Squished picture on my TV set
June 19, 2009 4:29 PM Subscribe
Is my (analog) TV completely borked?
I have an analog TV set that is about two and a half years old (but I have digital cable, so the analog thing shouldn't, as far as I know, be a factor). Today, when I turned it on, there is a black band about 3 inches wide on the top of the screen, with a white border, then the picture starts. The picture is the complete picture, just compressed into the smaller area. Any ideas/suggestions about what might be causing this/how to fix it?
I have an analog TV set that is about two and a half years old (but I have digital cable, so the analog thing shouldn't, as far as I know, be a factor). Today, when I turned it on, there is a black band about 3 inches wide on the top of the screen, with a white border, then the picture starts. The picture is the complete picture, just compressed into the smaller area. Any ideas/suggestions about what might be causing this/how to fix it?
a good slap to the side usually works. i'm all for physical abuse of electronics
posted by Mach5 at 5:48 PM on June 19, 2009
posted by Mach5 at 5:48 PM on June 19, 2009
I suspect the power supply. I also suspect that unless the suggested physical violence works or you know an old-timey repair person, you need a new set.
posted by bz at 6:10 PM on June 19, 2009
posted by bz at 6:10 PM on June 19, 2009
I seem to find a gentle tap (ok, a hard knock) works more often than not too. Well, with electronics anyways. I haven't tried it on my friends yet.
Last time I had a shrinking image, there were some capacitors going bad. It might not be worth fixing these days.
posted by Climber at 9:16 PM on June 19, 2009
Last time I had a shrinking image, there were some capacitors going bad. It might not be worth fixing these days.
posted by Climber at 9:16 PM on June 19, 2009
Response by poster: Yeah, I don't watch it that often, and since it IS the "complete picture", I was just wondering if it's something minor that a good smack might fix. heh. I guess I'll wait till the boyfriend comes over this weekend and see if he can make it work right. If not, well, he'll deal with it being a smaller screen, since I can't be bothered to get a new set right now :)
posted by polexxia at 9:19 PM on June 19, 2009
posted by polexxia at 9:19 PM on June 19, 2009
There pretty much no way you can make it worse by giving it a good smack.
If not, well, he'll deal with it being a smaller screen, since I can't be bothered to get a new set right now
Check the curb and/or thrift stores in the area. I can't count the number of perfectly good analog TVs I've seen around for essentially free since the digital switch last week.
posted by Ookseer at 11:45 PM on June 19, 2009
If not, well, he'll deal with it being a smaller screen, since I can't be bothered to get a new set right now
Check the curb and/or thrift stores in the area. I can't count the number of perfectly good analog TVs I've seen around for essentially free since the digital switch last week.
posted by Ookseer at 11:45 PM on June 19, 2009
Just to be clear: you are not talking about letterboxed content, right?
posted by gjc at 2:56 AM on June 20, 2009
posted by gjc at 2:56 AM on June 20, 2009
Is there some sort of compressed / 16:9 widescreen feature that got accidentally turned on? My oldish crt used to have this feature, it would compress the vertical down so that all the CRT lines were used in a smaller area, and I could tell the dvd player that it was hooked up to a widescreen tv, getting more lines out of a widescreen signal. It would 'squish' ordinary 4:3 tv signal.
2 years old doesn't sound quite old enough to resort to physical violence to fix the tv...
posted by defcom1 at 6:31 AM on June 20, 2009
2 years old doesn't sound quite old enough to resort to physical violence to fix the tv...
posted by defcom1 at 6:31 AM on June 20, 2009
a good slap to the side usually works. i'm all for physical abuse of electronics
I believe this is known as percussive maintenance.
posted by namewithoutwords at 8:15 AM on June 20, 2009
I believe this is known as percussive maintenance.
posted by namewithoutwords at 8:15 AM on June 20, 2009
I believe this is known as percussive maintenance.
I came in here to post this exact same thing.
posted by deezil at 12:55 PM on June 20, 2009
I came in here to post this exact same thing.
posted by deezil at 12:55 PM on June 20, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nitsuj at 4:31 PM on June 19, 2009