Denis: Unplugging the advice from an electrical store

Dec 1 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

I REPORTED the other week that I had been having trouble with my V+ box (and you can stop laughing in the cheap seats).

This is the Virgin equivalent of the Sky Plus box and all the other systems that enable a television viewer to record or pause programmes.

Very nice it is, too. I need never miss an episode of Heartbeat ever again.

It also provides you with the much heralded High Definition TV reception.

The problem I had was that my two and a half year old TV had a DVI connection rather than an HD connection. And no, I don’t understand what that means, either.

When I went to a major electrical chain store for advice, I was told that even if I got a cable to connect the two, I would get no sound.

“So what am I supposed to do?” I said. “Get another TV?”

The salesman smiled and indicated the large selection of TVs behind him.

“Is there no other way?” I said.

“You could buy a cinema surround sound,” he said, guiding me towards a display that showed one for £199. I declined.

He was, not to put too fine a point on it, either a liar or extremely ill informed.

I bought a conversion cable the salesman said would not work. A Virgin technician then told me I also needed a sound cable.

So the salesman was right?

Certainly not, he said. Don’t pay more than a fiver for it.

So I bought a sound cable for less than a fiver and another very nice Virgin technician came, connected my V+ box to my DVD recorder and converted me to HD.

For less than a fiver.

I didn’t need a new TV or to spend £199 on a surround sound system.

Needless to say, that is one electrical chain store I will never be going to again.