New TV Moderately OT:-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Many modern sets don't have a SCART. I have tried a SCART to HDMI convertor with no success - on a Toppy.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

History. Screen sizing dates to before metrication. So like giving a parson's height in feet and inches. Just what we're used to doing.

[williamwright]

And I thought you were energetic!

Bill

[John Rumm]

At least in modern usage with LCDs the number do seem to represent fairly closely what you can actually see, unlike in CRT days.

[Robin]

<snip>

I thought manufacturers were /required/ to encrypt recordings that way if they wanted the Freeview or Freesat HD tick and EPG

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oddly, they weren't. The first TVs had round tubes. And early colour tubes weren't 4:3 either - more like 5:4.

So the nominal size didn't really refer to 4:3. If you masked a 25" colour tube to give a true 4:3 display, it ended up rather smaller.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Go on then. Inform us all of exactly what it does in practice. That my generic sat receiver can't.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My satellite box has got two tuners. And a built in HD for recording. But the most complicated software I'd ever had the misfortune to use. The tuners can also be altered in software for ordinary UHF FreeView - with the right aerial feed, of course. Or it might be just one of them.

[Andrew]

Richer sounds will give a 6 year warranty.

Even for stuff where they don't, they will sell you a 6 year warranty for 10% of the goods price, and after the warranty period, if you haven't made a claim, they will give you the premium back !.

Local J-L had 2 Panny 40 inch GX800 tvs for £300 in their clearance sale, normal price £600.

[whisky-dave]

I think the term is social inertia.

[Andrew]

If you buy a Samsung, by default it might be set up to show a bigger picture than the screen.

My 22H5100 smart one did that and it was obvious when I used it as a computer monitor, but after perusing the online manual I found a selection that made it display windows taskbar correctly.

I think this used to be called 'overscan' on CRT TV, to hide the teletext dots and dashes at the top of the picture.

[Andrew]

My little Samsung 22H5100 has Picture-in-Picture. I can use the full screen as a computer monitor and watch TV in a small window in one (selectable) corner. I'm not sure if their bigger sets allow this.

My old Humax Duovision allowed something similar, but you could watch 2 channels, one in the PIP box. Handy to keep an eye on a 2nd rugby or footy game.

[Andrew]

What is wrong with Cello ?. Are they any worse than the cheapo brands that Sainsbury or Currys sell ?.

[Andrew]

Scart will only pass SD tv. Some modern HD TVs are rather poor at upscaling SD to HD. Only a visit to store will help you make this decision.

Decide if you really need a 4K-capable TV. Apart from Sky this won't be broadcast any time soon. Only a 4K bluray player will show you any benefit, or streaming on a decent BB connection , so you could stick to an HD TV and these are amazingly cheap now.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've got 4 Humax STB here. Two being BT versions. None have as nice software as the Toppy with a TAP.

[Tim Lamb]

Interesting. Can it get HD from the 5810 Toppy? Otherwise appears to tick all the boxes:-)

Ta.

[Pamela]

How does Richer make a profit on that? Is the scheme dependent on few people remebering to claim the refund in 6 years' time?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

More commonly to make the picture appear bigger in the showroom. ;-)

[Andrew]

Customer Assistant in J-L says the most common size for living rooms that they sell is 55 inch, and 43 inch for bedroom use.

The 28 and 32 inch tvs in the far corner of the store seem utterly diminutive now by comparison.

[Andrew]

Humax are getting out of Satellite STBs. There was one with 500 gb disk in local J-L for £90 recently in its clearance sale.