I have a 30 inch Toshiba tube TV that has variable width horizontal
black lines appearing at the bottom of the screen as well as the
picture extending beyond the edges of the tube. I really like the TV,
and am wondering if it sounds like an easy fix, or if the tube is going
out... Please let me know if you think that you know what the problem
is, and if it is better to fix it, or buy a new TV (this one is about 6
years old or so). Thanks in advance.
I'm not an expert on TV sets these days, but one thing that I think you can
be pretty certain that those symptoms are NOT, is the tube. If the problem
is one of intermittent picture geometry, you are likely looking at nothing
more than a bad joint, which will need attention sooner rather than later,
before it does any proper damage. I have also known problems around the
EEPROM that stores geometry data, give problems like this, but either way,
it's probably not a serious problem at this point.
One other thing springs to mind. Could it be that the TV is not switching
correctly to the transmitted format ? There are so many now that some older
TVs have trouble coping with them all. My mother has a Panasonic, and before
we finally fixed her up with signals for its digital tuner, on analogue, she
used to suffer just what you describe, as it tried to switch to "best fit"
for the format being transmitted at the time. I guess you would know if it
was this, if it does it at the start of a programme, and stays like it
throughout, or switches back again at the commercials. I'm sure there are
others on here who will be able to give you a more concise answer, but in
the meantime, it would be handy if you could post the actual model number,
to allow them to better help you with the problem.
Arfa