TV Nonsense

[BCook57]

Our 2007 DSDP came with digital main and outside TVs. The bedroom TV is not digital ready.

Why do manufacturers make these kind of lame-brain choices in a product costing hundreds of thousands of dollars? Disgusting.

[wa8yxm]

They buy a bunch of TV's at one time, It is clear to me that what happened is they ran low on "Main" televisions so they re-ordered, the new ones were digital ready, they still had some "Bedrrom" tv's left so you got an analog one

You might check the rules.. At some point, and I'm not sure where, it became illegal to sell analog only televisions without special markings, and at another point even that was not allowed.. They may owe you a new digital ready TV

Option two DTVPAL.COM

[DonnaB]

If you check into the law, I believe it states that everyone was required to sell only digital after March of 2006, UNLESS they clearly marked it as analog. This means maybe on a film you have to tear off, or some other way it would be hard for you to say you didn't see it.

We got into this briefly with Sony as we purchased a Vaio all in one desktop PC in March 2007 expecting in to be able to get TV reception on it. All the docs said it would receive digital & analog, ATSC & NTSC, but we could only get it to accept analog signals. Calling them of course puts you with someone in Bangladesh and they could only confirm after many phone hours that indeed that was the case and they recommended a set top converter box and couldn't do more to help us.

My husband was so ticked that he did the research and we asked for an escalation path and they gave us an address. Wrote a letter describing the issues, the laws we found indicating it should have been updated a year before our purchase and ours had nothing to say it was analog only. Further explaining that living in a motor home we didn't want a converter box due to space issues. Of course we explained too that we were looking for a new TV and if they didn't make it right that new TV would not be a Sony. Within a week of mailing the letter we got a call and after several more conversations we received a digital TV receiver that is the size of a pack of gum and plugs into a USB port. Works like a charm on a PC, but doubt it would work on a TV.

Wa8yxm was right, they have a room full of TVs and don't change until it's empty. Depending on when you got your coach and/or if you had a notice that the TV was analog, they may have done it by the book and you really have no recourse. If you don't think so, ask for an escalation path. It may get you nowhere, but if you are polite and state your case effectively, you never know unless you ask.

Oh, and our new TV is a Sony.

[journeylad]

Well, consider yourself lucky, from my point of view. My '07 Kountry Star has a 26" main TV, and a 19" bedroom TV. NEITHER is digital ready. And I'm completely out of room in the front cabinet, so I can't put a converter box. I'm left with buying new TV's for both units, or just using a converter box on the bedroom TV, because I've got room there.

It's very annoying, not to mention expensive!

[wa8yxm]

Most likely it has to do with the manufacturer's warehouse (You ask why they do this kind of thing)

For example let's say you have a 30" front tv, a 20" external tv and a 26" bedroom tv (All sizes made up for this post and may not (likely do not) reflect anyone's rig)

Well, if the last truck load of analog TV's they got was 26" Bedroom units... then they are not going to switch to digital in the bedroom till they use them up.

There is good news however.. As I understand it, and do please understand that I am not expert in this area, there is a law that all televisions sold as new after a set date (now history) are to either be DIGITAL or clearly labeled as ANALOG ONLY, and after another set date (Also history) they MUST be digital ready. (No sold as new analog at all).

If your rig was purchased NEW after that date, you may be able to insist on a digital replacement...... However, as noted, I am not expert in this field, and you would need expert advice before proceeding.

[DandS]

This subject was something I totally failed to think about when we ordered a new coach. I will be madder than a wet hen if the tv is not digital in our 2010 model. Another thing to ask about when I visit the factory during the build.

[journeylad]

Dave - you're going to be OK in your 2010 model. From what I can find on the The Digital TV Transition: What You Need to Know About DTV website, all "midsized" TV's (25" - 36") must have been manufactured as digital ready by March 1, 2006. All sets, of any size, had to be ready by Mar 1, 2007. Nobody is going to stock that far ahead of time.

But there's noplace that says that you can't sell or install an analog TV after that date. I picked up my coach in September of '06. So it's more than likely that any coaches sold on that date would have the smaller sets be analog only. Because I've got a mid-size set in the front, does that mean that Newmar bought a ton of analog sets prior to Mar 1, 2006, and were finally using up the last of them in about August (when my coach would have been manufactured)? OR - the manufacturer stopped making the old ones on Mar 1st, but had a ton of them in their warehouse, and a month or two later Newmar bought a slug of them?

I suspect there's no way for me to tell. And so I'm left with my original options. Buy a new TV for the front and use the converter box on the back, or just buy two new TV's. Because I'm always suspect of jury-rigged stuff, I'll likely go with the latter option. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I just can't see me winning any argument with Newmar on this one.

[Dav5942]

The operative word is "manufactured after", they still were sold well into 2007. However pretty sure none being used today.

When we ordered our '07 coach-we knew the TVs would not have digital tuners. The extra $ to change them out at that time was expensive, but since then we have changed them out at a reasonable cost.

Watiing for the cost to go down on the new "slim" TVs to add to a wall that the slide clears by less than 3 inches.