Technical Difficulties

It's a video day at school today. Oh goody.

Turn on TV and VCR. Insert tape. Push play. Simple, right? It is if after doing these you get a picture. All I got was a blue screen. Not good.

Okay, now it's time to troubleshoot. Is everything plugged in? Yes. There is a wire going from the VCR to the TV. Is it connected correctly?

The TV is mounted on an arm that is attached to the ceiling. Usually I can get this contraption to turn. Not today. And of course the back of the TV is in an awkward position. Over a filing cabinet. Do I have a step ladder? Of course not.

Luckily, there is a stool in the room. That would do. I remove the stuff that is stored right in my way and I take a look. It looks like it's hooked up correctly. But no picture.

Next, is the TV set on the right setting? Playing around with the buttons on the front of the TV doesn't help, so I must go in search of the remote. That I do find (finally, something going my way!), and I try to get the TV to the right mode only to find that it was in the right mode.

Now I'm getting desperate. It shouldn't take 20 minutes to get the VCR to play. I try rewinding the tape. Yep, it needs rewinding, but that's not the problem. What is there left to do?

There is another VCR/DVD combo sitting under the TV. This is not plugged in. And the plug is out of reach (the stool won't get me up that high). But this machine has an RCA cord attached. Will it work?

So, I take the cable, attach it to the VCR at the "out" plugs, and I attach the other end to the TV. I push play. Still, blue screen.

But then I take the remote and switch the feed. Video-1. And poof: Bill Nye is speaking. I can even see him. YEAH!!! Success. Finally.

It was a good thing I went to see if the video would play during my prep today. I don't even want to think how this would have played in front of a roomful of sophomores and juniors with nothing to do but watch the fun.