Cleveland Classics Big Screen TV Repair

What happened to my audio ??

I got a call from my Aunt Eva, my mother’s youngest sister, and she was like

“the Moving people hooked up the BigScreen and there is no Sound “

” Don’t Panic “  I told her. Some bigscreens and tvs have speaker on / off switches in the back, near the cable inputs. I have had Grandparents call me and and say ” My grandchildren were over and I know it was the video games and now no audio “     Many times it was the grands that hit the speaker on / off switch while playing hide and seek.

However, we have also had many cases whereby, the internal micro of the tv, has got a glitch.  Sometimes it only takes the unplugging of the tv for 10 minutes, and all is well. Sometimes, it is actually the cable or satellite box not providing audio-always check a second source. Sometimes there is a speaker on / off option in the audio menu of the tv set. Worst case senerio, the audio circuit did fail.

I caution all who own a tv or bigscreen with additional speaker outputs, to….never use this option. Your better choice would be to take the audio out of the cable box or the tv ( red and white RCA connectors-all tvs don’t have this ) and feed this line level output to a boombox with aux or video inputs, surround sound, or stereo system. Let the Stereo power the sound. Do not work the 2.5 to 10 watt audio amps in the tv or bigscreen with additional speakers. In a lot of tvs and bigscreens, if you blow the audio circuit, the whole TV will fail,,,,,Dead Dog! You will be looking at a repair bill of around 200-400.00 or more and the sound from a tv cannot compare to the amplification of a stereo or surround sound system.

Just thinking about my Aunt Eva and our upcomming family reunion and thought I would share these audio tips with you.  and by the way, I walked her thru the audio menu and her problem was solved in one 5 minute phone call.   Priceless !!

Peace and Love

Craig

OK, the secret of the HD date is out !

For years I have been telling my customers to, do not worry, your 5-10 year old TV or Bigscreen will still be a viable medium for veiwing tv and videos after the 2009 cutoff date. Back in 2000, while working with bigbox firms, their salesman and the general advertising media pushed the threat of loosing TV !!

TVs and Bigscreens are the center of most households. For many of my elderly customers, this is their only contact to the world, other than their trips to the doctor and hospitals. We make them priority ONE !! Having walked my parents to the end for a period of 5 years, I saw in the last 18 months, their ability to leave their home diminish. Their biggest joy was Food and TV. I cooked healthy and tasteful meals for them almost everyday, Cooking is a passion of mine.

I also see the effects of young families, when the main Bigscreen goes down and everyone has to share smaller tvs or they fragment and migrate to their own rooms and the 1960s, TV dinner, Group senerio dissolves. I have actually seen Kids Jump in Joy, Dogs Bark and Husband and Wife Kiss and Hug due to the Restoration of the family Bigscreen. Yes, I did feel like a god !!

What’s even more amazing is to repair a 2-5 year old Bigscreen and see that it is HD compatible, but was never hooked up properly by the cable or satellite technician and the pix looked crappy. In addition the Bigscreen had a fully functional Stereo or Surround Sound system sitting rite next to it, but not attached or utilized.

I just want to say ” Do Not Believe the Hype ! ” With convertor boxes ( cable, satellite and stand alone ) all tvs and bigscreens will still work when the 2009 cutoff date for HD occurs ( the jury is still out as to whether that is a viable date ). I have customers with HD units who think they will not work after 2009 because they were purchased 4-5 years ago. YES THEY WILL !!

Check with local suppliers and support firms to find out what you need to maximize your Audio , Video and Computer and Gaming technologies. Search the web for info on questions you have about what you are using and where you want to go with what you have or how you should proceed with upgrades and new purchases. Do Not Trust the Salesman, Even if they are Not on Commission, Most will still tell you ,what ever you want to hear to close the sale. Most in-home Audio/Video experts will demand a fee of around 35-75.00 to visit and consult and it is well deserved. The time put into keeping up with technology trends is enormous. For me, it is a passion as I write this at 1 am on a Sunday night.

Check your Better Biz BrL and other community watchdogs to make sure you are working with and hiring a reputable firm. Be diligent in your quest for great home entertainment and support of the systems that make up your home entertainment pleasure systems.

I can’t tell you how many people, who call me , after they have been ripped off or purchased the worst product at the highest price.

Now that you know, You cannot, Not…Know…………Peace

Cleveland and Ohio Biz and Tech News

Congradulations to the City of Cleveland, the Regional Transit Authority and to all the business and investments who endured and share in the hope of what should be a national model of many Clevelanders working together for a better tomarrow…..

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/euc.html

I did mention that I love Cleveland?

In case you haven’t heard. The right move is back to the City. The suburbs are already dead and most don’t know it. Stay or join the movement. Downtown Cleveland is where it’s at. We need you all to come back and thankfully, the wise ones are.

