Seems like there's an even cheaper 32 inch HD-Ready TV in our midst. Step forward Aldi's Tevion model, on sale this Thursday. Some of the specs on it are a little lower than bigger brand models (7 watt speakers instead of 10 or 15 watts and a lower brightness level) but the core specs are fine. €650 seems to be the new benchmark in budget HDTVs...
Confused about HD-Ready TV? Here's a guide I've wriiten for novices, with references to some of the (32-inch) models currently on the Irish market. In the budget category, I like the Mirai DTL (€800 in Xtravision). In the mid-range, Samsung's 32 inch model (€1,130-€1,200) is what I'd go for.
What happens when you've bought an apartment in a block which has an 'exclusive' TV supply deal with a company you didn't want? Worse, when the TV picture freezes and pixellates every 15 minutes? That's the situation facing angry residents in one new apartment development in Finglas, Prospect Hill. The developer signed a monopoly provision deal with Smart Telecom. But residents aren't exactly chuffed with the service and have been complaining in their droves.
Tough luck, though -- they're stuck with them. NTL? They're not 'allowed' lay cable into the property. Sky dishes? Not 'allowed' on the balconies.
One curious by-product of these local monopoly deals -- and it's also the likes of Magnet and NTL which are signing them -- is the gradual dissolution of Eircom's universal service obligation (USO). If a developer signs a monopoly deal with a rival telecoms company, and Eircom 'isn't allowed' on the premises, where does that leave the consumer's USO rights? This affects thousands of people in the greater Dublin area.
This week, Irish shops saw the introduction of the country's first Blu-Ray high definition DVD player, Samsung's BD-P1000 model. But while the price in Ireland (and all over Europe) is €1,500, the same machine costs $730 (€570) in the US, little more than a third of the price. Samsung's reason?
"The US market is a single market allowing the introduction of a single model produced, distributed, and sold in large volume," a spokesman told BBC's website. "Europe on the other hand requires the introduction of several model variants which will be produced and sold in lower volumes. There are also differences in purchases taxes between the two regions."
As 'HD-Ready' TVs increase in popularity, several 32-inch models have fallen below the €800 barrier in Irish shops. The cheapest appears to be a Nordmende model available in Power City for €780. Alternatives include a no-name brand from Xtravision (€799) and a Beko (€799) from Power City. If you're looking for something even cheaper, try Pixmania.com's Hannsg 26 inch HD-Ready telly, which costs €502 (including delivery).
Sky signed about 7,500 Irish customers to its high definition (HD) service between July and September, suggests a press release put out today by the broadcaster. It will not reveal how many HD subscribers it now has in total in Ireland, but it is believed to be between 10,000 and 13,000 people. The overall figure of HD subscribers for Britain and Ireland is 96,000.
It looks Sony's PSP is a games machine, after all, and not a portable film device. While the PSP was launched equally as a device for film fans, with a new UMD disc format for the gadget, that end of it has been a bit of a flop, according to top Irish executives.
"Movies haven't really been successful on the PSP," Niall O'Hanrahan, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland, told me. The reason? "It's down to content and price. The studios have been launching a lot of the older catalogue movies and they're too expensive, in my view."
About 4,500 Irish people have signed up for high definition TV services to date, according to Sky Ireland. The rollout has been slow and signing up to the service is expensive (extra subscription + new TV + new set-top box = €1,500 upfront). The most popular services have so far proven to be sport, reckons a spokesman for Sky in Britain.
Xtravision appears to be loading non-skippable ads on to some of its rentable DVD titles. A very poor M&Ms ad infected one DVD I rented last week.
