Analog and digital TV channels on cable -- why?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by tvtimeisfun

like it or not we are stuck with the new junk..

I am slow to adopt changes in anything, and waited awhile (about a year or so) after the DTV transition to get a flat-panel digital TV, but I must say, now that I have one, I think DTV produces a much better picture than NTSC analog ever did, because of the much higher resolution (up to 1080p) of the former. I will not go back to NTSC analog, although I still have both of my analog sets in storage.

DTV is here to stay -- the US is not about to revert to NTSC analog television standards. The latter was the standard for U. S. and Canadian TV for over five decades, but times have changed. Most of the rest of the world switched to DTV long before North America did; if I remember correctly something I read awhile back about DTV penetration in the world, there are only a small handful of countries left (if that many) which still use analog TV broadcast standards and technology.

"The new junk", as you put it, is indeed what we must deal with today. New DTVs may not last longer than two years or until the warranty expires (whichever comes first), but unfortunately, that's the way of it nowadays. Time was when anyone could and did expect a new TV to last at least ten to fifteen years (my grandmother had a GE console TV she bought new in 1951, and the set was still working 20 years later when she finally got a color set, which lasted 30 years); however, such is not the case today. I bought a cheap 12" tube-type portable TV in 1975 that lasted all of three years before burning up. In sharp contrast, the Zenith 12" b&w portable I bought to replace it lasted 22 years, and was still going strong when I eventually gave it up in 2000. When I moved here in late 1999, I bought an RCA CTC185 19" table model TV that still works well today, 12 years later, and my 1995 Zenith Sentry 2 was (and I have every reason to believe still is) still working as well as always.

Imported "junk", be it televisions or anything else, is the norm these days. We live in a throwaway society in which things are discarded rather than repaired and kept any length of time.

I should talk (!), however, as I did just that myself with my first DVD player, when it finally bit the dust three years after I got it as a Christmas present. My current DVD, a Memorex DVD2042 full-size model, has a known issue with a capacitor that supposedly swells and splits open after the first nine months following the original purchase; well, mine is almost three years old and still works, although I have to admit I don't use it as much as some folks use their DVD players. I watch a movie occasionally (I have a Netflix subscription and a small but growing collection of my own DVDs), so my player doesn't get nearly the use as would a machine owned by a family of avid TV/DVD watchers. I would expect a heavily-used DVD player to fail within a year or so, given the cheap parts with which these machines are built, but again, that's the way of it these days.

I have yet to hear of or see a DVD player or a flat-screen TV that has lasted more than five years; most don't make it past two, again because of the cheap, slap-dash way in which they are manufactured on Korean or other offshore assembly lines. I was looking at a consumer-watchdog website the other day on which people were complaining -- bitterly -- about the problems they were having with a certain model of Zenith (actually manufactured by Lucky Goldstar or LG) flat-screen plasma television. Almost all the complainants reported hearing a loud "pop" sound accompanied by a burning smell, followed by no picture (as well as other problems, such as multicolored blobs right in the center of the screen -- making the set nearly unusable), after the TV had been on only a short length of time. In many cases, repeated attempts to have the set repaired resulted in the TV operating properly for anywhere from one day to three years before developing the same problem again.

Many of these people vowed, not surprisingly, that they would never again buy anything made by LG -- and I don't blame them. My own flat-screen TV is manufactured by an offshore electronics firm no one ever heard of (their name begins, IIRC, with an X), and contains many LG parts. I don't know how long my set will last. I've had it almost six months now and it still works well, but as to its future longevity, I don't know. I watch it several hours a day and like it, but I don't relish the thought of possibly having to replace it in two years or even less (!!!) with yet another disposable TV.

Sheeeesh.