I was just reading Cool Cleveland and its involvement in the Ingenuity IV events and It reminded me of the warm breezy evening of June 8th. A very good friend drove up from my home town of Dayton Ohio and we travelled down to the flats to the Plain Dealer Pavilion.

It was both of our first time down and the venue was the ultimate eye and ear candy. The performance was the reunion tour of Return to Forever featuring Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Al DiMeola and the Legendary Lenny White.Well they are all legends, but Lenny and Al really showed no aging in their abilities and that amazed me. It really did. It was their first time together in 25 years and it was a once in a life time experience.

But even more special was the Downtown backdrop of our Beautiful city. At the venue, which started in daylight, to the right, you could see old bridges and train tracks, the Federal Building and Condos vibrant with activity. To the left, more and different Warehouses and Condos, the waterfront and boats. But what was really special was to watch the backdrop change as the sunset evolved into twilight. The buildings, the water, the sky all changed in a harmonic mood of visual relaxation amd calm. It was better than any wine or drink could have inspired. Think of Anthony Bourdain in France or India ( old schoolers would probably choose weed or mushrooms, But… ) True Nirvana ….

My company actually repaired a plasma for the head architech of the Euclid Corridor. Cleveland is getting national attention for this project. And with fuel cost skyrocketing, this makes since. Public transportation for those utilizing and living in the city! Developers are gobbling up land between E55th and the Clinic and they are developing College Town in the CSU area. We also saw the beginings of the East Bank revitalization in the flats as we strolled down to Shooters that June day.
The developer of this site will be moving with his company Ernst and Young to the new East Bank developement along with more housing and a full service grocery store and hotel ( I think it is going to be green ). I’d love to see more windmills on the lake and my electric bill drop.

With the power of mass attendance, Safety was the furthest thing from my mind. Too much Love !

And this weekend the Dew Tour in the Harbor area. What a wonderful time to live in Cleveland. Yes we have some safety issues, but so does Twinsburg and Middleburg Hts and Parma Hts. We can live in fear and miss this wonderful renaissance or hide in fear and miss a whole lot more. I encourage all to live with hope. Keep the Faith and make a difference in someones life. Love and be loved in return.

Peace

Craig

Buy DLP and LCD Lamps with Proper Warranty.

I have been recieving more and more calls from customers who have brought 3rd party replacement lamps with no warranty.

Rarely and in my experience, will the DLP or LCD projector cause the lamp to go bad upon initial install. One must check owners manaul on how to clean filters on your unit. Dirty filters will cause the unit to overheat and will send the unit into thermal/temperature shutdown. Repeated attemps to power the unit up, then, may possibly ruin the lamp again.

Check for suppliers with one year warranties on lamps and stay away from cheap knockoffs. You’ll only pay more in the end.

Thoughtfully
Craig the TV Man

I lost my cable, but my DVD still works, Huh ?

Just got a call from a customer ( 10pm EST ) and she could not understand why she could watch DVDs but not TV.

The way her installation was set up ( Normal for Cable and Satellite Techs ) , was to run the TV signals thru the screw on, RF connector. However most DVDs are connected through the A/V connections, which are usually RCA connectors, colored yellow for video and red and white for audio left and right or what is known as component connections which are usually Red, Green and Blue for video and 2 cables red and white for audio.

So ….by determining that the A/V inputs worked and the screw on RF , black cable did not.

Now, I ask….”Are you using a cable or sat box or vcr ?”

Cable Box was her answer. She was then instructed to turn box around and look for audio and video OUT connectors. She found them immediately, for it’s not much else back there.

I then instructed her to take the cables from the DVD player and attach, The Red, Yellow and White cables to the cable box outputs……..She screamed like a little girl ” I got picture, I got sound !! ”

Moral of the story. If your DVD and Video games work thru the Red, White and Yellow Audio /Video inputs. Then so will your Cable Box, Satellite reciever and VCR. You are simply bypassing the srcew on, black , RF connector which is attatched to the BigScreens tuner and feeding signal directly to the video and audio amplifiers. This set-up actually give better quality in most set-ups and systems and should be used from the beginning.( Cheaper to hook up 1 RF connector and go ).

Lastly, remember that you have to switch the TV or Bigscreen from the channel 3 or 4 input to the A/V inputs. Most tvs have a button marked TV/Video or Aux In near the volume and channel and menu buttons on the front or top panel. However, some tvs require that you have the original remote control to switch inputs, while some older RCA and GE models use channel 00, 91 and others to switch to those inputs.

I will follow up this article with diagrams for the hard of reading.

Welcome to my World…

My name is Craig. I have been involved with audio, video and computer technologies for Decades.

I was born and raised in Dayton Ohio, home of NCR, Wright Patt AFB, Lexis Nexus, SRL, UDRL and hundreds of other technology based companies. Dayton is Ohio’s Silicon Valley, but Cleveland is the BioMed Behemoth ! My next door neighbors were, to the left, an electrical engineer and to the right, a chemical engineer. Guess which one took my breath away ?

