Digital - the future or a step back?

[IRONICA]

I have always been excited about technology progress, and digital TV is no exeption. However, like everything else it's only good if it works! Buying a new car is a great experience and getting rid of that old one makes you feel like you are making progress. But it's no good if it wont start in the mornings and spends more time being "fixed" and of no use. That old reliable car you were so keen to get rid of now seems a far more attractive proposition. And so it is with digital TV. Having had TV Drive installed in January i have been through the usual problems with the box freezing and corrupt recordings. While this seems to be Ok for now, we have suddenly found ourselves with blank screens and "No signal" displayed on the screen. Calls to Virgin and "fixes" being sent down the line have yet to resolve the problem, so its back on the phone tomorrow again. We went an entire evening unable to get a picture, no matter what we tried. So now i am forced to re-introduce that wonderful invention - an areil lead. I really didnt think i needed to bother having another lead trawling round my living room, but if i want to guarantee watching teresstial Tv then thats my only option. Thinking back to the good old days i could have several connections from the same areial around the house - all for free. And you know what? i could watch a different programme in every room! If i want to fork out for additional boxes i can enjoy digital pictures of course. And then there is teletext.... i wont even go there....

When analogue systems get turned off im sure we can look froward to cozy nights in front of the radio, while our expensive Tv systems sit there not working. Mind you, we could all be at the mercy of DAB by then and who knows - we may have to start making our own entertainment!

I have given serious thought to moving over to Sky, but i guess it will just bring a different set of problems. So for now ill keep ringing Virgin and hope i can see what i have paid to see. But i wont hold my breath... now where did i put that monoploy.....

[12noon]

Your post was a bit OTT but well worth reading.

Anyway time to turn the PC off and go find my trusty old ZX Spectrum. Who needs a PS3 anyway !

[Web-Junkie]

Not to mention cramming 'too low' bitrate streams down the cable so you can watch a multitude of poor blocky pictures on your expensive digital TV, it makes digital look soooooo appealing!

Ah, I said not to mention that didn't I, oops!

[Ignatius]

Originally Posted by IRONICA

. Thinking back to the good old days i could have several connections from the same areial around the house - all for free. And you know what? i could watch a different programme in every room!

The issue here is that we're in a "transition" period. We all have 3 or 4 (or more) TVs around the house with ANALOGUE tuners. In 10 years time when all those TVs have been replaced, they will all have DIGITAL (Freeview) tuners and yet again you will be able to run an aerial cable around the house and watch a different (Freeview) channel in every room.

So, how does this relate to VM? - well, VM provide a different type of tuner. As there is only 1 tuner in each box (excepting V+) - therefore 1 channel at once. This has nothing to do with DIGITAL technology per se - only with the implementation.

These same implementation issues affect both Sky and Cable. The only solution I can think of is for a new class of set top box. These would be responsible for tuning into multiple channels and outputting the signals in a format that a freeview tuner could receive. In this way, your current freeview tuners could be leveraged to allow multiple channels via the existing aerial wire that you've already run.

Of course, that'll never happen.

[RedDragon]

Buying a TV with built in freeview will at least give you a backup to Sky or VM if the STB should fail.