70% Rise in dumped TVs due to digital switchover - Freeview

Everything Goes · 04-11-2009, 18:26

Cumbria county council said the number of TVs dumped in landfills has risen by 70% in the past year as people throw out analogue TVs that could easily be upgraded to digital with a set top box.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...tal-switchover

Anti-Static · 04-11-2009, 18:31

Fashion has a lot to answer for

marbles333 · 04-11-2009, 18:56

Its what you call false advertising and brainwashing of the general public.

The same goes for a "digital aerial", which not suprisingly, does not exist.

ProDave · 04-11-2009, 19:36

I'm sure it's more to do with fashion than ignorance. In the last couple of years flat panel LCD and Plasma tv's have really taken off. I'll bet the reason for the large number of CRT sets being dumped is more about wanting a flat panel tv than "going digital", though of course it's all more convenient in one box.

CRT tv's are now pretty much worthless. I had two that I had been keeping as spare, but I had no realistic prospect of using them, so rather than landfill them, I gave them away on freeycle so at least they will get a bit more use. Perhaps digitaluk should advise first you don't have to dispose of your old tv, but if that's what you choose, then try freecycling it rather than just dumping it.

brush2805 · 04-11-2009, 19:45

Cumbria County council are breaking the law if they really are letting all these CRT's go into landfill. Bad bit of journalism in my opinion.

SteveMcK · 04-11-2009, 20:23

Given that digital quality is often worse than analogue, and that HD offers no visible difference for many of the standard UK viewing situations, this is no surprise. The TV manufacturers have a vested interest in persuading people to dump working systems and replace them with new ones, and since the reality of the situation won't do it, the manufacturers and broadcasters have to resort to dodgy claims to persuade people to make a fashionable "upgrade". Maybe an opportunity for some charity to offer free collection of unwanted TVs, to give to a good home?

marbles333 · 04-11-2009, 22:06

I don't own anything but a CRT TV.
Even in my parents house there are no LCD TV's. Its not just cost-effective or beneficial to change to an LCD at the moment for me, I am a student after all

ProDave · 04-11-2009, 22:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by marbles333

I don't own anything but a CRT TV.
Even in my parents house there are no LCD TV's. Its not just cost-effective or beneficial to change to an LCD at the moment for me, I am a student after all

I have a great deal of sympathy with that sentiment, but for possibly different reasons.

However, it would appear the vast majority don't feel that way. You would be quite surprised how many homes I have been in where the house itself is very modest, and the internal decor and furnishings are poor, but there sitting quite incongruous in it's surroundings is a brand spanking new 50" expensive flat screen tv.

My own personal view is LCD sets are too expensive but above all too fragile and unreliable to justify their price tag. I think in years to come early LCD sets will prove unreliable generally and will have much much shorter lifespans than CRT sets. That will of course lead to a greater environmental impact.

Myself, I have an LCD tv in the living room and an LCD monitor for my PC, but the rest of the sets in the house are CRT and will remain that way for the forseeable future. I only have an LCD set because it was bought cheap as faulty and repaired, but having said that, that is true of every single tv I have ever owned.

Spot · 04-11-2009, 23:00

I still use a CRT and am dreading the day it goes wrong. I only hope I will be able to find another. That shouldn't prove impossible at present, but given that my eight year old set might well only be half way through its life, I wonder how easy it will be to find a replacement several years from now.

The cost of a new set isn't an issue for me. I just don't think these new ones are any good.

TelevisionUser · 04-11-2009, 23:22

I know its complete bonkers to throw away a fully working TV set but some of the blame must lie with Digital UK for not making it clear enough that ordinary CRT TVs can be easily upgraded with the addition of an energy saving Freeview box - http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/R...-digital-boxes.

What also might be going on though is people using the excuse of switchover to justify getting a brand new widescreen television but more research is required on this one I guess.

slackereconomy · 05-11-2009, 01:18

i'm fast reaching the conclusion it is an amusing and expensive con. do i get a better picture on my new 42" panasonic watching freeview or sd freesat than i did on my 29" toshiba crt on analogue? nowhere close. even freesat hd only gives me what i would call acceptable rather than exceptional viewing. it makes me laugh. xbox 360 looks amazing, not tried blu ray (nor will i. thirty quid for a movie? stroll on). channel choice is fantastic now, but pq is a joke. but i'll take choice every time.

