my LCD TV or replace it? Our 18-month-old LCD TV has died. Tech support says it's probably the "main board." We're outside the warranty period. Repairs (including shipping) will probably run to at least half the cost of simply replacing it. The TV is an Olevia 532H; we'd probably replace it with a Samsung 32".

I'd like your advice on what to do. Here's how I see it:

Pro fixing: Until now, the TV has worked well, and we like it, so if a repair is likely to keep it going for another 5 years or so, that seems worthwhile-- but how long should we expect an LCD TV to last anyway? Repairing is probably cheaper, though it's unclear by how much. I think it's also better for the environment, since we won't be discarding one hunk of plastic and glass for another.

Pro replacing: Prices have come down, so the replacement would be a better-quality, more reliable set (though again, how long should an LCD TV last?). The cost of replacing it is known, whereas we don't know the cost of repairs until we've already spent $150+ sending it in and paying a diagnostic fee. We also get back to a working TV quicker.

What do you think?

I'm a Comcast customer is looking to expand my TV horizons.

bamassippi — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:27:25 -0800

I'm a Comcast customer is looking to expand my TV horizons. The wife and I are looking into DVR options. We currently use Comcast (Seattle, WA) w/HD channels and, due to our apartment complex, do not have the option of Dish/DirecTV.

I would prefer a TiVo HD recorder due to TiVo's position in the market ad an industry leader. What successes/failures/thoughts do you have on TiVos current DVR technology

Is Comcast's DVR technology worth it? Obviously, the month-to-month payment is more wallet-friendly than the investment of a TiVo, though I didn't know if the end result was any better.

Thoughts?

My Samsung DLP has required multiple repairs since July

neilkod — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:48:05 -0800

My out-of-warranty Samsung DLP has been plagued with issues for the last 6 weeks. Routine issues, or do I have recourse? Samsung HLR4667WAX/XAA DLP. First week of July, my DLP's bulb died after 6500 hours. Fine. I can handle a bulb-I knew this was inevitable as soon as I bought the set (about 2004). After $129 and a 10-minute DIY, I was up and running.

Two weeks later, the color wheel went out. Cha-ching - Another $125 dollars and a slightly more complicated repair. After I installed the color wheel, I ran into issues where the set's colors would go all wonky and then it would shut itself off after about 5 minutes, with the lamp warning flashing. I went into the service screen and reset the bulb life counter-that seemed to fix the problem. TV worked fine for about another week to ten days.

Then, for whatever reason, the TV wouldn't turn on AGAIN. That, or it took far too long. Then not at all. For a few days, the TV would power on as long as turned the TV on before the Xbox. If the Xbox was already on, the TV wouldn't turn on. Now, the TV is back to not turning on at all. I get a blinking lamp indicator.

Discount-merchant, who I bought the lamp from, wants me to send the lamp back so they can test it and determine if its OK. According to their website, the bulbs have some ungodly failure rate, like 3 out of every 10,000 are DOA.

A call to 1-800-Samsung was no help, they wanted no part of me because it's out of warranty.

I've performed many other checks on the TV-I've ensured that all of the connections are tight, that the inside is clean, and that the lamp-cover-switch is in its proper position. There are no unusual noises coming from the set-I can hear the whirr of the fans and the color wheel.

Audio seems to work OK - I'm just not getting any picture.

I understand routine maintenance-but this many issues within a short timeframe seems unacceptable. Executive Customer Service is closed on the weekend - I'll try Monday, but can I expect them to lend a sympathetic ear?

How can I use my TV speakers as the center channel on my receiver?

odinsdream — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:02:13 -0800

How can I use the speakers in my TV as the "center" speaker on my receiver? I have a receiver hooked up to four normal speakers. I'd like to use the speakers in my TV as the center speaker.

My TV has audio inputs for each set of video inputs. These are normal RCA red-white connectors.

Is there some way to connect powered speaker wires to these without breaking the TV? My first thought was to open the TV and disconnect the speakers from the internal wiring and substitute my own. I'd prefer not to do this since the TV is new and still under warranty.

The other problem would be that the TV has two internal speakers, left and right, which I want to treat as one.

Any thoughts?

How do I get rid of static/noise when using American electronics with my TV in India?

smersh — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:10:43 -0800

How do I get rid of visual static/noise when using American electronics with my TV in India? Most notably, with my Nintendo Wii? I have an Indian Panasonic Plasma TV connected to a US version of Nintendo Wii, an Apple TV, and an Indian DVD player, all going through an American component switcher (this one)

Without the component switcher, there is some visual interference. It's slight, but annoying. With the switcher, it's intense.

