No TV for a couple of weeks

My beloved Technika LCD TV literally blew up the other week, I have only had it for about two years and I’m sad to see it go, I got it as part of my birthday present off Dad, despite being a Tesco own brand, it was a really good TV, built in DVD player (that I admittedly used perhaps twice), nice, clear and readable EPG and OSDs, a huge array of input and output ports on the back, an adjustable stand and perhaps most importantly an actual, physical on/off switch, a feature so simple yet so often neglected (or so it seems to me) on modern televisions.

So two or so weeks have gone by without TV, I have to say I didn’t really miss it, the only programmes I actually sit down to watch are ‘Have I Got News For You’, ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’ and perhaps ‘Mock the Week’ and ‘Russell Howard’s Good News’, as you can probably tell, I like my panel shows and comedy. But it’s nice just to have the TV on I find, on quietly in the background while I play Tekkit or World of Warcraft. That said, it’s been okay without the telly, I thought I’d go crazy, but I didn’t, it’s been nice, I’ve had time to relax, read and work on various projects without the distraction.

I now have a new TV, a 24” Bush LCD TV, unfortunately it makes a very noticeable (to me at least) buzzing sound, I’ve worked out this is related to the backlight as I was able to change the backlight settings resulting in different pitches of buzzing, either annoying high pitched or annoying lower pitched, as research seems to confirm on Google, the brighter the backlight, the quieter the sound, although even with everything set to eye-bleedingly bright, the sound persisted,turning up the volume did little to help. I also like to have the TV on at night muted with subtitles on, I can’t imagine how annoying the sound would be then. So it has to go back, I really appreciate Dad offering to get me a replacement, I’ll see if a refund can be arranged and I’ll probably go for another Technika perhaps. I am no audio/video buff by the way, I just want a telly that works and doesn’t buzz and preferably one that won’t explode.

I think I now have tinnitus to add to my pile of problems, it sounds like there is an electrical device on such as a TV on mute or a noisy transformer or power pack, or a faulty dimmer switch; I’ve looked everywhere, I’ve unplugged my laptop, turned off every light and checked for any source of noise outside, yet the ‘ringing’ or more accurately, electrical buzz, is still there, incredibly annoying. Maybe it’s all just in my head. Can’t be coincidental, perhaps I have some sort of psychological equivalent of tinnitus from all the buzzing last night, I’ll try and take my mind off it, see if that helps.

Thinking about writing a series of Tekkit walkthroughs and tutorials, been having a lot of fun recently in a new Tekkit world and think it would be a nice, fun idea.