Dj-Toonz · 05-11-2009, 01:37

[quote=slackereconomy;36464580]i'm fast reaching the conclusion it is an amusing and expensive con. do i get a better picture on my new 42" panasonic watching freeview or sd freesat than i did on my 29" toshiba crt on analogue? nowhere close. even freesat hd only gives me what i would call acceptable rather than exceptional viewing. it makes me laugh. xbox 360 looks amazing, not tried blu ray (nor will i. thirty quid for a movie? stroll on). channel choice is fantastic now, but pq is a joke. but i'll take choice every time.[/QUOTEv

That's true about the pq of freeview reception as It isn't broadcast in HD, the only decient pq from any channels i've watched have been from the SKy+HD box, when I upgraded the old 32" sanyo anolouge TV that I gave mum bHefore getting the 60" panny, the Picture from a sanyo stb freeview box was lovely. now mum's got it & she's dreading having to replace that tv (she's got a freeview twin tuner 500 gig Hard-drive box connected to it) and PQ is better then mine from freeview I can't belive it

slackereconomy · 05-11-2009, 01:45

progress lol

chindley · 05-11-2009, 02:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by TelevisionUser

I know its complete bonkers to throw away a fully working TV set but some of the blame must lie with Digital UK for not making it clear enough that ordinary CRT TVs can be easily upgraded with the addition of an energy saving Freeview box - http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/R...-digital-boxes.

What also might be going on though is people using the excuse of switchover to justify getting a brand new widescreen television but more research is required on this one I guess.

To be fair to Digital UK they did make a TV advert to say that you don't have to throw away your old TV to receive Digital TV, even if hasn't got a SCART port. I remember watching it and no doubt there's an example of the advert on YouTube somewhere. Maybe it wasn't effective enough? I don't know how many times it was shown.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slackereconomy

i'm fast reaching the conclusion it is an amusing and expensive con. do i get a better picture on my new 42" panasonic watching freeview or sd freesat than i did on my 29" toshiba crt on analogue? nowhere close. even freesat hd only gives me what i would call acceptable rather than exceptional viewing. it makes me laugh. xbox 360 looks amazing, not tried blu ray (nor will i. thirty quid for a movie? stroll on). channel choice is fantastic now, but pq is a joke. but i'll take choice every time.

It all depends on the type of LCD TV you have and what kind of technology is inside it. A lot of the LCD TV's and HD PVRs made in the last couple of years have up-scaling capabilities built in, which can automatically improve the picture towards HD quality. Ok its not true HD, but I don't think most of the general public would notice really unless its heavily pixellated during fast moving images (like rivers flowing, etc.) and apparently proper HD broadcasts don't have that. I don't know as I can't afford an LCD TV, I only have a CRT TV I bought 5 years ago and its working ok.

My parents have a 32 inch Sony Bravia LCD TV they bought a couple of years back with built-in Freeview and a Sony HDD Recorder with a built-in DVD (not Blu-Ray) Recorder. The quality of the Freeview recordings on the HDD Recorder are often several times better than on the Freeview picture from the Bravia, mainly due to the automatic up-scaling chip inside the HDD Recorder. Its the same with DVDs, I watched Wall-E (which I saw at the cinema and on Blu-Ray at my friend's house) and I can honestly say I can't see much difference in quality from the DVD in comparison to the Blu-Ray. I'm not saying its perfect, but it just shows how good up-scaling technology has become.

On another note I do think in some ways that Blu-Ray is a bit of a con as well, as a result of watching just a couple of movies on my parent's set-up! Maybe Blu-Ray looks better on much bigger screens (as in most electrical goods shops), but I think the majority of the public would never think of getting a 40 or 50 inch LCD TV, as its still too expensive for most people's budgets.

Incidentally you can rent Blu-Ray movies now, you don't HAVE to buy them. Just a thought.

MaxMix · 05-11-2009, 02:20

Not surprising at all really. I replaced my ageing (and wearing out) non-HD Sony 'Whale' and released about a 2 metre square space in the lounge. The TV went to a needy friend so not wasted. Mind you, nearly needed a crane to get it out the house.

I suppose I'm lucky enough to be able to afford a replacement otherwise it could be a second hand CRT for me instead...

Otherwise my viewing enjoyment has been increased by 500% so it's not surprising people are replacing their CRT's.

