Q I was recently told by a salesman that digital television decoders for services such as Freeview are prone to breaking after three years. Is this true?

David Jackson, Chelmsford

A I don’t believe there is any evidence that decoders have this kind of problem. What he may have meant is that the technology is moving so quickly that decoders could become obsolete quite rapidly. Freeview itself now appears to be a stable platform, but it is inevitable that as the processing power of these boxes increases, new and more interactive services will appear, such as HDTV, gaming, even sending SMS from your set — as has already happened in Korea. None of this definitively means don’t invest now, but if you are worried, buy an external decoder instead of one that is integrated into a television or digital recorder, so that at least you can upgrade it easily when anything new and super-duper comes along. For more information, visit the recent Doors guide to buying a new digital television: http://tinyurl.com/9xc66.

RANK AND FILE

Q How can I scan and upload all my paper files onto my computer in order to maintain a filing system?

John Wakefield, via e-mail

A One option is to invest in the Visioneer Strobe XP 200 (£250 from http://tinyurl.com/boc7b), which comes with the PaperPort Deluxe program and provides scanning, filing and searching of your documents. Don’t expect blindingly fast speeds, but it should be fine for small amounts of paperwork. I have a Brother MFC 620 all-in-one printer with a sheet-feed scanner (www.brother.co.uk), and a copy of the free Copernic desktop search software (www.copernic.com), to keep track of some of my paper and fax material.

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