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Thread: What's wrong with my tube TV?
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02-17-2020, 01:08 PM #1Registered User
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What's wrong with my tube TV?
For those of you like me who remember the cave man days, help me troubleshoot my Neolithic technology.
I have a Zenith CRT tube TV and a VCR (VHS, natch) in my garage pain cave, in front of my bike trainer. (That's right, no high-falutin' Zwift for me!).
I only use it for watching videos, and only while training. The last time I used it was in the fall (Waterworld never fails to delight!), and it worked fine. I fired it up for the first time since then over the weekend, and the picture is crappy - it's snowy, like if I had bad reception of an OTA signal in the analog days. I tried a few different tapes, but got the same results from all of them.
There are no tracking controls on the VCR, and the issues with the image are not what I associate with tracking issues anyway. It also says it's "self-cleaning" so maybe dirty heads are not an issue. There are some PC speakers on top of the TV, but what I'm seeing doesn't look like magnetic interference, and PC speakers should be shielded anyway -- I'm pretty sure they were there last time I used the TV.
The TV only has a coax jack (and maybe an antenna hookup, I'd need to look again). I tightened the coax inputs on the VCR and TV, no dice. Not sure if the problem is the TV or the VCR, but I don't have anything else that puts out coax.
Any suggestions, or should I just pay to junk this stuff and switch to a tablet and external speakers?
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02-17-2020, 01:50 PM #2Funky But Chic
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well you might try to figure out if the problem is tv or the vcr. Do you have another vcr or can you take that one and plug it into a different tv?
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02-17-2020, 01:53 PM #3
You should just take it down to the old TV repair shop. That poor bastard hasn’t had any customers in years. He could use some company.
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02-17-2020, 02:11 PM #4
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02-17-2020, 02:11 PM #5
You do realize that new 30" flat screens cost about the same as a sixer of fancy beer?
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02-17-2020, 02:14 PM #6
It's almost certainly the flux capacitor. Just get that replaced. Probably $8 from Amazon...
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02-17-2020, 02:27 PM #7
You could see if the TV is OK by tuning into an over-the-air broadcast, but you'd need a digital to analog converter box these days.
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02-17-2020, 02:43 PM #8
You obviously need a Peloton. You be a little nervous at first, but a year later you'll look ...
... exactly the same as you do now.
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02-17-2020, 03:14 PM #9
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02-17-2020, 03:34 PM #10Registered User
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02-17-2020, 03:36 PM #11Registered User
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02-17-2020, 04:01 PM #12Registered User
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No way, I can chalk up one VCR to being frugal and using things up, but two VCRs is hoarding.
Those are the last VCR and tube TV in the house. I'm not going to confess how little trainer time I get, but let's just say they were gently used for a long time and there was never any point to replacing them, but everything else is a flatscreen.
I might ask around and see if a friend here still has a VCR around.
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02-17-2020, 04:21 PM #13Registered User
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If a TV only has a coax input a VCR was the way to hook up other stuff like stereo or play dvd's, I still have a VCR but I don't remember the last time I used it, I got it free cuz mom said it was broken but really it was just the tape that was bad, so check that the tape ain't bad
That woman could cook but she wasnt even very good with a phone let alone a VCR or color TV
So I inherited her 32" smart tv
thats the way you do it
We got to install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these color TVsLee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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02-17-2020, 06:59 PM #14
Take all the tubes out, take them down to the neighborhood drugstore and test them, find out which are bad and replace. If that doesn't work call the neighborhood TV repairman and he'll come right over and fix it while you watch. BTW--is it color or B and W?
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02-17-2020, 07:04 PM #15Funky But Chic
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Opportunity cost on the above suggestion ^^ is like 10x the cost of a new TV
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02-17-2020, 07:43 PM #16
New on Amazon
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02-17-2020, 07:54 PM #17
Craigslist free section will be loaded with replacements.
https://denver.craigslist.org/zip/d/...077230016.html
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02-17-2020, 08:16 PM #18
1995 called and wants their AV equipment back
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02-17-2020, 08:26 PM #19
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02-17-2020, 08:38 PM #20
Around here people leave stuff by the side of the road labelled "Free". Amusing how long the CRT TV's sit there--just about any other kind of junk will disappear but the TV's will be there until covered by snow and destroyed by the first plow of the season.
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02-17-2020, 08:41 PM #21
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02-17-2020, 08:41 PM #22
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02-17-2020, 08:53 PM #23
Probably interference from the new 5G installed by Huawei at your local cell tower.
Or aliens.
Seriously, doesn't anyone remember how to open up their VCR, and with a cotton swap and a little alcohol, clean the heads? Or blow the dust out of the back of your CRT TV, cause your tubes are overheating. Either that or your connections are fracked. Digital just dies, but analogue cables die slowly. Try a new coaxial cable. You still know how to slice a new one, right?
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02-17-2020, 09:50 PM #24Registered User
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02-17-2020, 10:06 PM #25
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