How do I get rid of this static? I use good wires, and my outlet strip is also of good quality. What else can I do to have a clear picture?

Flat TV's behind one-way mirrors?

monkeybutt — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:24:19 -0800

Flat TV's behind two-way mirrors? Good idea or no? Does anybody out there have any firsthand experience with LCD's or Plasma TV's situation behind two-way mirrors so that they "disappear" when they turn off?

We are renovating our house (on a budget!) and the designer suggested this scenario to my wife as a way to de-clutter our home. I'm open to it but know from experience (i work in the film biz and visual effects) that ANYTHING you put in front of a light source (or tv) will knock down the gain. my question is how bad of a hit will i take on the luminance of the TV? I have seen the commercially available flats that offer the tv-to-mirror feature, but they are WAY out of my price range. What I was hoping for is a resource for the right type of glass that will achieve what we want with a minimal light loss (if there is such a thing).

thanks for any help

Odd A/V problem -- help needed

illovich — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:10:00 -0800

An artist friend is searching for 4 Polaroid FXM-1511c TV/DVD combo unit, but there don't seem to be any available... if you don't know where she can get 4 of them, can someone recommend a comparable product (inside for the full details).... The dream, as I said, is that she can buy 4 more Polaroid FXM-1511c TV/DVD combo units as she was very happy with the price/performance/feature set for this installation. She been scouring the internet and local shops for weeks and is coming up dry... it seems like all of them have been bought.

If someone knows a vendor who definitely has them in stock, please please let me know. If you just know AV and could recommend a viable alternative, here is what the above unit has that she needs:

1) Good quality LCD screen

2) Prefers 4:3 screen, but wide-screen ok as long as it can be set to 4:3 mode without distortion

3) Must maintain settings when power is lost (stay set to DVD, 4:3 aspect, etc.)

4) Must auto-play the DVD when the power comes on

The behavior needed is:

1) the TVs need to turn on automatically at a certain time, play for 8 hours and then turn off, seven days a week for a year.

2) all 5 need to be in sync in terms of starting and stopping , but they each play a different video

Wiring an RF modulator from a VCR.

odinsdream — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:48:38 -0800

I've pulled an RF modulator out of an old VCR, but I don't know what some of the pins are for on the unit. Help me wire it up to modulate a composite video signal. Here are the pins, in order:

+5V
BS
AUDIO
CONV B+
VIDEO

I only need to modulate the video - audio connection is unnecessary. I've tried hooking up a 5V 1A power supply with the ground wire hooked to the modulator's chassis. I then connected the center pin from my composite cable to the VIDEO pin. I also tried a variety of other connections, but couldn't get anything to display.

What are the other pins for, and what should I do to get this thing working?

Reason for doing this: Old TV with no composite input, tried using a VCR as a pass-through, but Macrovision gets in the way. I'm aware that I can buy an RF modulator, but I'd like to try this out first.

Apparently, it's best not to drop television sets.

Afroblanco — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:10:19 -0800

I dropped my TV a few times, and now the color is messed up in a few spots. Is there anything to be done? The TV is an old-school 32" Sony Trinitron. We dropped it a couple of times whilst moving it. D'oh! Now there are 3 spots where the color is a little weird - along the top near the left and right corners, and along the bottom near the right corner. When I have it on the plain DVD bluescreen, the two spots along the top are greenish, and the spot along the bottom is reddish.

I looked for a "degauss" button, or something similar, and couldn't find it. Is there some sort of DIY way to fix this?

(I should mention that except for the aforementioned color spots, the TV appears to be working fine.)

My TV is randomly muting tv stations... Why?!?

johnstein — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 18:56:50 -0800

The sound is muted on 95% of the tv channels and perfectly fine on the remaining 5%. Video quality is great. What is wrong with this cheap TV?!? My roommate just bought a $20 27" Sony Tv (KV27TS22) from a friend of a friend. We have basic cable from Comcast.

First time it was plugged in, nothing but snow. After fiddling with the coax input and ensuring it was screwed down all the way, we get perfect picture quality (though missing some channels we got with our old tv) and perfect audio quality... but only on about 5 channels. The rest have absolutely no sound as if it's muted (not snowy whitenoise), and again, picture quality is superb. It's always the same channels too.

