EU survey on appliances and right to repair

[Robin]

OTOH they need no lessons in how to draft a consultation document so as to minimise the number of responses from ordinary members of the public who don't understand The Project...

[Andrew]

My 17 inch Sony LCD tv lasted 13 years and it was used for 8 hours or more per day because it was my PC screen, and also had Picture- in-picture for watching TV at the same time.

That's far more usage than a domestic TV typically gets.

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

But if the only area of observation is women of chilbearing age, how would you know?

I'm sure any Express or Mail reader would be only too aware of the dangers of migrant reproduction using techniques and vessels outside the scope of "decent" English people.

AB

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

But you would have bought that when they were reliable. Every TV is now a piece of shit.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have yet to discard a PC LCD monitor *because it doesn't work*.

the last TV I threw out was a BIG CRT sony. Sevconhand 10 years before, it just ran of of repairability

[Roger Hayter]

Do you not think that human births to other species, genders or ages would be well down in the statistical noise?

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

Actually the last TV I bought was another LG, I already have three and as they incorporate satellite and internet [of a sort], I prefer to stick with what I know.

Returned it. It had an effect similar to solarisation, where gradients particularily noticable on subjects faces develop contours of shade, looking a little like a map depiction of altitude.

The effect does seem to be present to some slight extent on all flat screens, but it takes careful inspection to spot it and it is dependent on the material being transmitted.

As I stated earlier, most of the problems are down to software though and are merely a nuicance, not really worth getting involved with the reboxing and return only to find that the only option is an identical replacement.

Every TV I have exhibits problems with the EPG or BBC's text facility from time to time.

The BBC have assured me that during the times reported there were no "red button" prob's

AB

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Good to know you've tested then all. Where did you find the time? Where did you get the skills?

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

Back in the good old days your local friendly TV engineer would whip of the back of the TV, set the heater tapping on the dropper to 170V and ride off into the sunset, spurs glinting in the distance.

I assume you have looked for a software upgrade?

One or two of the older units I have are damned slow, I tend to wonder if it's because every programmed channel has to be verified or skipped on switch on.

I tried updating incidentally, but apart from the LG's nothing seems to be available.

AB

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

I had one go recently, where one of the three chips died. One third of the screen displayed random blocks of colour.

The last TV I had fail, the film had come off the back of the LCD unit, there were stripes where it had peeled off. Not repairable.

[tim...]

I've got a TV LCD in front of me which is beginning to fail - it takes forever to "warm up" (regardless of input), one day I'm expecting it to not.

tim

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

The only fault I ever managed to fix on an LCD TV is the power supply. Bulging capacitors and uneven 5V line, it refused to come out of standby. Replaced 6 capacitors and it worked.

You'd think in the 21st century we would have invented things which don't fall apart. I blame Sir Dyson, the maker of the most unreliable pieces of shit ever known to mankind.

[Johnny B Good]

Bingo! Now you're asking the right questions of such 'surveys'.

Give that man a cigar! :-)

Being a cynic just means you've lost that naive innocence that governments, corporations and would be dictators have all come to rely upon to achieve their own agendas.

You need to view such "incompetences" and "Generous offers of 'customer choice'" with a jaundiced eye and consider the more likely motives behind such actions.

I was reminded of the latter when I was shopping on line yesterday for a replacement toaster. I thought the choice of TV sets being offered to the consuming masses was needlessly extensive but, this "confuse the hell out of the consumer"[1] tactic reached new heights, it seemed to me, when I was facing a choice of *over* 300 on the Tesco shopping site! Three Hundred plus, for f*ck's sake!

[1] This seems to be a central tenet in central and local government elections, no doubt driven by moneyed interests. The principle being somewhat akin to the age old riddle of how to confuse an Irishman... Place him in a barrel and tell him to piss in a corner. :-(

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not if they were to talk the same sort of s**te as you.

[dennis]

Are you saying the backlight needs replacing or do you mean something else?

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

You found usenet binaries ? :-)

AB

[tabbypurr]

It turns out it's not, hermaphroditism is more common than I ever suspected.

NT

[tabbypurr]

no. that joke has whizzed right past me.

NT

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

As IC's don't tend to be thermionic these days, the ever increasing warm up time associated with valves and the tube losing emmission has been consigned to history, or at least TV history. The odd electrolytic can dry out but the result is normally fairly instantanious.

When digital TV first came onto the market, there were not the number of channels there are today, so it's not inconceivable that the software Engineers would scan the stored channels and flag those with severe errors as missing or not for inclusion in the EPG.

Even in the analogue days the ident signal was used amongst other things, to override the colour killer when the phase was locked and there was no danger of incorrect colours [PAL]

The theory being that no colour was better than duff colour.

Assuming this philosophy of allowing only stuff of a reasonable quality to hit the screen, it seems logical to look at the errors just after boot up.

With 10 or so channels, it wouldn't be a problem.

With 100+

It's an opportunity to boil the kettle.

Of course I may be wrong, I do not know for a fact that this is what happens, but it seems logical.

Screenfulls of pixels flashing away at random are not going to boost the reputation of any manufacturer.

AB

[tim...]

"Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

why would a software upgrade fix what is obviously a dying component?

tim