Public misunderstanding of DTT

There is one issue that I believe needs resolution before DTTV really
gets forced into practice and that is user friendliness.

Have any of you tried using a DTTV STB without having a list of
channels by number by your side? I would suggest that most people will
use the up/down buttons as they tend to with a conventional TV zapper.
So what do you get after 1-5?

ITV2 on 6
ITV3 on 10
ITV4 on 28
BBC3 on 7
BBC4 on 9
E4 on 13 but More4 on 12
BBC News 24 on 80
Sky News on 82
Teletext on 100-104
BBCi on 105
BBC R4 on 704 but BBC7 on 708

with a whole load of useless advertising and games channels thrown in
between. The only logical bit is that all of the childrens channels
are bundled together in the 70s.

Agreed many boxes have a 'favourites' capability, but for the majority
this simply means plucking the channels you want out of the main list
but still having them in the original crazy order, or if they have a
sort option then it is either numeric or alphabetic.

There are boxes - which it has to be said are in the main TUTV boxes -
that do allow you to weed out the channels you don't want or to sort
them into your preferred order but they are few an far between,

Then there is the other issue of tuning. If you are in the fortunate
(or unfortunate) position of living where it is possible to receive
two stations at good strength but belonging to different franchises,
as here in Harrogate, then the lo-hi tuning presents a problem to
boxes that don't have a sorting or manul tuning capability if the
franchise that you don't want to watch is in group A.


Add to that the line that I got last Saturday in a major town-centre
department store (not in Harrogate

"Have you got any DTTV boxes?"
"Sorry sir, we're sold out" - this mind you 9 days before Christmas.
"When will you have more in?"
"Oh, we may not be getting any more."
"Why?"
"Manufacturers are stopping making them."
"Eh?"
"The price has come so low that there is not enough profit in them so
they are putting them directly into the TVs."
"OK, what is the cheapest TV that you have with a DTTV tuner built
in?"
"This 32" LCD sir."
"And the cost?"
"£699"

Whilst that is a total load of bilge as an excuse for being out of
stock, how long will it be before this becomes fact?


--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

harrogate3 wrote:
Agreed many boxes have a 'favourites' capability, but for the majority
this simply means plucking the channels you want out of the main list
but still having them in the original crazy order, or if they have a
sort option then it is either numeric or alphabetic.

There are boxes - which it has to be said are in the main TUTV boxes -
that do allow you to weed out the channels you don't want or to sort
them into your preferred order but they are few an far between,

Are they? That's a perfectly standard PVR feature. And I thought there was
now only one proper TUTV box, given its recent reinvention?

On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:28:12 GMT, "Ivan"
wrote:


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.

I though that something similar did happen about five+ years ago.
The government consulted with several manufacturers and it was
agreed that all digital TV equipment would prominently carry the
"DVB" logo. The government would do it's bit by funding an
information campaign to promote the "DVB" logo.

Guess what happened?

Nick.

Nick Austin wrote:

I though that something similar did happen about five+ years ago.
The government consulted with several manufacturers and it was
agreed that all digital TV equipment would prominently carry the
"DVB" logo. The government would do it's bit by funding an
information campaign to promote the "DVB" logo.

Guess what happened?

I've got a 32" Sony IDTV.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B0000W5DP0

Below the main body of the set is a little black plastic strip, just
visible in the above photo, for holding the on/off button and a few
other controls. On that is the DVB logo in dark grey text and it's 3mm
high - I've just measured it with a ruler.

--
Dave Farrance

On Sat, 23 Dec 2006 11:10:17 GMT, Dave Farrance
wrote:

Nick Austin wrote:

I though that something similar did happen about five+ years ago.
The government consulted with several manufacturers and it was
agreed that all digital TV equipment would prominently carry the
"DVB" logo. The government would do it's bit by funding an
information campaign to promote the "DVB" logo.

Guess what happened?

I've got a 32" Sony IDTV.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B0000W5DP0

Below the main body of the set is a little black plastic strip, just
visible in the above photo, for holding the on/off button and a few
other controls. On that is the DVB logo in dark grey text and it's 3mm
high - I've just measured it with a ruler.

It is there on my 32" Samsung LCD, about 1cm high.
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

Pyriform wrote:

harrogate3 wrote:
Agreed many boxes have a 'favourites' capability, but for the majority
this simply means plucking the channels you want out of the main list
but still having them in the original crazy order, or if they have a
sort option then it is either numeric or alphabetic.

There are boxes - which it has to be said are in the main TUTV boxes -
that do allow you to weed out the channels you don't want or to sort
them into your preferred order but they are few an far between,

Are they? That's a perfectly standard PVR feature. And I thought there was
now only one proper TUTV box, given its recent reinvention?

From what I remember of my first Freeview box (a Thommo, I gave it to
a friend when I got my Toppy) it had the facility to delete channels.
On my Toppy I have all the channels I want on three pages of the EPG,
but it's a bit fiddly getting to see what is on the radio since I have
to be listening to the radio to get the radio EPG :-(
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Andrew wrote:

I've got a 32" Sony IDTV.
Below the main body of the set is a little black plastic strip, just
visible in the above photo, for holding the on/off button and a few
other controls. On that is the DVB logo in dark grey text and it's 3mm
high - I've just measured it with a ruler.

It is there on my 32" Samsung LCD, about 1cm high.

I can understand why some manufacturers are only giving the DVB logo a
token presence, though. The public just doesn't know what it means. The
"Digital" tickmark and "Freeview" campaigns have been much more
successful, and those logos are placed on peel-off stickers (which
retailers may or may not have on their display IDTVs, depending on which
member of staff opened the box that the TV came in). Of course, the
proportion of the public that know that "Digital" and "Freeview" mean
the same thing WHEN ON A TV STICKER is questionable.

--
Dave Farrance

"Ivan" wrote in message
.uk...
Alan wrote:
In message ,
^^artnada^^ wrote

....and this is why the Gov. should step in and "force"
manufacturers to make all new tv's with both anologue and digtial
tuners in them as standard and stop all this..


I agree, all TVs should be fitted with a satellite and cable TV
decoder.


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.

Because the EU free trading rules won't let them.

If someone manufactures a product for sale in one EU
country they MUST be allowed to sell that product in all
EU countries if they wish.

HMG can do absolutely nothing to stop someone making
an analogue TV in Poland and then selling it in the UK
(and yes, I know it will need a different decoder).

tim

"Ivan" wrote in message
.uk...
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!

I've no doubt that it is technically possible.

However comercially, TV manufacturers don't think like this.

If they have a new feature that they want to sell, they only
put it in high spec expensive TV's that they make more profit
on.

tim

"harrogate3" wrote in message
...
"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , Ivan
wrote
snip
Forgive me, but
DSat
Freeview
Cable

What's the fourth?


TIVO by ADSL or cable broadband

Steve Terry