These flatscreen tvs... I think ours is an LCD one.... utter crap... why

when you are watching footy on it, especially if you sit too close, does the pitch look like it is a swirling mess of green soup?
If that is modern technology then it is pretty bloody awful.
Is there any kind of tv that shows up a clearer picture that doesn't look like green bile?

 

I've got a second hand Beko 14inch roundback. It must be 15 years old and cost me 40 quid. I get a bit frustrated with it, but for the amount of telly I watch (not much), I can't justify buying a new one. Not when there are lots of lovely guitars out there to buy.

 

Is this through an HD channel or not? If not, then it's garbage in, garbage out I'm afraid.

If it is through an HD channel, stop sitting too close to the TV.

 

Yeah, welcome to the brave new world of digital TV. "Motion looks like progress."

 

We do not have HD.... does that make a difference to the overall effect on an LCD tv?
How does an LED tv compare with an LCD, picture wise?

 

Modern stuff is crap.

In standard definition I've yet to see an LED, LCD or plasma telly with anywhere the same kind of picture quality as the 25 year old CRT we not long since got rid of. Speaking of which, how many of these new tellies will last that long?

HDTV is the biggest lie we've ever been sold. I've got more pixels on my 19" monitor than on my 42" HDTV. And the signal is compressed well beyond the borders of ****, so that each frame is an abortion of an image. If you got a jpeg in that state you'd throw it out. HDTV is 2.1 megapixels. Even the shittiest little camera phone will take pictures with more pixels than that. If you printed a HDTV frame out as a 6x4 photo it'd look crap even before the compression.

Digital radio is ****. Unless you stand on a chair in that one spot in your house where you can get a signal with your left leg stuck out to one side and your right arm to the other then every channel sounds like it was recorded under water. Do you know why so many car radio manufacturers are resisting putting digital radio on to their appliances? Because DAB is ****, they know it won't work properly and they don't want their customers getting irate and returning their products. I've picked up Radio Sheffield in Newcastle, Burnley, Lincoln all over on the most basic equipment. You sometimes can't pick up DAB if you can see the transmitter and have a 100ft aerial.

All digital music is ****. How many CDs have you bought that no longer play? How many bounce along from first track to last skipping every second word? How many have cracked or smashed? How many MP3s have you lost due to computer crashes, disk failures etc, etc? We're supposed to back everything up and after being burnt a few times we all tend to do that more these days, but after every malfunction you always lose something. The first time it happened we lost a hell of a lot. I don't consider I own any music unless I've got it on vinyl. I got my first album for my 6th birthday in 1978. Queen's News of the World. It still plays perfectly. In fact, I think I'll put it on.

For my 16th birthday I got some Technics separates (turntable, amp, tuner, double tape). 25 years on it's getting a bit wobbly, but it still works. About 10 years ago I bought a Technics CD player to fit to it. It lasted 2 years. About 4 years ago our 35 year old washing machine (inherited from my Grandma) finally gave up the ghost. We've had two new ones since.

The video recorder I bought in the 90s had a system where by it wouldn't start recording the show you had set to record until just before it started and wouldn't stop recording it until after it had finished. Sort of vital really and the least you would expect. If the schedule was running late you'd still get your show recorded. All of it. If there was extra time you'd still get all the football. If the show was a bit longer than stated you'd still get it all. If it started a bit early you'd still get it all. This digital PVR ******** I've got now regularly misses the start and end of shows.

******* lightbulbs. You used to walk in to a dark room, switch the light on and low and behold the room was light. Now you switch the light on and you get a kind of gloom. You've got to anticipate which rooms you might need lighting up in half an hours time, switch the lights on and give them time to warm up.

Mobile phones. It used to piss me off that people could contact me when at home. Now they can bug me when I'm out! Leave me alone you b'astards.

Sat Navs. Learn to read a map you bloody idiots.

 

Likr. Add spellcheck to the list.

 

It depends not on the tv you own (unless it's a really poor one!) but the compression rate that the tv company is using over satellite. Some stations save bandwidth, and therefore money, by using a low compression, thus you get a crap picture that's blocky and swirly etc.. That's on standard tv channels btw. ITV was terrible for this during the last world cup if i remember correctly.

BT Sport incidentally has a lovely standard of picture, even on my old not HD/LCD tv. Super quality.

 

What are you using for your aerial? A victoria sponge?

 

Dunno - when we were in Wales I put it on scan and all it found was Radio 2 and Radio Wales!

Best stations are on MW anyway!

 

I agree about tellys, the motion blur and judder is horrendous. Just got an LG32" replacing a CRT26" and anything that moves quickly is unwatchable it just jerks along until the movement slows down. I can't watch "The Thick of It" because the camera is always moving around. Try it yersen. I don't think Plasma's are as bad but LCD's are *****.

 

I listened to the Barnsley Huddersfield match in May (well, the snippets on 5 live) on a DAB radio half way up the Cheviot in the middle of nowhere, reception was perfect. However, later in the summer I tried to listen to the cricket and it was hopeless in most places in the Yorkshire Dales.

 

My vintage 14inch Beko round-back has none of these problems.

By the the way, if anyone out there has an old 1957 Fender Stratocaster, I have a brand spanking new one that I might swap you for it.