OT: Another Telly Query

Only just noticeable on the average 4:3 set. 16:9 is very different.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
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You might be lucky and still be able to able to get this

Reply to
Camdor

I had a Toshiba for years no problems and now have a Samsung which I'm also happy with.

I bought an LG from Pixmania, and promptly sent it back. Does that make LG a poor brand? No, I sent it back because the tossers at Pixmania (owned by Dixons) wrongly described it as having HD Freeview built in.

With Sony you are paying for a premium brand name - that's their position in the market, so people who buy one may be reluctant to criticise as it is a criticism of their original decision.

Reply to
hugh

Maybe they didn't sell many because the Digital Switch Over people and Age Concern (now Age UK) were going round saying you couldn't convert a TV without a SCART

Reply to
hugh

Normally there are channel up/down buttons on the front of the video, you normally press these to change the programme of what the video is "watching".

Try running through them, a selection of channel 0 or AV1/AV2 will show what's connected to the second scart (or your other connections)

Reply to
Adrian C

I visited someone place yesterday to help remove a large 50" Toshiba rear projection monster TV, in preparation for replacement with an equally large LCD TV. The owner is not short of a few bob, and is currently having the whole house redecorated like a show home etc...

I asked him what TV he is getting. He said "Sony, it's a SMART one!". Looking at the wall, I then enquired about wiring it to the Internet and the ease of puting a cable to the router while decorating.

"Ah, we won't do that. The Internet is here just for my daughter's iPad."

Hmmm... Not so smart.

:-(

I've seen recommendations from Which proudly displayed "oh, it's recommended in Which!" in homes where with a bit of thought more suitable (and cheaper, and easier to use) items could have been found. Not all users will get the most out of enthusiast grade AV and understand the technical selections in menus, and will struggle getting basic use, especially with things that are not necessarily ergonomically designed - like Sony. Yet these come to the top of the pile in a Which dumbed down recommedation listing.

A relative has just handed me an almost unused Panasonic DMR-EH60D DVD/HDD freeview recorder for that reason. Highly reviewed, but he found it 'complicated' for playing DVD's. I looked at the firewire input at the front and realised I'm a lucky fellow, the thing is primarily ideal for editing clips from my camcorder! Did he know it could do that? No.

Reply to
Adrian C

Never underestimate the lack of savvy of relatives.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In general, perhaps not bad advice. Any TV without a SCART will be positively ancient or very downmarket. Get a better set from FreeCycle - it's awash with free good CRT sets.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

This is turning into a nightmare and I am looking more and more like a complete idiot.

Having found AV1 and got the menu on the screen I am told that (on auto tune at least) no services can be found. Have frequencies changed since set top boxes were first introduced thus rendering my early example useless?

Reply to
Roger Chapman

Some 4:3 tellys have a 16:9 mode where the picture height is reduced to a letterbox. All the active lines are available in the letterbox and you would feed it a full-frame anamorphic signal. Contrast that with the "letterbox" mode of a set-top box where almost half your vertical definition is wasted by displaying black lines to form the letterbox.

Reply to
Graham.

They have a sister organisation where Sony and LG televisions don't score that well for usability.

Reply to
Alan

Yes. But only those with some form of AV input.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Amazon still have the Icecrypt with RF modulator for 18 quid:-

formatting link

Reply to
airsmoothed

That means it either ain't got no signal, or that its so old that its incompatible with the latest modulations types. Or its broked,

I suspect the former.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

snip

Well the set works on analogue and the aerial also feeds the living room TV which sees the digital signal.

Reply to
Roger Chapman

Hmm.

Double check the aerial connection, or try the STB elsewhere.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yes, my dislike is based on one item many years ago.

They had a plan which provided coverage for legal costs in return for a regular monthly payment. I asked if it would cover costs a landlord might incur, and was told it would. A year later, when I needed that very badly, they refused to pay out, saying that the cover was only for directly personal costs.

Back in those days, I generally believed what people said. But I should have had it in writing - that's what Which themselves would have recommended.

I got shot of them after that, but I had noticed that as you say, if you're familiar with what they're talking about you can see flaws.

Reply to
Windmill

Despite having worked with computers for decades, and having once compiled an early version of X Windows from source (it took a full seven days on a 386SX-33 !), I am often baffled for minutes on end by a TV which gets into some funny state or other after I've been careless about which button I push on the remotes (TV & sat receiver).

The manual is almost non-existent; you're supposed to just *know*. And old-timers like me don't.

Reply to
Windmill

Yup... not much use for broadcast stuff, but as you say, it does mean you can tell your DVD player the set is 16:9 capable, and then have it squash the raster on anamorphic titles.

full-frame anamorphic

your vertical definition

Reply to
John Rumm

On my old (now deceased) Sony 4:3, the 16:9 mode would compress the raster regardless of the source. So you could letterbox broadcast stuff and maintain full line height[1]. Probably would have worked on the title sequences where they used to squash the original cinema-scope film to fit the frame so you could read the edges of the credits, before switching to pan and scan for the bulk of the movie.

[1] which was probably useful about twice in its 15 year life - for watching some preview material that was transmitted in a 4:3 frame but with the anamorphic compression still intact!
Reply to
John Rumm

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