Matthew Revell

Over the past few years, companies and government agencies (but of course) have seen fit to rip us off through 0845 and 0870 numbers.

Inaccurately called “local” and “national” rate respectively, since their introduction the charge for calling these numbers has drifted so far from the actual cost of local and national calls that they are effectively premium rate numbers whose primary purpose is to generate a revenue for the called party.

Ofcom, our industry-friendly communications regulator, almost took action and as of 1 February 2008 a change was due: they were no longer able to generate revenue for the called party. It’s now looking unlikely that the change will take place but, nonetheless, the law of unintended consequences has kicked in and the situation is now worse for us poor fools who have to call customer services departments, GP out of hours services and local councils.

Many of the “national” rate numbers (around 8p per minute) are now turning up as 0871 (10 p per minute) and the 0845 numbers as 0844. The 0844s are interesting: they can be just about any bloody price imaginable and you’ll have a hard time finding out exactly what you’re paying until your phone bill turns up. And, of course, the 0845 and 0870 numbers will more than likely continue to be a rip-off.

There is a way around this, in some cases: SayNoTo0870.com is a superb resource but, and through no fault of the community behind it, incomplete. However, if you have to deal with an organisation that wants to charge you extra for the privilege of calling them – perhaps to complain about a faulty TV they supplied – tell them you’re not happy.

Judging by the DVLA’s response to a freedom of information request (PDF) and the general contempt in which many public services hold tax payers, I hold no hope that any tax-funded service will offer you an alternative. However, that good old magic of capitalism – competition – may just give us some sway with privately held organisations.

For the second time in two years, our main TV has shifted out of focus: headache inducing, eye straining, Mr Magoo out of focus.

TV repair bloke says it’s not worth fixing a second time; apparently it’s well known that Samsungs have dodgy tubes and it’ll only go out of focus again. Might as well put the £50 repair fee towards a new set.

Trouble is, now it’s nigh-on impossible to buy a decent-sized CRT TV. Currys, Comet, Argos all have a few portables but, in-store, I haven’t seen anything I’d consider living room size.

I could, of course, give in and buy an LCD TV; after all, everyone else is. While I wouldn’t go so far as saying that HD is the answer to a question no one asked, I am nonetheless astounded that CRT TVs have disappeared from bricks and mortar shops and that people are happy to believe that standard definition images are anything but awful on the current crop of LCD TVs.

While I stand in Comet and marvel at compression artefacts, pixelation and motion blur, other shoppers – seeing precisely the same image – appear happy to ignore the evidence of their eyes and instead listen to the sales person who tells them they too can be a part of this great leap forward. I know too many people who have congratulated themselves on the replacement of their perfectly good CRT with an LCD set. Either I’m over-fussy, the shops have poorly configured their display TVs (quite likely) or everyone else has found a source of LCD TVs that aren’t entirely shite.

I know, the whole point of these sets is HD. I admit that the HD images on the demo sets have been impressive. Equally, the HD sports broadcasts I saw in the States a couple of months back were an improvement over dodgy old NTSC. Thing is, I have no HD video sources: no PS3 or Xbox 360, no Blueray or even an upscaling DVD player and there just isn’t that much HD TV available, even if you pay Sky’s £10 monthly premium for their HD service. And besides, I’m even a little underwhelmed by the performance of some sets when they’ve got an HD source.

Perhaps standard definition just isn’t the strong point of the software in the LCD sets. After all, software’s pretty much the only differentiator between brands, particularly when one company produces a huge chunk of all the world’s LCD screens. And yes, LCD displays never do particularly well when displaying an image not in their native resolution. But I’m not expecting to watch a 625 line image on a 54 inch. I just want what I have now: a non-pixelated, non-jerky, crisp image on a screen around 30 inches. I’m quite happy to have a CRT, if there really is no way an LCD screen can handle those modest requirements.

So, I’ve bought a 28 inch JVC CRT TV from the Dixons website for £150. The one that’s turned up is buggered – purple strip in the middle of the screen, image pin-cushioned – but, assuming the replacement works, I feel as though I’ve been lucky to grab one of the last opportunities to buy a TV that can actually handle standard definition inputs.