Comments on: Remember the TV Repairman http://www.wambooli.com/blog/2008/07/11/remember-the-tv-repairman/ Thrice weekly high tech commentary Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Douglas http://www.wambooli.com/blog/2008/07/11/remember-the-tv-repairman/#comment-147 Douglas Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:14:45 +0000 http://www.wambooli.com/blog/?p=117#comment-147 You Americans are lucky: the Australian Analouge Network was meant to be closed next year, but now it's due to be closed in 2012 (not 2912 as I originally wrote!). We only get two commercial FTA stations where I live, and we have a PVR with our Pay TV that acts as our set top box. One of the channels (in Analouge) is prone to terrible interference, even on our second UHF antenna. Really annoying when we can't watch a show on the PVR in digital. We used to have a little 15" Sony CRT down the shed (It too was a Trinitron), but we threw it out in The Great Purge of 2008. Our oldest TV is the one in our loungeroom: a 26" Sony Trinitron Wega one (the Wega means it's really flat. The trinitron ones had a slight curve to them. It's a silly name). It's about eight years old, and still works fine, although I doubt it will be a pretty sight when we have to replace it: CRT's are going out of fashion, and a Plasma of the same size runs about $1500. You Americans are lucky: the Australian Analouge Network was meant to be closed next year, but now it’s due to be closed in 2012 (not 2912 as I originally wrote!). We only get two commercial FTA stations where I live, and we have a PVR with our Pay TV that acts as our set top box. One of the channels (in Analouge) is prone to terrible interference, even on our second UHF antenna. Really annoying when we can’t watch a show on the PVR in digital.

We used to have a little 15″ Sony CRT down the shed (It too was a Trinitron), but we threw it out in The Great Purge of 2008. Our oldest TV is the one in our loungeroom: a 26″ Sony Trinitron Wega one (the Wega means it’s really flat. The trinitron ones had a slight curve to them. It’s a silly name). It’s about eight years old, and still works fine, although I doubt it will be a pretty sight when we have to replace it: CRT’s are going out of fashion, and a Plasma of the same size runs about $1500.

]]> By: admin http://www.wambooli.com/blog/2008/07/11/remember-the-tv-repairman/#comment-146 admin Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:36:30 +0000 http://www.wambooli.com/blog/?p=117#comment-146 Or a technological change. With ICs and printed circuit boards, who can really fix things? I remember taking my laser printer into a guy who tried to fix it with a logic probe. He was good, but he wasted a lot of my money taking time to find That One Chip that was broken. I ended up paying him $1,000 to fix something that would have cost me only $400 to send back to the shop (and probably replace the entire circuit board). There is a TV Repair shop near my house. It's never open. If it is, I plan on going inside and asking the guy if he actually still fixes TVs. If I think about it, I'll snap a picture next time I'm by. Or a technological change. With ICs and printed circuit boards, who can really fix things? I remember taking my laser printer into a guy who tried to fix it with a logic probe. He was good, but he wasted a lot of my money taking time to find That One Chip that was broken. I ended up paying him $1,000 to fix something that would have cost me only $400 to send back to the shop (and probably replace the entire circuit board).

There is a TV Repair shop near my house. It’s never open. If it is, I plan on going inside and asking the guy if he actually still fixes TVs. If I think about it, I’ll snap a picture next time I’m by.

]]> By: sriksrid http://www.wambooli.com/blog/2008/07/11/remember-the-tv-repairman/#comment-145 sriksrid Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:27:35 +0000 http://www.wambooli.com/blog/?p=117#comment-145 I wonder if that isn't a cultural change, rather than device specific. How many of your consumer electronics would you bother to get repaired? I wouldn't open up my laptop (so long as it is under warranty), but other than that if some device goes whacky, I guess I'd try fixing it myself, exchange it for another device or just buy a new one. With the reliability of ICs and miniaturization, I guess it isn't worth training people to fix hardware anymore. We might be wasteful, but atleast we are quick about it!!! I wonder if that isn’t a cultural change, rather than device specific. How many of your consumer electronics would you bother to get repaired? I wouldn’t open up my laptop (so long as it is under warranty), but other than that if some device goes whacky, I guess I’d try fixing it myself, exchange it for another device or just buy a new one. With the reliability of ICs and miniaturization, I guess it isn’t worth training people to fix hardware anymore. We might be wasteful, but atleast we are quick about it!!!

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