TV on the way out?

PC

Paul Clark 6 June 2005 2:24am

[quote="Barney Boo"]

DAS posted:

In my experience, the modern ones tend to die suddenly - they bang, click or flash, or slip away in the night. The ancient ones tend to drag the process along a bit. The picture will quiver or distort, the sound will gently fizzle out, or the buttons will, one by one, decide to go into retirement. I think the ancient televisions are far more courteous in their death process, allowing you enough time to research a newer replacement that will inevitably die months afterwards.

One electrical object that I have never seen 'die' is a TV. I have a stereo that is somewhat crippled (the buttons for the recording tape deck have come loose, the CD player's laser is knackered and won't read) and a PC that suddenly went in the night.

One old TV (a Toshiba 28") had slight problems keeping the same brightness/contrast, and that problem occurred on the current set in this room (but only when playing most DVDs, which has only just been solved), but never have I seen one actually start to severely falter or fizzle out.

If I knew the TV was on the blink, I'd start searching for another one, ready to buy when the old one gives up (or becomes generally unviewable).

MA

max_naylor 8 June 2005 6:17pm

I've never seen I TV 'die' as such, but I had an old Ferguson 14" in my room where you had to turn the dials on the back to tune the channels. The only problem was it suddenly stopped remembering what I'd tuned into - I'd have to retune it every time I switched it on. It eventually got replaced last year with a Bush televideo, within about two weeks the buttons channel up/down buttons wouldn't go below channel 3, and now not below channel 4. They don't make 'em like they used to.

JV

James Vertigan Founding member 8 June 2005 6:29pm

Hmm.. since writing this I've had no problems with my TV cutting out briefly like I said at the start of the thread... strange!

:-(

A former member 8 June 2005 10:14pm

Average lifespan of a television is said to be only 7 years.

I think a lot depends on how much you move the set around.

Our sets are 1, 2, 5, 9 and 14 years old, all working as well as the day they were bought.

TV

tvarksouthwest 9 June 2005 1:20am

max_naylor posted:

I've never seen I TV 'die' as such, but I had an old Ferguson 14" in my room where you had to turn the dials on the back to tune the channels. The only problem was it suddenly stopped remembering what I'd tuned into - I'd have to retune it every time I switched it on. It eventually got replaced last year with a Bush televideo, within about two weeks the buttons channel up/down buttons wouldn't go below channel 3, and now not below channel 4. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Seems they don't. In an ideal world the government would force tighter quality controls on manufacturers. But that'll never happen on competitiveness grounds.

I bought a DVD recorder yesterday and in a refreshing change, wasn't even asked about extended warranty. Normally they're browbeating you to buy one.

(June 2005)