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TV Repairs (Including unbiased advice on purchasing a TV)

TV Repairs  (including  Tube Failures and Plasma/LCD TV`s, we do not repair the latter)
Unrepairable Products
What Is An “Old” TV ?
TV Retunes / Set-ups  (including Multifunction/”One For All” Remotes)
Batteries, Zinc Carbon v Alkaline v NiMh Rechargeable (Some unbiased advice following
                                                                                  our experiments ! )

TV Repairs
  

Think Environmentally

We undertake the repair of all makes and models of TV`s and Videos in our fully equipped workshop. However we do not repair CDs, HiFis, DVDs, LCDs or Plasmas.
When considering whether to have a TV or Video repaired please bear in mind that most new products are of worse quality than those of even a few years back. I am constantly shocked  to discover just how flimsy even major brand videos are these days. One should also bear in mind that you are familiar with the operation of your existing unit, having to set up a new machine and work out how to use it is a pain.....
If we repair a TV we will usually attend to the most fallible joints (on the PCB) as a matter
of course. This means that with the exception of tube wear the set will generally be just as reliable as a new one. You can gauge how worn the tube is for yourself, if it`s got a good picture the tube is fine, also see CRT failures. It is strongly recommended that when you
are assessing picture quality you do it by comparison with another set, this applies just
as much to checking for a worn CRT as it does when you evaluate an LCD or plasma
picture against a CRT. Any TV engineer will tell you that customers become used to
looking at a poor picture (when they have nothing to compare it with) and will report their
set has a “perfect picture” when in fact it`s awful !  As mentioned below shops take advantage of this need for a comparison (in order to adequately judge picture quality) when trying to sell you a flat screen, i.e. they generally make it difficult for you ! On the subject of which, if you are thinking of “upgrading” to an LCD/Plasma or an integrated Digital set,
click on the relevant links and think very carefully about it !
When you bring the set in (or phone through to have it collected - please quote the model number of the TV, it`s usually on the set back) you will be given a rough price for which we can usually repair sets of that type. If (upon bench inspection) we are unable to complete the job for the initial estimate, we will phone you to confirm the repair is still required.
It is important to realise that one can only be sure of the fault(s) on any TV by actually repairing it. Thus, it normally takes almost as long to diagnose any fault(s) as it does to repair it/them. For this reason we require a Bench Fee/Deposit (usually between £10 and £30) which is deductible from the repair cost. If required we can sometimes collect sets (subject to distance) though the cost and BF/Deposit will be increased.
Any set over 25" in size will require on site help (from the customer) for our driver. Customers may find it more convenient  to drop the repair in at our shop, we can usually give you a hand out of the car if required but please phone to check before leaving. Loading is allowed in the bus stop outside the shop (not 8.00 to 9.30 AM or after 4.30 PM, Monday to Friday).
Although we do set-ups / retunes in the customer`s house, we do not repair any TV on site. To be perfectly honest I do not believe a quality repair can be done in someone's house, plus the risk of dropping molten solder on the customers carpet ! Repairing TV`s is difficult enough on the workbench, with good lighting, a decent soldering iron, the service manual, and all the correct spares to hand. The thought of crawling about on the floor,
in the some dim corner of the customers house with a gas powered soldering iron, whilst
the TV`s PCB is propped up on their coffee table, is too awful to even contemplate.....
Call me a cynic if you like (you`re probably right ! ) but I suspect that any engineer who claims to repair sets in the house probably ends up taking most back to the workshop anyway..... If required, loan sets (usually portables) are available.
Due to size/weight considerations we do not repair any conventional TV over 32". Plasma`s, LCD`s and Projection sets
We no longer repair Plasma or LCD or Rear Projection televisions.
So there`s another reason to save your money and not buy one in the first place.
Let`s be honest, their picture quality is inferior to a CRT in many significant respects
(also see Digital Picture Quality), which is why the retailers tend to display them separately. If they do stock them together they often show cartoons or still images as demonstration material to minimise the LCD/Plasmas inherent picture failings.
Plasmas and LCDs could theoretically have superior fine detail over a CRT (which is why they`re often used for PC monitors) but apart from when you`re purchasing it most people
wouldn`t watch a TV from close enough to see the difference. An analogue CRTs strengths
lie in superior contrast, more natural colour and displaying movement, particularly when
the latter is combined with fine detail. In fact when we install aerials it`s often difficult to
tell whether any (relatively) poor picture is the signal or the LCD/Plasma TV !
If considering purchase I would ask the shop to let you see the LCD/Plasma next to a
CRT set whilst they`re both showing (say) a football match. Make sure they haven`t
turned down the contrast on the CRT set or supplied it with a digital signal.
If I`m being totally honest a flat panel display should have superior convergence and raster correction, i.e. it shouldn`t suffer from misalignment of the red/green/blue colours and the (vertical) edges should always be bang straight. That said virtually all modern CRTs are
very good  in this respect and it would probably take an expert to spot any flaws.
The above comments on inferior LCD/Plasma picture quality probably don`t apply to HDTV.
However, since I have absolutely no intention of ever paying anything (apart from my
licence fee) to watch TV, and I would never want a big TV dominating my lounge anyway, HDTV is of no interest to me, or many other people come to that.    
If you still want a flat panel TV for reasons other than picture quality that`s fair enough, but at least you know what you`re getting.
I may hate flat panel TVs but I can understand why someone who is short of room *
would be tempted by one. What I cannot understand is why anyone (except a pub)
would buy a rear projection TV, it`s up there with the Mary Celeste as one of the great mysteries of all time. Let`s be honest, they are rubbish..... I`ve never seen one with a
good picture and if you are thinking of buying one I really do advise you to compare
the picture simultaneously with a conventional CRT set, or even an LCD/Plasma,
you`ll be pleased you did....

