[Richardcoulter]

After hearing about this on The Wright Stuff, I took a look at this article:

http://www.unilad.co.uk/articles/cur...by-act-of-god/

Apparently, if a fly gets into the back of your television, it can break it!

How common is this? How on earth does this happen?

I'd never heard of this phenomenon until yesterday and neither had the 22 year old student until a fly trashed his 65" TV and Currys insurance refused to pay out because "It was an act if God"

[Nigel Goodwin]

There's already a thread on this:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2107254

But to summarise - flies don't 'break' TV's.

LCD screens aren't sealed, so a small fly can get inside - resulting in either a visible black spot moving round the screen, or a fixed black spot when it dies.

As it happens because the panel isn't sealed (so no misuse) it's covered by warranty, and Currys have long since apologised for their mistake and rectified the issue.

[koantemplation]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

LCD screens aren't sealed, so a small fly can get inside - resulting in either a visible black spot moving round the screen, or a fixed black spot when it dies.

That happened to my last laptop screen, but with a small spider.

I thought it was on the website I was looking at, so tried to squash it just incase and ended up with a black spot where it was squashed.

[Richardcoulter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

There's already a thread on this:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2107254

But to summarise - flies don't 'break' TV's.

LCD screens aren't sealed, so a small fly can get inside - resulting in either a visible black spot moving round the screen, or a fixed black spot when it dies.

As it happens because the panel isn't sealed (so no misuse) it's covered by warranty, and Currys have long since apologised for their mistake and rectified the issue.

Thanks- that made interesting reading.

I had no idea that LED TV's were not sealed and that foreign bodies could enter and damage the pixels. It can't be that common though if you haven't seen much of this as a TV engineer??

How does being a heavy smoker affect the picture (you mentioned this in the other thread)? Does the smoke enter and settle on the pixels, thus making them dull? Maybe a plasma is better for such people.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richardcoulter

Thanks- that made interesting reading.

I had no idea that LED TV's were not sealed and that foreign bodies could enter and damage the pixels. It can't be that common though if you haven't seen much of this as a TV engineer??

Not just LED ones, CCFL as well - in fact LED are probably a little better in this regard. However, it doesn't 'damage' the pixels, it's just a foreign body (literally) in front of them.

Quote:

How does being a heavy smoker affect the picture (you mentioned this in the other thread)? Does the smoke enter and settle on the pixels, thus making them dull? Maybe a plasma is better for such people.

If it was uniform you wouldn't really notice it, but it's rarely uniform - and as far as Plasma goes you get a similar effect between the PDP and the front glass. Plasma of course is long obsolete now as well.

[Richardcoulter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

Not just LED ones, CCFL as well - in fact LED are probably a little better in this regard. However, it doesn't 'damage' the pixels, it's just a foreign body (literally) in front of them.

If it was uniform you wouldn't really notice it, but it's rarely uniform - and as far as Plasma goes you get a similar effect between the PDP and the front glass. Plasma of course is long obsolete now as well.

I didn't actually know that Plasma had been discontinued. I took a look at this and found that it is thought that they give a better picture than LCD!

http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/hdtv/...plasma-tv.html

I'm going to buy a new TV soon, would you recommend buying a plasma as I guess they will be selling them off cheap.

If not, Which seem to recommend Samsung for the £500-£600 range. I believe that most of these have cable tuners built in which I would find useful.

After contacting Samsung, a man said that many of them will have a cable tuner in them, but because it isn't supported by the UK cable companies, it won't be included in the specifications!

When I asked for a list of those that do, a woman replied saying that the man who answered previously was wrong and that none of them have them in!!!!

Can you shed any light on this with your experience of televisions?

Thanks.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richardcoulter

I didn't actually know that Plasma had been discontinued. I took a look at this and found that it is thought that they give a better picture than LCD!

http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/hdtv/...plasma-tv.html

I'm going to buy a new TV soon, would you recommend buying a plasma as I guess they will be selling them off cheap.

Some people prefer Plasma to LCD, in my opinion Plasma are usually better on SD but LCD are better on HD.

As far as I'm aware there's only one Plasma manufacturer left?, and they make very few.

Quote:

If not, Which seem to recommend Samsung for the £500-£600 range. I believe that most of these have cable tuners built in which I would find useful.

Most sets have cable tuners, but it doesn't matter as it's not compatible with VM's services, which are encrypted - although there 'may' be a few unencrypted PSB's?.

No point anyway, VM rent you a box with your subscription, and if you don't subscribe there's no service.

Quote:

After contacting Samsung, a man said that many of them will have a cable tuner in them, but because it isn't supported by the UK cable companies, it won't be included in the specifications!

When I asked for a list of those that do, a woman replied saying that the man who answered previously was wrong and that none of them have them in!!!!

Can you shed any light on this with your experience of televisions?

As above, probably got a tuner, but not of any use here.

[Richardcoulter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

Some people prefer Plasma to LCD, in my opinion Plasma are usually better on SD but LCD are better on HD.

As far as I'm aware there's only one Plasma manufacturer left?, and they make very few.

Most sets have cable tuners, but it doesn't matter as it's not compatible with VM's services, which are encrypted - although there 'may' be a few unencrypted PSB's?.

No point anyway, VM rent you a box with your subscription, and if you don't subscribe there's no service.

As above, probably got a tuner, but not of any use here.

Cheers, I have had a play about with an ex subscribers box. He cancelled after finding that he could still receive BBC1, BBC News and Radio 4, which is all he uses.

From what I've been told, however, this set up is not guaranteed as VM may use his connection at any time for a new subscriber, but it has worked for the past five years. He says he'll have an aerial installed for Freeview if it ever gets cut off.

You're right about it mainly being the PSB channels that are FTA. Channels 1-5 are unencrypted, as are all the BBC channels (except the Parliament Channel for some reason!), all radio stations, some shopping channels and ITV2+1, ITV3+1 and ITV4+1 (but not their parent channels for some reason!)

I forgot to check if the HD variants were encrypted, I don't recall them coming up, so I don't think that they are accessible.