What made 1% of Freeview boxes "stop working"?

"The dog from that film you saw" wrote in
message ...

"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...
The dog from that film you saw said the following on 14/08/2008 18:28:


my parent's one was working ok until i foolishly told it to scan for new
channels - now it has the channels but they have bizarre numbers so i
can't get bbc 1 by pressing 1 etc.


Really silly question but have you unplugged it, waited a short while
then plugged it in again?

I only ask as my sister got the channel ranges (on her Oxford based unit)
from 700 to something like 750 even after doing a factory reset a couple
of times, just yesterday and after unplugging, and plugging back in, all
was well.




i'll certainly ask them to give it a try - you never know....


I'm slowly getting used to the new channel numbers my box has been left
with, but using it less and less and gravitating toward my Sky box and all
that free to air on there. It doesn't give up so easily in heavy rain as
Freeview does either.

Whatever happened to backward compatability eh. The length design engineers
used to go to to make existing equipment compatible. Introducing stereo
radio without affecting mono listeners, colour tv without affecting b&w
viewers etc. Now seems we just get tossed aside and forced to eventually buy
a new box. I'll give it a few years though.

Graham wrote:
Whatever happened to backward compatability eh. The length design engineers
used to go to to make existing equipment compatible. Introducing stereo
radio without affecting mono listeners, colour tv without affecting b&w
viewers etc. Now seems we just get tossed aside and forced to eventually buy
a new box. I'll give it a few years though.

Backward compatibility is fine. The problem is the cheap hardware you
bought: it doesn't conform to the relevant, prescribed, specifications.

I wonder if anyone has had successful recourse with retailers who sold
these devices. They strike me as unfit for purpose.

wrote in message
...
.

I wonder if anyone has had successful recourse with retailers who sold
these devices. They strike me as unfit for purpose.

Think only me tried. I failed.

Mind you its a shame Ofcom etc letting them get away with it.
I just waiting for further changes to upset more boxes, it happen once can
happen again.

--
Regards,
David

Please reply to News Group

David wrote:
Mind you its a shame Ofcom etc letting them get away with it.

Letting who get away with it? The broadcasters are not at fault. The
manufacturers and retailers are. Ofcom have no jurisdiction or influence
over them.

I just waiting for further changes to upset more boxes, it happen once
can happen again.

Hopefully people will learn not to buy cheap crap expecting it to be
something better. My Pace and Nokia boxes from the same era are still
functioning correctly. They cost a little more, but they're better
products - which still function correctly.

On 2008-08-19, David wrote:
wrote in message
...
I wonder if anyone has had successful recourse with retailers who sold
these devices. They strike me as unfit for purpose.

Think only me tried. I failed.

last I saw you were making the "unfit for purpose" claim. How did the
retailer (Argos?) respond (i.e. what specifically was their reason for
rejecting the claim)?

--
John Phillips

wrote in message
...
David wrote:
Mind you its a shame Ofcom etc letting them get away with it.

Letting who get away with it? The broadcasters are not at fault. The
manufacturers and retailers are. Ofcom have no jurisdiction or influence
over them.

I just waiting for further changes to upset more boxes, it happen once
can happen again.

Hopefully people will learn not to buy cheap crap expecting it to be
something better. My Pace and Nokia boxes from the same era are still
functioning correctly. They cost a little more, but they're better
products - which still function correctly.

Was not a cheap box.
Not aware that Pace were a quaulity product, cheap power supply components
usually used.
Also thought Pace and Nokia not made Freeview boxes, but were ONdigital who
made sure things made to spec.
--
Regards,
David

Please reply to News Group

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:42:49 +0100, "
wrote:

David wrote:
Mind you its a shame Ofcom etc letting them get away with it.

Letting who get away with it? The broadcasters are not at fault. The
manufacturers and retailers are. Ofcom have no jurisdiction or influence
over them.

I just waiting for further changes to upset more boxes, it happen once
can happen again.

Hopefully people will learn not to buy cheap crap expecting it to be
something better. My Pace and Nokia boxes from the same era are still
functioning correctly. They cost a little more, but they're better
products - which still function correctly.

The boxes which have failed were not all cheap crap. Those using
SetPal hardware and firmware were leaders in some aspects. It's
a great pity the designers overlooked or made a bad judgement in
one area.

wrote in message
...
Graham wrote:
Whatever happened to backward compatability eh. The length design
engineers used to go to to make existing equipment compatible.
Introducing stereo radio without affecting mono listeners, colour tv
without affecting b&w viewers etc. Now seems we just get tossed aside and
forced to eventually buy a new box. I'll give it a few years though.

Backward compatibility is fine. The problem is the cheap hardware you
bought: it doesn't conform to the relevant, prescribed, specifications.

I wonder if anyone has had successful recourse with retailers who sold
these devices. They strike me as unfit for purpose.

CHEAP? It cost me £49 of my hard earned, I'll have you know huh! :-)

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:51:45 +0100, "David"
wrote:



wrote in message
...
David wrote:
Mind you its a shame Ofcom etc letting them get away with it.

Letting who get away with it? The broadcasters are not at fault. The
manufacturers and retailers are. Ofcom have no jurisdiction or influence
over them.

I just waiting for further changes to upset more boxes, it happen once
can happen again.

Hopefully people will learn not to buy cheap crap expecting it to be
something better. My Pace and Nokia boxes from the same era are still
functioning correctly. They cost a little more, but they're better
products - which still function correctly.

Was not a cheap box.
Not aware that Pace were a quaulity product, cheap power supply components
usually used.
Also thought Pace and Nokia not made Freeview boxes, but were ONdigital who
made sure things made to spec.

I have three Pace DTVA Freeview boxes, one in use and two
working spares.

"Peter Duncanson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:42:49 +0100, "
wrote:

David wrote:
Mind you its a shame Ofcom etc letting them get away with it.

Letting who get away with it? The broadcasters are not at fault. The
manufacturers and retailers are. Ofcom have no jurisdiction or influence
over them.

I just waiting for further changes to upset more boxes, it happen once
can happen again.

Hopefully people will learn not to buy cheap crap expecting it to be
something better. My Pace and Nokia boxes from the same era are still
functioning correctly. They cost a little more, but they're better
products - which still function correctly.

The boxes which have failed were not all cheap crap. Those using
SetPal hardware and firmware were leaders in some aspects. It's
a great pity the designers overlooked or made a bad judgement in
one area.



I agree, along with the Nokia they were among the very first Freeview spec
boxes on the market and at that time were difficult to get hold of [maybe a
reason for the short cut in design?] they were then selling for circa
£129.99 and generally performed extremely well, in fact up until last week
my mother in law had two in regular use and I was using one in my den, all
have now been rendered completely useless.
However even at their initial selling price one has to say that five or six
years of use would be considered to be a good innings nowadays, especially
as people are already now dumping expensive HD ready LCD TV's into
landfills, simply because manufacturers design them to be that way, BTW did
anyone see the channel 5 'Fifth Gear' programme last night? about how
ridiculously difficult it was to change a headlight bulb in the Renault
Laguna.. the upshot was to basically take it to a main dealer and depending
on the type of bulbs used, pay anything from around £60.00 to as much as
£200 to get the job done!