Trial by television

Back in March, as noticed at reference 1, we played with the idea of a new telly, to the extent of paying a visit to the helpful people at Richer Sounds of Reigate. The upshot was that we probably needed them to install something called a LG 43UP81006LR. We would want, at least in the short term, to maintain a DVD capability and, hopefully, our current DVD player would continue to play.

The matter then went into hibernation, but the service from Freeview in general, ITV3 in particular, continues to deteriorate. The supply of suitable boxed sets from Computer Exchange seems to be deteriorating too. Then there is the matter of streaming services draining money out of traditional TV, making it hard for them to commission the sort of detective dramas which we mostly watch. Then there is the matter of the Tories draining money out of the BBC, with new drama being one of the casualties. Responsible coverage of news and current affairs might be another. So, all things considered, another visit, this time a purchasing visit, to Reigate is on the cards.

So it was a good time to try connecting a new DVD player to a television we were not that familiar with. DVD player from Alba, which I now know is the own-brand under which Sainsbury's and Argos sell electrical goods. Television from Samsung, supported by a contraption from Grundig which connects the television to Sky or some other provider of that sort. And from there to Freeview. All three devices have their own remote controllers, naturally. There is also a strong smell of Google, although I have no idea how it gets there.

Fire everything up as per instructions, load a DVD - but the screen stays more or less blank, apart from the odd message which suggests something is about to happen. And lots of whirring from the DVD player, suggesting life in that department too.

I get involved at this point and suggest that maybe we need a manual. I ask Bing and he turns up various sites which offer free manuals. All of them are badly infested with advertisements and some of them invite you to download some pdf flavoured package, something I don't like doing. But eventually, I am looking at a manual for the CDVD2251M, when the one we actually have is a CDVD2251N. I dare say it amounts to much the same thing, but the remote controller is quite different. Notwithstanding, the story seems to be that we should be in the world of plug and play. The screen should not be blank. I also have confirmation that DVDs go into the player picture side up.

Some time later, I start poking around around the back, tracing cables back to devices and that sort of thing. Some time later still, I work out that the DVD player is not using the SCART connection to the television, rather a 3 strand connection - two labelled audio, one labelled video - the three being red, white and yellow in colour. The sockets are colour coded, but there are more than three sockets, so permutation is possible. To no avail.

Eventually I go back to select input on the television and notice that two of the inputs available have a three strand icon. Try selecting the first one, instead of the input option I had been using, and off we go. The screen springs into life.

At this point BH moves back into the chair and starts flexing the remote controllers. In reasonably short order she is able to play DVDs, to watch Freeview and to listen to the Archers. Everything seems to be hunky dory. Except that is for the HD picture, which seems to pop-out the foreground figures, making it look as if the foreground figures have been stuck onto the background. Which may, of course, be what is happening, but it is not supposed to show. I wondered whether the desire to bring a bit of depth to computer games' images was the driving force behind HD.

Notwithstanding, we feel we have passed the test. We are qualified to buy a new television. So maybe sometime soon, we will take the plunge.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/wellingtonia-68.html.

Reference 2: https://www.bing.com/search?q=lg+43up81006lr. Bing, at least, still knows about the television in question. Not yet vanished from the scene.