Public misunderstanding of DTT

On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:22:00 -0000, "Heracles Pollux"
wrote:


"Graham" wrote in message
...
"Why do they still sell tellys that don't get digital? All the time
they're on at us to go digital, so we never thought that if we got a new
set it wouldn't be digital." I had to agree that it is a riduculous and
misleading situation.

Bill

There is an argument that says a TV should just be a monitor with
no tuners at all.
I know of people who have paid serious money to have firmware
updates on Sony and Philips IDTV's where it would have been
cheaper to buy a new STB.
Also monitors don't require the TVL Gestapo to be informed.




Since I rarely watch digital TV without passing it through the "spam filter"
that is my Topfield TF5800 PVR, why would I want a pointless tuner in my
display! ;-)


But most people do want built in digital tuners. Anyway, surely by
now it should only cost pennies to install a digital tuner in a telly,
yet prices are still relatively more for a DTT equipped telly compared
to an analogue one.

Marky P

In message , Ivan
wrote


This complete lack of foresight means that there are now possibly millions
of TV's and recorders that have been sold over the last few years which are
now going to be totally useless without some kind of add on digital adaptor,
not to mention all of those analogue flat screen TV's and DVD recorders that
are selling like hot cakes!

I think you miss the point - there are currently at least four different
methods of providing digital TV in the UK. If all TVs had to support all
of them the old couple in Bill's original posting would not have been to
buy a TV for anything like £86. There is also a good chance that some
first generation Freeview box will stop working when analogue is finally
switched off.

--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

Marky P wrote:
On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:22:00 -0000, "Heracles Pollux"
wrote:


"Graham" wrote in message
...
"Why do they still sell tellys that don't get digital? All the time
they're on at us to go digital, so we never thought that if we got
a new set it wouldn't be digital." I had to agree that it is a
riduculous and misleading situation.

Bill

There is an argument that says a TV should just be a monitor with
no tuners at all.
I know of people who have paid serious money to have firmware
updates on Sony and Philips IDTV's where it would have been
cheaper to buy a new STB.
Also monitors don't require the TVL Gestapo to be informed.




Since I rarely watch digital TV without passing it through the "spam
filter" that is my Topfield TF5800 PVR, why would I want a pointless
tuner in my display! ;-)


But most people do want built in digital tuners. Anyway, surely by
now it should only cost pennies to install a digital tuner in a telly,
yet prices are still relatively more for a DTT equipped telly compared
to an analogue one.

I've often wondered about that, especially considering that Makro are
offering a SEG digital receiver for £17.99 plus Vat. After all you wouldn't
require the case, a power supply, the remote control or the SCART sockets,
so as you point out I can't see how it could add more than about £15 at the
very most to the cost of a new receiver.


Marky P

In article ,
Ivan wrote:


I've often wondered about that, especially considering that Makro are
offering a SEG digital receiver for £17.99 plus Vat. After all you
wouldn't require the case, a power supply, the remote control or the
SCART sockets, so as you point out I can't see how it could add more than
about £15 at the very most to the cost of a new receiver.


prices nowadays are not (cost + a reasonable mark up); They are whatever
the manufacturer thinks the market will bear. That, after all, is why beer
cost more in a pub in London than it does elsewhere in the country.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

I posted this a few days ago on another group discussing the same topic.

Why didn't our govenment mandate several years ago (as in the US) when
they
announced the digital changeover.

http://tinyurl.com/s5rc7

I couldn't get that link to work but I found the document and created
another link
http://snipurl.com/15mi0
What is this saying?
That even a screen used to display CCTV cannot be sold unless it has a DTT
tuner?

By all means label the equipment as requiring additional apparatus to
receive TV
programming after analogue switch-off, but please, don't make it mandatory
to have
a tuner built in that might be inappropriate for ones situation.

Lots of people have DSat or CATV as their sole broadcast source.
And, while some STB's still come with modulators, an analouge tuner will
continue
to be a usful way to recieve a signal from a STB in another room even after
switch-
off.
--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

Alan wrote:
In message , Ivan
wrote


This complete lack of foresight means that there are now possibly
millions of TV's and recorders that have been sold over the last few
years which are now going to be totally useless without some kind of
add on digital adaptor, not to mention all of those analogue flat
screen TV's and DVD recorders that are selling like hot cakes!

