Well, it's over. I finally had to retire that VCR. After just two weeks, and after not being used for taping for three days, it ejected the tape when the tape stopped. The tape was stuck in the VCR and when I finally pulled the cassette out, the tape looked like dental floss. I suppose this is a situation that can be remedied, by someone who knows what they're doing. The tape that got stuck but remained normal width was able to be rewound past the problem area on the other VCR, but this one could not.
So I swapped the TVs since the signal on the station where I tape "The Simpsons" is undependable in the bedroom. When I unplugged each TV, I managed to unplug the converter box by mistake in each case. Not a problem in the living room, but I had to rescan in the bedroom. 13 channels now! Not counting subchannels. Actually, by pressing the Up button, I went to 13 channels. Four gave me "No signal". A fifth had a frozen picture. A sixth channel looked like I was on LSD, but it was the first time since before June 12 that I had seen this news anchor, such as he was. That fifth channel gives me no problems whatsoever in the living room. Neither did the channel with "The Simpsons", though in the bedroom that one gives me "No signal". Even though other stations with towers nearby come in fine or at least have minor pixilation problems.
In the living room, I did have a hard time plugging the cord from the antenna back into the converter box. I don't know why. It's been plugged in just fine since February (the antenna end came unplugged once). And it took me several days to solve the problem. The next day I remembered to tape "The Simpsons" but it's a good thing I didn't turn the TV off, because I was having serious pixilation. I remembered about the problem with the wire from the antenna, and I tried harder to make it work. That did the job, though I did have more pixilation than usual.
The next day, serious pixilation and even "No signal". How long will this go on? One problem I hadn't considered: the wire from the antenna has been in the same position for more than six months. It was obviously ideal because the two stations never had problems. Almost never, anyway. The wire is longer than it needs to be, and while I couldn't put it back the way it was, it seemed fine after I adjusted it.
Saturday, more of the same. I kept checking the connection and adjusting the wire, but by the end of the first hour of the movie I was watching, no more problems. I did hear thunder before the movie started. Maybe that was it. It wasn't serious pixilation.
In the bedroom, I checked the converter box one day, since I'm no longer turning the TV on daily to watch a tpe. The converter box was off (thought the green light was on) and I couldn't even get the menu to work. I tried turning it off and turning it back on, and bingo! Plus one of the channels I wasn't picking up the night I rescanned was back, but the channel that looked like I was on drugs was gone. I can say that I lose no networks if the cable goes out, though NBC will be iffy, and possibly The CW as well.
