100 presets on an analogue TV

Bill Clinton · 04-06-2004, 01:29

Just a little thread for a question that has plagued me for ages.
Why on earth do TV's with only an analogue tuner have 100 presets for?
Most of these TV's like my Sony only have the one band, the UHF 21-69 so that's all you can store. I know some tv's also have cable tuners and VHF and such and then maybe there'd possibly be 100 things to store, but what's with 100 presets that seem impressive but actually do nada?
I've stored UHF channels 21-69 on presets 21-69 so that's a useful reference, but what else is there to do. It would be good to have a feature which allowed you to store AV channels on numbered channels for instance.
There's so little on the band in the UK, if only cable was more widespread and every TV was capable of tuning it's analogue bands.

zebedee · 04-06-2004, 01:54

Remember VCR's that could record seven events one year in advance

only of use to terrorists for bomb timers.

flagpole · 04-06-2004, 11:42

completely agree absolutely useless. what's worse is the actually advertise it as a feature in brochures, '100 presets'

steel wheels · 04-06-2004, 22:23

both my phillips tv's only go up to 99 i was robbed !!!!!!

ejim03 · 04-06-2004, 23:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by flagpole

completely agree absolutely useless. what's worse is the actually advertise it as a feature in brochures, '100 presets'

A few years ago my cousin (now 15) was bought a 14" TV, and we watched back the video of his birthday a few weeks ago. Absolutely priceless seeing him look at the box and go "wow! 100 Channels!!"

My cheapy Tesco TV has 99 presets, and no use at all really. Could these cheap imported sets use more than 5 channels in other countries?

GDB2freeview · 05-06-2004, 09:14

Damn, my ancient TV only has 40 presets. I'm ordering a new one with 100 presets as we speak

Joking aside, I think it's silly advertising the feature - even if you inculuded the UHF and VHF channels I doubt it would be possible to get 100 channels (and that's including radio channels)

steveboswell · 05-06-2004, 10:23

I remember my Nan's old television - it had only four presets:

BBC-1
BBC-2
ITV-1
ITV-2 (!!!)

Bozz

Bill Clinton · 05-06-2004, 10:23

that's another way of looking at it, although you might not fill 100 presets you can choose which numbers you want.

flagpole · 05-06-2004, 11:04

Something that always makes me laugh...

In australia, the channels have silly numbers, the first channel is channel 7.

'Can you flick over to channel 7 please'

person presses button one.

jcx · 05-06-2004, 11:40

I remember some of the early Sky boxes used to output channels so that you had to change the TV channel to change the Sky channel, so that could be one reason (maybe other countries still have this). America has loads more analogue channels than we do so there is no point in changing the specifications for the sake of it. Also in places like hotels there may easily be 25 channels.

I think basically the answer to your question is that it would cost more to modify TVs to provide fewer channels.

iamthenewnumbertwo · 05-06-2004, 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by steel wheels

both my phillips tv's only go up to 99 i was robbed !!!!!!

Do you not get zero ?

iDan · 05-06-2004, 22:06

my telly has 999 channels

heroicnonsense · 01-07-2004, 22:04

On our analogue cable we get 35 channels that have to be tuned into using the TV's built in tuner.

The TV cannot tune into radio stations. I imagine you could cram up to 100 channels on analogue cable, but doing so will eat up bandwith (= no broadband internet, phone services or digital TV).

Cheers,
HN.

Big_Bro_Man · 03-07-2004, 17:47

But even still if you look at channels 21->69, if I receive a TV picture on lets say CH 37, if I output a VCR on CH 38, both pictures are unuseable.

As for the Channel 7 thing someone mentioned, Australia like the US uses the word "channel" not as the "preset" on the TV, but as the actual broadcast channel used.

Like if you heard the expression "NBC Channel 37", it doesn't mean its the 37th channel, it only means NBC can be found on broadcast channel 37.

David (2) · 06-07-2004, 13:43

My old Sony Widescreen 24" set can store AV inputs on number keys - great. The new version of the set (the "lifestyle" flat Widescreen24") cant do it - nice one Sony, thats what I call progress, not. And to make matters worse, my older Sony set only has 60 uhf presets - how will I ever cope with that!

I notice many modern sets can "hide" non-required presets. I did this once and got the useable numbers down to just 6 presets - if you keep pressing the up button if would go round and start back at number 1.