I think you miss the point - there are currently at least four
different methods of providing digital TV in the UK. If all TVs had
to support all of them the old couple in Bill's original posting
would not have been to buy a TV for anything like £86. There is also
a good chance that some first generation Freeview box will stop
working when analogue is finally switched off.

You're no doubt thinking of some early On-digital receivers with 2K chip
sets, as far as I'm aware I don't think that applies to any Freeview
receivers.

As for the £86 price tag, I expect that by now the price would have still
been an 'affordable' sub £100 for TV incorporating a digital tuner... and
after all that's what the customer wanted and expected!

If I understand you correctly you're saying is that is not a problem that
thousands (if not millions) of flat-panel TV's, DVD recorders, and VCRs have
been sold without digital tuners?

I know lots of people with analogue DVD recorders and VCRs who are going to
have a rude awakening in a couple of years' time when they attempt to do a
series of timed recording from an add on digital adaptor!

charles wrote:
In article ,
Ivan wrote:


I've often wondered about that, especially considering that Makro are
offering a SEG digital receiver for £17.99 plus Vat. After all you
wouldn't require the case, a power supply, the remote control or the
SCART sockets, so as you point out I can't see how it could add more
than about £15 at the very most to the cost of a new receiver.


prices nowadays are not (cost + a reasonable mark up); They are
whatever the manufacturer thinks the market will bear. That, after
all, is why beer cost more in a pub in London than it does elsewhere
in the country.
..
But if it was a 'requirement' manufacturers would be competing with rivals
who were all having to fit the same additional components.

I agree with you that it would be bound to add some traditional cost, but as
prices of electrical appliances have been falling at an almost ridiculous
rate anyway (especially since the supermarkets have got in on the act) then
my own guess is that equipment prices would still be far cheaper than ever
before.

On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:46:18 -0000, "Graham" wrote:

"Why do they still sell tellys that don't get digital? All the time they're
on at us to go digital, so we never thought that if we got a new set it
wouldn't be digital." I had to agree that it is a riduculous and misleading
situation.

Bill

There is an argument that says a TV should just be a monitor with
no tuners at all.

There is an equally valid argument that says a TV should be a TV, with
the meaning generally understood since the start of TV in 1936. Most
people wouldn't understand any other. They just want to buy a box,
take it home, plug it in and switch it on.

The only broadcast service transition that was ever properly handled
was the transition from 405 line VHF to 625 line UHF. It was carefully
planned and took about 20 years to complete, comparing reasonably with
the life of domestic electronics. Manufacturers were compelled to
provide capability for the new service (either in addition to or
instead of, the old one) on all TV sets sold after a certain date, and
the services were duplicated on both standards for many years.

By comparison, widescreen, digital broadcasting (both radio and
television), and HD have been unmitigated cockups. The shops filled up
with widescreen tellys that couldn't receive widescreen broadcasts
(and they're *still* selling them now!), it was almost impossible to
buy a digital receiver when digital TV started, digital radio sounds
awful, and despite HD having been around since the days of Plumbicon
camera tubes, hardly anyone has it even now, it has fewer pixels than
the cameras in some mobile phones and there seems to be no agreement
on what "HD-ready" really means, so a great many peopel are going to
waste money on new TVs for this new service and finds it looks no
better, or possibly even worse, than the old.

Rod.

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , Ivan
wrote


This complete lack of foresight means that there are now possibly
millions
of TV's and recorders that have been sold over the last few years
which are
now going to be totally useless without some kind of add on digital
adaptor,
not to mention all of those analogue flat screen TV's and DVD
recorders that
are selling like hot cakes!

I think you miss the point - there are currently at least four
different
methods of providing digital TV in the UK. If all TVs had to support
all
of them the old couple in Bill's original posting would not have
been to
buy a TV for anything like £86. There is also a good chance that
some
first generation Freeview box will stop working when analogue is
finally
switched off.



Forgive me, but
DSat
Freeview
Cable

What's the fourth?


--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

harrogate3 wrote:
"Alan" wrote in message

I think you miss the point - there are currently at least four
different methods of providing digital TV in the UK.

Forgive me, but
DSat
Freeview
Cable

What's the fourth?

DVB-H ?

The Internet ?


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.