'Obsolete' videos warning over digital switch
Millions of video and DVD recorders will become “obsolete” after the digital switchover, a British TV firm warned today.
Owners will not be able to watch one channel while recording another after the analogue signal is switched off.
This will affect some 32 million VCRs and analogue DVD recorders in the UK, according to Top Up TV.
The firm said 76% of main household TV sets and 32% of “secondary” sets in bedrooms or kitchens currently have analogue recorders attached.
Digital switchover will start in Whitehaven this October and be phased in nationally by 2012.
A Top Up TV spokesman said around 32 million video and DVD recorders currently in use would be affected by the change.
“From 2008 these will no longer be able to record a different TV channel to the one being watched, creating a trail of obsolete devices that will stretch from London to Rio de Janeiro with some to spare,” he said.
Viewers will still be able to record a TV channel while the set is switched off, providing the set top box is set accordingly.
Video and analogue DVD players will still be able to play existing tapes and discs.
Digital UK – the body set up to lead the switchover – advises viewers to get digital TV recorders priced at around £100 (€146.4) upwards.
A spokesman for Digital UK said: “The simple solution and very much our strong advice to people if they want to be able to record one channel while watching another is to think about a digital TV recorder.
“The kind of people we are most concerned about in switchover, like the elderly, find them much easier to use.”
After the switchover, the analogue TV signal will be turned off. This means VCRs and analogue DVD players won’t pick up a signal.
Instead they will receive a digital signal via the television set, meaning they can only record the channel being watched.
