I have just been made aware of the intention to make older set top Freeview boxes redundant :-

http://www.freeview.co.uk/help/getting-freeview/q24

THIS IS APPALLING!!!

Without a by-your-leave they are changing the digital broadcast standard such that older boxes in perfect working order will become nothing more than a heap of electronic junk. And these units are all no more than about 5 years old! (The Freeview service was launched on 30 October 2002). Like me, you probalby expected your Freeview box to last for 20 or 30 years or more, NOT to be outdated next time the bell rang!

The good people in the Sutton Coldfield area have already suffered an unannounced outage presumably as a "shot over the bows" of the unexpecting public.

It's cold comfort to to Midlanders and everywhere else in the country that "the service is now available until the 3 March 2008". BIG DEAL!

What happened to common decency?

Are we supposed to say, "oh well it's free so what the heck"?

NO!

Freeview is not free! Unknown millions of people paid good money for their freeview boxes and didn't expect to be told after a very short period, "sorry old boy, it's superseded so you'll just have to go out and buy a new one".

WHAT?

I call on the decision makers to rethink this ridiculous situation very quickly. And I call on politicians to take up the cudgel, bang heads together and get them to admit that they've messed up big-time.

In the 1960s millions of people would have been caught out when 625-lines replaced the older 405-line standard.

But the TV industry in those days was run by decent people with large dose of COMMON SENSE. They continued to broadcast 405 lines for another two decades such that its switch-off in 1985 was a non event.

Come on, it's not beyond the whit of man to devise a system that is BACKWARD COMPATIBLE. I'm sure that there are broadcast engineers out there who would just love to get their hands on this problem and find a solution. I refuse to believe that it cannot be sorted out. After all, old and new boxes quite happily co-exist at the current time.

If we allow them to get away with this, what's to stop them changing the broadcast standard again in a few years time? Whatever model of Freeview box you have, IT'S AT RISK.

This issue needs impetus from the right level in government. I'll be doing my utmost to identify the right person in authority and to get them on side.

Meanwhile, MAKE A STAND! Express your views below.

Does anyone know how to start an online petition?

D_D

You missed the point by a country mile Audrey. We are talking about a BROADCAST STANDARD here!

Which floppy disc you choose to use is up to you. If the world moves on to bigger and better things, YOUR floppies will still work in YOUR floppy drives.

TV signals are different. They are beamed to us in a format of someone else's choosing.

Dan
the fact it's a broadcast standard that has changed doesn't make it that different to changing hardware standards.  Many perfectly functional computers went to the scrapheap when software companies stopped updating their old 8 bit CP/M accountancy programs! The computer would have gone on for years calculating tax bills for the last year that they issued an update!  Your STB will still go on working as intended if you can find a transmitter working to the old standard. Sounds much the same to me!

Weirdest thing just happened, I typed a reply clicked on Post and at the same instant AVG started its scheduled download. The posting disapeared in to the ether and the thread became unloadable for a few minutes. - So here goes again, don't know whats changed but I bet it's something Set-Pal does in hardware that other boxes do with software. Hence no possibility of updating. Bet they'll go on to roll it out accross other areas and it won't be a surprise if Crystal Palace is last and gets lots of notice I'm about to suggest to Admin that we should have something on the front page alerting Set-Pal/Daewoo owners.

I agree with Dan.  Freeview hasn't been with us for that long, and already people are being told that their boxes are obsolete.  What will happen in another 5 years?

The computer analogy is a misleading one.  I'm running Windows 98, and apart from not being able to have Google Earth, it works perfectly.  Of course, my machine cannot do some things that the latest machine can, but, for what I use it for (internet mainly), it's fine - it does what I want it to do.

In an age where we are (rightly) told RECYCLE-RECYCLE-RECYCLE, thousands upon thousands of perfectly working boxes will go to landfill. 

There is also uncertainty created.  Where this happens so soon, how many people will baulk at buying a decent box for fear that something else may change a few years down the line?  How many people will leave the Freeview platform altogether?  $ky must be wetting themselves....

To shrug and say 'this happens', or 'it's the way of the world' is an attitude I find extremely disheartening.  If everyone historically gave up on what they thought were losing battles, the world would be a much worse place now...

Hi

Daewoo_Dan wrote on Feb 1^st, 2008 at 1:01pm:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/

It's all very well saying Freeview boxes can be bought for £20, but items at that price level do not necessarily have the same reproduction quality, features or potential longevity that a device purchased for £80-£150 four years ago had.

gomezz wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2008 at 2:41pm:

Quote:

I don't believe these were ever OnDigital models, as sales of them started only after the launch of Freeview in Summer 2002. It is probable that they not DVB-T boxes.

I think a more pertinent issue is were the boxes sold as Freeview receivers? If anyone has their original packaging and it carries the Freeview logo, maybe they should enclose a photo with their indignant letter to the retailer (and/or manufacturer) demanding an exchange DVB-T compliant Freeview receiver!

Regards

purple-bobby wrote on Feb 4^th, 2008 at 1:45pm:

That'll be yet another petition in 2012, then.

Mind you, the oil will have run out by then so we'll have more important things to think about. 

Admin wrote on May 30^th, 2008 at 1:16pm:

This is not a sentence.