* There`s no denying that flat panel TVs are much thinner the CRTs but in our experience many (most ? ) people put their TV in the corner of the room because that`s the natural place for most people to get a decent view of it, not too near and not too far. If you think about it, if your TV is in the corner of the room it`s depth (or lack of it) is an irrelevance.....

Also see (that ultimate subject of misinformation) High Definition TV.
It should also be stressed that (compared with a conventional TV) you will probably find it much more difficult to find anyone to repair your Plasma/LCD and when you do it will
almost certainly be expensive..... Integrated digital TV`s can also be more difficult to repair which is why we recommend the purchase of an analogue set with a separate set top box.
I would say over 80% of conventional (i.e. non-integrated CRT) TV`s can be economically repaired but with Digital types the percentage is rather lower....
Having said that even “conventional” TVs are getting harder and harder to repair what with Surface Mounted Devices (which aren`t even needed for space saving in a TV but save a
few pence for the environmentally unfriendly manufacturers....), double side print, microprocessor control of all the ICs and overly complex power supply circuits. The irony
is that many of the latter are supposed to be environmentally friendly (by reducing power consumption) but if the set is less repairable if it fails, and ends up being dumped, how environmentally friendly is that * ? Thus this figure of 80% of (conventional) TVs being economically repairable will inevitably fall.......
On a more general point, it is advisable to buy separate components (e.g. a washer and a separate drier) as opposed to integrated products as they are always easier to repair and if a unit is unrepairable at least you haven`t “lost” both items.
Obviously if the tube has gone a TV isn`t economically repairable but luckily CRT failures are relatively uncommon. Ironically, if there is no picture at all the fault is almost certainly not the tube. CRT failure is usually betrayed by a low contrast picture and/or one of the colours missing, but even then the tube may not be responsible. Another common fallacy is "if the set won`t come on it`s the switch". Switch failures are not as common as they once were and the fault usually lies elsewhere. Furthermore, if there is any light on the set at all (e.g. the standby LED) it is not the switch that's causing the problem.
For ease of repair we advise customers to buy a conventional (i.e. CRT/Tube & non digital) television no bigger than 32" in size, in fact a 28" is even better. Have you ever tried lifting
a 32" television !?!

* On the subject of which, if manufacturers really are bothered about the environment why
do they make their products so hard to repair ? Washing machines (especially Hotpoints) used to be eminently repairable, but not now. Hotpoints are getting absolute pigs to repair, any “white goods” repair man will confirm this, and this is particularly the case for any product manufactured since 2001 when they were taken over by Merloni. We`ve had four (FOUR ! ) post 2001 Hotpoint products (two washers and two fridge freezers) which have been economically unrepairable in the last two years.
We won`t buy anything Hotpoint ( = Merloni / Indesit / Ariston) again......
Remember, if you`re thinking of buying anything, ask someone in the trade which are the most fixable ! You`ll be glad you did......

What Is An “Old” TV ?

