Readers' Comments

Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 26 February 2003
Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
From: robert rozee
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: end of an era - thankfully!


I applaud the impending demise of the CRT monitor!

for years i have been the unfortunate person that friends
and colleagues have taken their broken monitors to.
invariably one is faced with an elderly monitor, _filled_
with black sticky dust, and that even when (if) fixed only
provides mediocre picture quality.

over the past few years i have found myself more and more
convincing people that their old monitors are just not
worth fixing - or even looking at. for less than $240 you
can today buy a _new_ CRT monitor, with a bright, crisp
picture and a 3 year warranty. for $600 you can get an LCD -
 and the prices of LCDs are still dropping rapidly.

sure, some repair people will be out of work. but this is
not a new thing - for more than 15 years we have been in
the era of reliable/disposable TVs - a few years less for
monitors due to their higher complexity. the writing has
been on the wall for a long time and there should be no
excuses for those 'caught out' by the changing industry.

i do remember the 'old days'; my father owned a TV repair
shop and rental business in the B&W days, when the mean
time between failures was 6 months. it was a time of heat
and high-voltages, of things that went BANG when they
failed. at the end the B&W days (late 1970's) my father saw
the future, and got out of the business. it was a wise
decision.

with LCDs, all the normal sources of failure are
eliminated - high voltage, high current, and heat. i would
expect most LCDs to last a good 10 years, and to finally be
replaced either because of either outside mechanical damage
or obsolescence.

goodbye to the CRT, and good riddance; i see a brighter,
cleaner, clearer (better focused) future ahead!

regards,
robert rozee
christchurch, new zealand

* prices are for philips brand monitors/LCDs, from
www.tastech.co.nz




From: Edmund Good
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Repair work

Reading your article and the article by the Register just
about sums up the state of the repair industry in New
Zealand. With the downward pressure on price (both for
products and the reimbursement of repair agents, but the
upward pressure on costs) will doom many of the serice
company's in New Zealand to failure. The problem is already
showing itself in the market and at the end only one (or
maybe two) company(ies) will exist to service the New
Zealand market (lets face it Auckland). LCD repair's are
mainly at board level and it does not require an electronic
service technician to change PCB's. Eventually the money
recieved for a repair will not cover the costs of repair
(wages, rent etc) and nothing will be repaired. Welcome to
the world of rampant consumerism :-)




From: thirdeye
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: disposable culture

I agree with your comments about the disposable culture these
days.

however, the consumer guarantees act states that a product that
you buy must last a reasonable amount of time, regardless of the
warranty that came with the product. so even if manufacturers are
turning out products that they expect to die one day after the
warranty expires, they must still honour their obligations under the act.

what constitutes a reasonable amount of time is left to the
consumer but personally i don't think it's reasonable, for example,
to pay $300 for a tv or PC monitor that dies only a short time after the
warranty lasts. in fact, i don't think it's reasonable to sell such
electronic items which last less than 3 years.

to me the problem isn't disposable goods, but the manufacturers
ripping off consumers with cheap items that are *designed* to fail.




From: Helen
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Repairs of TVs etc

I have a lovely repairman.
My sons TV had an unexpected meeting with the floor and
stoppedworking, took it along.
$25 plus $10 for parts and it has a better picture than
before.




From: Edmund Good
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Reply

Robert:
LCD's still have high voltage just not as
high as CRT's (only 600 volts or so). Also
LCD's have lamps top and bottom (like
fluorescent tubes) that have a limited life
and can be expensive to replace. LCD's still
have problems just different from CRT's.

Thirdeye:
Manufacturers don't give a toss about the
CGA it's only local retailers that end up
bearing the brunt of the problemss.

Helan:
You were lucky - it could have cost a lot
more or been even fatal to the TV.
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