I got a Grundig HD Box from Tesco for only £30 with no problems in the 4 months I've had it.
You got it that cheap because Harvard lost the rights to use the name in 2010 so their remaining stocks were being sold off.
This is part of the problem of relying on a brand name's reputation. As a private company, it gained a huge reputation for well made if expensive radios. It then diversified into radio-cassette recorders to respond to competition from Japan and things went downhill from there. Around the time they changed to what we would call a PLC in 1973, I worked in a major retail chain and we had one customer who thought that the cheap and nasty radio cassette recorder should be up to the same quality as their top of the range radios.
Philips took up shares and complete control in 1993 but sold the company to a German consortium in 1998. Five years later it went bust and the satellite division went to Thomson with the rest going to a joint venture between Alba PLC (now Harvard International) and Koc Holdings. They operated separately in the UK and Australian market or the rest of the world. Alba PLC sold its stake to Koc in 2007 but retained the rights to use the Grundig name until 2010. Koc (better known as Beko although they have other brands like Leisure cookers) market a wide range of consumer electronics under the Grundig name. These include radios and computers.
In the meantime, Alba PLC sold the Alba and Bush brand names to the Home Retail Group who own Argos. Alba PLC became Harvard International. They still own the Goodmans brand name although they are now marketing a new range of set top boxes under the name Vision 21.
What it all boils down to is that apart from a very few companies like LG and Samsung, your "well known brand name" equipment could be made by anyone anywhere and be the same or very similar to a whole range of other branded stuff. Because they use a variety of EOM makers who, like Vestel, might have factories in different parts of the world; it's pot luck whether you get a well made unit.
Usually the more you pay, the better the long term support you are likely to get. LG for example did the decent thing and supplied Humax Foxsat HD boxes to their customers whose freesat IDTVs would not get iPlayer. On the other hand the rule has its exception like Panasonic who seem to wash their hands of their freeesat televisions as soon as they introduce a new range of models.
Good to hear this, eight months to go, was it new btw, as Tessa Cohen does sell refurbs.
It was brand new. Only problem I've found is that the only on demand service I can get is the BBC iplayer because it's not compatible with the others - and although it's HD I only have an SD TV
They are very random. I've had some real turds from them, but my 1996 Goodmans Telly is still going strong.......
Well, that's the thing. A "brand" is a reputation for quality - a delivered experience, if you will. If that quality is highly variable or "random" as you put it, then the brand's value comes to mean that - the unholy trinity's brands represent a crapshoot - so they are mostly worthless.
I think Ibear's post explains this wonderfully - and points out also how Panasonic's normally high brand reputation has sunk in this particular market.
On the Harvard/Goodmans/Bush/Grundig/Alba front where does the Binatone brand fit in? Pretty sure that at one time was affiliated with Bush alongside Interstate & Waltham, not that I've seen a Binatone Freesat box.
Why do we not see manufacturers such as Sony, Panansonic, Samsung and LG making Freesat boxes?
On the Harvard/Goodmans/Bush/Grundig/Alba front where does the Binatone brand fit in? Pretty sure that at one time was affiliated with Bush alongside Interstate & Waltham, not that I've seen a Binatone Freesat box.
Why do we not see manufacturers such as Sony, Panansonic, Samsung and LG making Freesat boxes?
its always the same if its not expencive its on good well if you want to pay over the odds thats upto you the only reson ive got a humax in sapin is because its got a slighty better tuner ive run humax boxes since i got my ird5400 in the 90's so i like humax but ive use my bush boxes in the uk everyday for well over a yr & had no proplems
Comments
Good to hear this, eight months to go, was it new btw, as Tessa Cohen does sell refurbs.
They are very random. I've had some real turds from them, but my 1996 Goodmans Telly is still going strong.......
You got it that cheap because Harvard lost the rights to use the name in 2010 so their remaining stocks were being sold off.
This is part of the problem of relying on a brand name's reputation. As a private company, it gained a huge reputation for well made if expensive radios. It then diversified into radio-cassette recorders to respond to competition from Japan and things went downhill from there. Around the time they changed to what we would call a PLC in 1973, I worked in a major retail chain and we had one customer who thought that the cheap and nasty radio cassette recorder should be up to the same quality as their top of the range radios.
Philips took up shares and complete control in 1993 but sold the company to a German consortium in 1998. Five years later it went bust and the satellite division went to Thomson with the rest going to a joint venture between Alba PLC (now Harvard International) and Koc Holdings. They operated separately in the UK and Australian market or the rest of the world. Alba PLC sold its stake to Koc in 2007 but retained the rights to use the Grundig name until 2010. Koc (better known as Beko although they have other brands like Leisure cookers) market a wide range of consumer electronics under the Grundig name. These include radios and computers.
In the meantime, Alba PLC sold the Alba and Bush brand names to the Home Retail Group who own Argos. Alba PLC became Harvard International. They still own the Goodmans brand name although they are now marketing a new range of set top boxes under the name Vision 21.
What it all boils down to is that apart from a very few companies like LG and Samsung, your "well known brand name" equipment could be made by anyone anywhere and be the same or very similar to a whole range of other branded stuff. Because they use a variety of EOM makers who, like Vestel, might have factories in different parts of the world; it's pot luck whether you get a well made unit.
Usually the more you pay, the better the long term support you are likely to get. LG for example did the decent thing and supplied Humax Foxsat HD boxes to their customers whose freesat IDTVs would not get iPlayer. On the other hand the rule has its exception like Panasonic who seem to wash their hands of their freeesat televisions as soon as they introduce a new range of models.
Was there any explanation, or consumer response?
It was brand new. Only problem I've found is that the only on demand service I can get is the BBC iplayer because it's not compatible with the others - and although it's HD I only have an SD TV
Well, that's the thing. A "brand" is a reputation for quality - a delivered experience, if you will. If that quality is highly variable or "random" as you put it, then the brand's value comes to mean that - the unholy trinity's brands represent a crapshoot - so they are mostly worthless.
I think Ibear's post explains this wonderfully - and points out also how Panasonic's normally high brand reputation has sunk in this particular market.
1 - Humax
2 - Manhattan
3 - Logik
and a distant 4th anything else.
On the Harvard/Goodmans/Bush/Grundig/Alba front where does the Binatone brand fit in? Pretty sure that at one time was affiliated with Bush alongside Interstate & Waltham, not that I've seen a Binatone Freesat box.
Why do we not see manufacturers such as Sony, Panansonic, Samsung and LG making Freesat boxes?
Samsung
http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/digital-boxes/samsung-smt-s7800
(lots of issues with this model)
Panasonic made a range of twin tuner Freesat+ boxes with an integrated DVD or Blu-ray burner (Very expensive)