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Freeview TV - completely shit


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In that case if we're just making blanket statements about Freeview: Get an outdoor aerial. :up:

Not necessarily necessary, as I've just said I get perfect reception and a strong signal on all channels with my ten quid loft aerial out of Argos.

Anyway, a couple of months ago you were recommending that everyone should go for the crappy picture quality option of Freesat, so I guess we should take your "professional" opinion with a pinch of salt.

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Not necessarily necessary, as I've just said I get perfect reception and a strong signal on all channels with my ten quid loft aerial out of Argos.

Anyway, a couple of months ago you were recommending that everyone should go for the crappy picture quality option of Freesat, so I guess we should take your "professional" opinion with a pinch of salt.

Does Freesat give poor picture quality? I would have expected it to be better than Freeview given that the receiver's a dish rather than an aerial! I know fuck all about these things though! I'm on actual Sky TV, and it does me fine - it is very expensive though - especially if you add Setanta so you can watch the amazingly high standard of football that is SPL! :up:

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Does Freesat give poor picture quality? I would have expected it to be better than Freeview given that the receiver's a dish rather than an aerial! I know fuck all about these things though! I'm on actual Sky TV, and it does me fine - it is very expensive though - especially if you add Setanta so you can watch the amazingly high standard of football that is SPL! :up:

Freesat is broadcast at a much lower bitrate than Freeview so the picture is poorer quality, though not by too much. I'd rather have a slightly poorer quality picture than no picture at all though. A point that seems to have been lost on Bigsby.

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I'd rather have a slightly poorer quality picture than no picture at all though. A point that seems to have been lost on Bigsby.

That's all well and good, but what you actually suggested was that everyone in Aberdeen should get Freesat, not just folk that can't get good reception.

Everyone in Aberdeen should give up on terrestrial broadcasts and go the Freesat route in my opinion.

Anyhoo, I've never had Freesat, but I had Sky until recently.

On my old 28" CRT telly Sky looked great. However, when I shifted to a 37" LCD the Sky picture looked abysmal. Freeview is much, much better.

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That's all well and good, but what you actually suggested was that everyone in Aberdeen should get Freesat, not just folk that can't get good reception.

Anyhoo, I've never had Freesat, but I had Sky until recently.

On my old 28" CRT telly Sky looked great. However, when I shifted to a 37" LCD the Sky picture looked abysmal. Freeview is much, much better.

More choice, HD Broadcasts, better audio support (optical digital feeds). Its a lot more attractive proposition than you might understand. What sort of LCD do you have by the way, some have better scalers than others and how do you connect your sKy box to your TV?

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More choice, HD Broadcasts, better audio support (optical digital feeds). Its a lot more attractive proposition than you might understand. What sort of LCD do you have by the way, some have better scalers than others and how do you connect your sKy box to your TV?

Patronising, much?

HD broadcasts on Freesat are limited to BBC HD and very occasional broadcasts on ITV HD, my telly has an optical out and I've just had a look at the channel list and the "extra" channels that you don't get on Freeview are all total pish (Wedding TV?), the likes of which I never, ever watched during the 12 years I was a Sky subscriber.

My Sky box was connected via RGB scart, I have a Toshiba LCD, can't remember the model off the top of my head but it's upscaling capabilities are excellent as DVDs look fantastic through RGB scart.

Just face it, the picture quality on satellite is gash, through SD at least.

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Patronising, much?

HD broadcasts on Freesat are limited to BBC HD and very occasional broadcasts on ITV HD, my telly has an optical out and I've just had a look at the channel list and the "extra" channels that you don't get on Freeview are all total pish (Wedding TV?), the likes of which I never, ever watched during the 12 years I was a Sky subscriber.

My Sky box was connected via RGB scart, I have a Toshiba LCD, can't remember the model off the top of my head but it's upscaling capabilities are excellent as DVDs look fantastic through RGB scart.

Just face it, the picture quality on satellite is gash, through SD at least.

Well, despite my knowledge on the subject you always seem very keen to patronise me and tell me i'm wrong, i'll concede that "might realise" would have been a better way of putting it.

Take it from me Toshiba LCD televisions are terrible compared to Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and even Sharp. They are very much viewed as lower tier these days which is a shame considering their CRT Televisions were superb, especially the latter Z Series "Picture Frame" sets they were great value for money. One of the most amazing quirks i've ever experienced on a TV was a tendency for particular ranges of Toshiba LCD Televisions to "forget" how to receive signals from their own remote controls. The answer to this was to short out the remote with a pair of pliers to "reset" it. You can only imagine how well customers received that. Their tech support (for both customers and trade) is comedic as well, almost on a par with Philips.

