625 tech problem or picture tube bound for the junk pile?

[Allin4greeN]

I was hanging out with a friend last night and he has an interesting problem with his set-up...

Since he recently signed up with E* and had a 625 installed, he was under the impression that his issue might be related to the STB or installation. When I took a look, it seemed more like a problem with his older Hitachi SD CRT. I didn't get a model number but, it's a cabinet model... from maybe the mid-late 80's?

When firing up the TV, the image appears doubled up and reversed with visible scan lines, only on the top 1/3 of the screen. Almost like the top portion of the image is being rolled over on itself, as the display bar is clearly upside down and "bending forward" near the top. It's that way a majority of the time with intermittent and short periods when it returns to normal. It seemed to get better the longer the TV was on. At least to me, it looked like a big magnet was pulling the image up and forward. The TV is not so old as to have a Vertical Hold adjustment but, I'm just not sure what else could be the problem?

We checked all cables around the TV and STB and everything appeared snug, and "jiggling" them did not change the issue. We also soft rebooted the STB but, did not look at the dish/LNB or perform a hard reboot. There are no audio speakers in sight, the only equipment besides his TV is the 625 that sits on top of it.

Does this sound like a job for the garbage heap or is there something else that might do the trick.

TIA, as always.

 

[Jared Twomey]

do you happen to have another tv you can hook up and see if the problem moves to the new tv?
honestly though, first thing I would guess is the tv. Has it been moved recently or anything? maybe the picture tube has gotten screwed up. I've never seen a satellite receiver have an output problem quite like that... but stranger things have happened

 

[Pepper]

Theoretically, a piece of equipment sitting on top of the TV could generate interference with the tube, but it would be far more likely that magnetism from the tube would affect the hard drive in the receiver.

Does the problem go away or change, if the receiver is somewhere else besides directly on top of the TV?

Sounds like the TV has decided to euthanize itself.

 

[Allin4greeN]

do you happen to have another tv you can hook up and see if the problem moves to the new tv?
honestly though, first thing I would guess is the tv. Has it been moved recently or anything? maybe the picture tube has gotten screwed up. I've never seen a satellite receiver have an output problem quite like that... but stranger things have happened

It's the only TV in his house, I'm afraid. I could bring one of my 19 incher's along though and try that out. Good idea, thanks!

 

[highdefjeff]

Sounds like a TV issue...

 

[Allin4greeN]

Theoretically, a piece of equipment sitting on top of the TV could generate interference with the tube, but it would be far more likely that magnetism from the tube would affect the hard drive in the receiver.

I know I was kinda grasping at straws thinking that a strong magnet could distort the image but, other than a toasted tube, was drawing a blank... Also, I have a little more experience working with E*'s HD equipment, as opposed to their SD stuff, and flat panels, as opposed to CRT's so, I wasn't sure if the 625 might have some funky characteristics that I wasn't aware of.

Does the problem go away or change, if the receiver is somewhere else besides directly on top of the TV?

I forgot to mention that I did try moving the 625 away from the top of the TV (raised it about two feet) and moving it didn't seem to have any effect on the distortion.

Sounds like the TV has decided to euthanize itself.

My dad actually encouraged the guy to sub to E* and he was kinda irritated with the problem thinking that is was trouble with the recent set-up. I thought I'd try exhausting all the possibilities, in the interest of keeping the peace. A bad picture tube may not be all that bad in this case

 

[TBoneit]

Theoretically, a piece of equipment sitting on top of the TV could generate interference with the tube, but it would be far more likely that magnetism from the tube would affect the hard drive in the receiver.

Does the problem go away or change, if the receiver is somewhere else besides directly on top of the TV?

Sounds like the TV has decided to euthanize itself.

No way could outside magentism affect data on the hard drive. Have you ever opend on up? Inside the drives case is one strong magnet. If that doesn't cause problems than a weaker external magnetic field that also has to get into the drive by going through the case of the DVR and the Drive itself won't have any effect.

You could theoretically cause damage by induced currents in the wiring. I would not expect to see that happen ever.

BTW it sounds more like a problem in the Horizontal or Vertical Sweep circuits that are involved in moving the Electron beam back and forth and top to bottom. Not the picture tube itself. Most liely as I read the description the Vertical sweep circuitry.

 

[Allin4greeN]

...BTW it sounds more like a problem in the Horizontal or Vertical Sweep circuits that are involved in moving the Electron beam back and forth and top to bottom. Not the picture tube itself. Most liely as I read the description the Vertical sweep circuitry.

Assuming that's the problem and it can be fixed... and parts are available, what do you think the fix cost might be?

 

[Pepper]

Well TBone, I guess I'm showing my age. I'm sure the newer stuff is fully protected, I remember the days of the giant platters that you would not dare allow near anything magnetic. You are right, today's hard drives are encased in so much metal it would be difficult to damage them with a magnet. I wouldn't say impossible though.

And I'm sure you've heard the urban legend/story about the lady who has the floppy disk labeled "important" attached to the metal file cabinet with a magnet.

Obviously at this point, we've determined the TV is toast, the fact it was connected to a DVR was pure coincidence.

Regarding the circuitry, if the Dish install happened to involve moving or otherwise disturbing the TV which is really old, maybe something inside is just "loose". I can't count the number of electronic devices I've been having trouble with that miraculously healed themselves when carefully disassembled to the lowest level possible without unsoldering components (i.e. every plug, connector, socketed component, etc removed) and then reassembled.

(warning: after leaving unplugged long enough for any dangerous voltages to discharge - don't try this at home if you've not done it before - there is a specific "safe" way to discharge the high-voltage lead on a CRT which I will not attempt to explain)

 

[Zombie069]

No way could outside magentism affect data on the hard drive. Have you ever opend on up? Inside the drives case is one strong magnet. If that doesn't cause problems than a weaker external magnetic field that also has to get into the drive by going through the case of the DVR and the Drive itself won't have any effect.

You could theoretically cause damage by induced currents in the wiring. I would not expect to see that happen ever.

BTW it sounds more like a problem in the Horizontal or Vertical Sweep circuits that are involved in moving the Electron beam back and forth and top to bottom. Not the picture tube itself. Most liely as I read the description the Vertical sweep circuitry.

There's no magnet in the case of an HD.. Only small amounts of magnetism created when drive writes. It IS a magnetic media and magnetic sources close to it WILL cause damage. Take your PC HD out and set it on a speaker magnet.. Quickest way to blank it, and unrecoverable.

 

[zenithtv]

Vertical retrace capactors are bad and IC. TV Cost to fix around $100.00