Tell Me Something............Anything!

I doubt manufacturers have changed their construction to fail in one year instead of two just for the UK.

Really all that 'built to fail' thing is just a myth. Cheap tat will probably fail sooner, that's why it's cheap.

My LG TV is still fine after 8 years - I gave the previous Sony one to a friend's son for use in his bedroom, still going fine after 19 years and that got a lot of use as I used it as a computer monitor as well as for TV.

It's more pot luck than anything I think. If you buy quality it will either fail very quickly or last for a very long time. There's always going to be some 'Friday afternoon' specials.

I doubt many tellies get the chance to fail these days - Council tips are full of perfectly good TVs that have been replaced simply because they're no longer big enough.

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Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony

I doubt many tellies get the chance to fail these days - Council tips are full of perfectly good TVs that have been replaced simply because they're no longer big enough.

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One of my brothers was round here the other week, he asked about my telly. He's not happy with his as it's too small but he's like me, he doesn't want to replace it until it fails. Said he might have to have an 'accident' with it.

Never thought I'd be saying a TV with a 55 inch screen is too small but that's how I feel about mine now.

I never said manufacturers changed their construction to fail after one year. What I said was manufacturers design their products so as to just cover the minimum period of the guarantee, whatever that is.

All electronics have a 'bath tub' failure rate with time characteristic: infant mortality within a few hours, then if hasn't failed, a long life with an ultimate gentle degredation and death. Just like humans really.
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I got a 50 inch back in 2007 when it was still uncommon. Like having a wall of television. I basked in it. Friends came round and basked in it. They'd make a special trip here to watch the footy on it.

Now it's nothing out of the normal, just an ordinary little TV.

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Originally Posted by Macca

Never thought I'd be saying a TV with a 55 inch screen is too small but that's how I feel about mine now.

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I think TV size is often a matter of 'willy waving': "mine is bigger than yours".
For me the size of the screen is related to viewing distance. The human eye takes in most information within an angle of about 40°. It is aware of movement outside of that angle, but detait is not resolved as well as it is within the 40° angle.

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Originally Posted by Barry

I think TV size is often a matter of 'willy waving': "mine is bigger than yours".
For me the size of the screen is related to viewing distance. The human eye takes in most information within an angle of about 40°. It is aware of movement outside of that angle, but detait is not resolved as well as it is within the 40° angle.

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Maybe there's bragging rights for some people I don't know about that. To an extent it's all in the mind - I mean I will watch a black and white film and totally forget that it's black and white. Or something with subtitles and forget that I actually don't understand Japanese.

When I was between televisions I was using a 16'' Sony monitor for a couple of months. After the initial adjustment forgot all about it. Only when I went back to 55'' was it 'Woah this is huge!' And a few days later that had worn off and it was just normal again.

I know exactly the same would happen if I got an 85'' screen, but still...

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Originally Posted by Macca

One of my brothers was round here the other week, he asked about my telly. He's not happy with his as it's too small but he's like me, he doesn't want to replace it until it fails. Said he might have to have an 'accident' with it.

Never thought I'd be saying a TV with a 55 inch screen is too small but that's how I feel about mine now.

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Save yourself some money and sit closer to the screen. Same thing really.

This week I took a 32" flat screen telly to the tip. This one actually had packed up. I put it in the (small for a big car) boot along with a load of other crap. Twenty years ago we bought a 32" Sony TV, not a flat screen. We had an Escort cabriolet at the time, just as well - took the top down and dropped it in - it would never have fitted in a regular car.

Anita has been angling for a bigger screen for some time (75" or thereabouts), but it's not happening until this one packs up or I can't tolerate the 'screen burn' any more. Definitely won't get another OLED.

Problem with giant screens is that they amplify shortcomings in the quality of what you're watching, and a lot of what we watch is broadcast standard definition. So I don't see the point really. It certainly won't be for bragging rights, we don't get visitors that often, it's something we actively discourage :)

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Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony

Save yourself some money and sit closer to the screen. Same thing really.

This week I took a 32" flat screen telly to the tip. This one actually had packed up. I put it in the (small for a big car) boot along with a load of other crap. Twenty years ago we bought a 32" Sony TV, not a flat screen. We had an Escort cabriolet at the time, just as well - took the top down and dropped it in - it would never have fitted in a regular car.

Anita has been angling for a bigger screen for some time (75" or thereabouts), but it's not happening until this one packs up or I can't tolerate the 'screen burn' any more. Definitely won't get another OLED.

Problem with giant screens is that they amplify shortcomings in the quality of what you're watching, and a lot of what we watch is broadcast standard definition. So I don't see the point really. It certainly won't be for bragging rights, we don't get visitors that often, it's something we actively discourage :)

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What do you have now? I got the memory that it is big, 60'' or 65''?

I wasn't being entirely serious when I mentioned bragging about size. The interest in large screen TVs has a more complicated history.

When the cinema came along the film format was quite small having an aspect ratio of 4:3 (often referred to as Academy ratio). When television was developed, it too used CRTs having the same aspect ratio, so films could be easily broadcast.
Later the Americans developed 'Cinemascope' and other wide screen formats, presumably for a more immersive experience. Cinemas at the time were only single screen and the auditorium large enough so you didn't have to move your head much to view all parts of the screen.
Now with the introduction of multiplex cinemas which can show several films at the same time, the auditorium are smaller, seat fewer people and seat them closer to the screen so you have to move your head a lot more when watching a film. They also have surround sound creating a more 'immersive' experience.
So when flat screen televisions were developed allowing one to hang them on a wall, they adopted a new aspect ratio of 16:9, and larger screen size to mimic the cinema experience. And to accompany the visual experience multi-channel audio 'surround sound' is now available.

I'm a bit of a film 'buff' and love to watch foreign language films. I'm also a bit conservative in my viewing requirements and don't feel the need for very large screens or multi channel audio: in fact I dislike the experience of sounds coming from behind me.