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BBC switches off analogue TV
IN ORDER TO MAXIMISE the chances of a smooth switchover from analogue to digital TV, the small Cumbrian town of Whitehaven has been chosen as the guinea pig. The reason is simple - no one important lives there and 99 percent of the UK population has never heard of the place.
The town's local transmitter switched off its analogue signal last night, meaning that people desperate to watch repeats of Strictly Come Dancing will have to fork out for a DTT digibox if they want to keep watching.
While most homes already have digital TV in the shape of satellite, cable or DTT on their main TV, all those old sets in bedrooms and kitchens now need to be digified as well. Some locals are moaning that it will cost £80 to buy a digibox for little Beckham's bedroom TV, which begs two questions - why are they paying £80 when you can get a DTT set top box for £20; and why is little Beckham still being forced to use such an old telly? He'll get bullied at school and probably stabbed.
The whole of the UK is due to go digital by 2012, by which time a telly you buy new today will be five years old and surely due for replacement. Anyone buying an analogue-only TV is an idiot and anyone who seriously expects their current TV to be still working in five years time is a hopeless optimist. These things have a design life of three years, after which time you're supposed to buy a better one. If your TV is still working after five years you can count yourself very lucky indeed.
The bottom line is it won't cost people any more to receive digital TV because they'll have replaced their telly by the time switchover reaches their area. Did people moan about buying a new TV when ITV first appeared on VHF? Did they complain when BBC2 arrived on UHF? In both cases, a new TV was required to receive just one extra channel. Switching to digital gives you at least 40.
So, viewers, stop whinging about the cost of the changeover. Your complaints would be better aimed at TV companies asking them why they don't produce any programmes worth watching. µ
L'INQ
BBC
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Modern LCD backlights wont last as long as old school CRTs.

As for:
"Little Beckham probably has a small older tv with no scart socket. Trying to get a digibox with an rf out modulator is not so easy. £80 is probably about right. " 

for 80 quid he could have a nice new LCD telle and have more room to play with his toys AND get bullied less at school for not being able to play on his PS3/Xbox/wii etc!

With todays TFT technology there is no need for anyone but serious proffesionals to use a CRT ANYWHERE.
Dear Andrew,

Your remark that TVs are designed to last three years is off the mark by quite a fair bit, I think. 
The three-year rule may be true for computer components and perhaps even television sets from less reputable manufacturers, but established players in the industry design their sets to last much longer than that.

The only obvious lifespan-related issues that come to mind are limitations inherent in current display panel technologies, like burn-in for plasmas and backlight burn-out for LCDs. 
However, unless your telly stays on 24/7, you will get very good mileage out of any recent flat panel model. Using a fairly pessimistic 30 000 hours as the average lifespan of a panel (plasma or LCD) if you leave your TV on for 8 hours a day it should keep you happy for around 10 years.
enough of the moaning - you can get a good DVB box for £40 from maplins.. 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=96872&doy=18m10

If you dont watch TV, go away and moan about summat else!! :-)

Yes, analogue TVs are still useful with any device that has an RF out, like the maplin one above... so John Lewis need not worry... and even the latest SKY boxes have RF out...

Actually, older TVs were made much better 5 years ago, and cheaper to repair!! I am waiting until at least 2010, when DTV price will most likely fall drastically due to popularity...
All well and good, but isn't it great how the only place I've seen any Digital awareness adverts has been on ITV2? Morons.
"Anyone buying an analogue-only TV is an idiot" 

If I have Sky or cable, what would be the point of paying extra for a TV with built-in Freeview?

"Anyone who seriously expects their current TV to be still working in five years time is a hopeless optimist."

So John Lewis and other stores which offer a five year warranty on TVs must be charging an enormous markup to cover the fact that they're all going to break down then? Perhaps they're hopeless optimists too.

Andrew also mentions the switch from VHF to UHF. The difference being that VHF switchoff didn't happen for nearly twenty years, and I'd suggest that the number of sets + recorders in the country that needed to be replaced was somewhat lower on that occasion.
Not everyone whinges about the changeover -- some people, myself included, don't think it can come fast enough. I live in an area with no local transmitter, which means crap signal - no channel 5 and no DTT at all. And yet I pay the same licence fee as everyone else. Hardly fair now, is it?
So why does my telly (an ex-rental set) that was bought ten years ago from Granada still work? It must be faulty, I guess.
Dave wrote:
« "Anyone buying an analogue-only TV is an idiot"

If I have Sky or cable, what would be the point of paying extra for a TV with built-in Freeview?

"Anyone who seriously expects their current TV to be still working in five years time is a hopeless optimist."

So John Lewis and other stores which offer a five year warranty on TVs must be charging an enormous markup to cover the fact that they're all going to break down then? Perhaps they're hopeless optimists too.

Andrew also mentions the switch from VHF to UHF. The difference being that VHF switchoff didn't happen for nearly twenty years, and I'd suggest that the number of sets + recorders in the country that needed to be replaced was somewhat lower on that occasion. »


Yes Dave, i totally agree with you.
Last week the last analog TV transmitter was shut down.
... I don't watch TV... it's boring and too passive and hitleristic in the sense you don't pick what you watch, you only have an illusion of choosing by shifting channels...

blah...
My dear Andrew, if people only complained about reasonable things, two things would happen.
First, there would be no more politicians or lawyers, because these two professions could hardly survive in a society where everyone is reasonable.
Second, the Internet would be a barren, lifeless place, since 99% of it is devoted to pointless and often patently wrong minutiae.
Can't have that, now can we ?
I have a black and white TV I bought in 1975. It still works. Is this a record :-)

Little Beckham probably has a small older tv with no scart socket. Trying to get a digibox with an rf out modulator is not so easy. £80 is probably about right.
5 Years for the life of a TV? the newest TV in our house is 7 years old and can still hold its own against the cheap slimmer freeview TV's. The oldest one is 15 ish years new and is probably working the best out of 5 sets
the fact that freeview boxes don't have a large buffer of at least 128mb. With bad weather and an analog signal you'll just get some ant-war on your telly, whilst with digital - the screen will crash into blocks.
"Anyone buying an analogue-only TV is an idiot and anyone who seriously expects their current TV to be still working in five years time is a hopeless optimist. These things have a design life of three years, after which time you're supposed to buy a better one. If your TV is still working after five years you can count yourself very lucky indeed"

With all due respect, Mr Thomas, ; if you are seriously recommending that people buy a new T.V. every 3 years, then I would submit that you are the idiot.
Dear Mr Thom-arse!

Why do my comments never appear on your lousy website?

Is it something to do with the fact that they are critical of the article you have just written? Is it the fact that my comments highlight the factual inaccuracies in your pieces?

Perhaps you should re-do the CSE that you did in "Writing-more-than-three-coherent-sentences" at "Chipping-Norton-catering-and -incontinence-training-correspondance-college" in 1976?

Yours, Bertram

PS: You didn't buy Phil Collins a pint. You bought him half a coke, you tight wad.
Dear Mr Thom-arse!

Why do my comments never appear on your lousy website?

Is it something to do with the fact that they are critical of the article you have just written? Is it the fact that my comments highlight the factual inaccuracies in your pieces?

Perhaps you should re-do the CSE that you did in "Writing-more-than-three-coherent-sentences" at "Chipping-Norton-catering-and -incontinence-training-correspondance-college" in 1976?

Yours, Bertram

PS: You didn't buy Phil Collins a pint. You bought him half a coke, you tight wad.