My TV is going too.  For us we have a great picture, but the volume is shot.  We have it all the way up and most stations sound like whispers.  So I’m waiting for a great sale at Wal-Mart and I’ll put one in lay away and make payments!

We just bought a 42” Sony WEGA flat screen, on sale at Best Buy about a month ago.  It’s a great TV… now if only hubby could figure out how to make everything work without our having to have 4 freakin’ remotes, I’d be thrilled!

Yeah, likely it’s time for a new one.  I know you’re in tough finances, but at least you’re not looking at a few hundred to replace it.

It could be that your tube needs to be degaussed.  The color shifts can be due to external magnetic issues - I found out by putting an external speaker on top of my tv one time.  I’ve had a green spot on the side of my tv’s closest to the stereo receiver.  You may want to (it may be difficult) try to see if there is any other IR source that could be flashing your tv.  The noise could be arcing and/or a failing power supply. 

There’s no way you could get it fixed for less than a new set unless you could do it yourself.  20” sets are going for around a $100, 24-25” for $150 or so.

We have a RF remote control ceiling fan that started turning its light on at 5 am on weekdays.  Changing the remote channel fixed it.  I try to make a habit of switching our wireless appliances from the default freqs if possible.

I know it’s a little late OB, but if you ever have the chance, try to get same brand components as the tv.  We (by luck) had an RCA dvd player when we got our big RCA tv.  The stick with the tv worked out of the box with the dvd, all the way to when you press dvd on the tv remote, the tv tunes to the right input (I had to set that), and turns the dvd power on (or leaves dvd on if already on - Man, I hope that doesn’t f** up, it was programed that way out the box).  I also totally lucked out on getting a learning remote - RCA’s programmable is the SAME remote as our tv’s, except with a teach and 4 extra function buttons.  It also is built for satellite use (Our tv has built in Directv - too bad it wasn’t Dishnetwork), but doesn’t have a pvr setup.  Our stereo deck is a Kenwood with their network jack - the remote can run other components… if they were Kenwoods with the network setup.

Even with that great shit, we still have to use 3 remotes to get stuff to work - the stereo doesn’t respond well to the programmable remote.  Once everything’s on and the volume set, it’s just one remote at that point. 

The real fancy computer programable remotes look nice, but none of them look to be a good sprawl-on-the-couch-channel-surfer fit. 

Our Kenwood stereo deck lost a s-video input and a digital audio input.  Fortunately, there are all kinds of inputs on everything that I’ve been able to bypass the problems so far.  I’m not ready to buy a new deck right now.  I hope it’ll last until I get out of school and find a decent RCA deck to replace it with - one that’ll work well with the programmable remote.

Sometimes I miss the days of running both tv and vcr from the vcr remote alone.  But I do like dvd’s over VHS!

Heh. A parsing bug in the lexical section of my bug rendered the title of this post in my newsreader as “MTV is slowly dieing”. Which is also true.

“MTV is slowly dieing�. Which is also true.

It died ten years ago.  I don’t even bother watching the VMAs anymore.

Les, another good option is to buy a floor model or refurbished television.  They usually have a warranty and have been serviced by an authorized technician.

Over at ‘tech-for-less they have a beautiful 27" Toshiba flatscreen and flat tube for only $173.00.  To do much better than that you’d have to comb the classifieds and/or ebay.

I had one of those monsters, a Sylvania I think. Reasonably good picture for a decades-old TV and not a bad-looking piece of furniture in its own right, but DAMN it had awesome sound quality. It was almost never turned on, but it was great for watching movies because the built-in speakers were so good. I feel your pain.

If things are REALLY tight and your TV watching is a rarity, you can always check out tuner cards.

I wonder if anyone’s made a flat hdtv with built in digital sound, dss/cable/pvr, and dvd.  Put a wireless satellite speaker system in, and you’d have a minimal wiring, single remote home theater.  Probably cost out the ass, too.  It’d be great for apartments and easy to move.

Sometimes I’ve wondered why they don’t make console sets anymore, but then I realize I like my tv at least a couple of feet off the ground.  I just don’t know why the designers of the modern sets don’t put freakin’ handgrips on the chassis.  Especially those 36” 200+ lb bastards, for when you have to carry two of them down and up a flight of stairs.

I just don’t know why the designers of the modern sets don’t put freakin’ handgrips on the chassis.  Especially those 36â€? 200+ lb bastards, for when you have to carry two of them down and up a flight of stairs.

I think they stopped making handles about the same time I was arrested for procuring two of them from a strang...er...friend’s warehouse.

Had a coworker whose house was robbed.  He said they moved his monster tv about 2 feet and left it. 

Warehouse?  Don’t the boxes have handles?  Or did you have to take them out to get them in the car, like most people do when they buy them

I just don’t know why the designers of the modern sets don’t put freakin’ handgrips on the chassis.  Especially those 36â€? 200+ lb bastards, for when you have to carry two of them down and up a flight of stairs.

I wonder why they have narrow plastic ridges on the bottom to dig into your hands while you carry the big bastards up a few flights of stairs.