The Edge

Same here just moved the 80 kilo beast down to the garage as spare TV. The picture quality on this TV still knocks most modern TV's for dead.

Same here, actually longer as we have had Foxtel since its launch but moved and had to get Austar for 6 month. I rang the disconnection team on Thursday and the best I could get was a $100 install fee for IQ2. I have been a platinum subscriber since the launch of IQ and even paid the $395 + $100 install fee on launch. When I downgraded my package late last year they started charging me the $10 a month IQ fee I have since moved back up to platinum but feel as a loyal customer I am not getting anything to make me want to stay with them. To be honest my son only really watches Boomerang and occasionally try to watch the MotoGP and Superbikes but hate seeing all these channels that I can't access so have given in to temptation and put in back on to platinum. What I really want is IQ2 in the bedroom and leave the old IQ in the lounge and not have to pay any more than $20 extra per month but it would appear I have not much chance of that happening. Cya Foxtel I am sure you won't miss me

That is what I should have done before placing my order for the 50cm ones. I just want to add my positive comments to the numerous ones already posted and share my experience with you all. I ordered 2 X 0.5m after reading this thread and like everybody else my cables arrived very quickly via express post . I couldn't wait to hook them up to my new TV but was disappointed to find I had under estimated the length I needed. So I emailed Keith to let him know that I needed to order 2 X 1m cables and would he consider swapping them over if I posted them back. He said sure just send them back with $10 to cover off the postage. I was slack and before I knew I had a notice from the post office telling me I had a delivery to collect. So Keith had sent the 2 X 1m cables before I had even returned the others or paid for the postage, feeling quite embarrassed by my slackness I quickly rectified the situation and posted the short cables back and sent him $10 via paypal. My experience speaks volumes for the type of guy and his business operation add to that the quality of the cables already discussed in this and other threads, I cannot recommend the guy highly enough if you are thinking of buying some new cables don't waste your time going any where else. Great doing business with you Keith

WOW WHAT A BARGAIN AT THAT PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had once since October but have only really started using it to record the Tour de France. I will finally get around to converting my Hi8 videos of my son to DVD. One real annoyance is the noise when the unit turns on to record to DVD from a timer, I have no idea what it is doing so if somebody could confirm if their unit also does this it would be appreciated.

Another Lumix camera here bought the 32LZD800A. Has anybody tried to re-enter in order to try and get a different prize?

I picked one up on the weekend and so far I am very happy with it. I haven't had a chance to tweak the settings as yet so it is pretty much as is straight out of the box. The difference between it and my 26 inch TX-26LXD70A Panasonic is like night and day finally I feel I have a picture from a modern TV that comes close to my 9 year old Aconda. I paid $1688 for the TV and an additional $70 for the 4 year extended warranty from Harvey Norman at Aspley. They were throwing in a $100 universal remote so I asked the sales guy to keep the remote and give me the $100 towards the extended warranty. I have looked around on the Net for this TV and it can be had for below $1688 but not by very much so took the plunge and grabbed the bull by the horns. When I got home I entered the Swim 2 Win competition on the Pansonic website and won one of the $189 Lumix cameras for my 10 minutes of time, so I am not complaining as it was an added bonus I hadn't counted on. The reviews for this set are pretty slim on the ground due to it being a new model but when they start coming in expect to see some pretty good reviews. If your looking for a description on what all of the letters mean in the model number have a look here. http://whathifi.com/blogs/television/archi...7in-plasma.aspx

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there bellotv. The 8 year old Aconda is going to kill most of the current displays with the RGB via scart connection to SD STB. I guess I was right all along to sit on the fence and not take the plunge into this Plasma/LCD hype but I got sick of watching my 18 year old 34cm portable in the bedroom and could hold back no longer.

Cheers Thanks for the advice I will consider adding a splitter, although the current setup is looking OK so far.

OK now I get you, sorry for the confusion. The amplifier has 1 antenna In and 2 Out which is already splitting the signal.

I don't have an amp so this is not an option. What I have done is use the amplifier to drive the one signal from aerial point to the TV and the second output into the Beyonwiz. The output from the Beyonwiz is then fed into the RF in on the DVD Recorder and that is where I have left it. Everything appears to be OK but if somebody thinks I have missed something please let me know.

I am trying to figure out the best aerial set-up for my berdroom. I have one outlet, as do most people I assume, and 2 boxes (Beyonwiz SP1 and Panasonic DMR-EZ47N) and one display (Panasonic LCD TV with integrated digital tuner). All of the equpment have digital tuners but I am in a quandry as to which leads need to go where to feed in the best possible signal to all 3 devices. I have purchased a TV signal amplifier from Dick Smiths which takes one antenna input and amplifies the output to two TV's. So I was thinking of taking the Antenna out into the Antenna In on the amplifier then feeding the the two outputs to the input on the Beyonwiz and Panasonic DVD recorder. Then taking the RF out of the Beyonwiz into the RF IN on the LCD as the Beyonwiz is the workhorse of this setup the DVD Recorder will be rarely used only for displaying the odd VCR tape. I was then going to leave the RF Out on the DVD Recorder unconnected, this is what I am unclear of. Key points are each unit has its own built in digital tuner and I would like to feed in the best signal possible. If anybody has any suggestion/tips for me please let me and the other forum users know by replying to this thread as I will not be the only person having this problem On a side note I tried using the search but I don't think I had the correct key words to give me suitable replies. TIA

To answer a few questions I am using 1080i via HDMI Yes I am sure I am viewing the digital tuner hence the 20 odd channels including ABC2 and SBS news plus all of the SD and HD channels from the commercial networks. The screen size is 26" for the bedromm the average viewing distance would be 2.5 maybe 3 metres away. In short I reversed the RF IN and RF OUT to obviously degrade the picture the installer corrected this but didn't do anything else, which is what I am a little peeved about and charged me $77 for his time. From what you guys are saying once you get a digital picture you cannot tweak it to make it any better "you either have a signal or you don't." I have a signal sure but the picture is not what I would class as sharp or clear, perhaps I am being too pedantic? From the sonds of your repsonses I have as good as I am going t get so suck it in and live with it. I guess I am a little dissapointed that my 8 year old Loewe and 3 year old Topfield display a better, in my opinion clearer and sharper picture than the latest and greatest - well readily available technology.

