Jump to content

Defective Christmas Gifts Anyone???


Recommended Posts

  • Members

So I thought I'd be something other than my usual horses ass and got Mrs. Horse a 37" LCD monitor for the bedroom. Got her a Toshiba DVD player also, so that she has all the digital comforts at her fingertips. She's all excited atthe prospects of actually falling asleep IN bed while watching a movie.

 

I build a custom wall mount, goes together slicker than a snail-trail, looks sharp, excitement level is increasing, hook up the DVD player's component outs to the monitor, turn everything on and... NOTHING but a blue screen (meaning no recognized) video signal. No audio either. After verifying that I didn't have a brief memory lapse and hook something up wrong, send a known good test component video signal to the monitor over the same cables and it's perfect, both Audio and Video.

 

By now, Mrs. Horse is off of her excitement high, my hopes are dashed for prospects of watching a movie in bed... even I don't enjoy watching either blue screen or test patterns for very long... and I have to deal with the dreaded return line with a "DOOB" (dead out of box) DVD player.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Got a freakin brand new Sabian Paragon 20" Crash (Neal Pearts signature line) and boom stand from the old lady....took it out and put it on the brand new boom stand .......found a spot it felt comfy in the kit....positioned it....give it it's first good whack and hear this god awfull distortion/vibration as the crash starts to fade. WTF is that?????

Something vibrating on the kit,the stand...what the hell. Smack the crash again....sure nuff its coming from the cymbal as the crash fades. Take it off the stand and have the old lady hold it while I whack it with my hand...damn there it is again. Cant see anything wrong out in the studio. Take it in the house under some bright light.....running my hand all over it.....setting it on the glass dining room table to see if its warped or bent...telll the old lady to whack it while I hold it.....hmmmm....its coming from around the bell. Flip it over and running my fingers around it.....son of a bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a hairline crack right where the bell meets where the lathing starts. You can barely see it its so fine but it goes about 1/3 of the way around the bell. You can defintely feel it if you rub your finger along it.

Oh well back to the store with it tommorow. At least it was a local purchase and has a year warranty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Originally posted by The Real MC

Have you tried messing with audio parameters on the remote? Some players default to 5.1 surround out of the box, RCA outputs no worky. If it's a combo DVD/VCR player, there should be a button to toggle between them, my box defaults to VCR on power up.

Couldn't get that far... blue screen, no welcome screen that would allow for the menus to display.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by Chad-Chicago

Bought an XM MyFi radio for the wife and I. One of them wont boot up. Just stays on the splash screen then shuts down.


Get a replacement on wednesday. Guess I have to deal with {censored}ty terrestrial radio till then.

So who got the good one... the wife I hope?;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

If you haven't sent it back ---

 

I just bought a networked DVD player about three weeks ago. The thing sucks, but at first I couldn't get it working at all. No video or anything. I had it hooked up component and no matter what I did, I got no video. Even hooked it up to another TV. Same thing.

 

It turns out the DVD player was shipped out with a default to Progressive Scan. I don't believe most LCD TVs are progressive-scan compatable. There should be an option either on the remote for your DVD player (mine was labeled "Scan Type", I believe), or on the rear of your DVD player, to change between Progressive and Interlaced.

 

If you don't have this, you can usually hook it up via S-Video or a plain ol' yellow RCA jack and get into the menu system for the DVD player to change it. Mine had the button on the remote. I pressed it twice and voila, picture was there. The damn thing still doesn't read a single DVD, but it's got a pretty picture. :)

 

Give it a shot, it might work for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Originally posted by Zeromus-X


It turns out the DVD player was shipped out with a default to Progressive Scan.

 

 

You have got to be kidding me.

 

I never heard of a consumer TV that used progressive scan (at least in the US). The broadcast signal over the US airwaves is interlaced...!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Zeromus-X was on the right track...

 

So I return it, along with other guys returning them as well and get another, assuming that it was just a defective unit.

 

Get it home and same problem. No signal, no access to the menus, no welcome screen or anything that would allow checking configuration.

 

Knowing that the component input is working properly on the TV, I decide to test to see if perhaps there is a problem with the component out section perhaps. So I hook it up composite and it works fine (for composite anyway) and I look in the configuration menue for the DVD and by God it's configured for composite. Worse yet, it shuts down the component outs (including menu functions) so if you hook it up in component (as indicated in the owner's manual I might add) there is NO WAY to properly configure the DVD player.

 

This is the kind of thing that pisses me off... where the very manual that you turn to reference is plain old wrong. Shame on you Toshiba (and others). This kind of thing costs ZERO to get right.

 

Wife liked the mounting brackets with each hole drilled with love! You guys ought to try a project like that for your significant others... it helps justify an increase in power tool budget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

 

Originally posted by agedhorse

You guys ought to try a project like that for your significant others... it helps justify an increase in power tool budget.

 

Actually, I guess birds of a feather flock together. I put together the same sort-of package with a little different twist... but a similar learning curve (it sounds like).

 

BTW: If anybody's curious: Windows Media Player will only drive one screen at a time (I think).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

 

Originally posted by bigmike216



THat comes down to your video card.

 

Could be. I dunno. I really hate digital stuff... all that secret handshake guano.

 

The laptop will drive two screens fine 'cept for the frikin movie (after I loaded the right drivers). I figured it was some protection by design since when I selected the teevee screen only, then Media player came through on the teevee fine (after pissin away hours upon hours).

 

digital=Apollyon as far as I'm concerned.

 

Yea... and I was again reminded to "spark-test it in the shop before going to the gig". You really look like a dork in silk boxers with a maglight in your mouth, fumbling with pile of cables and an LA phonebook worth of instructions... to say nothing of the damper it puts on the mood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Actually, I believe you're correct -- I've not gotten WMP to run on two screens without major issues either. Worse, I run a dual-monitor setup (two matched 19" LCDs), and when Windows Media Player is set to run in full-screen mode, it sits right in the middle. It'd be a great widescreen picture if it weren't for the monitor borders in the middle!

 

Glad you were able to get it working, agedhorse. I was getting quite frustrated until I finally went online to a few forums and found out what the problem was. The DVD player still doesn't work, haven't had a chance to send it back yet... but it's under warranty for quite awhile so I'm not too worried.

 

I don't see why yours would disconnect when in another mode... not like it'd require any extra work to get composite, S-Video, and component to run concurrently with each other. But, I don't work for Toshiba, so what do I know!

 

Keep it in mind if you buy a Go Video DVD player, though, guys. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I don't know why it shut down the component output either. That's why I didn't bother to check composite... who in their right mind would design a product that could be set up from the factory so that you couldn't access mission critical menus? Some stuff I work with has only component connections, I would have been terminally screwed had I needed to do something other than recreational use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

 

Originally posted by agedhorse

who in their right mind would design a product that could be set up from the factory so that you couldn't access mission critical menus?

 

You assume a lot asking "who?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

For me, windows media player will display fine on both screens with a dual monitor, both the same, but with extended desktop, it will only show one one, works with full screen mode.

 

For DVD's I use powerdvd player, lets you do a full display on one screen, with the controlls on the other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...