LJ's Christmas Chat - Q & A - Soundbites - Digital agony aunt - Digital & Technology

Christmas gadgets Q & A

Festive greetings to one and all!

As you’ve probably worked out, it’s that time of year where we all wonder how we’ll manage through the season of giving.

Thanks for all your questions - I hope I've been able to answer most of them sufficiently.

Next time I'll be answering your queries on setting up your home entertainment systems.
All the best,
LJ x

Clive Tanner from birmingham:

Dec 3, 09:35

My aerial in my house is only eight years old. Is there any advantage in changing it to a digital aerial

LJ says:

Hi Clive,
Good question – there is a lot of confusion about aerials and Freeview, but the general rule seems to be that you should be OK with the aerial you have, unless you’re not in a freeview area (although you should be by 2012).

The way digital terrestrial works it that you either get a picture, or you don’t – there’s no “nearly”. With a slightly less powerful aerial, you might not get all the channels, but the ones you receive should be fine. Freeview recommends that you have a rooftop aerial, not a loft aerial, but if you want to have a look here: http://www.cai.org.uk/asp/about.asp it’s the Confederation of Aerial Industries, where you can get more specific information about your aerial.

Incidentally, did you hear about the two aerials that got married? The wedding was OK, but the reception was fantastic! (that’s enough aerial jokes)
Neil from Belfast:

Dec 3, 01:41

I have a desktop pc with a broadband connection with Virgin media. I have just purchased a Dell laptop from the shopping channel you work for. Can you give me some advice please about wireless routers, what I should go for, how to set it up as I want to access the internet on my laptop. many thanks.

LJ says:

Hi Neil,
Hi Neil, I work for no-one but myself!! In an earlier column, I talked about wireless networking - you can reach it here:

http://www.virginmedia.com/digital/digitalaunt/qandas3.php

Wireless networking appears to be a popular topic and to get your router working with your laptop and desktop should be reasonably easy to set up - make sure the router you choose has wireless capability, and if you go to

http://www.virginmedia.com/digital/homenetworking/

there's a whole host of information which should help you decide.
mike from leeds:

Dec 2, 22:41

im look to buy a new monitor for my pc. but been told to go for lcd instead of tft

what is the difference, and if I go for a tft for my pc, will it also allow me use it with a console like xbox 360 and ps3.

giving bbest of both worlds on one monitor.

which one has this option, tft or lcd

LJ says:

Hi Mike,
OK, it’s time to clear up this confusion, you’ll probably want a TFT LCD. TFT is a kind of LCD – a bit like muffins are a kind of bread.

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display – these are the thin displays, and LCDs are also used for laptop screens. Generally people talk about LCD in comparison to the old CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors, which are like those big TVs with a bump sticking out of the back.

TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor, it’s the way the crystals in the LCD are laid out in this manner that will get you a nice bright display – as far as I know, most LCDs are TFT. If you want to dip right into the tech behind the displays, have a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD

So if you want a TFT LCD that you can use with your Xbox and PS3, then you just need to make sure that the outputs on your games console will fit into the inputs of your screen – if possible, see if you can get someone to show you what your PS3 / Xbox 360 looks like plugged into the display before you buy it.
kelvin from stoke on trent:

Nov 30, 17:41

hi lj i'am thinking of geting a ps3 because of is blueray. i've been told if i do i've got to get a full hdtv 1920 1080 to get the true potencial from film's and game play.
so do i take it that it wont play very well on a hd tv thanks

LJ says:

Hi Kelvin,
The more detailed your TV (i.e. the higher the numbers 1080, 1920 etc), the higher definition it is, but that shouldn’t stop you getting your PS3.

The people who told you are partly right in that to realize the true potential of HD you’ll need a more detailed display, however, if you are getting the PS3 for games and fun as well as blu-ray, you’ll still enjoy gaming, it just means that your player is forward-compatible for when you do want to upgrade to a higher-grade TV, and I’m pretty certain that your PS3 will do perfectly well on an HD TV.
PETER SAVILLE from MIDDLESBROUGH:

Nov 29, 22:00

HI LJ
HOW DO I ConNECT MY L.G.SURROUND SOUND TO MY L.G. WIDESCREEN TV

LJ says:

Hi Peter,
I’ve contacted LG and I'm currently waiting for a reply on this one.

As a result of this and a few other questions, my next column will be all about home entertainment. If anyone else wants to get Audio-Visual telly-related questions answered, please fill in the form at the Digital Agony Aunt link.
Ricardo from Wigan:

Nov 29, 16:15

Hi When you buy a Freview playback PVR that can record a series of programs does that mean you cannot miss the end of a programme

Lj says:

Hi Ricardo,
A PVR stands for Personal Video Recorder, and works like a VCR, except without needing tapes, Your PVR will work in a similar way to your VCR’s timer setting, taking information from Freeview’s EPG (Electronic Programme Guide – the grid that shows you what’s on and when).

Some PVRs have Series Link - a bit like a regular weekly timer - so if you want to record the whole series of Smallville, for example, you can press one button to do it.

99.5% of the time, your PVR will record the beginning and end of your programme, but if there are schedule changes that haven’t been updated in the EPG then you might very rarely experience missing the first or last couple of minutes of your programme – just like an old VCR! My advice is that if it’s REALLY important that you see the end of a programme, also record the programme afterward.
paul from Plymouth:

Nov 29, 15:10

Hi again forgot to ask,with so many registry cleaners for pc which one is the best?thanks!

LJ says:

Hi again, Paul,
With Registry Cleaners, you have to be incredibly careful – my PC at home fell over once after using one of these things (thank goodness I back up with Acronis True Image - http://www.eu.acronis.com/homecomputing )

I’ve found a site called http://www.compareregistrycleaners.org which has a side-by-side comparison of some cleaners, and another here: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=171203805 which compares 10 cleaners.

The jury’s out on whether you actually need to go deep into the registry to fix your PC – and unless you know exactly what you’re doing, I would view this kind of thing as a last resort for correcting Windows. How exactly is your computer misbehaving? If it’s slow, you may want to consider something like a spyware removal tool like Spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and/or a program like Window Washer which removes unwanted files and optimises your PC http://www.webroot.com/uk/products/windowwasher/?id=UK-PRODUCTS-LIST-WW-LearnMoreLink
Paul from Plymouth:

Nov 29, 14:21

Hi LJ i seen you on qvc and i am a big fan of yours!Can you please explain to me how to format my c:drive to Wipe my hard drive clean @ reinstall windows,do i need to do it through my bios?Computer shops charge a small fortune just to format a HDD £40-£50.I would be most gratful if you could explain!thankyou in advance.

LJ says:

Thanks - I’ve actually just started a blog here:

http://ljrich.blogspot.com

– do pop over!

Right, there is a most excellent product called PC Eraser which has been designed specifically to both wipe your hard drive and transfer any data across to a new PC – have a look here for more information:

http://www.thetornado.com

It’s a lot less than 40 quid, too. PC Eraser also comes with a USB device that you can use to get your valuable data out from your old laptop and straight to your new one. Microsoft also has some suggestions as to how to go about this:

http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/security/clean-the-hard-drive-before-dumping-your-pc.aspx