I saw a post earlier about this problem. Our repair shop in eastern
Canada, also has had
a dozen calls on this very same problem, with the "unplug, wait an hour
or so, or overnight,
& plug back in trick"! PBS channel 2, on our local cable, carries the
info for Gemstar, & it
gets corrupt sometimes. Is there actually a fix for this, as in change
the EEPROM, & or micro, or " tweak" the EEPROM? Sometimes, you have to
do the unplug trick three times.
Thanks.

On 4 Jan 2006 19:07:32 -0800, "Dani" wrote:

I saw a post earlier about this problem. Our repair shop in eastern
Canada, also has had
a dozen calls on this very same problem, with the "unplug, wait an hour
or so, or overnight,
& plug back in trick"! PBS channel 2, on our local cable, carries the
info for Gemstar, & it
gets corrupt sometimes. Is there actually a fix for this, as in change
the EEPROM, & or micro, or " tweak" the EEPROM? Sometimes, you have to
do the unplug trick three times.
Thanks.

Yes unplug, wait then plug is only solution for this GEMSTAR lockups.
The Gemstar is part of one CPU module that thomson unwisely used
instead of using seperate ICs, one for TV microcontroller, gemstar get
their own. JVC, and others are using seperate modules and not always
present so this is less common than Thomson (RCA & GE TVs) units.
Recent basic thomson units don't have Gemstar for last couple years.

There is no fix for this. The fault lies with the broadcaster who
maintains the equipments that send outs data on line 21 be careful and
up to date.

We had one happen recently, had to haul the Thomson TV back to
customer's. Jack waited not long enough for the micro to "lose power &
forget".

Cheers, Wizard

Not true! There is a fix! But this fix will disable CC functions. Read
on!

RCA CTC197 & CTC195 & CTC203

# THOMSON AUDIO DROP-OUT NUISANCE FIX

Jeff Stielau : 12/16/05 : Shoreline Electronics Repair

There has been a situation when in some RCA/GE televisions a low-level,
scratchy-sounding noise comes out of the speakers instead of normal audio,
or when video is muted. These problems can occur when invalid XDS data is
broadcast by television stations and received by certain Thomson
television
receivers. XDS data is digital information placed within the video
signal's
vertical interval of an analog (NTSC) television transmission. This data
is
used by the microprocessor in the television receiver. It may be
transmitted
from any analog television channel.

A fix that I have been recommending to our techs is to place a 1uf 50V
capacitor to ground on U13101(15). This swamps the closed caption data to
the micro and stops the reception of the defective data packet. In the
event
that later on the resolve the defective data problem the capacitor can be
removed. Obviously the closed caption feature will be crippled with this
capacitor installed.



--
==========================
Jeff Stielau
Shoreline Electronics Repair
344 East Main Street
Clinton,CT 06413
860-399-1861
860-664-3535 (fax)

========================

"Jason D." wrote in message
...
On 4 Jan 2006 19:07:32 -0800, "Dani" wrote:

I saw a post earlier about this problem. Our repair shop in eastern
Canada, also has had
a dozen calls on this very same problem, with the "unplug, wait an hour
or so, or overnight,
& plug back in trick"! PBS channel 2, on our local cable, carries the
info for Gemstar, & it
gets corrupt sometimes. Is there actually a fix for this, as in change
the EEPROM, & or micro, or " tweak" the EEPROM? Sometimes, you have to
do the unplug trick three times.
Thanks.

Yes unplug, wait then plug is only solution for this GEMSTAR lockups.
The Gemstar is part of one CPU module that thomson unwisely used
instead of using seperate ICs, one for TV microcontroller, gemstar get
their own. JVC, and others are using seperate modules and not always
present so this is less common than Thomson (RCA & GE TVs) units.
Recent basic thomson units don't have Gemstar for last couple years.

There is no fix for this. The fault lies with the broadcaster who
maintains the equipments that send outs data on line 21 be careful and
up to date.

We had one happen recently, had to haul the Thomson TV back to
customer's. Jack waited not long enough for the micro to "lose power &
forget".

Cheers, Wizard