Repurposing Old Tech

Sometimes the solution to a tech problem is to go back and repurpose old tech. I got in this situation recently when a lightning strike took out the cable box and hdmi port on my older plasma TV. My first reaction was how will I be able to get rid of this “piece of junk” after I purchase a new TV. I started searching online for what should the new model should contain. The problem was the screen size. The current plasma TV had the older 4:3 ratio not the widescreen 16:9. The IKEA cabinet was too narrow to hold a 16:9 TV with the height we became accustomed to.

Could the “piece of junk” be saved?

I turned on the TV and remembered that this model had multiple inputs available. It was manufactured when hdmi was only one of many inputs. I then did an online search for “hdmi to component video ” and found an powered interface module. So I connected everything and got a great picture , just like before. The only problem was this loud humming sound from the speakers.

Back to the internet! It turns out that cable companies are not grounding their systems properly, since this problem does not occur using hdmi. I found a filter which isolated the cable signal and broke the feedback loop. The hum was the alternating current from the power station.

TV back to normal for about $150 and some detective work.