Why Do We Get Conned?

Hmm... I still have the old-type behemoth TVs. They still work so I have seen no need to upgrade to a newer, more expensive, higher tech TV yet, which suits me fine since I never sit down specifically to watch TV unless I am on my recumbent bike. The TV is mostly on for background noise anyway; I pay little attention to the clarity of the picture or if I can count the blades of grass or pores in one's face. But before I DO buy or even shop for a major appliance, I always do the research first. I have been a subscriber of Consumer Reports for many years and they are my #1 source. I check online resources and customer reviews too, so I basically know what I want, the specs I need, and the salesperson is not going to convince me otherwise.

Hi Jane, I had the same problem with a Samsung. It was the first "big" TV we bought. It looked so great in a piano black.. But the movement blur and sound was appalling. I took care of the sound by piping it through our music centre (remember those old big things? Well, we still hav it! it works well and it great stereo).. Anyway, I digress... Next thing, the picture froze on the Samsung and wouldn't unfreeze, so I called the engineer from Comet. He said that he couldn't fix it, and I would have to take it back and get another or refund because I had picked it up from Comet's myself and I had to take it back. Whilst in the store, the guy said, "oh another Samsung. We're getting a lot of these sets back".. This panicked me because it was 900 quid in those days, and I didn't want a load of trouble. I had also given away my old analogue Sony 26inch. That had been great for over 10 years! I noticed a Sony 32inch for 50 quid extra. I had always had Sony before and was very confident with them. The guy let me pick up the Sony for the extra 50... Wow! What a difference. OK, it didn't look so nice as the Samsung being in boring old matt black, but great sound and picture. That was 5+ years ago.. Touching wood... we never had a day's problem with it. Strange though, because I found out that Sony makes Samsung??? Or do they? If so why don't they apply the same quality controls? Weird..It may cost a little more, but it is Sony for me every time in future. You can invoke the "fit for purpose" law, and change your set.. I heard on a consumer program with Dom Littlewood that 12 months guarantee is crap. We can get service 6 years if something goes wrong without having to pay for the nose for those other extended guarantee thingies.. I never buy those anyway - it would be cheaper to have to pay for an engineer if something went wrong. I hope you can get something done about your set, but there's no harm in making some noise about it down at Comets.. _Derek

Yep, you bit the "one day they will..." I guess... When they went all digital, they were pushing everyone to get digital or HD TVs. We picked up a TV for our new roommate and the cable company wanted to know if we wanted HD programing for it... why bother, she's not going to be LOOKING at it after all and HD is also pretty pointless for the roomie, her vision isn't that good either... and I don't care that much - in fact, I had the TV on today for the first time in weeks, except to look at the weather!

HI Janey Prof Rodrigue bought one too, she is facing similar problems, she calls the service center, they send a technician only, not of much help she says.. Thanks for sharing.. Best of luck. Professor

My Samsung is three years old now, and it too does some funny things. Something weird happens to the picture when it's dark in a room on TV. It looks a bit like when you view a laptop screen from the side. I'm not aware of motion-blur but I do get sick when the producers of modern programmes can't be bothered to buy a steadycam for their cameramen to use! I can remember when the old TV-tubes failed and the picture went green! Come to think of it, I can recall when the black and white pictures used to be very fuzzy and jump up and down!

It the same reason they bring out bigger and bigger TV's sizes each year cause they can and its bigger then the next guy boils down to ego in a way.

That sucks. I am not sure why they do things like this to people. It is very frustrating.

I don't think that it is the broadcast speed but the speed at which your TV interprets the picture. 200Mhz is so fast that it blurs, even in HD. No doubt things will improve in time and at least you will be ready for it.

I hae no idea about all the technical stuff, but I think I'd be having a good moan at Comet anyway. Whether all these TVs are the same or not, they still sold it to you as a good TV (and I expect they charged you accordingly ....!)

I think this is like the HDMi cable for TV's. When you buy TV's here, they always suggest, that you get the HDMi cable for better viewing because it's not included with the TV. And yet, when you open the box, there's the regular red,white,yellow cable in the box, which works fine. Yes the HDMi cable might be better, but you could have saved that money if your fine with the regular cable. Conned!

It could be a few things. One of them could actually be the satellite box. I have had trouble with one of mine and it turned out that the box was a refurbished box. Meaning it was not brand new. I had them replace the box and everything worked fine. Now as for the LED TV's, I think they are awesome sets. Remember, every broadcast is digital now and most of these TV's are probably 3D ready. Now what I would do is look into the the settings and see if you could find a way to change the hz setting to 50. If not, then maybe it is the box.

It is really a bother to you.Spending so much on it ,it turns out to be so.Now that it is 50HZ ,why they said 200HZ,can't you have it out with them?In the eyes of me as a layman,the desigh of this sort of TV basically isn't scientific.