The phone rang at 7.30pm last night. The usual thoughts flashed through our minds: is it double-glazing, a Hotel Metropol invitation to join their gymnasium (Me, are they mad?), a relative has just died, or maybe ma wanting a long chat? It was Panasonic calling about the TV I bought a couple of months ago. It seems that Panasonic contact customers after a while to make sure they are happy with their new sets. Can you imagine Dell or IBM doing the same?
I told Mr Panasonic I regretted the purchase and had it been from a local shop I’d have tried to swap the TV for a Sony. Yes, the picture is brilliant, the fast refresh rate means action has the crisp edges of a CRT and colour fidelity and viewing angles are excellent. No, the problem is the operating system – which is what is termed technically as crap.
Even our cheap Cello TV from the Co-op is easier to use and we could have bought three of those for the Panasonic which has an intensely annoying feature. If you turn to the electronic program guide (EPG), all TV and sound disappears. No picture in the top corner of the screen or even sound playing in the background.
Dial I for infuriation
Panasonic’s software engineers decided your full attention must be on the TV schedule and never get distracted by such mundane things as Gardener’s World, Kirsty Wark or Radio Seven. Worse still, there’s no program information, just the name of the show and time it starts. To get extra details you press the i button. That’s i for infuriating because pressing it again jumps straight back to live TV rather than returning to the EPG. With digital transmission offering 70+ potential TV and radio shows, you’ve probably flicked past 50 before finding one you want information on so have to start from the beginning again.
Pressing i for information during live TV brings up a ‘What’s on now and next’ band running along the bottom of the screen but again, pressing i again to return to the schedule band, leads straight back to live TV rather than returning to Now and Next. Sound output is pretty pathetic as well for a TV worth a grand. Plugging in external speakers through the jack or phono sockets means you lose volume control from the zapper. Arghhhhhhh!
Proprietary, closed system
Mr Panasonic was quite put-out to find a customer complaining and promised to forward our thoughts (as-if). This was after admitting he has a set by another manufacturer and also took it for granted that all TV’s had picture in picture when looking at the EPG. As for the volume control, it was because Panasonic want customers to use their Viagra system where all devices connect via the patented Panasonic Viera sockets.
“You mean Panasonic put tiny speakers inside the set and have deliberately made it impossible to control volume on any external speakers other than their own brand?”
“Errr… yes, I suppose so. Is there anything else I can do to help?”
“Thanks, it’s spelled B R A V I A.”
As an Apple customer since the 1980’s I shouldn’t be put off by Panasonic’s proprietary, closed system attitude but I am. After all, Apple have always let me attach external speakers, hard disks, scanners, printers, cameras, monitors and never insist they have an Apple badge. Lately just about any MP3 player will work on a Mac even though Apple’s iPods dominate the market.
Anyway, I’ve never thought of my Apple computers as being particularly closed, they usually make it easy to add memory, PCI cards, change the video board and on some Macs, the CPU as well. After three or four years my computers are knackered and obsolete so I’d rather buy a new one than fiddle with motherboards and soldering irons.
Three or four years seems to be the life span of modern TVs as well.