Re: Who is ripping Old people off with move to Digital?


"steve" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2006.03.29.18.48.45.821916@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:21:15 -0800, davidrobinson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:

Ben wrote:
Clem Dye wrote:
Buying a box is
relatively straightforward for most people, but what about
installing
it

Do you mean plugging it in? Its a wonder these old people manage
to
clean their teeth without shoving the toothbrush up their arse,
or make
a cup of tea without accidentally putting bleach in it. Am I
completely
out of touch, or are there really people who, given a freeview
box,
won't have a clue what to do with it?

Stop being patronising Ben. There are thousands of people in the
UK who
are just clinging on to being able to live at home, rather than
being put
into one. They'll need help with the switch over, and are probably
just
the kind of vulnerable people who might get ripped off - though if
the
government pay for the "help", we'll all be getting ripped off,
and the
people who are "helped" may be little better off.

I bet many in this group and others would be willing to volunteer
their
time to help those that cannot fathom it - just need a coordinating
group
to ..err.. help the aged. It's probably too early to start though.
The sad
thing is people will spend more energy moaning about the government
not
doing anything about it rather than getting of their arses
themselves -
can you imagine the Daily Mail encouraging people to do so - or
would
they rather moan at Blair/Brown whoever.

Of course, we should all just help our elderly neighbours without
needing
to be organised.




Having gone down this road with elderly family friends there is one
major problem with 'going digital.' I have yet to find a TV that can
be made to power up on the line input, so getting from analogue
channels to SCART can present real problems. The same applies for VCR;
they are complex enough at the best of times, but add getting from
analogue to SCART can be a major headache. Forget about picture
quality - I doubt many elderly people will have the eyesight to see
the difference,

There is a simple answer, with only one downside AFAICS. Get a DTTV
box with a modulator - some Pioneers, some Fergusons, some Pace, and
AFAIK all Humax - and set TV channel 1 (switch-on channel) to the box
output. The downside is that boxes with modulators don't generate
NICAM, so if the user has a stereo telly they will only get mono.

I fear that given time the presence of a modulator will decay and
finally disappear, which is sad, just as the 'market' is pushing us
from the superb quality of a CRT TV to Plasma or even worse to LCD
like it or not.


--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com


.

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