Anyway, if anyone says they prefer a CRT to a latest gen flat screen then they are bonkers or in serious need to visit an optician.

People seem to be happy to spend about £400 on an iPhone, you can get an excellent TV for that. I know what I would rather have.

Another few years and we'll start seeing flat screen TV's piled up with the fridges when we go down the dump, no doubt.

ProDave · 05-11-2009, 08:14

I'm not disputing that a modern LCD set gives a superior picture to most CRT sets. But the problem is better screen resolution and sharpness allows the viewer to actually see all the compression artifacts caused by over compression. So they complain the picture looks worse.

Then they say HD is only "just as good" as their old picture, making that statement because they no longer see the compression artifacts.

My take on this is SD freeview and freesat is now way way over compressed and on a good set looks appalling. As an experiment, anyone with freesat or sky HD should for example try watching BBC HD via a scart connection. That will only be an SD picture, but due to the higher quality source will be virtually free of artifacts, so will be a "full SD" picture, SD as it should be. Most will agree it looks very good. Now switch over from scart to hdmi and it will get better still, but not by miles, just a little bit better.

N.Dean · 05-11-2009, 08:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

Cumbria county council said the number of TVs dumped in landfills has risen by 70% in the past year as people throw out analogue TVs that could easily be upgraded to digital with a set top box.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...tal-switchover

It would be intersting to see these figures for a few years before. It could be that people who would have otherwise bought a new TV last year or the year before decided instead to hold-off until DSO. Also, consumers' personal financial situations may have had an effect.

mossy2103 · 05-11-2009, 09:07

Perhaps a number of people have been wanting to ditch their older analogue TVs for some time, and have been waiting for the right moment/prices, and now that competition is more fierce, they have chosen to go for a slimline flatscreen LCD or plasma.

Nigel Goodwin · 05-11-2009, 09:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by brush2805

Cumbria County council are breaking the law if they really are letting all these CRT's go into landfill. Bad bit of journalism in my opinion.

Exactly - I had a skip delivered yesterday, and the conditions of it are no TV's and no fridges or freezers.

Both are treated separately, and don't go in to landfill, but are supposedly recycled.

acmold0 · 05-11-2009, 10:20

In Oxford the local waste recycling centre has seperate sections for everything, TV's, videos, etc are placed in large container just inside the enterance. Small electrical items included remotes are handed into a chap in a shed next to the dumped fridges and freezers. He's got a bench and he looks everything over, takes the plugs off, etc and puts everything into various boxes. They also take most dumped bicycles out of the skip and put them aside for repair / spares.

I've got a TV that is coming upto 20 years old in my bedroom, it's an old Fergusion one of the first to have a scart socket, it's linked to my Sky box via a magic eye and works fine, even putting the picture into the correct ratio.

In my downstairs front room I have a smaller set which gives a very good picture and I have linked all my old gadgets to it, a Video and a basic DVD with recorded facilities, if anyone gives me a video I go and watch it and if I want to I can create a DVD of it.

I only throw a TV out when it actually breaks down.

2Bdecided · 05-11-2009, 10:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProDave

As an experiment, anyone with freesat or sky HD should for example try watching BBC HD via a scart connection. That will only be an SD picture, but due to the higher quality source will be virtually free of artifacts, so will be a "full SD" picture, SD as it should be. Most will agree it looks very good.

Not on Freesat - the SCART output is crippled to composite only (not RGB) for HD content.

However, dropping the box into non-Freesat mode gives you RGB Scart, and I agree: it's probably the best SD picture most people will ever see. Virtually faultless.

Problem is, to get that quality on Freeview SD with MPEG-2, you'd probably need 9Mbps+ - but that's the bitrate of BBC HD. There's no commercial or practical incentive to make SD that good - when for the same cost/bitrate you can deliver HD which is even better (albeit not as many people can receive it yet).

Cheers,
David.

Everything Goes · 05-11-2009, 11:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by chindley

To be fair to Digital UK they did make a TV advert to say that you don't have to throw away your old TV to receive Digital TV, even if hasn't got a SCART port. I remember watching it and no doubt there's an example of the advert on YouTube somewhere. Maybe it wasn't effective enough? I don't know how many times it was shown.

