The consumers are demanding the options at an affordable price. Also, if the
sets were not microcomputer operated, they would not be able to do the
sophisticated operations that they can do.

If you go back to the TV sets of the 1960's, you would see that there is no
way that their performance can match of what there is today.

The economy is geared in such a way that when something breaks, it has to be
replaced. If it an expensive device, then the parts are replaced in modules.
Manual labour to fix something is too expensive, since we are geared as a
service industry world.

Even at the manufacture level, if something doesn't work off the assembly
line, they don't spend time to fix it. The defective device is binned, and
the assembly line keeps going.

As for servicing even at the modular level, if it is worth it, there is
software involved, because of the nature of the design. Being software
designed, the proper tools, education, and interfacing is required. In many
of the new generations of TV's and devices, the internal service menu is
disappearing. They are now going to the need of an external interface with a
PC running a software package for the application. This lowers their
assembly and design cost, because there will be no maintenance software
internal to the appliance or device.

You have to take in consideration that the life cycle for anything you buy
today, is engineered for about 5 years, if it is medium to high priced unit.
For the low priced units, the life cycle design is for about 2 years. The
warranty policy will have a strong reflection on how long you should expect
it to last.

--

Jerry G.
======


wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi;

Currently dealing with a hardware issue. Again it's friggin Creative. I
thought if I bought something I own it, and therefore am able to use
it. Not so with these people. Can get an update, but you get a serious
runaround on the actual driver.

Look for this at a TV shop near you. It's going to get to the point
where everything is captive service. I think it's wrong. Software this,
software that. Nobody who writes it will ever help servicers.

See the end result of this is that when the economy really does
collapse, nobody will be able to get anything fixed. Not even your
stove, microwave or refrigerator. I think this is a dangerous trend.

What say you ?

JURB