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Methods for Bypassing Faulty VChips?

Posted by Cliff on from the liberating-your-picture dept.

corporal_clegg asks: "I bought a Sharp 27" TV a year or so ago to serve as a second TV and PS2 gaming platform. When I recently attempted to play a DVD through the game console, the VChip kicked in and presented a beautifully rendered black rectangle on the screen. No amount of menu manipulation on either the game console or the TV can remove the VChip blocking; both system menus report the VChip as disabled, yet it continues to block all programming: golf, kids shows, everything. This occurs if the game console is attached and operating or completely removed. Of course the operating manuals provide no help on addressing these issues, and the manufacturers' web sites are likewise useless. So the question is: does anyone out there in slash-land know how to identify and remove, bypass or hardware reset the VChip/ blocking technology? I am very comfortable working at the board level and would much rather crack my case and fix this problem myself than take an 80lb TV to a repair shop only to be charged it's replacement cost to address the problem."

5 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. maybe it isn't the vchip by vancleve · · Score: 5, Informative

    i had a problem like that on a hitachi 52" projection
    what the problem was that the captioning was turned on and was just putting the aformentioned black rectangle on the screen
    i turned off all captioning and it fixed the problem

    1. Re:maybe it isn't the vchip by seinman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Same thing with me. If you have the captions set to TEXT mode by mistake, a big black box will cover the screen, but since so few stations actually use text, it'll just be empty. Turn the captions back to CAPTION mode, or turn them off all together, and see if it fixes your problem.

    2. Re:maybe it isn't the vchip by Jahf · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ditto ... this happened to me when I switched to DirecTV from analog cable. I never knew I had it enabled until I turned on my DTV signal, then bang, big black rectangle with words to the effect of "this is a test of the text messaging system" on my TV. Called DTV and they quickly diagnosed it and had me turn off closed captioning. Worked fine.

      --
      It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
  2. Are you sure it's the VChip? by DeComposer · · Score: 4, Informative

    A black rectangle? If it was the VChip, the entire signal would be blocked, not obscured by a black rectangle.

    I think you're barking up the wrong tree; you should look at the captioning.

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    Karma
  3. Re:Oh boy.... by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Informative
    ... how about vchips for bypassing defective users?

    seriously, ... unplug tv for 24 hours, replug ... usually returns to factory defaults, so cc would be turned off/reset - problem solved (this is an el cheapo tv w/o battery backup, etc.).

    after all, if a cold reboot is good enough for M$, should be good enough for everyone :-)