CC- now you see it, now you don't???

Audiofuzzy

Audiofuzzy

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I have three years old Sony TV, not HD just regular one and I am upset because I just discovered some of the channels are missing CC totally.
Like TBS, TLC and other.

To be exact, this TV had a bit of minor problems with CC like sometimes scrambled captions pretty soon after we bought it, ( a year or so)
but unfortunately I tought it was because our outside cable was old and faulty causing poor reception at two channels - the TV guide and the unimportant one that we weren't watching anyway so I didn't treat it seriously (grrrrr at myself)
and the company we subscribe to were supposed to fix it long time ago but did it only recently,
we called them numerous times and they came, hemmed and hummed, changed our inside cable which didn't help of course, and promised to come back take care of it - you know the drill
and finally they did put a new cable outside only recently, and this when I realised the problem is with TV not the cable. And worse, now with the whole channels w/o captions.
I have two TV so I know the other one works properly, the CC is there.

I have called TV repair and was p..ed off to find out "they don't fix CC problems",
and at one repair shop they even told me "some newer TVs are like that - they do not transmiss CC well" or something to this tune.

I was like "what the heck? would they really manufacture and sell TV's that are faulty right away, and sell to us consumers, particularly the deaf consumers??? What kind of crock is that? also, the CC did work before and disappeared overnight, right after they fixed the outside cable, so...

Am I out of my money since the warranty expired two years ago, or do you have any idea where can I fix the stupid thing, or is true about how some TVs has just "poor CC reception"? I'm in Canada, btw.

Someone told me to call Sony company and ask what to do,
but what do you suppose they will tell me, to buy a new TV since the warranty on this one is expired? I don't see them giving me a free new TV.
I guess maybe they'd point me to their repair centre but I figure I'll ask you guys first..



Fuzzy
 
It might be your cable. When we had Knology (company in Florida) many of the higher digital channels, and ALL HBO channels did not CC. We knew it wasn't our TV as when we had Dish Network, there was no problem. They didn't do anything to fix it and we switched to Brighthouse. All channels are again CC.
 
If you have two TVs and BOTH are connected exactly the same manner and CC works in one TV but not the other, then you have deduced it properly that the cause may come from the TV.

Depends on what your TV is worth brand new, it may be cheaper to buy a new one than get it repaired. If the TV is expensive (more than the cost of TV repair), then contact Sony by e-mail and ask for a list of certified Sony TV repair shops in your area.

How are you connecting the cable to the TV? Is it connected directly to the TV? Are you using cable box? If you are using cable box, what type of connection between the cable box and TV?

Peter
 
If you have two TVs and BOTH are connected exactly the same manner and CC works in one TV but not the other, then you have deduced it properly that the cause may come from the TV.
Click to expand...


yes, this is exactly what I did. I have Sony Trintion and smaller Toshiba, we disconnected Sony and connected Toshiba, and with the Toshiba the CC have returned.
So it's definitely the TV, not cable.

And yes, the cable is connected directly to TV - we don't have any boxes, just basic cable.
And since we have called the cable people they gave us some new "better" cable inside.


I did tought about selling this TV to a hearing person becasue otherwise it works very well. But I don't know if that is honest thing to do ?

It's a beautiful TV anyway:

416AYXZ8C7L._AA280_.jpg

I couldn't find a picture of the exact model I have, sorry. but it's very very close.

Well I may try the bust box but will it work if the TV is truly broken?


I guess I am out of money :(

I thank you all very much for your help.


Fuzzy
 
I am not sure what you mean by bust box. If you mean cable box, then I don't think it will help because it will still use the same CC decoder inside the TV.

It's not necessarily dishonest when selling new TV with broken CC. I am sure 99% of hearing people do not use CC so I wouldn't worry. You can mention broken CC but I don't think it will matter to hearing people.

Peter
 
akoutsourais said:
It might be your cable. When we had Knology (company in Florida) many of the higher digital channels, and ALL HBO channels did not CC. We knew it wasn't our TV as when we had Dish Network, there was no problem. They didn't do anything to fix it and we switched to Brighthouse. All channels are again CC.
Click to expand...
:werd:

It could be your cable.

Some cable companies are changing their signals and it messes up the captioning.

Some cable companies forget to turn it on or the signal isn't getting through properly. It could be anything... not just your television.

If it was your television, it would be happening to all your channels... not just those channels you listed.
 
I am not sure what you mean by bust box
Click to expand...

:stupid:
Oh gosh I had a migraine when I was writing that. Migraine messes up one's brain, oops. You forget words or say the darndest things.
Of course I meant signal booster, but when I was nearing the end of my post it morphed into bust box.. lolol.. good I didn't write "boob box" ;)


Some cable companies are changing their signals and it messes up the captioning.
Click to expand...


yes, but in this case I suppose the other TV (Toshiba) wouldn't have CC either? We connected it exactly the same way as Sony and it was working properly.

So Peternagy - you think broken CC wouldn't matter?
Well, what I am really worried about is if the CC starts breaking now, who knows what else might, and how soon?
I wouldn't want anyone cursing me for selling him (or her) a lemon..
well I'll think about it for a while, and then decide what to do.

Anyway thank you very much for all your insight :)

Fuzzy
 
An amplifier might work probably because the CC decoder inside TV might be getting weak. If you get very good signal (no ghosts or snow) from cable in all channels, an amplifier might make the TV pictures look worse because it will amplify an already strong signal.

CC decoder is a separate circuit and totally independent of other circuits inside the TV. I wouldn't worry about the rest of the TV. I am sure the TV is fine except for CC.

A long time ago before CC decoder was required inside TVs, I ordered and bought an external CC deocoder and it did not work properly. Instead of returning the unit and wait another two weeks for a replacement, I opened the CC decoder box and tweaked a few trimpots (adjustable resistors) until CC appeared on the TV. It never stopped working since then. Maybe CC decoder inside your TV might need some tweaking but I wouldn't know which trimpots to tweak because some of them could be for the TV and really mess up the TV.

Peter
 
Hi again, Peter. Obviously, you know a lot about this stuff.
Your input has helped me to come up with decision,
and since you say CC wouldn't affect other TV parts I feel better about selling it "as is".

Thanks a a lot :)

Fuzzy
 
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