Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...The Wooden Freeview Box
khenry
Whilst it’s great to have a brand brand new piece of technology in the house such as a LCD or Plasma television, it’s even better to get more than your money’s worth from a technical purchase before you opt for replacement. In modern times this is not fashionable and if you spend below a certain amount, not practical as the item will have been cheaply made.
However antiques restorer Richard Griffiths has taken his father’s 1957 television and spent another few hundred pounds this century on making it Freeview compatible. It’s even more heartwarming that Bush was once a major force in the AV hardware business, aiming for quality and not simply value.
Treating the maintenance like a good PC project, Griffiths had the foresight to update the internals once before, making it capable of receiving the then-modern 625-line PAL transmissions of the 1980s, otherwise the jump to DVB wouldn’t have worked. Another £200 made the original internals peacefully co-exist with modern Freeview electronics but without causing the tube to go bang.
It’s telling that aside from its place in Griffiths’ family history, the fact that it serves as a piece of furniture and not just a television, is the reason it stuck around for half a century. Of course, £113 in 1957 must represent more than a thousand pounds if we’re talking pre-decimalised currency.
As far as I’m concerned, if my Mum’s TV is on the blink, I’ll encourage her to call in the repair man. Her TV’s ten and a half years pales by comparison, but there’s no harm in the continued use of a set which has never had a problem up to now – especially not when a reasonable replacement might cost £500.
This article has no comments yet.