OT? TV repair

[Simon Finnigan]

Hi everyone, I`ve just been given a 28 inch TV, CRT. It turns on fine, but the picture is squashed horizontally, leaving black borders about 2 inches wide either side of the screen. I`m NOT going to repair this myself, for the obvious reason that messing about inside a TV when you don`t know what you`re doing is a quick way to a stylish death :-) Is it likely to be worth trying to get it repaired for a few quid - is it likely to be a quick enough repair to make it a worthwhile foreigner to a TV repairman who might be calling to take a look at our main set (under warranty). Is it likely to be a lot of broken bits that would cost more than the TV would cost to replace (about £100), or a case of take the back off, twiddle a screwdriver to adjust a setting and then bugger off?

Thanks for your help!

[malc]

There may well be a screen height adjustment inside, probably done by adjusting the voltage fed to the scanning coils (in crude terms). If it was me I'd have a quick look for a tenner but whether your repair man would is another question.

[Gio]

I think you have answered your own question. We had a TV repaired for £60 then at about 12 months later it failed again. With hind sight we would have done better throwing TV away and putting the money to a new cheap crt tv.

By the way, your tv is not a wide screen unit by any chance and just needs the aspect ratio changing using the remote handset from 4:3 to 16:11?

[Simon Finnigan]

That`s pretty much what I was expecting. It`s not worth the expense of a "proper" repair, but throwing away a working TV just seems daft, even with the price of a replacement.

[Simon Finnigan]

It`s a bog standard 4:3 screen.

As for the price of the repair, it`s obviously not worth £60 to fix it, but £10-£20 in someones back pocket to give it a whirl is worth a punt. Even if it only gets another few months out of it it`d be worth it, I just don`t want to chuck it away :-)

[Karl]

This could be adjusted in the service menu, what make and model is it?

[Simon Finnigan]

All I know is that it`s a Pro Line, a cheap and cheerful TV from Asda. :-)