It all depends on the type of LCD TV you have and what kind of technology is inside it. A lot of the LCD TV's and HD PVRs made in the last couple of years have up-scaling capabilities built in, which can automatically improve the picture towards HD quality. Ok its not true HD, but I don't think most of the general public would notice really unless its heavily pixellated during fast moving images (like rivers flowing, etc.) and apparently proper HD broadcasts don't have that. I don't know as I can't afford an LCD TV, I only have a CRT TV I bought 5 years ago and its working ok.

My parents have a 32 inch Sony Bravia LCD TV they bought a couple of years back with built-in Freeview and a Sony HDD Recorder with a built-in DVD (not Blu-Ray) Recorder. The quality of the Freeview recordings on the HDD Recorder are often several times better than on the Freeview picture from the Bravia, mainly due to the automatic up-scaling chip inside the HDD Recorder. Its the same with DVDs, I watched Wall-E (which I saw at the cinema and on Blu-Ray at my friend's house) and I can honestly say I can't see much difference in quality from the DVD in comparison to the Blu-Ray. I'm not saying its perfect, but it just shows how good up-scaling technology has become.

On another note I do think in some ways that Blu-Ray is a bit of a con as well, as a result of watching just a couple of movies on my parent's set-up! Maybe Blu-Ray looks better on much bigger screens (as in most electrical goods shops), but I think the majority of the public would never think of getting a 40 or 50 inch LCD TV, as its still too expensive for most people's budgets.

Incidentally you can rent Blu-Ray movies now, you don't HAVE to buy them. Just a thought.

Funnily enough I bought a film which had the DVD and Blu-Ray in the same box recently. I don't have a Blu-Ray player but know someone who has. I took the film over and tried the DVD & Blu-Ray to see how much difference there was. I was astounded to notice there was very little difference between them

Blu-Ray had slightly more detail but you couldn't justify paying extra money for the small gain in quality! A lot of this is probably due to good upscaling software. Best thing to do is save your money and buy a good quality upscaling DVD player!

Nigel Goodwin · 05-11-2009, 11:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

Blu-Ray had slightly more detail but you couldn't justify paying extra money for the small gain in quality! A lot of this is probably due to good upscaling software. Best thing to do is save your money and buy a good quality upscaling DVD player!

Upscaling doesn't make a film HD, it just makes an SD version that fills the screen - and the better the scaling, the less artifacts it creates will doing so.

If you weren't impressed by BluRay there are three main possible reasons (in order):

1) Watching from too far away - to get benefit you need to watch from considerably closer then SD (less than 2 screen sizes away).

2) The TV isn't very good on HD - plenty of Plasma's are like that.

3) A naff BluRay disc, some aren't very great quality.

lstar337 · 05-11-2009, 11:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

Funnily enough I bought a film which had the DVD and Blu-Ray in the same box recently. I don't have a Blu-Ray player but know someone who has. I took the film over and tried the DVD & Blu-Ray to see how much difference there was. I was astounded to notice there was very little difference between them

Blu-Ray had slightly more detail but you couldn't justify paying extra money for the small gain in quality! A lot of this is probably due to good upscaling software. Best thing to do is save your money and buy a good quality upscaling DVD player!

I find that very hard to believe.

There must be something wrong with your friends setup.

Blu-ray is a massive improvement on DVD.

bunnyds · 05-11-2009, 11:46

Apart from the advantages in watching HD transmissions form Sky, Games consoles and Blu-Ray the other big plus point in our case was weight - Old Sony 37" CRT = 90 kg, new Sony 40" LCD = 25 kg. It was a nightmare moving the old TV for redecorating, etc. I'm glad to see the back of it.

04-11-2009, 18:26	#1
Everything Goes Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Lost In Cyberspace Services: GPS might be handy!? Posts: 4,574	70% Rise in dumped TVs due to digital switchover Cumbria county council said the number of TVs dumped in landfills has risen by 70% in the past year as people throw out analogue TVs that could easily be upgraded to digital with a set top box. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...tal-switchover

04-11-2009, 18:31	#2
Anti-Static Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 210	Fashion has a lot to answer for

04-11-2009, 18:56	#3
marbles333 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Wrexham / Cardiff Services: Ferguson FDT500, TUTV+, Astratec TOPD2, Philips DTX6370 Posts: 1,307	Its what you call false advertising and brainwashing of the general public. The same goes for a "digital aerial", which not suprisingly, does not exist.

