Old television hell HELP

[CountAllVotes]

My mother's old TV (20 years old) no longer works it seems which is very sad to me. Its one of the few things I have left from her (she passed in 2002 of cancer).

I dumped the cable a few moths ago.

I was getting ONE channel (C-SPAN) for a couple of months after the cut-off and my DVD player hooked up to it still worked, but now a big nothing.

I've tried several different antennas and none of them work.

I even bought a converter box (analog to digital) and still a giant nothing.

It has a built in VCR that still works but now the DVD player I have attached to is via a small black box with lots of cables no longer works either.

This is basically an old TV that has never been used much.

It is a Panasonic 20" color TV if that means anything at all.

Have I done all I can do? Should I just keep it to watch old VHS tapes on or is there an option I am missing?

Please help if you can.

Many thanks from ...

CountAllVotes

[samnsara]

1. get a roku or amazon fire stick....load PLUTO tv..its FREE!.....

[CountAllVotes]

2. What is Pluto tv?

I do not know what an amazon fire stick is.

Where do I find one?

Please advise. Thank you!

[hlthe2b]

4. Unless your tv is "new" enough to have a usb port (which I doubt) this is useless advice

I think we have a lot of youngsters who don't realize what the older technology was like.

[CountAllVotes]

7. yup

No USB port to be found on this old analog television set.

Thank you!

[UpInArms]

14. The roku device can be purchased with serial cable hookup for older teevees

https://www.roku.com/products/roku-express-plus

[CountAllVotes]

24. Is this difficult to set-up?

Does it come with instructions?

I'm not a whiz at this stuff believe me!

Thank you!

[UpInArms]

25. Very easy

And some instructions are included

You don’t have to be a whiz ... and you will enjoy lots of options

😊😊

[hlthe2b]

3. If there are any old time tv repair shops near that work on analog "tube" tvs, you might call them

Not to compound your dilemma, but in most areas of the country, should you decide you eventually want to discard it, you will have to pay a not insignificant amount of money to dispose of it. I had a couple of friends go through this about five years ago with old tvs and computer monitors.

So, I think your best bet is to find a repair shop that has an old established history and conceivably someone who likes to "tinker" or at least can advise you.

Good luck.

[CountAllVotes]

5. Thanks!

I had another one that died a few months ago.

I took it in to have it recycled.

The cost was only $2.00 if you go to a certain place on a certain day/time.

I do not care to dump a lot of $ into it so I guess I'll just keep it to watch VHS tapes on.

It is very sad as it comes in really good!

I managed to get the TV in the other room going with a MOHU Leaf. It is a digital tv and a newer one. It actually comes in a lot better with the MOHU Leaf than the B.S. cable did!

Thanks for the advice.

I really appreciate it as it seems I am wasting my time and energy.

[CountAllVotes]

9. I live in a rural area

There is not much here and not much help.

I've been watching a lot online.

I should get a newer/bigger monitor for my desktop in the other room, that's what I should do!

Thanks again!!

[HopeAgain]

6. you might be surprised

how cheaply you can get a new 20" flat screen for today. Less than $70 on Amazon. Ive seen 32" for $80, A 20 year old 20" certainly won't be worth paying to fix. If you have any old VHS tapes you like to watch, keeping it fot that is probably a good idea.

If it is a reception problem (do you live in a remote area?) it might be a different matter aitogether. a Roku, Chromecast or Fire Stick will not work unless the converter has a usb port (20 year old tv won't) and you have good internet.

[CountAllVotes]

8. oh I know

You can pick one up for about $150 or so.

I just wanted to keep this old set-up going being this television set has been used very little over the years. *sigh*

Thank you!

[HopeAgain]

10. Technology and longevity

are antonyms, unfortunately.

[CountAllVotes]

11. It sure was not worth paying a bunch for cable

I think the bill was going to slowly but surely creep up to over $100 a month.

I had basic cable for $35 a month and it simply was not worth paying for.

The signal really sucks. I get far better reception online.

I'm checking out Pluto tv now. There is a movie on it right now about the IRA in Ireland.

Have been watching a few free movies on vudu.com as well!

I think a new monitor is in order. The one I have now is a 17" HP monitor that I bought in 2008 for $150.00 and has never failed.

