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Richer Sounds Televisions through .ie

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  • 01-12-2010 11:50am
    #1
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭


    Can Richer give any concrete assurances as to whether all of their televisions comply with Irish DTT ( Digital Television) in the following respects.

    UK Channel Panasonics are a particular problem at present, many are unable to tune channels and will lose any channels that are tuned on a retune.

    1. Television must tune the Digital signal, ie FIND the TV channels. Finding only radio channels is a big non non!
    2. They must display the picture correctly, should be no problem if the answer to 1 is Yes
    3. They must display Digital Teletext, this feature is called MHEG5 technically.

    and if the answer to any of 1 2 or 3 is no then the television may not be entirely fit for the purpose in Ireland or may require a firmware update to make them compliant, can Richer put the firmware update links/howtos in the product descriptions if that is the case.

    I would further advise that if the answers to 1 2 and 3 is yes in every case then Richer will be one of the very few retailers in Ireland who are only selling 100% compliant televisions at this time.

    I would further ask Richer Sounds to inform Panasonic ( UK/Ireland in Bracknell) that we in Ireland are sick of their ongoing policy of kicking issues with their crappy firmware to touch and their refusing to issue any firmware updates in/for Ireland where the UK-OAD ("Engineering Channel") method of distributing firmware updates has not been implemented and will not be implemented in future.


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    #2
    Richersounds.ie: John
    Company Representative Posts: 9,459 ✭✭✭Richersounds.ie: John


    Sponge Bob wrote: »
    Can Richer give any concrete assurances as to whether all of their televisions comply with Irish DTT ( Digital Television) in the following respects.

    UK Channel Panasonics are a particular problem at present, many are unable to tune channels and will lose any channels that are tuned on a retune.

    1. Television must tune the Digital signal, ie FIND the TV channels. Finding only radio channels is a big non non!
    2. They must display the picture correctly, should be no problem if the answer to 1 is Yes
    3. They must display Digital Teletext, this feature is called MHEG5 technically.

    and if the answer to any of 1 2 or 3 is no then the television may not be entirely fit for the purpose in Ireland or may require a firmware update to make them compliant, can Richer put the firmware update links/howtos in the product descriptions if that is the case.

    I would further advise that if the answers to 1 2 and 3 is yes in every case then Richer will be one of the very few retailers in Ireland who are only selling 100% compliant televisions at this time.

    I would further ask Richer Sounds to inform Panasonic ( UK/Ireland in Bracknell) that we in Ireland are sick of their ongoing policy of kicking issues with their crappy firmware to touch and their refusing to issue any firmware updates in/for Ireland where the UK-OAD ("Engineering Channel") method of distributing firmware updates has not been implemented and will not be implemented in future.

    Sponge Bob,

    I have been following your posts elsewhere on Boards with interest - & I appreciate your concerns - however this is a commercial forum for Richer Sounds and I dont think it's the correct place to attack Panasonic.

    We sell mainly MPEG4 TV - however we are actually a UK based retailer and MPEG2 is still acceptable & demanded in NI - however we will not ship MPEG2 only TV into the ROI anymore unless a Customer specifically requests a model for budget reasons and then we note this on their account.

    In particular on Panasonic we no longer ship ANY Panasonic TV into the ROI due to the VHF/MPEG4 issue - as you will see from our posts over the past several years we have been alerting ROI Customers to the issue with UK Spec Panas.

    To conclude - we exclusively ship MPEG4 to the ROI - however we do still retail MPEG2 from our Belfast store.

    Best regards,

    John Mc & Crew

    John McDonald / Managing Director / Richer Sounds Ireland / www.richersounds.ie / johnmc@richersounds.ie



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    #3
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    Richersounds.ie: John wrote: »
    Sponge Bob,

    I have been following your posts elsewhere on Boards with interest - & I appreciate your concerns - however this is a commercial forum for Richer Sounds and I dont think it's the correct place to attack Panasonic.

    I won't mention the war so.
    We sell mainly MPEG4 TV - however we are actually a UK based retailer and MPEG2 is still acceptable & demanded in NI - however we will not ship MPEG2 only TV into the ROI anymore unless a Customer specifically requests a model for budget reasons and then we note this on their account.

    Very Good John. I must advise you of one key change in the past month.

    Up to 31st October RTE Broadcast a 'UK' style flag that said "TV Channel Here". Now they broadcast another flag, frequently unrecognised by UK Channel Firmware that says "MPEG4 TV Channel Here" . UK Channel firmware need not be aware of this flag at all. It is standard compliant in Ireland. A set sold along the border for NI/RoI reception could be affected too.

    The net effect is that certain TVs can no longer tune channels and in the absence of tuned channels the mpeg4 feature cannot kick in. In other cases an autoscan could result in a TV losing the tuned channels it already has. This has resulted in a lot of 'pretuned' firmware swappinhg here on Boards especially with 'certain' plasmas.

    While certain manufacturers will step up to the plate with a prompt and simple firmware update others will not. This is a highly invidious situation for any retailer to find themselves in and you have my sympathy in that respect. In that I recommended contact with 'a' manufacturer it was in order to communicate that point to them.

    Nor will an "engineering channel" broadcast update work, that is a UK standard not used elsewhere in Europe.

    A TV that would have worked on the 1st of October could no longer work on the 1st of December.
    In particular on Panasonic we no longer ship ANY Panasonic TV into the ROI due to the VHF/MPEG4 issue - as you will see from our posts over the past several years we have been alerting ROI Customers to the issue with UK Spec Panas.

    Good stuff. Thank you for your principled stand on this issue.
    To conclude - we exclusively ship MPEG4 to the ROI - however we do still retail MPEG2 from our Belfast store.

    Which is entirely correct, MPEG2 works perfectly well in Belfast.
    Best regards,

    John Mc & Crew

    Thanks for coming back so quickly John,

    Best Wishes.

    SB


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    #4
    The Ritz
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, RicherSounds.ie Moderator Posts: 2,505 Mod ✭✭✭✭The Ritz


    Closing this thread, feel free to check out the Terrestial TV forum here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=56 for discussion of this issue.


    Thanks,

    Ritz.


This discussion has been closed.