Re: examples of digital rip-off

He didn't buy a VCR or DVD recorder nor did he need a new SCART lead since he already had one for his old VCR. In fact he's get half a dozen SCART leads including one from the old STB that connected it to the CRT TV the Freeview LCD TV was replacing. The salesman in Comet conned him into thinking it was an HDMI lead after my dad insisted he didn't need a SCART lead. Even if it had been an HDMI lead, my dad does not have anything with an HDMI output to connect to the TV in the first place.

It was some stupid story about a man going in to a shop one day to buy a TV. He bought the TV and *ASKED* for a lead to connect to his VCR, he was sold a SCART lead as *THAT IS WHAT HE WANTED*. His VCR did not have an HDMI connection! His son was furious with him because he had bought another SCART lead when he already had one. His dad seemed to think he would need a new one so agreed to buy it for a price his son said was unreasonable. It is a shame his son took little interest in his shop visit or he might have gone with him to the shop! There was no con, no deception, no forcing people to buy. The man wanted the SCART lead so he bought it. If his son has such a big problem with what his dad buys then that is an argument between the two of them, nothing to do with a newsgroup or a shop. Maybe that is why his dad went to the shop without him! As far as I know this was never followed up with the shop, his son just kept crying on newsgroups to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately no one did.

He asked for nothing of the kind. He's already got half a dozen SCART leads.

The con man in the shop tried to force my father to buy a SCART lead by falsely telling him the Freeview TV needed on. My dad told him no. Then the con man made him think the SCART lead was an HDMI lead. Neither did the TV require and HDMI lead buy my father has nothing with an HDMI output to connect to the TV. It's a rip-off scam practiced by Comet since they more a greater commission and profit on selling SCART leads worth £2 for £20 than they do selling television. Before SCART leads it was extended guarantees which cost more than the item that you actually bought would have been worth after the manufactures guarantee expired, and even still they are doing that one.

It could be argued that ALL aerials are actually 'analogue'. The RF signal voltage delivered by them is a direct representation of the field strength in which they are immersed. This, in turn, is a direct representation of signal voltage sent out at the transmitting end. Etc, ad nauseam.

My neighbour conned himself.

He had a good signal on his "analogue" aerial

He bought a new digital TV.

In his mind he needed a digital aerial.

Bought himself a new aerial. Paid 35 pounds from focus for a gold coloured aerial. He Took down the perfectly good aerial he already had.

Then could not get new aerial up because he was short and his son was scared of heights.

Called in a aerial rigger to put up new aerial who did it for 40 pounds.

Now he has a usable digital signal but analogue is poor ( Crystal Palace)

He is happy.

Gary

Why shouldn't he be happy? For a mere £70 he has an aerial that will meet his digital TV needs for the foreseeable future.

If he has good digital reception, why on earth does he need analogue?

Except that if it's pointed in the same direction doesn't "poorer analogue reception = poorer digital reception"?

Tim

Doesn't the fact that his GOOD analogue reception has now been replaced by POOR reception suggest to you in any way that the new installation might not have been carried out very well?

Would you like to guarantee that 'he has good digital reception' ... 'for the foreseeable future'?

Terry

Not if the analogue and digital channels are in different groups (as where I live) where a wideband aerial is indicated (if you want both from the same aerial, that is). Interestingly he didn't say "good" digital, he said usable. One might think that, for digital (but not analogue) good=usable but only he can say.

My old aerial gave atrocious reception on analogue but usable reception on most, but not all Freeview channels. My new aerial gives good digital reception but analogue is still atrocious - not really any better than before.

It points in exactly the same direction, towards the transmitter. Why wouldn't it?

Also, with the far better picture quality from Freeview compared to even the best analogue signal, why on earth would anyone want to watch analogue? Once you have good Freeview reception, why go back?

Maybe he should have said "good enough digital reception"? However, although things would have been best left alone, in practice the digital reception WILL probably be OK for the foreseeable future - especially when they turn the wick up at CP.

Replacing a narrow band ("analogue") aerial with a wide band ("digital") aerial is unlikely to improve analogue reception. In my case the analogue reception is probably slightly worse now.

If it works well now, it is likely to get even better in future as analogue signals are turned off and the power of digital transmissions are increased.

What I cannot understand is that, after getting a good digital signal, why on earth would anyone want to go back to analogue? Is it like vinyl discs, where vinyl aficionados can't get by without the pops and clicks that don't affect CDs?

The OP did say Crystal Palace - Group A for EVERYTHING!

Terry

In a similar vein, I think the magic went out of colour TV when thery brought out AFC (automatic frequency control) on sets. Having to jump up every two minutes to tweak the tuning was part of the experience. ;-)

Just amazing what we used to put up with.

Tim

On Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:00:18 +0000, Bruce wrote: > What I cannot understand is that, after getting a good digital signal, > why on earth would anyone want to go back to analogue?

And also, if one has a widescreen television (as I would hope this man purchased for his new integrated digital television), why would one use analog for receiving a truncated picture to be displayed either in StretchyVision or with black bars (which seem to frighten some people)?

Aren't you really missing the point that, on the evidence supplied, the new installation is CRAP?

Aren't you really missing the point that, on the evidence supplied, the digital reception is good?

Aren't you really missing the point that nothing else really matters?

In message , Tim Downie writes

Mine was regular tweaking the convergence controls on a 1967 Decca CTV25, which someone kindly gave me in 1973. Essentially, it was a superb set. Fortunately, there were a load of controls accessible through a trapdoor on the left-hand side.

Irrelevent if it's a narrow band that doesn't cover the frequencies of the analogue MUX's. I had a cracking analogue reception but the MUX's were above the frequency range of the antenna.