It's almost kickoff, and the TV is on the wrong input again.
Television got harder to work, and that's not on you. Most of a visit here is getting one remote to run everything, putting the sound through the right speaker, and showing you where to find your shows.
It's $39 to book a visit at your house, and that $39 comes off the visit's price. A remote session runs 30 minutes for $39. Cards only, and the rate is settled with you before any work begins.
What usually goes wrong, in the order you'll run into it
In a lot of Texas houses the TV has a deadline or two every week: Friday night football and the Cowboys on Sunday. These are the things that most often stand between you and the game.
The input. Plenty of 'the TV is broken' calls turn out to be a TV parked on the wrong input. The choices carry names like HDMI 2 and ARC, and nobody should have to know what those mean to watch a ballgame.
The sound. When the soundbar works some days and not others, the cause is almost always the ARC or eARC setting for one particular HDMI port, along with an audio setting tucked deep in the TV's menus. Set it right once and it stays put.
The apps. We put the streaming services you pay for up front on the home screen, in the order you use them, and clear off the tiles for the ones you don't.
Where the visit can pay for itself
Lots of homes are paying for a streaming service nobody opens anymore, and sometimes two. Signing up takes a minute. Finding where to cancel takes a lot longer, by design.
We go down the list of charges, show you where to cancel each one, and write down the ones you're keeping and about what each one runs a month. Over a year, that can come to more than the visit cost.
Worth a try on your own
Give these about ten minutes. Now and then one of them clears it up completely, and you won't need a visit at all.
- Find the button marked Input or Source on the TV's own remote and go through the choices one by one, waiting a couple of seconds on each. It fixes this far more often than people expect.
- No sound from the soundbar? Check that its cable is in the ARC or eARC HDMI port. Most TVs have only one, and it's the only port that sends sound back out of the TV.
- Unplug the TV from the wall and leave it for a full minute. A modern TV is never all the way off, and pulling the plug clears up a lot of strange behavior.
- Go through your bank or card statement and write down every streaming charge you see. That list is handy whether or not you book a visit.
- When an app claims you don't have a subscription, sign in to that service on your phone first. Fixing a password on a phone keyboard beats clicking letters one at a time with a remote.
What a Local Nerd won't take on
Hardware repair, meaning anything that calls for new parts or a soldering iron. It's better you hear that before you book.
- We don't hang TVs, drill into walls or run cable inside them. For a TV on the wall, have an installer hang it first, and we'll gladly set everything up once it's up there.
- We don't repair the TV itself. A dead screen or a failed panel belongs at a TV repair shop, and we'll tell you so straight off.
What you pay
A visit at your house takes $39 to book, and that $39 is subtracted from what the visit costs. The hourly rate depends on how far your address sits, in a straight line, from downtown of the city it falls under: $110 an hour inside 25 miles, $130 an hour from 25 to 50 miles, and $145 an hour from 50 to 75 miles. Nothing is added on top for travel.
A remote session begins with us calling you at the time you chose, and it is $39 for 30 minutes. For help a few times a year, there is Nerd on Call: $14.99 a month, with two remote sessions and one in-person visit included every year.
Payment is by card. Local Nerds can't take cash or checks, so nobody will ask you for either at the door. The FAQ has the rest of the detail.
Want to talk it over first? A Local Nerd will call you at no charge, and you aren't signing up for anything.
Where Local Nerds come to you
A visit can reach as far as 75 miles from downtown of each Texas city with a page below, and every one of those pages lists the towns it reaches. To see what your own address gets, put it in the ZIP checker. Remote sessions don't depend on where you live.
- Amarillo
- Austin
- Beaumont
- College Station
- Conroe
- Corpus Christi
- Dallas
- Denton
- El Paso
- Fort Worth
- Frisco
- Houston
- Katy
- Killeen
- Laredo
- Longview
- Lubbock
- McAllen
- Midland
- San Antonio
- Tyler
- Waco
- Wichita Falls
Questions we hear a lot
My soundbar is on but nothing's coming out of it. Why?
Almost every time, it's plugged into an HDMI port that isn't the ARC or eARC one, or the TV is still sending sound to its own speakers. Most TVs have only one port that passes sound back out, and it's easily missed.
What does No Signal mean on my TV?
It means the TV is set to an input with nothing connected to it. Press Input or Source, then go through them slowly. If all of them say No Signal, pull the TV's plug for a minute and try once more.
Can you help me get rid of streaming services we don't watch?
Yes. We find every one that's charging you, point out how to cancel each one, and write down the ones you're keeping. Over a year that can save more than the visit costs.
Can one remote run the TV, the soundbar and the streaming box?
Most of the time. Newer TVs can run the soundbar and the streaming box over HDMI once that's turned on. Where it won't work, we program a universal remote and mark the buttons clearly.
Will you mount my TV on the wall?
No. Drilling, mounting and cable inside walls aren't work we do. Have an installer hang it, and we're glad to come set everything up after.
How much is TV and streaming setup?
It's billed by the hour, at a rate that goes by how far your address is from downtown of whichever city serves it. All three rates are listed above these questions. Set aside roughly ninety minutes.