Automotive Air Conditioning Information Forum (Archives)

Provided by www.ACkits.com

We've updated our forums!
Click here to visit the new forum

Archive Home

Search Auto AC Forum Archives

HDTV vs "Analogue"

GM Tech on Wed January 26, 2005 9:52 AM User is offline

Nick should know this one-

Dad is 78 yrs old- his 13 yr old tv goes out- walks into local REX store- tells them that-- they tell him to buy an HDTV because after next yr he will HAVE to have a converter if he doesn't because everyone will be transmitting in HDTV- I thought there was to be a 10 or 15 yr overlap- broadcasting in both frequencies- old and new and then the old frequency would be phased out and given back to the public service. The salesman I think wanted to make the sale--and knew he had one "in the bag"

So now Dad can't get all channels as clear as before-- he is strictly antenna "free locals" and satellite for all others. I'm pissed because now I think that maybe only the clear local channels are HDTV and the fuzy ones are old analogue. The satellite input is fine- using the video in "S" video inpuits--- so with direct TV as the satellite source- how do I Know if this is HDTV or regular-- Dad could care less as long as he has a clear picture-- The TV is a "31" inch flat screen Panasonic- but I haven't read yet if it is HDTV "Ready" or HDTV "compatible" yet I really don't understand the difference yet.

I just counted- I have 10 TV's around the farm- van, garage, computer, bedroom etc-- will these all be worthless next yr-- or did Dad just get dicked? He did all this without asking advice.. Thanks for the input or any websites I can learn from.......

-------------------------
The number one A/C diagnostic tool there is- is to know how much refrigerant is in the system- this can only be done by recovering and weighing the refrigerant!!
Just a thought.... 65% of A/C failures in my 3200 car diagnostic database (GM vehicles) are due to loss of refrigerant due to a leak......

TRB on Wed January 26, 2005 10:50 AM User is offlineView users profile

Here is a little information on the subject.


http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7608_7-1016109-3.html?tag=tnav

-------------------------

When considering your next auto A/C purchase, please consider the site that supports you: ACkits.com
Contact: ACKits.com

JJM on Wed January 26, 2005 11:37 AM User is offline

Why throw the 31" Panasonic out? From what my friend who owns a TV shop tells me, they're very repairable. And since TV shops are dying business, you might be surprised how inexpensive the set can be repaired. Usually a chip or so and some capacitors, and these sets are good as new.

There are some sets where the circuit boards are so bad that the sets are indeed "throwaways," but from what I understand from my friend the older, large Panasonic sets are not one of them.

As for the bad reception, it's possible one or more the antenna elements is damaged. If your running coax (which you should be), it's possible the 75-300 ohm converter at the antenna might be damaged, or have become disconnected. A splitter could've also gone bad, and one of the cables could've been damaged or come loose. If you're running 300 ohm flat cable... well, no comment on that garbage; I'd rip it all out.

I very HIGHLY doubt HDTV is the reason for your poor local reception. Here in NYC, I pull all my stations "free" from a small roof mounted antenna, and whether it's an HDTV set or old standard analog sets, the picture is always crystal clear -- often better than cable or satellite (likely because of the lack of amplification distortion) -- except some UHF channels.

Keep in mind there are many sets still being sold today that aren't HDTV, and sell the HDTV converters modules or boards as an "option."

If he already purchased the HDTV set, I'm sure he'll be impressed with the picture -- assuming the signal is good in the first place, as I previously described.

Joe

meaux on Wed January 26, 2005 12:29 PM User is offlineView users profile

That salesman, well, he's just a salesman makin a sale....There would be some hell raised if everybody with an analog TV had to go out and buy a $200+ converter box, they would also have to buy a new TV! It will be a long time before analog is gone.
I heard the same crap about C-Band satillite Dishes 15 yrs. ago, and guess what? The cable companys are still using C-Band to recieve the (feed) transmission, converting it (video) to a digital signal, and pumping it out to the customers! I had one of those small (Ku-Band) dishes and it didn't work at all when it rained, couldn't wait to get rid of it. The micro-wave beam is so small, raindrops would interfere and mess up the signal. C-Band beam is as think as your arm, and the rain goes right thru it. I sure do miss my C-Band dish..........When it rains, my cable still works.........I have 2 HDTV's, a 50" 16:9 RPTV Toshiba that keeps breaking down, and a Phillips 34" 16:9 widescreen with a non functioning "audio out" volume control. NEVER BUY A PHILlIPS TV....This is my second one with the same problem........They have ZERO customer service......



-------------------------
Lazy bum who lives off his wife.

01 BMW 530i Sport, 92 Porsche 968, 85 F150, 72 911, 08 GM SUV, 01' Ford Lightnin'

NickD on Wed January 26, 2005 12:30 PM User is offline

Ha, with Wal-Mart selling 27" flatscreen Sanyos for $150.00, that is good enough for me, I haven't kept up with the standards or not even sure if there is a standard as hundreds of different HDTV methods have been proposed. Still happy with NTSC and with my Panasonic P-200 projector that uses a line doubling technique, get a nice very clear 10 foot diagonal picture with the same effective resolution as HDTV.

With so many computer generated graphics art movies on the market, they are intentionally blurred, the camera moves fast, and the image is exceptionally dark to hide the missing details, HDTV for the most part is BS. What really is missing on cable TV is decent programming and no type of improved reception can help that.

To check the clarity of your dads TV, just hook up a VCR to the antenna inputs, may only work on channels 3 or 4 but would be an indication.