Thanks for the reply, so in short I purchased a POS display.

The Panasonic, has a built in HD tuner, and the beyonwiz (listed in my signature) are in the bedroom the location in question. I am using a Belkin HDMI cable as the connection of choise. All I can really describe the picture issue is as soft with noise. That is probably not enough to go on. I think I may need to take the risk of another call out fee to get a second opinion.

Well by switching the leads the pixellation would obviously occur less often and the signal would be improved dramatically. The picture to me isn't as sharp as I would expect on the latest HD capable display compared to my 8 year old CRT showing SD through the topfield is what I would consider flawless The picture does improve later in the evening as I pesume there is less "noise". I guess I cannot clearly put into words what I am experiencing/seeing what I am most dissapointed with was minimal work ie 20mins in and out switch the cables and leave a $77 invoice for the service. Perhaps I m being far too fussy but given that I now have a more upto date display able to show off HD in all its glory I feel let down. Either the technology is all BS and hype or my reception isn't up to scratch and needs to be corrected. I was of the opinion it was the latter but am more than willing to shift my view the other way.

Great topic! And I'll apolgise now for kind of hijacking it but I have some experience to share. Today I had a recomended DBA installer turn up to correct my picture problems and granted I wasn't home but have experienced what I would class a complete rip off from a service point of view. I left a diagram of the 3 outlets in my house noting the outlet with the perfect picture, closest to the aerial the other 2 outlets are not so great leads me to think I need a signal booster of some kind. S I switch the aerial leads around so my RF In and Out are switched hence th reason for my poor picture. said installer arrives whilst my mother in law is in the house and he proceeds to reconnect the 2 leads o improove the picture (granted it has improved since he arrived but is far from perfect) He then leaves me an invoice for $77 WTF! Am I over reacting??

Hi, This question is probably already being answered elsewhere but I couldn't find it easily when searching. So is there an "easy" method of capturing a screen image on TV from a paused program, other than using a digital camera?? TIA

It's been a while since I have visited the forums and I am trying to gauge if the Toppy is still the king of the SD PVR's currently on the market. Itried to put in a poll but couldn't figure it out, sorry I am obviously technically challenged ) TIA

One of my friends finaly bought a Toppy after I nagged him for almost 18 months on how great they are. When his arrived the supplied scart cable is mising a whole load of pins is this normal? At the moment we can't get any picture signal from it but the audio is fine so I think it is down to the missing pins but I could be wrong. If that is the case can somebody recommend a good quality scart(output) to component(input) cable? I ditched my supplied scart cable in exchange for my "super duper Mega Rip-Off newbies will never know we are screwing them and laughing all the way to the bank" $200 IXUS cable so I can't compare what was supplied with my Toppy. TIA

Are you using the Topfield supplied cable??

Hi Guys, I managed to convince my mate to finally buy a Topfield but the picture quality using S-Video is pretty ordinary. So can any of you knowledgable guys on here suggest the best way (highest possible picture quality) to connect the Toppy to the plasma? I was thinking scart to component, is this the best option? Also what settings need to be adjusted on the Toppy to make the picture look crisper? TIA

I think you will find your avearge consumer who buys the Topfield wouldn't even know that there were add-ons called TAP's. They would splash the cash plug in the box and expect the damb thing to work as advertised straight out of the box and rightly so. The people who frequent these and other technologically forums are born fiddler's or tweakers and we are in the minority in this current society and lets hope it stays that way. Try to talking to most people about how great the Topfield is and what cool features you can add to it and watch most peoples eyes become glazed as you confuse the hell out of them. Personally as much as I like tweaking stuff I am get sick of the "Microsoft approach" to product releases, which tends to be "put it out to production and we'll see how many issues come up we can always release a firmware fix at a later date." I can't remember the last piece of HT kit I bought that actually worked as promised straight out of the box, oh yeah hang on a minute it was a big black thing called a VCR remember them?

I am no expert but there are much more qualified people in the forum who will be able to fully answer your question. However you have enough inputs in the rear of the TV so don't worry you can have everything working again and crystal clear reception too through the STB. Personally I would transfer your Foxtel signal through your VCR and then set your VCR to the AV1 input. Not sure what connectors you have but here is a guide from a not so well qualified user but it should work. First reconnect everything the way it was prior to Foxtel installation, my experience with theses guys is their knowledge with high end Audio/Video equipment is well below par so I would say he didn't know what he was talking about. Then you would need to connect your Foxtel STB box to the rear of the VCR into the Line In sockets (6). Now to watch Foxtel all you would need to do is set your TV to the Video Channel and your video to the AV1 channel. That should see you right until you get some more answers from here and have to go shopping for the appropriate cables and connectors. Hope this helps and you have a good weekend.

Just disconect the phone line until you need to order a box office movie. My tech took mine away as we cannot get the full package, due to living in an older style apartment complex. Hope this helps.

I think you need to become a member of Whirlpool to at least post in the thread but I thought you would be able to browse it ok. Spoke to Foxtel this morning and they are going to credit me the call costs, which is fair enough I guess. I have now disconnected the phone line so the IQ can remain homesick. That was for one month but they are sending a tech to come and have a look. The purpose of my post was to alert other users to closely monitor their phone calls incase mine wasn't an isolated case.