When I moved into my house, I had to call out an Aerial Bod to sort out my TV. As I was under the impression that we were all going to transfer over to digital at any moment, I opted to receive only digital signals, which was also cheaper. I really wish I hadn’t.
- I am absolutely sick to death of sound blanks which often result in critical dialogue being missed
- I am sick of the picture stalling
- I am sick of momentary pixellations
- I am sick of channels being removed with no notice, only to find that if I call out The Bod again, they can be re-tuned – at a cost naturally.
- I am sick of not being able to record programmes unless I buy expensive and unwanted equipment
- I am also sick of digital radio with it’s poorer quality transmission that is out of sync with analogue.
If it wasn’t for BBC4, Yesterday and Dave, I would be tempted to return to analogue – except it would cost me another £100 to call The Bod out again to change it.
Bollocks.
Shaving Cream Bowl by Taylors of Old Bond Street 
Pleasantly Squashy Teddies in Red Gingham 
Pleasantly Squashy Rabbits in Blue Gingham 
Sew & Save Sewing Kit in a tin – with a little scratch 
Ladybird Book: British Railway Locomotives 
Likewise! In fact when it goes over to all digital I think I’ll give up TV altogether and do something more useful instead….
Digital radio and television is one of the very greatest cons ever perpetrated by a government on the public. Quite simply, the product is simply inferior to analogue. Emperor’s New Clothes comes to mind. I mean, whoever tells you that a digital radio takes time to warm up before you hear anything? Or that its time signal is wildly inaccurate? The only reason we’re all going digital is because of the vested interests of manufacturers who have lobbied Parliament. No other reason. Otherwise they’d be keeping analogue alongside it. And another thing, I seriously believe that analogue radio signals are now being interfered with so that we all rush out and buy crap digital sets. Grrr.
Before we got our super-dooper-biggest-aerial-in-the-village-plus-booster we lost channel 4 (and all the other channels on the same transmission MUX) every time it rained. We lost channel 5 (+ others) when it was windy.
Thankfully when the real switchover happens they will boost the signal to 20x its current strength and we should lose many of the problems with pixellation and loss of signal. We might even be able to turn our booster off.
WH, your digital box should be easily re-tunable without calling in a Bod. See if you’ve still got the instructions that came with the box, or next time you call The Bod get him to show you what he does, or leave some instructions.
You will have to re-tune twice at a fortnightly interval when the switchover happens, at the same time that everyone else on the same transmitter is re-tuning too. There won’t be enough Bods to go round.
I lost Dave Ja Vue for no known reason about 6 months ago. I have no idea how to retune the set (must look out the instructions). Mind you, as it is only Dave one hour behind, I can’t say I’m too worried.
Mind you, I know that there is an ITV2 +1 channel which isn’t tuned in. I just happened to find out that if I choose channel 33 (I’m on freeview), I can get it.
Like you, whilst the general quality of digital TV is fine, I find it is supremely irritating how it all goes to pot when we have any wind or rain (ooh, don’t we have those quite often in Britain?)
As for digital radio, I also agree. I occasionally have my radio on in one room and the TV tuned to the same radio channel in another, and the time lag infuriates me.
Couldn’t agree more, absolute bollos (or whatever you called them in your helpful mens’ section)…they try and seduce us with their sunrise fretwork -fronted imitations but they’re useless. And the tellies are even worse.
Television came into use after I was born and I saw one when I was about 11 or 12 years old. One of the first shows I saw was “I Love Lucy”. It is still on. I was so unimpressed initially that after 60 years I have still only seen a few episodes.
I have TV now, at an exorbitant price for a substandard product, only because I buy it for my bride. She likes it and sometimes I will watch it just to be in her company but it just as often chases me from the room. Usually a murder or two in the first few minutes has me out of there. My opinion is that it is a complete waste of ones life.
If budget cuts become necessary it is number one on the list and will be the first to go.
Thank God for BBC4. Though why it was necessary to destroy BBC2 and then reinvent it (but from 7pm only) I do not know. Bah!
I got so fed up with the poor reception round here I forked out for FreeSat.
To be honest I’ve had more fun with the cardboard box it came in.
O.S.M. B:53
(And Dave’s not on FreeSat.)
Can somebody please tell me what all the fuss is about?
We finally chucked out the television about five years ago, after we realised that we were maybe watching a film or a documentary every couple of weeks, but then again, maybe not. We now have a DVD player without a receiver, and buy the occasional film from a charity shop. (We do have, of course, a collection of 1950s sci-fi and British Transport Films to watch while ironing.) A few weeks ago, we saw a documentary on something called Iplayer, which I gather is a sort of BBC version of Youtube.
None of it (apart from the 1950s sci-fi) seems very exciting.
Am I missing something?
No.
O.S.M. B:53
I do find that being on my own and with children, I do rely on the telly a bit in the late evening because I can’t really go out and I want to see moving pictures of grown ups. I usually only watch for about an hour before I retire to write my blog and answer e-mails before bed. I watch Dave quite a bit for Have I Got News for You, QI and Mock the Week and there is occasionally something good on BBC 1, 2 or 4. Very occasionally they have some great TV dramas from the 70s and 80s on Yesterday but they’re usually on too early for me. The only good thing on ITV was Downton Abbey.
I have a large DVD collection!
We are! Well, we in Nottingham are, and I assume it is the same for you as you are not that far away.
The Digital UK postcode checker will tell you for sure: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/
Your post prompted me to check, since I dimly remembered it being imminent. Turns out they are turning off analogue BBC2 for me in just over a month!
It does seem a bit odd to me that you need to employ someone to retune your set-top box. You ought easily be able to do that yourself. (And you will need to, twice, during digital switchover.)
Welcome Alex – When I moved into my house last year I discovered that the previous tenants had taken the aerial with them so I needed The Bod to wack up a new one and do all the tuning while he was at it.
Thanks for your comment and useful information. We haven’t been told when we will be switched off but I will check. I’m very cross about it. Oh, but I’ve mentioned that already!
BBC4? Good heavens. Last time I looked there were only two of them. (Having said that, I have yet to forgive them for confusing me by renaming the Light Programme, the Third Programme and the Home Service.)
I spent six months in my new Bath abode without TV at all, then realised the aerial wasn’t actually connected. It turns out our reception here is so bad that I had to use a satellite dish and install a Freesat box (at great expense) to get TV. Which is a shame as it’s a bit rubbish – my old Freeview recorder was a much better piece of kit, and some of the channels I watched on Freeview are not available (well, I only miss The Mentalist on Fiver, so I suppose it’s not such a loss).
Mind you, with a dog to walk and a blog to write, I hardly have time to watch TV these days anyway…
I know, Philip – turn your back for 5 minutes…
As Peter said, it’s all a big con and we’re being cuckolded into accepting an inferior service.