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All posts by MikeB

Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

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Around the Bend? | Rigger's zone
Thursday 21 August 2014 9:14PM

MikeP: There are plenty of concepts which are announced at CES and then die in the market, but I just checked my employers website:

Out of the 114 TV's of 32in or over (which is where the bulk of the market is), 97 had Freeview HD tuners (so not the cheapest cheapest end of the market). Out of that 97, 90 were smart (again, not the cheaper end, but rather decent entry and above). 65 of those 90 are 3D.

Curry's website has 196 TV's of 32in or over listed, with 96 equiped with 3D (they tend to have more TV's at the lower end of the market, so I'd expect less 3D TV's), but thats still about 50%.

3D certainly hasn't been the goldmine manufacturers expected (this discussion is a perenial at Britmovie), but its has not gone away. Instead, a decent midlevel or higher TV has 3D thrown in for free - its standard, and your paying no more for it. What your paying for is the panel quality and the picture. Get a better picture, and almost certainly it will be 3D. 3D is standard, whether you use it or not, certainly for the mid market upwards.

Where Samsung leads, others tend to follow. TV's are Smart because Samsung cames out with them (SMART is a Samsung phrase). TV's are LED because Samsung broght them out first (the Sharp LED's of the same year were wretched), and TV's look all minimalist and ultra thin bezels because Samsung brought out their 8000 series a couple of years ago which looked like a piece of Art Nouveau. Many TV's have Skype cameras because Samsung did it (although strangely this year Samsung have largely done away with them).

I'm not always a Samsung fan, but I have to admit that they do things and sell TV's, and others will want to as well. In fact LG came out with a curved panel for their OLED's, so its not just one company. In fact what will appear from the likes of Sony and Panasonic will hinge on what they can source from their suppliers, particularly LG. I'm actually not interested in the curve - we just want the best quality for our customers, and we will judge accordingly.

Lets wait and see what happens in January - always an interesting time!

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Dave: You found the problem, with is great. One question - without the booster part, whats the signal like?

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trevorjharris: Your particular world view tends to lead you on a particular direction. Try reading Friedon's post again and imagine him being sarcastic...

BTW - nice job Friedon!

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M
Full technical details of Freeview
Friday 22 August 2014 4:22PM

Michael Cunningham: If you click on the M's home to mast plot and M's DigitalUK tradeview beside your question, you'll see that your position/geography makes Conway Light transmitter the only one you can reasonable get (the Light is there to make sure you at least get something).

If you want more, Freesat is probably your best bet, if you have the chance to 'see' the sat.

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Daniel: If your getting a poor signal, its generally something to do with your system. If you supply a postcode, it woulld help discover why you might have a poor system.

Believe it or not, reception in the US isn't always perfect either, even without the hurricanes...

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trevorjharris: We've had the World Cup, etc, but there was plenty of other things available, and there were no more repeats than at any other time. Brianist has repeatedly demonstrated that a 'sell-off' would be pointless and economically only bring in a very limited amount of money, even if it were possible.

Of course, the fact that you couldn't work out that Friedon Milton was being sarcastic (the name might have been a giveaway) and was doing what is often called a 'Poe' shows that you have a one track mind. There is none so blind as whose refuse to see.

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Matt: 'Why oh why can they just not make a pvr with an rf2 output!!!! '

Because that would make life easy! I also suspect its because RF's tend to be a 'Sky Eye' thing, and most other manufacturers simply dont bother with it. Of coures if they did they could use it as a selling point, making it easier for people to switch from Sky.

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KMJ,Derby: But, but that cannot be....Sky is perfect!

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Eve: If you were going to have problems with 4G, they should have sent you a filter. If you click on the terrain link and the DigitalUK one, they reckon you can use Mendip with no bother (or Wenvoe), which would give you a full service. Frankly, if your signal is so degraded that you only get occasional reception on BBC1 when your just a km away from a transmitter, there must be something seriously wrong with your system, or you are tuned into a very distant transmitter.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Tuesday 26 August 2014 12:24PM

Garry E Hunt: There might be an even more simple explaination - your location in Westbourne (I know it well) may have a poor aerial system, where rain gets into it (perhaps via a degraded seal), which causes you to loose the signal. Your London location's aerial system is probably fine.

Thats not to say that there might be other factors (Digital UK reckons your a bit marginal for Rowbridge, while the terrain looks fine), but I suspect its rain getting into the system thats the most important factor.

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