[HopeAgain]

16. We cut the cable about a year and a half ago

Got one of those indoor flat antannaes and a Roku. Get free Netflix through T-Mobile and Prime TV comes with my annual Amazon Membership. Never even considered going back to cable. We were paying around $70/month and didn't even get HD.

[Danascot]

20. And no commercials!

We have the same setup - roku, amazon prime, netflix. Nothing we watch has commercials! We visited relatives recently. They have the tv on in the background and I saw the news come on and started to watch. But the constant commercials made it completely unwatchable. I can't believe we used to put up with this. The old model is dying, thank goodness!

[DownriverDem]

27. Too bad

There are programs that you can only get with cable.

[LisaM]

29. I was really, really against the move to all digital television.

Like you, we had a small, older TV that we could watch in a pinch on an island we go to (we'd only put it on for really special events, like Michael Phelps breaking the Olympic title record, or the Michigan- Ohio State game). Other than things like that, it sat in the closet, but it could get the local ABC, CBS, PBS, and NBC stations, and we could get Canadian TV.

Then they changed the law, it could still (kind of) get the Canadian station, but nothing else. So we ditched the old TV, and I brought our smaller digital TV up one weekend so we could watch a game. I was pretty sure it wouldn't pick up any of the newly-digitized stations (I was right), so I bought an antenna, the strongest one they had at Best Buy and took that up, too.

All I got were three shopping channels from Vancouver, two of them in Chinese! I called the antenna company, and the guy was really very helpful, but he told me that due to the rock formations where we are, there were virtually no digital signals capable of crossing them. And we used to be able to get all the main channels!

So, I hear ya, this is ridiculous and was essentially a giveaway to satellite and cable (and now streaming) TV. The public owned the airwaves. So they took away the airwaves......

[CountAllVotes]

38. I got the old TV going again last night!

I think I let out a loud yell! YES I DID!!!!

I got it fixed and it is going again (14 channels v. the 12 I was paying cable tv for)!

It took some time, a lot of thinking and a few bucks but it is working perfectly again!

This youtube video here helped me a lot:

Don't give up! It IS possible to keep it going for not too much.

Best of luck!!

[PJMcK]

12. Try contacting Panasonic

Here's the repair/support page from their website:

https://shop.panasonic.com/supportservice

There's a link to finding a service provider near you. It also appears that they have a "mail-in" service but I didn't look at that page.

Years ago, I had an excellent Sony TV that gave me about 15 years before trouble set in. Around 1995, I got it repaired by a shop in NYC and it still works as a monitor for VHS and DVD players.

The problem with older TVs is that they don't have the modern connectivity of HDM1 and USB. Additionally, analog sets need the digital converter to receive broadcasts or a cable converter.

[CountAllVotes]

15. I do not know why it no longer works with the DVD player

Major bummed about this.

I do not know why the DVD player no longer works!

It is connected to a small black box as is the other VCR that I have so I had two VCRs working and the DVD player as well.

What happened? -- I cannot seem to do that!

[LakeSuperiorView]

21. Does the DVD player work with the other TV?

Older devices that hooked up to analog TVs used to use either of two channels, because one of the channels might be in use for broadcast TV. The would be able to use 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. You might have accidentally switched the DVD player to use the alternate channel.

Or it might not work anymore. I have several broken DVD players sitting in the basement waiting to go to a recycle place. I would try hooking up the DVD player to the other TV to see if it is working.

[CountAllVotes]

23. I don't know

I cannot remember how the little black box works either.

I bought it at Radio Shack so I could use the DVD player with a different old TV. That TV died and I hauled it away. I plugged the cable into the old TV that is there now and it worked. I was getting one channel after the cable was disconnected and it was set on channel 4. It worked for watching DVDs and VHS tapes but now the built in VCR is all that works on it. It is a rather large, awkward TV and quite heavy!

The second VCR does not work either (connected to the same small black box) and it had worked when I was still getting one channel. Since the change over happened, I'm screwed it seems.




.

[Auggie]

13. Best advice I ever heard about sentimental things like this ...

take a picture of it. That way you'll always remember it. It'll ease the sting of recycling.