This section is dedicated to the lady who phoned us ordering some user instructions for her three year old Grundig widescreen TV. That particular make has been a “badge engineered” product for the last five years or so (Dixons bought up the brand name, they`ve also got the Ferguson trademark) but since we know the cross reference we were able to supply the relevant operator guide.
Apparently Dixons (or Takeaway Currys Digital or whatever they call themselves these
days * ) had told her “it`s an old one, we don`t keep the instructions for them anymore”.
Now I accept that I`m one of those people who thinks every car newer than a K plate (and
I mean the old K plate) is new * but anyone who thinks that ladies Grundig TV was “old” does not know what the hell they`re talking about. My own television is over 15 years old, still gives a picture to blow away any flat screen and it`s not bleedin` old, I`m a TV engineer so I know better than any salesman. They can take their built in obsolescence consumerism and shove it where only a colonoscopy is ever going to find it again. If any smarmy wet behind the ears sales assistant at Dixons had tried to tell me that my three year old set was old, I`d have told him to get back to his Playstation or (better still) try and get out a bit more. To me “old” implies that the performance of something has deteriorated or it`s reliability is suspect. The former can be easily checked (see CRT failure) and the latter is not just a function of age, the conditions that a piece of electronics are kept in are
probably more important. There is certainly no particular age at which this accelerates.
If it`s got a good picture and it doesn`t break down then it`s not old.......

* Don`t you just hate all this name changing b****x ? It`s not Mastercard, it`s Access,
it`s definitely not Snickers, it`s Marathon and it`s not The Post Office it`s Consignia, (ehh.......)

* The first new car I can remember my Dad buying was a K plate and I can still
remember the reg, PWA 791K on a white Vauxhall Victor, I still think any car newer
than that is “new” !

TV Retunes / System Set-Ups

If you have difficulty in retuning your TV you really shouldn’t feel bad about it at all. As TV engineers we have to retune sets every day and sometimes even we can`t do it without the instructions. Personally I think this says more about the TV designers lack of common sense than about the customers retuning skills, or ours. I can recall one infamous
example when it took four engineers 20 minutes (admittedly without the instructions) to retune a TV. That definitely points to poor design in the first place. And that's just to tune the TV in ! Once other devices (e.g. videos or Freeview boxes etc) are added in things then get really interesting. This is particularly true if the customers aerial is picking up signals from more than one TV transmitter and these are then clashing with the modulated RF output of (say) the video. It can become a time consuming process........
ATV undertake setups in the customers house and when you book the job you will be
given a price which pays for the first thirty minutes on site. Over 90% of jobs can be accomplished within this time but if yours cannot, you will then have the option of paying
for extra time or accepting a simplified setup. For example, do you really want us to set
the clock (without the instructions) on your video if you never actually use the timer ?
Note, we do not set up “surround sound” systems. This is a job which can become very involved and has subjective overtones as to how it should be done......

If we fit you an aerial, the retune of one TV is included in the price. This is a simplified way of saying we will undertake a setup if it is quick (i.e. about 5 minutes) for no extra charge. More complex jobs will be charged extra.
It is unlikely that a full setup can be undertaken if you do not possess the original remote control (or an exact copy of it). For this reason we do not recommend multifunction ("One-For-All") type remotes. Customers requiring a pattern replacement remote are advised to try Charles Hyde.

We also advise customers to keep their "user instructions" in a safe place and have them available should they be required. The latter is particularly important if any alteration is required to a units modulated RF output. We sell user guides for TVs if required.

Batteries

Although this is not strictly speaking anything to do with TV repairs, I thought we would give you the benefit of our unbiased advice about batteries ! We tested all the three basic types of battery Zinc Carbon, Alkaline and (rechargeable) NiMh. We didn`t bother with NiCads because NiMhs are so superior, certainly in terms of capacity. The results were interesting to put it mildly.
Although Zinc Carbons are significantly cheaper than Alkalines they have a much shorter shelf life, are more likely to leak and in our tests (AAs on high current draw) they were exhausted within 30min.
Alkalines have by far the best shelf life of all the types and under test they took between
2.5 and 4 hours to flatten, depending on the make.
NiMh rechargeables (1800mA) lasted around 3 hours which surprised us because that implied that they should be used for everything. Unfortunately they do have an Achilles
heel in that their shelf life is very poor. Within four weeks they`d lost around a quarter of
their capacity.
On the subject of shelf life, I`ve just changed the PP3 battery in my smoke alarm and it had lasted over four years. The previous one was a Zinc Carbon and that was flat in one year. Furthermore we don`t recommend either Zinc Carbons or  rechargeable batteries
for remote controls, always use Alkalines !

Conclusions.  Never buy Zinc Carbon (the cheapest) batteries, they`re the ultimate
false economy. If shelf life is important (e.g. you want your camera to work when it
hasn`t been touched since your last holiday) buy Alkalines. If you can be organised
enough to recharge your batteries regularly, buy a NiMh charger and loads of high
capacity batteries, they`ll repay their purchase cost in no time at all.      


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