All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MikeP: I'm sorry to disagree with you, but those standards are now obsolete. The basis for the x6 figure came from an old Canadian Soc. of Opthemology report, but now makes no sense.
Go to any TV show-room and try actually standing 4m away from a 32in TV - you will barely be able to see it. A 40in from 5m is again, very small. In fact my old 21in CRT is 6 feet away from me - if the 6 to 1 rule applies, then I should be 10 feet, which would be tiny. I would expect to be 1.5m from a 32in, and 10ft way from a 40in.
A quick look on the net shows a huge amount of advice, most of which is far closer than the 3 to 1 ratio I would use (based on manufacturer guidelines, although I notice they have decreased the ratio somewhat lately). US Consumer Reports reakons you should be 8-10ft from 46-50in Top TV Ratings | TV Buying Guide – Consumer Reports (personally I would find that unconfortable), while Currys thinks 2m for a 40in.
Which Magazine is in agreement with me http://www.which.co.uk/te…uy/, and includes a very nice little graphic.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to ask others what size/distance ratio they use - I suspect 6 to 1 will be in the minority.
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MikeP: I would point out that the most recent data you cite (do you have a link - Google scholar came up with very little) is 1998. It was only in that year that the first wide screen HD TV's appeared on the market, so any research would have been done on CRT's, and is of course 15 years old.
I did find a 2012 article from a Taiwanise study
Preferred viewing distance of liquid crystal high-definition television
which reckons 3-4 times the size of the screen is optimal, although the brightness and angle of viewing of any image played a role in the distance. Looking at those distances, its a little more conservative than the 2.5-3 ratio, but no where near 6x.
Your optician and family members might well report an increase in eye, neck problems, etc (but is anacdote data?) , but of course you have packaged several different possible problems together.
Wall mounting is not in itself bad, unless you are too close, have the TV too high, and with a poor angle of view. An article about mounting TV's above fireplaces in Lifehacker Why Mounting Your TV Above the Fireplace Is Never a Good Idea , met with a something of a backlash from people who had done just that, and found the criticisim unwelcome. I happen to agree with the article, but obviously not everyone has a had a negative experience.
Distance is something else, and as I've stated, 6x the screen size is simply no longer current (it could well be a plan by Specsavers to drum up custom, of course....). Even my most nervous customers are already something like 4-5 times the distance from their CRT screens, and have been so for a good decade or more, and plenty of people have been around about 10ft from the 32in LCD for at least 5 years (3.75 times screen size). 2.5x-3x the size is conservative, and my own employers thinks 1.6m from a 40in is fine.
Even if the 6x ratio was the correct advice, the reality is that nobody is using it, be it consumer groups, manufacturers or retailers, and especially consumers. It would be interesting to know what distance people actually sit from their TV's, but I know that if I suggested the 6x ratio, I would probably be laughed at.
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Chris: If I understand correctly your intention, you are continuing to use the Humax as your main PVR, with the Toshiba as your backup, with the chance to record to DVD via the HDD and play DVD's. By the look of the PDF, it only has one DVB tuner, which makes sense considering the general spec (Panasonic did something very similar).
Personally, I'd think about using it as a 'digibox' as well, since if you've got two scarts on the back of your TV (and yes, the RCA's would work as well), you've got one box - one connection, which will make life easier.
Ok, you can daisy chain everything, but for my old CRT (I might sell new TV's, but...!), I just split the signal, so that one went to the digibox, and one went to the PVR. A good metal splitter (about £2 on Amazon or Ebay), and aerial leads joined together via the splitter in a 'Y' formation is the easiest (mine are connected via F fittings, but whatever works). And then scart to each AV imput (the most used one first) from each box. If you have an RCA input, you could use that as well, but scart is easier.
If you are going to daisy chain, then obviously make sure the RF loop through operates while in standby (they should both do that) - I'm wondering if the Humax isn't doing that, so have a look. If it isn't, then either make it, or if thats just isn't happening, try the Toshiba first.
