Chuck(G)
25k Member
Apropos of nothing in particular.
Looking at my junkpile, I have a few defunct ATSC converter boxes from the 2006-ish era. Bricked or otherwise nonfunctional--I even had a remote control start smoking. These are the things for which the USG issued $40 coupons (still have those).
Other than being cheaply constructed, none has sufficient heat-dissipation capabilities--little ventilation, no fan and there's usually a chip with a small heatsink that commits heat-suicide. The worst were the ones with the Marvel chip.
The "we'll give you a heckuva deal on a converter box so you don't have to buy a new TV" deal was a scam from the very first day. The boxes were engineered to die.
I wonder how many of today's devices are similarly constructed. We've all see LCD monitors where capacitors were placed right next to (or hot-glued to) the inverter heatsinks, which guarantee failure.
Looking at my junkpile, I have a few defunct ATSC converter boxes from the 2006-ish era. Bricked or otherwise nonfunctional--I even had a remote control start smoking. These are the things for which the USG issued $40 coupons (still have those).
Other than being cheaply constructed, none has sufficient heat-dissipation capabilities--little ventilation, no fan and there's usually a chip with a small heatsink that commits heat-suicide. The worst were the ones with the Marvel chip.
The "we'll give you a heckuva deal on a converter box so you don't have to buy a new TV" deal was a scam from the very first day. The boxes were engineered to die.
I wonder how many of today's devices are similarly constructed. We've all see LCD monitors where capacitors were placed right next to (or hot-glued to) the inverter heatsinks, which guarantee failure.