Over the last few weeks, a lot of things around me have started to break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most annoyingly, the TV that was given to my father just over 18 months ago has developed a fault in the panel – the lower quarter flickers and then stays slightly greyer and fuzzier than the rest. It’s only 18 months old, but it’s outside the warranty period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time as the TV, they got a soundbar as well, and that has now broken too. I simply don’t understand how, and I’m really not inclined to buy another Sony A\/V product right at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile at home, my Sony receiver is also playing up. It will turn itself off at random intervals – normally after a few hours. The TV no longer controls the sound on it. I’m not 100% certain when I bought it, but it’s well over 5 years old at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there’s my Sky box. This has on occasion needed a reboot every month or so, but now it’s getting a little flakier. It seems to lose signal from one and then the other LNB at various points. A cold reboot fixes it, but the end is clearly nigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most urgently, there’s my washing machine. A week or so ago I had completed a wash cycle, but had not yet emptied the load. While I was doing some washing up, I heard a loud bang, the source of which I couldn’t track down. I subsequently emptied the load and on trying to put a second load on, noticed that there was no power. The fuse in the machine’s plug had blown. But when I replaced it, although it seemed to come back to life, a flashing door icon restricted me from doing anything else. Nothing I did could make the machine work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend on Twitter suggested that replacing the master board on a washing machine isn’t that difficult. I quick check of a YouTube video confirmed that such a job was well within my wheelhouse. However, I’d be spending \u00a340-50 on a part that I didn’t know wouldn’t instantly break again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suffice to say that a new machine arrived on Friday. And to give it some due, the previous machine had run without issue for 10 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reality is that most of these devices aren’t really fixable. A good washing machine technician could probably have sorted out that. But once call-out, parts and some billable time had been included, I’d be at at least half the price of a new machine. Things with moving parts do break after all. And this new machine will be more energy efficient than my old one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The TV and soundbar faults are more frustrating. I can’t attempt to fix them, and again it’ll be cheaper to buy new items. As an aside, I’m giving Resolver a chance to help to me. But it gets complex because I don’t live near my parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a related note, I started looking at Sky HD options considering it looks like the box is going to die soon. Sky has its new Q box, but goodness – they’re expensive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One significant issue for me is that my current Sky box is quite full. I would need to “watch down” everything before switching devices, as there’s no supported way to transfer recordings between boxes (There are very much unsupported <\/em>options of either using HDMI out to record to another device, or using software to decode programmes direct from the machine’s hard drive).<\/p>\n\n\n\n More to the point Sky Q boxes are rented from Sky and not owned. There’s a flat \u00a312 a month fee for that rental, which quickly adds up. Plus they seem to want \u00a3199 for installation – as I’m neither interested in, nor wish to pay for multi-room. Of course, if I was a new subscriber, I wouldn’t have to pay nearly as much as this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I don’t have a 4K TV, this is all a bit moot, since it wouldn’t offer a great deal more. Instead, I can buy a new Sky HD 2TB box for around \u00a3140 from Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n