I've never said that Satellite isn't worse than Freeview picture quality-wise, i just think that it is a more attractive prospect than Freeview (as a whole) in this particular area. I get a great Freeview picture but believe me, you and i are in a minority in this neck of the woods. If you had to go through as many phonecalls a day about poor Freeview reception as i do you would probably get where i'm coming from.

As a side point, i don't even sell Freesat or Sky. Freeview is great if you get everything, but because of the way the multiplexes are ordered it's a total lottery as to what you get if the signal is weak at all.

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I don't think you can generalise all Toshiba products as being shit, I've compared my telly with lots of others belonging to my friends and the only one who has a better picture has a Panasonic plasma. My Toshiba is as good if not better than any of their LCDs, partly down to the fact that for upscaling it uses a Cortez chipset. Given your "knowledge" I am sure you know that these are made by Genesis Microchip and also feature in lots of high end upscaling DVD players, including Oppo.

And I don't think I've ever patronised you, I just find it comical that because you sell tellys in Bruce Miller's you come across like you think you know everything about AV equipment and that nobody else could possibly know anything. It's eerily reminiscent of this, nearly 30 years ago:

YouTube - Not the Nine O'Clock News Gramophone Sketch

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I don't think you can generalise all Toshiba products as being shit, I've compared my telly with lots of others belonging to my friends and the only one who has a better picture has a Panasonic plasma. My Toshiba is as good if not better than any of their LCDs, partly down to the fact that for upscaling it uses a Cortez chipset. Given your "knowledge" I am sure you know that these are made by Genesis Microchip and also feature in lots of high end upscaling DVD players, including Oppo.

And I don't think I've ever patronised you, I just find it comical that because you sell tellys in Bruce Miller's you come across like you think you know everything about AV equipment and that nobody else could possibly know anything. It's eerily reminiscent of this, nearly 30 years ago:

YouTube - Not the Nine O'Clock News Gramophone Sketch

I don't recall saying that they were shit and i agree with not-generailising as there are even some good Philips, Sharp and LG televisions.

All pictures are subjective to the people viewing them and i'm glad you're happy with your purchase but there are a lot of people who disagree with you within the industry and press.

Thing is i don't just "sell tellys in Bruce Millers", i'm an AV enthusiast (something i do outside work) and read a lot of material surrounding the subject and i'm kept quite busy on industry training courses as well. I object to being lumped in with the chimps who work in places like Comet and Curry's as i put a lot of time and effort into providing customers with accurate advice and try and make sure that they walk away with something that they want and is useful to them and if i can't help them myself i'm more than happy to advise them with regard to where to go to meet their needs.

I pride myself on my customer service and knowledge and the fact that customers come back to me over and over speaks volumes to me and i appreciate it. I'm more than happy to help anyone and by all means feel free to pop in and have a chat sometime as i'm sure we could find some common ground AV-wise.

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My Grundig Freeview TV's like that. It's just in my room though, downstairs is fine, most of the time my brother's room is fine (but I suppose it's at the front, facing North?). Though, my room's above where we have our freeview box, so, shouldn't it be the same? I mean, it's the same ariel and everything?

EDIT: I only read the first page, sorry.

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I just turned it on to watch Neighbours and there was a loud bang and a puff of smoke. I wanted to watch the soccerball tonight as well.

This now means I need to invest in a new freeview box, any suggestions?

Get a cheap one from Asda?! That way if it explodes again you wouldn't have wasted your money.

Mine was only 20 and it's still working fine and dandy.

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I just turned it on to watch Neighbours and there was a loud bang and a puff of smoke. I wanted to watch the soccerball tonight as well.

This now means I need to invest in a new freeview box, any suggestions?

Depends what you want. Just a freeview box, PVR, DVD Recorder w/Freeview.

If it's just a basic box then you can pick up a fairly cheap one from a Supermarket. Or if you want longevity i would suggest one of the following brands: Sagem, Thomson, Humax, Philips, Panasonic. They may set you back a little more though. The internet would be a good place to start on individual models and you may get a bargain too.

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Depends what you want. Just a freeview box, PVR, DVD Recorder w/Freeview.

If it's just a basic box then you can pick up a fairly cheap one from a Supermarket. Or if you want longevity i would suggest one of the following brands: Sagem, Thomson, Humax, Philips, Panasonic. They may set you back a little more though. The internet would be a good place to start on individual models and you may get a bargain too.

Thanks for the sensible reply. I would just need a basic box, but I'm not keen on replicating last night's incident. I shall have a swatch on the internet at those brands you recommended.

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A lot of those ASDA ones had to be recalled recently as part of the electrical innards were exposed and were causing electrical fires.

I got mine about 3 years ago. Tesco also do similar...

I was thinking more immediately about his need for watching the football...

However, it is on channel 3 if normal tv channels are watchable.

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