GM Tech on Wed January 26, 2005 1:42 PM User is offline

Yes- thanks for all the input-- The salesman automatically told him to call the repairman back and cancel the repair- because he would charge $90 just to come to the house- and Dad might as well put that towards the new set since his other would need a $200 converter next year- I said BS- that salesman had one thing in mind!

They did not hesitate to take Dad's old TV away for "free" -- I told Dad I would have taken it and probably fixed it for $20- but it is gone now-- They probably sell it to a repair facilty who would fix and resell it- It was a 13 yr old $800 floor model Panasonic. So the saga continues- they have a new remote to deal with and I get to train them all again..........

-------------------------
The number one A/C diagnostic tool there is- is to know how much refrigerant is in the system- this can only be done by recovering and weighing the refrigerant!!
Just a thought.... 65% of A/C failures in my 3200 car diagnostic database (GM vehicles) are due to loss of refrigerant due to a leak......

NickD on Thu January 27, 2005 6:19 AM User is offline

With all the electronic engineers I have worked with over the last 40 some years, can only think of one or two that could actually repair a TV set, just because you took a course in differential equations doesn't mean you can dig inside a TV set, LOL. Most didn't even know how to operate an oscilloscope. I was a technician first before becoming an engineer. Most sets today are microprocessor based, use frequency synthesis tuning and you can make all the internal adjustments without even removing the back cover, need a manual to hit a sequence of buttons on the remote to get in and can make some 150 adjustments from your easy chair. I was given a late model Panasonic 27 inch set and debating whether I should just pitch it or repair it, but said what the heck. It cost 25 bucks for the manual, I did determine the picture tube was good as well as the high voltage power supply, if either was bad, not even worth looking at.

Meaux mentioned Phillips, when you buy a Phillips you don't know what you are getting as they buy sets from who knows where and slap their name on it, I was set up with them to buy parts at wholesale after feeling out a long application, but they wanted $275 bucks with shipping for a rebuilt 27" picture tube when you could buy a new set at Wal-Mart for half that price. I did buy a tuner for a rear projection set that sold for $2,000.00, and really felt I was ripped off as my price was 75 bucks. Nothing wrong with the coils in the tuner, but the IC was bad and could not cross reference that part anywhere, had to buy the entire tuner to get that IC. What teed me off is that I have a WinTV PCI card in my computer with a very similar tuner that I paid 25 bucks for with free upgrades, freeze, and video capture, you don't get those goodies with any TV set.

I don't even think we have a TV repair shop in town, a good friend ran a business, but went broke, mostly due to the extreme high cost of parts, if any of the special IC's only available from the manufacturer were bad, hard to tell a customer it would cost more to repair the set than buy a new one. Todays TV's are miserable to work on, the main board is buried in the front chassis, can't take any measurements unless you remove the board and with the board removed, can't have it hooked up unless you make a bunch of cable extenders and that isn't worth it as there are thousands of different models. I was lucky with that Panasonic, found a leaky lytic capacitor, replaced that and it came back to life. I won't even fool with a Sony, they have a goofy high voltage section that when it goes, takes out the switchmode power supply with it, would cost 100 bucks in parts just to find out something else was take out with it. And the problem can happen again.

Talk about keeping up, I have digital cable and have no idea how that works, it's capable of handling close to 1,000 channels over the same cable that handles the analog 100 channels and the net. Tempted to look inside, but these boxes have a microswitch that when you remove the cover with a special screwdriver, it kills the EPROM, and needs specialized equipment to reprogram it. Maybe its time to retire, LOL.

Only thing worse than repairing a TV is automotive electronics as everything is spread over the entire vehicle and having to pay as much as $1,200 for a computer that barely has 20 bucks worth of parts in it, is criminal to say the least.

Dougflas on Thu January 27, 2005 5:36 PM User is offline

And people ask me why I got out of the TV business after 35 years!! Damn pieces of crap...you go blind trying to change surface mounted devices. You had to buy two because the first one would jump out of the tweezers and fall on the floor and get lost. After you sucessfully change the part, you find there are other problems. Now you've spent an hour or more for a repair the the consumer turns down due to cost. A 27 inch RCA at dealer cost was 300. bananas that had a bad CRT that cost 450 bucks from the supplier. In a warranty situation, you wanted to just take a new set from stock, give the customer the CRT, and then have a cabinet and chassis. BUt no, the manufacture made you turn in a special tag that was only packaged in a replacement CRT. Makes no sense...someone was making a killing here. One of the biggest problems was due to robots doing the soldering. Just forget about it. This post is starting to peeve me off. It's Miller time.

NickD on Fri January 28, 2005 5:43 AM User is offline

Not worth repairing and around here have to pay a 25 buck recycling charge to get rid of a TV or a monitor unless you smash it to bits and hide it with the rest of the garbage so they get you one way or the other. If a shop kept a 13 year old TV set, I wouldn't be upset.

Another major ripoff are these LCD projector bulbs with some selling for as much as 800 bucks with barely a 1,500 hour life. They won't sell you just the bulb that is wired in anyway, but have to buy the entire reflector module even though there is a darn thing wrong with the old reflector and the actual bulb is about the size of an automotive 194 lamp. Seriously considering dropping cable, somehow the price went from 25 to 65 bucks per month that is a lot of money to pay for the constant commercials, takes 2.5 hours to watch an edited 90 minute movie, same old trick, let you watch the first 20 minutes commercial free, but near the end a five minute commercial for about every three minutes of movie. Will lose Fox, but what the heck, can read them on the web.

Back to Off Topic Chat

We've updated our forums!
Click here to visit the new forum

Archive Home

Copyright © 2016 Arizona Mobile Air Inc.