[hlthe2b]

19. yup.. that's what I'm currently doing to try to "downsize"

It hurts so much to discard things my parents owned--or at least the ones that meant something to me, but after awhile, you just HAVE to.

[CountAllVotes]

22. I know

It is so hard to let go.
Maybe I should dump all of it and just get a new monitor for the desktop and forget it. The dump is a mile from where I live so I can drive small batches of stuff over there to be rid of it.

It is so hard to let go.

I did the best I could with no help at all and I know that.

Thank you.

[LunaSea]

17. Search the make and model number

With countless support forums online for just about anything, there's a good chance someone else has had the same problem
with that model and a few minutes search might be worthwhile.

Search make and model #, add "repair" or list a symptom in your search.

Also check boards like Craigslist for local repair folks in your area. Best prices I've found for electronics repairs have come from
ex-service techs who do repair work on the side.

[lamp_shade]

18. I got rid of my "monster" a few years ago. I called a local TV repair man.

It still worked and even if it didn't he was happy to take it off my hands but charged me $20 to come and haul it away.
It was money well spent.

[Afromania]

26. What sort of inputs does it have?

I'm thinking maybe a dvd/blu ray player that has netflix or something built in.

[matt819]

28. New televisions are cheap

Go to Best Buy and pick up a flat screen LED TV. They're cheap. You can get a 32" LED tv for $89. The cheapest roku is $30. Of course, this assumes you have a decent internet connection. Then watch what you want for free, or shell out for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and any others. But you can do okay (or okay enough) with the free channels.

No need for analog-digital conversion or antennas. I bought a Sony Bravia on sales for around $200 and am very happy with it.

The internet connection could be an issue, I realize, depending on where you're located. DSL would be okay, and these connections could be relatively inexpensive depending on where you're located.

We are way past the concept of "free" tv, sadly.

[CountAllVotes]

36. I am on a DSL connection

It is not very fast but its all that is going in these parts that is suitable for me.

It costs me $34.95/mo. + 10 gbs of server space which I often use.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

30. Technology has long since bypassed that set.

Buy a new one.

Or, do what I did ten years ago after a move: I didn't buy a TV, and watch pretty much everything I want to see via the internet. I have Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix. Various networks put things up to watch for free.

I want to stress that I'm not some elitist that never watches TV, just someone who ten years ago couldn't afford to purchase a conventional TV screen nor pay for cable. I'd originally intended this to be just an experiment, and honestly thought I'd go back to regular TV/cable after a while. Instead, I find I absolutely don't miss it, and as mentioned above, get to see pretty much everything I want.

Here's something else helpful: Whenever some breaking story occurs, local TV stations often go to live streaming, which is generally better than will be shown on the national networks.

Anyway, best wishes to you whatever you decide to do.

[CountAllVotes]

31. That is the boat I've been in for years

Broke.

After my mother died she left me some $, but no million $ or some such thing. Most of it is gone now as I decided a better life was more important than hoarding $, esp. if I may not be around a whole lot longer.

I appreciate your good wishes. They are very much appreciated & needed too!

[gay texan]

32. Old television tech here

It sounds like the tuner might have gone out.

[CountAllVotes]

33. It could be that!

I had not considered that something could be wrong with the television or tuner itself!

You need TWO remotes to operate it; make that THREE with the DVD player!

ACK! I'm thinking I'm done!

Thank you!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

34. You could make an aquarium, a liquor cabinet or a cat bed out of it.

http://www.homejelly.com/rad-repurposing-5-reinvented-uses-for-old-tvs/

[CountAllVotes]

35. Problem found

It has nothing to do with the TV itself nor the DVD player.

Problem = rf Modulator box that is connected to the antenna, etc.

The red light no longer comes on.

Found another on ebay for $5.00!

So, I figure I'll get ye old gal going again soon hopefully!

Thanks to all that have replied to my query!

[CountAllVotes]

37. This 20 year old television IS WORKING AGAIN!

Like WOW I did it!

I am now getting 14 channels and they come in perfectly!

I got some rabbit ears that plug into a digital analog converter box and some new quad cables.

Got it all hooked up and it is working perfectly once again!

So glad I was able to figure this out.

So, ye old tv isn't about to be recycled and it didn't cost me much to get it going again!