Mr. Joiner had built a television with plexiglass as the cabinet. At 9 years of age, I saw glowing orange TUBES !! Yes…Tubes…. He also had color coded and neatly aligned cable assemblies throughout the set. I took one look at this and I saw the end of the Rainbow (-:<<. I was hooked for life.

I countinued to experiment with taking speaker wires from old floor model tvs and running them into stereo systems. We were doing surround sound in 1972. In 1979 I recieved a 2 year degree in audio and video electronics while STILL in high school. The Montgomery County JVS was the best thing that ever happened to me. Not only did I get a great education in fundamental electronics, but they prepared and started me to work in my senior year as an apprentice.

My first Engineer at P/H Electronics, Duja, was patient and taught me thoroughly well.

Out of 36 students, only 3 of us got jobs after graduation. Thank God I was one. I was commited to technology for this was a GM town and we were told that there was no future in the auto plants. I can’t believe that there is still an issue with employees as to what is happening in the auto industry. They warned us of this in the 1980s. After graduation, I began work in the Commercial and Professional side of AV and that work brought me to Cleveland,Ohio in 1984.

During that period, I was introduced to the love of my life, Cleveland Ohio ! It also propelled me into the realm of High End Video and Data/Graphics projection systems. 2 of my early products were Barco and Electrohome products. These Video,Data and Graphic projectoers were priced at 10-50,000.00 and were the first wave of what is now the High Definition Video Revolution.

I have seen the technologies evolve from the corporate, education, entertainment, government and now, to the consumer markets. We have seen it all and are proud to say ” We Are Battle Hardened ” when it comes to problem solving and solution seeking.

I initially started this site as a Web-Billboard, so to speak, to make our existence known to my client base here in Cleveland Ohio. We have become increasingly aware of the need to distribute our knowledge and experience to the global hits, that we recieve from around the world.

My mission, my passion, and the only thing I want to do at this point, is to help inform YOU !!

Those who have come to www.classtorations.com are my customers, my would be customers and now the global end user looking for information and links for knowledge to utilize and maximize the emerging technologies available to us………..What a Wonderous Time to Embrace and Utilize Technology. I never thought, back in the day of original PCs and Macs, that we would have been empowered to this extent.

I welcome all of your questions, criticisms, additions of tech knowledge and particapation.

I will make it my primary goal to answer questions, link to other support sites and offer great innovative products and support to all who participate.

Once again………Welcome to my World !!!!

Craig M. Siplin Owner/Creator
Cleveland Classic TV

The Brick and Mortor home to www.classtorations.com
Leaders in BigScreen and TV support issues Worldwide.

216-252-1672
craig@classtorations.com

5 Reasons Why A DLP HDTV Should Be In Your Future

Television technology has been essentially static for several decades until just recently. The old CRT tube TVs reigned supreme for years simply because the broadcasting technology could not allow for anything better to come along. But HDTV has changed the whole TV viewing horizon, and there is no better time to make the switch from analog to HDTV. Here are five reasons why a HDTV DLP should be in your future soon:

1. The FCC has passed a law that requires all TV stations to broadcast in digital format by the end of 2006, and that means that almost all broadcasting will be done in HDTV by sometime in 2007. After that, if you want to be able to receive over the air TV signals on your old analog TV set, you will need a digital to analog converter box to do that. So why not be ready for that change by getting the necessary equipment in place now as prices have fallen dramatically lately?
2. HDTV not only means improved picture resolution, but it also makes use of the widescreen format that is more compatible with the way that movies are actually filmed, so you get to see the whole screen image instead of having some of it cut off by an incompatible screen ratio.
3. HDTV also enhances the sound capabilities as it even supports Dolby 5.1 surround sound that is used by many movie theaters today. This makes true home theater sound easy to achieve.
4. DLP TVs employ newer screen technology to be able to display much brighter, sharper, and color dense images than has ever been possible before. They run cool, use relatively little electricity, and can come in very large screen sizes if you wish.
5. DLP TVs also are thin, making them a perfect choice for those with limited space. Because of their thin configuration they can be placed closer to the wall or even mounted right on it, allowing more viewing area in the room that would not have been possible with older bulky TVs.

All in all, HDTV and DLP TVs are a great choice for the ultimate in home television viewing. Don’t let this wave of the future in home entertainment pass you by!

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about the best dlp tv and dlp vs lcd by visiting our HDTV website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Johnson

Top 3 reasons for having your HDTV professionally cleaned yearly.

We’re not talking about cleaning the screen here (although that’s important too).

1. Having the chassis vacuumed prevents dirt, dust, or pet dander from causing problems with the electronics such as heat buildup.
2. Mirror and lenses will attract dirt,dust,cigarette smoke,ect and thus your picture will become darker.
3. Most Plasmas and DLP units have fans and filters that can clog and cause heat failure ( Very Expensive Repair ).