The oldest tv I can remember had just 4 presets - the old type push buttons which drifted off the station a bit each time you used them - no AFT function. We had a slightly newer one with 5 presets soon after, but I know another family member kept their 4 preset tv and it gave big problems when Ch4 started broadcasting and they wanted to use a VHS machine with it - not enough presets. The only thing they could do was to put the VHS on preset 4 and view Ch4 through the VHS machine.

Dave

davey_do_little · 06-07-2004, 21:10

Ahhhh, you youngsters! - our 'posh' telly in the living room was colour and had 4 manual presets, no problem, only 3 channels available).

In the kitchen was a PYE black and white manual (twist and tune) job - we were really posh then - 2 tvs!

Oh yeahhhhhhhh, bring back the 80s

StereRowe · 06-07-2004, 21:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by davey_do_little

Ahhhh, you youngsters! - our 'posh' telly in the living room was colour and had 4 manual presets, no problem, only 3 channels available).

In the kitchen was a PYE black and white manual (twist and tune) job - we were really posh then - 2 tvs!

Oh yeahhhhhhhh, bring back the 80s

You were LUCKY !

We were the last in our area to get BBC2. Every chimney 'round our way had nice new uhf aerials -or Rediffusion cable, remember them?- and there we were with our 1950s vhf monstrosity advertising to all my mates I couldn't watch Monty Python

Me and my brother pestered our Dad for years but his answer was always 'Theres enough dribble on the two stations we have without getting a third'.

Things changed when he came rushing in one day to carry on watching a documentry he had seen the beginning of at a neighbours house. AH-HAH!!! we said its on BBC2.
Two years later (1975) we 'leapt' into the 20th Century

David (2) · 07-07-2004, 10:34

The old "rotary tuning dial". My first portable tv had that. Just turn the dial until you get a picture. It only had that, plus ON/OFF, Volume. It was so easy to use. The only downside was that you were not sure which tv channel you were tuned into.

Dave

bronx2282 · 07-07-2004, 13:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by steel wheels

both my phillips tv's only go up to 99 i was robbed !!!!!!

You're forgetting channel 00!!!
They have 0-99 (100 channels)

P.S. I've still got s B/W Sanyo TV with a rotary tuner (it's a nice orange colour!!).

mrMick · 10-07-2004, 13:32

got 99 on my philips as well, but it does cover cable frequencies and is secam compatible. (pretty useless since i live in the middle of cambridgeshire, no cable, cant get french terrestrial TV...)

kev · 10-07-2004, 14:05

My Matsui TV has 69 presets - the largest number of different services it has stored is the current 22 - 4 transmitter and two digiboxes plus a VCR - damn pointless.

The menus and even the back panel are geared up for VHF and Cabel too so the software is cable ready, just no hyperband tuner to make use of the 69 channels.!

I have 1-20 as the autotuned stations and everything else is on the UHF Channel Number - the Sky Box being on 69 and BBC ONE East Mids on 21....

My main TV has 99 channels of snow - no RF input at all, just SCART to the Pace Twin

Kevo · 19-07-2004, 10:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by David (2)

The only downside was that you were not sure which tv channel you were tuned into.

Where were the on-screen logos when you needed 'em most?!

kev · 19-07-2004, 18:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevo

Where were the on-screen logos when you needed 'em most?!

Not even an issue on modern analogue sets that say
BB ONE (sp)
BBC TWO
ITV-1 Central
Channel 4 Television
five
Yorkshire TV
Eurosport
etc
When you tune into them

even mine says
BBC1, BBC2,ITV,CH4,CH5,EUROS

Big_Bro_Man · 19-07-2004, 18:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by kev

Not even an issue on modern analogue sets that say
BB ONE (sp)
BBC TWO
ITV-1 Central
Channel 4 Television
five
Yorkshire TV
Eurosport
etc
When you tune into them

even mine says
BBC1, BBC2,ITV,CH4,CH5,EUROS

How can you get eurosport on analogue terrestrial?

kev · 19-07-2004, 18:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big_Bro_Man

How can you get eurosport on analogue terrestrial?

Thats the skybox, for some reason it always ides as EUROS(port)

04-06-2004, 01:29	#1
Bill Clinton Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: SouthWirral 1986-2002 & 2004-? Posts: 7,082	100 presets on an analogue TV Just a little thread for a question that has plagued me for ages. Why on earth do TV's with only an analogue tuner have 100 presets for? Most of these TV's like my Sony only have the one band, the UHF 21-69 so that's all you can store. I know some tv's also have cable tuners and VHF and such and then maybe there'd possibly be 100 things to store, but what's with 100 presets that seem impressive but actually do nada? I've stored UHF channels 21-69 on presets 21-69 so that's a useful reference, but what else is there to do. It would be good to have a feature which allowed you to store AV channels on numbered channels for instance. There's so little on the band in the UK, if only cable was more widespread and every TV was capable of tuning it's analogue bands.

