All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mike Dimmick: Thats an excellent overview of the kind of challenges universal (and adequate) net access faces, even if it wasn't BT bascially in charge!
However, even if by some miracle BT did manage to get a decently robust network to the bulk of UK citizens, there are still barriers to all TV services switching over to the web.
We are generally unaware of just how hot a topic 'Net Neutrality' is in the US. 'Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers may not discriminate between different kinds of content and applications online. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies. ' Net neutrality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a major topic because a change to the 'common carrier' rule would (its argued) give the chance for a 'two tier' internet. For the UK, you have to ask youself, if I was Sky, would I be happy that the only real means of transmission of my product was over the net work owned by my rival? BT have just bid a large amount of money for football rights, against Sky, and wants to supply other content. Virgin Media also supplies content. There well might be other networks, but these two are certainly the only ones with 'last mile' acces to the vast majority of homes. So you have a duopoly, which seldom serves the customer well.
Now obviously no ISP would bar or throttle the access of a rivals content, would they? Well, thats exactly what US cable companies did Proof that US ISPs deliberately harmed US consumers and businesses and its seems that using too much data meant that AT & T also throttled speeds Federal Trade Commission Sues AT&T For Limiting Data Speed , which might be interesting when everyone wants to watch the Cup Final via the net.
US consumers mostly watch via cable, but they really dont like the companies that supply them very much. Many are basically local monopolies, often with poor service, high rates, and bundling means that you pay for channels that you will never watch, such as sports. And of course some cable companies are huge. Comcast owns cable companies, ISP's, NBC Universal and Time Warner, which means there are clear conflicts of interest. They also wanted fees to improve Netflix access speeds More Digital News from Variety
If I was Sky, using just the net makes the delivery of my services reliant on the very people I am in competition with, and much the same can be said of Netflix, etc. You have what you hold, and if Sky has its own means of transmission, then keeping that might make a lot of sense. The same might be said for the terrestial broadcasters - Aquiva isnt going to throttle the speed of transmission, it isn't going ask for 'special payments', etc.
So at present, the network does not yet exist to handle that much data, and even if it did, it does not reach everywhere. And its gatekeepers are currently a duopoly, who are in direct competition with other providers. I'm sure its going to work out well......
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Rega: A lot of fridge freezers dont have an external display, thats true, although I checked on the Bosch range, and they seem to have an internal screen. I suspect that not having an external display is as much for asthetic reasons as anything else. I agree that a simple 1-5 control is slightly basic, although whether its a price point thing is unclear - I'm going to do some research the next time in work!
While not as pessimistic as you are about the time csales for connected freezers, I suspect we wont see them for the next couple of years. Manufacturers need to look at the actual market, and if the smart fridge didn't really sell, then they'll try something else. In the case of Samsung, its the 'smart home' , with smart connections available for various devices, rather than building them in. Samsung seemed to have developed a 'Chef Collection' at much the same time, which was high end and seemingly sold better than Smart, so thats what they are going with. LG also seems to have been a bit quiet on the whole concept.
There are commercial smart systems around http://www.controlbyweb.c…tml, which make a huge amount of sense. If I had a catering company and large amounts of stuff in freezers, knowing their tempreture at any time sounds like a good thing! On the other hand, until we all start buying all food online with RFID chips in packaging, the smart part of most fridges will be slightly OTT.
On the other hand, your right in that a decent outward display would not go amiss. Perhaps some feedback to the manufacturers might help. This Samsung machine has exactly the sort of display which would really help the average user - Samsung RL52VPBIH1 320L Fridge Freezer | 65cmx190cm .Its odd that more manufacturers dont have such a layout, either inside or out, and save the wine rack they always ship and in our case, gets removed instantly.
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Gerry Chis: Ok, so your using the Sky box as a digibox, and you'd daisy-chained a DVD into it. I have no idea how to do that, but I'm sure JB38 has answered that question before!
However, first thing to ask is - how many scarts/rca connections do you have (model number would be a help)? I've got an old Philips CRT, and Ive got 2 scarts and an rca on them, and I'd be surprised that a Samsung would just have a single scart on it. If you've more than one scart (or even an rca), just connect the scarts seperately and save yourself the hassle. RCA to scart convertors are the kind of thing you might even get in a pound shop.
The other thing you can get is a scart switchbox, which is a fiver or less on Amazon , or even a poundshop jobby, in theory. They are not great (interference) - I've got one!, but they are better than nothing.
Dont spend too much money if you can't daisy chain - your TV is going to die at some point, and its better to put the cash towards something decent.
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Tina: If your getting 'no signal' on your TV,then thats what it is - something from the aerial down to the TV has stopped working. Its most likely a broken cable, etc. No wonder Freeview or the BBC would not be able to help you - its like you complaining the the DVLA that you cannot drive on the road, due to the fact that your car won't start.
Get a professional to have a look. If you'd done that in the first place, you would probably have saved yourself the cost of satellite TV.
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Tina: But if your still getting 'no signal', which means thats there is a fault somewhere in your system..
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David: there could be a couple of reasons:
1) The box os not connected to your monitor via an HDMI cable. To be honest, I can't think how else it could be attached, so I think we can discountt that one.
2) The box has missed the mux, or even the correct transmitter. Because you put your postcode in (which is extremely useful!) we can see that Haslingden and Winter Hill are almost at the same distance, and almost on the same bearing. But the former starts at Channel 26, and the latter at Channel 50. If you box is like mine, it starts at the low numbers and works upwards - hence hitting Haslingden first. And Haslingden does not transmit Film 4 in HD...
The other thing could be thats its not a HD box (so a make/ model number would help), but I suspect your simply tuned into the wrong transmitter. Try taking out the aerial lead for the first 30% of the scan (David Lindsay's trick) and see if you just get Winter Hill. Its a bit hit and miss, but it should eventually work. Once tuned in, never retune!
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marion: Ok - first thing - does your TV just have a scart, or does it also have three little plugs, one yellow, one red and one white? These are called RCA's, and kind of do the same sort of thing as scarts..ish. You can get a convertor for these to make them into a scart (kind of) for a couple of pounds, which should inlcude the cables.
Assuming you just have a scart, some digibox's do have the way to connect a VCR to them, etc, but you'd have to look in the manual. Frankly, the easiest thing to do is get those scart switch boxes. You might even get one from a Pound shop, which look a bit like this
Bandridge 2 Way Scart Switch Box | Maplin
The one with the buttons should be about a tenner (which I have), but you could get a basic version for less than a fiver on Amazon. Dont spend too much money - your TV, VCR and digibox are all going to be replaced at some point by a new TV, etc, and there is no point spending a lot of money on a temp measure.
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Friday 13 February 2015 12:15AM
jb38: I must admit that the variable attenuator I bought really didn't seem to do much. I bought some cheap fixed ones from Amazon for less than £2 each, and the 12db works very well. The advantage with a number of different fixed ones is that you can put them in series if need be.
Remember that the Sony's tuners are pretty robust. My PVR was on 95% signal strength with only an occassional blip on BBC channels, which would have wiped out a Panasonic, for example, so it might be just on the tipping point.