Is this the future???

[hedgie]

Originally Posted by brianivor

I have analog TV only at the moment and a postcode check tells me that I cannot get Freeview now or in the future.

However, I am in a VM cable area.

I have been very tempted by the facilities promoted by Virgin for their V+box but being a belt and braces man, I have just spent two hours going through these Forums to see what I can expect if I go the cable digital route.

Oh, how I wish I hadn't!

The V+box seems to be giving people so many problems in setting it up and getting their other equipment (TV VCR DVD) to work with it - so many connections - so many permutations of wiring - so many settings to change.

I have had none of these problems with analogue - a few less channels true, but the picture quality is quite satisfactory (Yes I have seen HD from demo discs in Currys) and recording and archiving a program is simple.

Yes, I am missing out in some ways, but at my age I do not want the hassle experienced by you early adopters. I am computer literate, but it seems to me that far too little control has been exercised by the Audio/Video bodies over the years and development of new technology has allowed so many standards and protocols to be marketed which conflict with each other.

Surely with such a huge retail market available to electronics companies they could have come up with a standard protocol to simplify linking all this lovely kit together?

Sometimes I think the public are just being used as guinea pigs: Get the new equipment on the market as soon as it half works to make some money for more research and we'll let the public have all the initial aggravation and tell us what needs to be done to complete the task of putting a half decent item of equipment on the market.

Despite all this I would LOVE to go digital but in view of what I have read here today, I think I might wait till analogue is switched of in (for me) 2012 and I am forced to experience the problems you guys are having - maybe they will have it sorted by then!

Please would somebody tell me I have got it all wrong??

All I can say is the installation of my V+ has been simple, the box works. I am in an ex NTL(Nynex) area. Best upgrade I have done. HDMI alone is worth the upgrade, if only to get rid those SCART connectors! I use a splitter to get Composite video and audio to my recorder so that elininates SCART issues.

Being critical the volume does not seem to work but there are threads regarding programming the volume on the V+ remote So even this minor gripe should be fixable.