04-06-2004, 01:54	#2
zebedee Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: north london Posts: 775	Remember VCR's that could record seven events one year in advance only of use to terrorists for bomb timers.

04-06-2004, 11:42	#3
flagpole Inactive Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 43,524	completely agree absolutely useless. what's worse is the actually advertise it as a feature in brochures, '100 presets'

04-06-2004, 22:23	#4
steel wheels Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: liverpool Posts: 972	both my phillips tv's only go up to 99 i was robbed !!!!!!

04-06-2004, 23:01	#5
ejim03 Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 2,758	Quote: Originally Posted by flagpole completely agree absolutely useless. what's worse is the actually advertise it as a feature in brochures, '100 presets' A few years ago my cousin (now 15) was bought a 14" TV, and we watched back the video of his birthday a few weeks ago. Absolutely priceless seeing him look at the box and go "wow! 100 Channels!!" My cheapy Tesco TV has 99 presets, and no use at all really. Could these cheap imported sets use more than 5 channels in other countries?

05-06-2004, 09:14	#6
GDB2freeview Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: England; receiving sat through an Amstrad SRD510 from ASTRA 19.2E Posts: 1,986	Damn, my ancient TV only has 40 presets. I'm ordering a new one with 100 presets as we speak Joking aside, I think it's silly advertising the feature - even if you inculuded the UHF and VHF channels I doubt it would be possible to get 100 channels (and that's including radio channels)

05-06-2004, 10:23	#7
steveboswell Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Sheffield Posts: 1,416	I remember my Nan's old television - it had only four presets: BBC-1 BBC-2 ITV-1 ITV-2 (!!!) Bozz

05-06-2004, 11:04	#9
flagpole Inactive Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 43,524	Something that always makes me laugh... In australia, the channels have silly numbers, the first channel is channel 7. 'Can you flick over to channel 7 please' person presses button one.

05-06-2004, 11:40	#10
jcx Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: UK Posts: 321	I remember some of the early Sky boxes used to output channels so that you had to change the TV channel to change the Sky channel, so that could be one reason (maybe other countries still have this). America has loads more analogue channels than we do so there is no point in changing the specifications for the sake of it. Also in places like hotels there may easily be 25 channels. I think basically the answer to your question is that it would cost more to modify TVs to provide fewer channels.

05-06-2004, 20:37	#11
iamthenewnumbertwo Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Kent Posts: 977	Quote: Originally Posted by steel wheels both my phillips tv's only go up to 99 i was robbed !!!!!! Do you not get zero ?

05-06-2004, 22:06	#12
iDan Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 8,812	my telly has 999 channels

01-07-2004, 22:04	#13
heroicnonsense Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Netherlands Posts: 136	On our analogue cable we get 35 channels that have to be tuned into using the TV's built in tuner. The TV cannot tune into radio stations. I imagine you could cram up to 100 channels on analogue cable, but doing so will eat up bandwith (= no broadband internet, phone services or digital TV). Cheers, HN.

03-07-2004, 17:47	#14
Big_Bro_Man Banned User Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: UK Posts: 3,741	But even still if you look at channels 21->69, if I receive a TV picture on lets say CH 37, if I output a VCR on CH 38, both pictures are unuseable. As for the Channel 7 thing someone mentioned, Australia like the US uses the word "channel" not as the "preset" on the TV, but as the actual broadcast channel used. Like if you heard the expression "NBC Channel 37", it doesn't mean its the 37th channel, it only means NBC can be found on broadcast channel 37.

06-07-2004, 13:43	#15
David (2) Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: S.West England. Posts: 18,037	My old Sony Widescreen 24" set can store AV inputs on number keys - great. The new version of the set (the "lifestyle" flat Widescreen24") cant do it - nice one Sony, thats what I call progress, not. And to make matters worse, my older Sony set only has 60 uhf presets - how will I ever cope with that! I notice many modern sets can "hide" non-required presets. I did this once and got the useable numbers down to just 6 presets - if you keep pressing the up button if would go round and start back at number 1. The oldest tv I can remember had just 4 presets - the old type push buttons which drifted off the station a bit each time you used them - no AFT function. We had a slightly newer one with 5 presets soon after, but I know another family member kept their 4 preset tv and it gave big problems when Ch4 started broadcasting and they wanted to use a VHS machine with it - not enough presets. The only thing they could do was to put the VHS on preset 4 and view Ch4 through the VHS machine. Dave

