Are TV manufacturers doing enough...

Are TV manufacturers doing enough to move British television into the next generation - and have digital and widescreen TV as the industry standard.

The TV stations seem to be doing their bit - creating widescreen programming and new digital channels, but are the manufacturers of the actual televisions prohibiting more people from seeing them.

The standard format in shops still appear to be 4:3, while widescreen TVs usually feature analogue pictures which are squashed to fill the screen. In terms of television, to get the widescreen picture you need a digital tuner - should they automatically be fitted with one?

Discuss and continue...

I think all new TV's should be fitted with a DTT reciever as standard, as for widescreen, in Jersey at least - it's hard to get hold of 4:3 for anything above 21" and below that is a little silly in widescreen anyway.

But then with freeview boxes selling for less than £50 does it really matter? The most hardcore refusnicks won't be buying a new TV in a hurry anyway.

Have a look in Currys or Dixons. The vast majority of televisions they are selling are widescreen (portables excepted).

No Curries or Dixons in Jersey i'm afraid

As i'm sure leftofmiddle will know, if you walk into our local Woolworths in town, the TV section they have there, 80% of the TVs there are standard square box TVs, i believe there are only 3 Widescreen TVs on offer, which aren't very good anyway. And it seems as if half the islands shops are like that too.

Could be something todo with the fact that Channel still isn't in widescreen, but everything else is, why shouldn't we want widescreen TVs?!

I brought a 4:3 TV from Brennans Langlois a couple years ago when you 'almost' had a choice but if you go to Powerhouse they have a nice range of Widescreen TV's, apart from the few in Woolworths there are actually quite a few WS tv's around the island.

Your better off buying it online though - you will actually save the VAT and a lot of places offer free delivery (yes even to Jersey).

But this is going away from the original point.

Adding another angle - what about HDTV - should TV's be moving in that direction - maybe plasma should be made a lot cheaper?

I personally hate Plasma TVs. For the price you pay the quality is abismol! Sure you can stick it on your wall, but unless you've only got DVDs and Digital Television, everything you watch is seriously pixellated on VHS and analogue transmissions.

You pay around £4000 for a 42' Plasma TV, when for £700 you can get a CRT 42' Screen which has Trinitron quality, is 100 times crisper than Plasma and you save all that money! Ok it's got a really fat ass but who the hell cares!?

I didn't realise that this was an essay question for a media studies exam?

I
As someone who lives in the Channel Islands, what use would you have for a DTT TV? There isn't any DTT in the islands yet.

As for whether or not manufacturers could be 'doing more' to increase takeup of digital and widescreen, well they're not going to. Manufacturers only make things they believe they can sell. They are driven by what the consumers want, not by what the industry wants or a country's government wants. As long as people continue to want to buy analogue TV's with a 4:3 screen, the manufacturers will continue to make them.

And of course that also means that since enough people want to buy a TV that is analogue or 4:3 (or both) to make it viable to continue producing them, then that means that a large number of the people want exactly that type of equipment and DON'T WANT widescreen or digital.

With that in mind, why should change try to be forced against the people's will?

Funnily enough i remember FOTOSOUND in Jersey selling TVs equipped with DTT not so long ago. Wonder how many comebacks they got on that, lol

When I said I think all tv's should be DTT by default I was speaking generally not just based on my situation in Jersey.

Maybe all new TV's should be sold WITHOUT a receiver then people can choose what they want - joking on this of course.

Why should someone who only wants Sky or freeview be forced to buy a tv with a analogue tuner? Technology changes and regardless of whether we like it or not within the next 20-30 years ALL analogue will have to be switched off - for a start the analogue transmitter costs are going to become crippling as old equipment needs replacing and it gets harder to get parts.

Question: If you had a television without an analogue reciever, just a DTT box or Sky, would you still have to pay the License fee?

Well there are some loopholes - I'm sure there's one related to people with a TV Card rather than TV not having to pay.

If you have a device capable of recieving a television signal you have to pay a tv licence this includes PC TV Capture Cards, SKY, DTT and Analogue Terrestrial - I think it also includes Cable - so if your TV doesn't have a reciever you don't have to pay BUT if you have a reciever attached to it you do.