04-11-2009, 19:36	#4
ProDave Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Northern Scottish Highlands Services: Freesat From Sky+ HD, Astra 1 / Hotbird FTA, Freeview, Freeview PVR, ADSL Posts: 7,253	I'm sure it's more to do with fashion than ignorance. In the last couple of years flat panel LCD and Plasma tv's have really taken off. I'll bet the reason for the large number of CRT sets being dumped is more about wanting a flat panel tv than "going digital", though of course it's all more convenient in one box. CRT tv's are now pretty much worthless. I had two that I had been keeping as spare, but I had no realistic prospect of using them, so rather than landfill them, I gave them away on freeycle so at least they will get a bit more use. Perhaps digitaluk should advise first you don't have to dispose of your old tv, but if that's what you choose, then try freecycling it rather than just dumping it.

04-11-2009, 19:45	#5
brush2805 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 211	Cumbria County council are breaking the law if they really are letting all these CRT's go into landfill. Bad bit of journalism in my opinion.

04-11-2009, 20:23	#6
SteveMcK Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Services: I'm lucky just to have mains water & electricity. Posts: 3,605	Given that digital quality is often worse than analogue, and that HD offers no visible difference for many of the standard UK viewing situations, this is no surprise. The TV manufacturers have a vested interest in persuading people to dump working systems and replace them with new ones, and since the reality of the situation won't do it, the manufacturers and broadcasters have to resort to dodgy claims to persuade people to make a fashionable "upgrade". Maybe an opportunity for some charity to offer free collection of unwanted TVs, to give to a good home?

04-11-2009, 22:06	#7
marbles333 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Wrexham / Cardiff Services: Ferguson FDT500, TUTV+, Astratec TOPD2, Philips DTX6370 Posts: 1,307	I don't own anything but a CRT TV. Even in my parents house there are no LCD TV's. Its not just cost-effective or beneficial to change to an LCD at the moment for me, I am a student after all

04-11-2009, 23:00	#9
Spot Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Norwich, Tacolneston tx Services: Namesco Broadband, Freeview, FTA DSat, DAB. Posts: 12,368	I still use a CRT and am dreading the day it goes wrong. I only hope I will be able to find another. That shouldn't prove impossible at present, but given that my eight year old set might well only be half way through its life, I wonder how easy it will be to find a replacement several years from now. The cost of a new set isn't an issue for me. I just don't think these new ones are any good.

04-11-2009, 23:22	#10
TelevisionUser Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Storbritannia Services: DAB digital radio, Freeview, Firefox & OpenOffice Posts: 1,934	I know its complete bonkers to throw away a fully working TV set but some of the blame must lie with Digital UK for not making it clear enough that ordinary CRT TVs can be easily upgraded with the addition of an energy saving Freeview box - http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/R...-digital-boxes. What also might be going on though is people using the excuse of switchover to justify getting a brand new widescreen television but more research is required on this one I guess.

05-11-2009, 01:18	#11
slackereconomy Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Perth, scotland Services: Panasonic tx-l42s10, Thomson dti6300, bush bfsat01HD, topuptv, freesat, 3 m Posts: 316	i'm fast reaching the conclusion it is an amusing and expensive con. do i get a better picture on my new 42" panasonic watching freeview or sd freesat than i did on my 29" toshiba crt on analogue? nowhere close. even freesat hd only gives me what i would call acceptable rather than exceptional viewing. it makes me laugh. xbox 360 looks amazing, not tried blu ray (nor will i. thirty quid for a movie? stroll on). channel choice is fantastic now, but pq is a joke. but i'll take choice every time.

05-11-2009, 01:37	#12
Dj-Toonz Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Manchester , UK Services: Three Hsdpa broadband & sky+ hd Plus Freeview Posts: 148	[quote=slackereconomy;36464580]i'm fast reaching the conclusion it is an amusing and expensive con. do i get a better picture on my new 42" panasonic watching freeview or sd freesat than i did on my 29" toshiba crt on analogue? nowhere close. even freesat hd only gives me what i would call acceptable rather than exceptional viewing. it makes me laugh. xbox 360 looks amazing, not tried blu ray (nor will i. thirty quid for a movie? stroll on). channel choice is fantastic now, but pq is a joke. but i'll take choice every time.[/QUOTEv That's true about the pq of freeview reception as It isn't broadcast in HD, the only decient pq from any channels i've watched have been from the SKy+HD box, when I upgraded the old 32" sanyo anolouge TV that I gave mum bHefore getting the 60" panny, the Picture from a sanyo stb freeview box was lovely. now mum's got it & she's dreading having to replace that tv (she's got a freeview twin tuner 500 gig Hard-drive box connected to it) and PQ is better then mine from freeview I can't belive it