06-07-2004, 21:10	#16
davey_do_little Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 3,890	Ahhhh, you youngsters! - our 'posh' telly in the living room was colour and had 4 manual presets, no problem, only 3 channels available). In the kitchen was a PYE black and white manual (twist and tune) job - we were really posh then - 2 tvs! Oh yeahhhhhhhh, bring back the 80s

06-07-2004, 21:31	#17
StereRowe Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Leicester Posts: 1,273	Quote: Originally Posted by davey_do_little Ahhhh, you youngsters! - our 'posh' telly in the living room was colour and had 4 manual presets, no problem, only 3 channels available). In the kitchen was a PYE black and white manual (twist and tune) job - we were really posh then - 2 tvs! Oh yeahhhhhhhh, bring back the 80s You were LUCKY ! We were the last in our area to get BBC2. Every chimney 'round our way had nice new uhf aerials -or Rediffusion cable, remember them?- and there we were with our 1950s vhf monstrosity advertising to all my mates I couldn't watch Monty Python Me and my brother pestered our Dad for years but his answer was always 'Theres enough dribble on the two stations we have without getting a third'. Things changed when he came rushing in one day to carry on watching a documentry he had seen the beginning of at a neighbours house. AH-HAH!!! we said its on BBC2. Two years later (1975) we 'leapt' into the 20th Century

07-07-2004, 10:34	#18
David (2) Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: S.West England. Posts: 18,037	The old "rotary tuning dial". My first portable tv had that. Just turn the dial until you get a picture. It only had that, plus ON/OFF, Volume. It was so easy to use. The only downside was that you were not sure which tv channel you were tuned into. Dave

07-07-2004, 13:19	#19
bronx2282 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Lancaster Posts: 1,017	Quote: Originally Posted by steel wheels both my phillips tv's only go up to 99 i was robbed !!!!!! You're forgetting channel 00!!! They have 0-99 (100 channels) P.S. I've still got s B/W Sanyo TV with a rotary tuner (it's a nice orange colour!!).

10-07-2004, 13:32	#20
mrMick Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Cambridge Posts: 1,259	got 99 on my philips as well, but it does cover cable frequencies and is secam compatible. (pretty useless since i live in the middle of cambridgeshire, no cable, cant get french terrestrial TV...)

10-07-2004, 14:05	#21
kev Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: South Notts (Waltham TV TX) Posts: 20,200	My Matsui TV has 69 presets - the largest number of different services it has stored is the current 22 - 4 transmitter and two digiboxes plus a VCR - damn pointless. The menus and even the back panel are geared up for VHF and Cabel too so the software is cable ready, just no hyperband tuner to make use of the 69 channels.! I have 1-20 as the autotuned stations and everything else is on the UHF Channel Number - the Sky Box being on 69 and BBC ONE East Mids on 21.... My main TV has 99 channels of snow - no RF input at all, just SCART to the Pace Twin

19-07-2004, 10:42	#22
Kevo Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Manchester Posts: 925	Quote: Originally Posted by David (2) The only downside was that you were not sure which tv channel you were tuned into. Where were the on-screen logos when you needed 'em most?!

DS Forums

100 presets on an analogue TV

19-07-2004, 18:02	#23
kev Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: South Notts (Waltham TV TX) Posts: 20,200	Quote: Originally Posted by Kevo Where were the on-screen logos when you needed 'em most?! Not even an issue on modern analogue sets that say BB ONE (sp) BBC TWO ITV-1 Central Channel 4 Television five Yorkshire TV Eurosport etc When you tune into them even mine says BBC1, BBC2,ITV,CH4,CH5,EUROS

19-07-2004, 18:21	#24
Big_Bro_Man Banned User Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: UK Posts: 3,741	Quote: Originally Posted by kev Not even an issue on modern analogue sets that say BB ONE (sp) BBC TWO ITV-1 Central Channel 4 Television five Yorkshire TV Eurosport etc When you tune into them even mine says BBC1, BBC2,ITV,CH4,CH5,EUROS How can you get eurosport on analogue terrestrial?

19-07-2004, 18:29	#25
kev Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: South Notts (Waltham TV TX) Posts: 20,200	Quote: Originally Posted by Big_Bro_Man How can you get eurosport on analogue terrestrial? Thats the skybox, for some reason it always ides as EUROS(port)