Besides the obvious "it's a $20 tv", what could possibly be doing this? We've checked the old tv and everything is fine then.

I wonder if there are any sort of signal conditioning techniques or at least any other precedants for this sort of inconsistent behavior. I thought sound either worked or didn't.

I'm buying a new TV: Explain to me the mumbojumbo!

GilloD — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:08:49 -0800

HDM-Wha?! 1080i-who? I'm buying a new TV for the first time EVER and I'm in over my head. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108028

I posted the above to an Off-Topic videogaming forum looking to slicit some advice on a new TV. While I got some great suggestions, I also got a lot of technical mumbojumbo that makes me feel way in over my head. So, I implore you, MeFi, HELP! What's all this HDMI 1080i whatever business? I'm usually pretty tech savy, but I just haven't been in the market for a TV or a monitor in, oh, ever, actually. My TV now is a little 12 incher that does the job fine, but I was looking to get an XBox360 and, well, what's the point with a set that small?

In addition, any recommendations or advice to a new buyer are well appreciated. Thanks!

Anyone know a good HDTV installer in LA?

rileyray3000 — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 21:16:48 -0800

I set up my big screen and I think I did a good job. Only there's a lot of artifacting on the regular TV channels (not the HDTV). That may be as good as it's going to get with my DirectTV box but I'm not sure. Can you recommend a good guy at a reasonable price in LA to come take a look at it?

Is TIVO dying?

keep it tight — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 05:30:55 -0800

Is TIVO dying? I was about to buy a Tivo Box (I have DVR from Time Warner and it sucks) when a friend of mine mentioned that he heard that Direct TV was dropping Tivo and hinted that the company (tivo) was hemorrhaging money. I am a little concerned that I may buy a box and service that won't exist in 6 months... Has anyone else heard anything on this?

How can I scrool messages across my TV?

keep it tight — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:42:48 -0800

My boss wants to put a Plasma TV up in our lobby that will be running CNN, MSNBC, etc... He also wants to be able to scroll internal company info accross the screen (Welcome Clients, Happy Birthday, Sales Numbers etc.) Anyone ever done this or know how it can get done?

Which manufacturers make well-built home theater equipment at a reasonable price?

danwalker — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 19:21:06 -0800

Over the past several years, I have been burned by poor quality in home electronics from various manufacturers. I have purchased pieces by Sony (home stereo), Panasonic (theatre-in-a-box) and RCA (various pieces of junk), and all have given out in one way or another far too quickly for my liking. In a renewed attempt to build a proper home theatre system (DVD/CD, receiver, speakers, etc), and recognizing that I haven't the money for really high-end stuff but will avoid anything cheap, I seek outside opinions as to which manufacturers are making products that are of reasonable quality, and reasonably priced. Your experiences, please.

Surge protectors and line conditioners in the mid-line?

sharksandwich — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 07:12:53 -0800

I just purchased a Mitsubishi WD-52525 DLP HDTV and the manual suggest that some problems might occur if a surge protector and AC line conditioner are not used. Any recommendations on satisfactory surge protectors and line conditioners (something in the mid-price range)? Also, could someone explain how a line conditioner works and why it is necessary?

Getting a video signal into a second room

adamrice — Mon, 03 May 2004 09:06:14 -0800

Getting a video signal into a second room [more inside] I've got cable coming into my living room; the wall with the cable hookup is shared with a bedroom, and I'd like to get a video signal into that bedroom.

Here's what I'm thinking of doing: punching a hole in the bedroom wall directly behind the cable-out; replacing the current cable jack with a two-port wall plate, and running a short length of cable between the living room and bedroom to create a pass-through. I'd put a splitter on the cable that runs into the TV and feed that into the pass-through. This way I could run the DVD player's output to the second TV.

I'd like any general comments on whether this is a good or bad scheme, or whether there are better ones; if there are any particular products to seek out or avoid. Thanks in advance.

Why the size limit on LCD tvs?

mathowie — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 14:29:49 -0800

This one has been bugging me for a while. Why can I spend around $300 and easily find LCD computer monitors that can handle 1280x1024 resolution, but even if you spend thousands upon thousands on a LCD Television, you can only get 1280x768 max resolution? The 768 vertical pixel limit seems to make 1080i HDTV impossible on these new TVs, only allowing 720 and 480. Why the discrepancy?