Cable Saga Continues, now with Magic Rays. HELP!

[ironrite]

We last left our saga of the crappy cable company and the decision was made to give Direct TV a try. However, a small bedroom remodel came first. Plus I P/O'd the salesman at a local electronics store for asking too many questions about Direct TV. That's another installment.

Here's the problem. Bought a 32" Sharp Aquos LCD TV for the bedroom. Now the cable box works some of the time. Tried new batteries in the remote, called technician on phone and tonight had technician out to the house. I wasn't home from work yet, so my Partner was told the TV puts out too much of a magnetic field and interferes with the cable box. We should put the cable box in another part of the room and use an RF repeater to get a better signal. Umm, the remote uses infrared light, not radio signals? Now an LCD TV emits some sort of magic rays? And was told the Direct TV boxes were even worse when it comes to these new TVs.

Prior to the LCD set, the cable box sat directly on top of an older Hitachi 26 inch tube set and never gave any problem. Currently, the box sits on a shelf about a foot below the LCD tv.

I tried Googling anything about LCD TVs, magnetic fields, checked websites and so far have found nothing about this sort of problem. One would think with the amount of these types of TVs that are now selling someone before would have mentioned this. Cable techs said our salesman was at fault and should have told us of this existing problem. Any suggestions?

 

[petek]

Last time I was back home at moms I went around changing many of her lightbulbs to compact fluoresents. I put a daylight compact fluoresent in the floor lamp/reading light beside her Lazyboy where she always sits and watches tv. Well for some reason when that light is on the tv remote is screwy. My guess is that it's giving off some light that interferes with the infrared remote

 

[DADoES]

Shielding

Try some aluminum foil, strategically placed. ;-)

 

[ironrite]

Magic Rays Explained

I called Sharp. Very good customer service. Apparently the automatic sensor feature for detecting room lighting, which will adjust the picture brightness, can confuse some cable boxes. The solution, turn it off.

After doing that, so far the cable box works.

 

[whirlcool]

That's rather odd....

you would think that a sensor that detects light would be a photosensitive type of sensor taking in light, rather than emitting it into the room.

But, hey! If it works, it works!

 

[Cybrvanr]

I imagine the sensor is using an ordinary SCR type dimmer module to dim the backlight in the LCD screen. LCD television screens do not produce light in their own right, but are basically a "gate" that allows light either to pass, or be blocked. Arrange the locations in pixels that pass light and block light into patterns, and you form a picture. The screen backlight in most LCD TV's is produced by fluorescent tubes behind the LCD panel. Using an ordinary SCR dimmer means that the electrical wave is chopped up to reduce the brightness of the screen's backlight. This is a problem I've run into at some of the colleges that use dimmable flourescent ceiling fixtures in their rooms. I have gotten all sorts of nasty static getting back into the video equipment. I would think this problem would mainfest itself in cheap ceiling-light ballasts, but not in a high-end television! That is definitely a design flaw!