05-11-2009, 01:45	#13
slackereconomy Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Perth, scotland Services: Panasonic tx-l42s10, Thomson dti6300, bush bfsat01HD, topuptv, freesat, 3 m Posts: 316	progress lol

05-11-2009, 02:20	#15
MaxMix Forum Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: South West Essex, England Services: DTT: Crystal Palace, Bluebell Hill, Dover - SAT: 28.5'E<>58.0'W Posts: 110	Not surprising at all really. I replaced my ageing (and wearing out) non-HD Sony 'Whale' and released about a 2 metre square space in the lounge. The TV went to a needy friend so not wasted. Mind you, nearly needed a crane to get it out the house. I suppose I'm lucky enough to be able to afford a replacement otherwise it could be a second hand CRT for me instead... Otherwise my viewing enjoyment has been increased by 500% so it's not surprising people are replacing their CRT's. Anyway, if anyone says they prefer a CRT to a latest gen flat screen then they are bonkers or in serious need to visit an optician. People seem to be happy to spend about £400 on an iPhone, you can get an excellent TV for that. I know what I would rather have. Another few years and we'll start seeing flat screen TV's piled up with the fridges when we go down the dump, no doubt.

05-11-2009, 08:14	#16
ProDave Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Northern Scottish Highlands Services: Freesat From Sky+ HD, Astra 1 / Hotbird FTA, Freeview, Freeview PVR, ADSL Posts: 7,253	I'm not disputing that a modern LCD set gives a superior picture to most CRT sets. But the problem is better screen resolution and sharpness allows the viewer to actually see all the compression artifacts caused by over compression. So they complain the picture looks worse. Then they say HD is only "just as good" as their old picture, making that statement because they no longer see the compression artifacts. My take on this is SD freeview and freesat is now way way over compressed and on a good set looks appalling. As an experiment, anyone with freesat or sky HD should for example try watching BBC HD via a scart connection. That will only be an SD picture, but due to the higher quality source will be virtually free of artifacts, so will be a "full SD" picture, SD as it should be. Most will agree it looks very good. Now switch over from scart to hdmi and it will get better still, but not by miles, just a little bit better.

05-11-2009, 09:07	#18
mossy2103 Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 32,210	Perhaps a number of people have been wanting to ditch their older analogue TVs for some time, and have been waiting for the right moment/prices, and now that competition is more fierce, they have chosen to go for a slimline flatscreen LCD or plasma.

05-11-2009, 10:20	#20
acmold0 Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Oxford Services: Sky Multiroom, BT Broadband. Beckley, Sandy Heath, Sutton Coldfield Posts: 411	In Oxford the local waste recycling centre has seperate sections for everything, TV's, videos, etc are placed in large container just inside the enterance. Small electrical items included remotes are handed into a chap in a shed next to the dumped fridges and freezers. He's got a bench and he looks everything over, takes the plugs off, etc and puts everything into various boxes. They also take most dumped bicycles out of the skip and put them aside for repair / spares. I've got a TV that is coming upto 20 years old in my bedroom, it's an old Fergusion one of the first to have a scart socket, it's linked to my Sky box via a magic eye and works fine, even putting the picture into the correct ratio. In my downstairs front room I have a smaller set which gives a very good picture and I have linked all my old gadgets to it, a Video and a basic DVD with recorded facilities, if anyone gives me a video I go and watch it and if I want to I can create a DVD of it. I only throw a TV out when it actually breaks down.

05-11-2009, 11:46	#25
bunnyds Inactive Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Carole's Forest of Chin Posts: 1,800	Apart from the advantages in watching HD transmissions form Sky, Games consoles and Blu-Ray the other big plus point in our case was weight - Old Sony 37" CRT = 90 kg, new Sony 40" LCD = 25 kg. It was a nightmare moving the old TV for redecorating, etc. I'm glad to see the back of it.