Just think of them as two boxes, and connect them in the easiest way possible. Daisy-chaining is neat, but has the problem that like any chain, its only as strong as the weakest link, and the more links, the more there is to go wrong. The advantage with splitting th signal is that the chain is very short, and so its easier to see any problem. If your really short of scarts (and pretty much any CRT should have two scarts plus RCA's), then I'd use a scart switching box - less than a tenner on Amazon.
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Chris: Your info sort of made part of my post obsolete before I could finish typing!
What TV do you have? You should have RCA's somewhere (you've got RGB, so you could get an adapter ), so you can use two devices - if you have a make/model no., we could look up the spec.
At worst, find your scart splitter - and then either add one bit to your system at a time (via aerial), or just split the aerial feed as I discribed.
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Chris: Logik....that explains a lot! BTW - it makes no mention of a Freeview tuner - does it have one?
Ok - Start with connections that your existing equipment has. You Humax will have scart, probably RCA's (the Yellow, Red and White ones), and possible HDMI (depending on its age). Use the scart, and connect it to the back of the TV in the scart connection AV1.
Your Toshiba has lots of niceish connections on the back (I wouldn't have recommended it, but thats another matter). It has something called Component connections on the rear of it, which will look like this: Component video - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - they are often called RGB (Red, Green, Blue) because...they are. Your TV also has these connections, so thats what I'd use (its sounds like you've used them with the Pioneer). You might have some kicking about (Xbox's etc still use them if needed), and also you'll need a pair of Red/White phono leads (RGB is video only), which your TV/Recorder will also have.
If you can't put your hands on them tonight, then any Maplin will do RGB's, and RCA's (try a poundstore for the latter as well).
OK - start with the aerial lead to the Humax, and check that RF loop (or something similar - hopefully a Humax owner will tell you exactly what to look for) is enabled during standby. Try looping the Tosh through, and make sure its hasn't got some sort of strange standby thing going on. If it doesn't work one way, try it the other.
Hopefully that should work, but if not, just get a splitter from Maplin tomorrow, and an extra aerial lead and split the signal. Check that the Tosh is actually working properly, since it really should not turn itself off like that, but it could be the aerial feed is loose or something.
Speaking professionally, I wouldn't have recommended the Tosh - its spec is very 3 years ago, and if you paid the internet price for it (£350ish), you could have got a Smart 32in TV with Freeview HH & Full HD from LG, Sony, Panasonic or Samsung with wifi, with 3 HDMI's, scart and RGB, and a £50 smart Blu-Ray would have done for the DVD's, etc.
Good luck, and let us know if it works.
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G. Murphy: If you supply a postcode, you can see for yourself if there are any 4G transmitters near you. If there are not, then fitting a filter would make no difference to the problem, and if there are ones nearby, then its possible that its nothing to do with 4G anyway (which is highly likely).
Also explain what the nature the problem is - is the signal breaking up, and what is the signal strength - high or low?
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Chris: Dont worry - if you got a good price for the Tosh, then thats fine, as long as it does what you want. A blu-ray only has HDMI anyway, so your TV wouldn't be compatable.
Its just that I often have customers trying to graft old kit onto newish kit. Sometimes its worth sitting down and looking at what you want to do long term, and when you add up the alternatives, it could well be buying new makes more sense.
You'll get modern connections, tuners, features, etc, and its just easier than spending about the same amount of cash on stuff that doesn't get them much further than where they already are.
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Rob Tyacke: Click the Digital UK tradeview link next to your question - it seems to be working ok
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Steve P: 'GHASTLY design. And no retaining screws'
Yes - as someone with a CRT TV, I know what you mean. They are heavy and break the sockets (I think one of my imputs is wonky, and the picture goes purple if the socket moves a little), dont always go in straight, and there are only so many connects on the back of a TV, which are now outnumbered by the boxes that need to be connected (I've just bought a scart switch).
However, you've also proved the point I've just made - at some point its just tough to put new technology into older equipment, and its often worth thinking sideways, or just thinking beyond the next box that fits.
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Friday 10 January 2014 8:12PM
Pete N: 'Great in big flat open places but in somewhere like the UK think again .' - wouldn't that apply to any and all radio transmissions?