My first Norm experience

[stewart]

Wow - the man has everything. My wife and I have persuaded my mother in law to video his programmmes as we don't have sky, cable, etc so we could see what all the fuss was about. He certainly makes it look easy. There was something very relaxing about watching him and it all made sense, so much so I was tempted to look on his website for any videos or dvds - are they really $25 for each episode!! Does anyone own any??
curiously
stewart

 

[Noel]

I'll do them for £15 + P & P per episode and no dodgy US broadcast format................3 hr tape, 6 episodes, call it £80 all in.....
Think there's about 90 episodes so far.....
Might be better giving your MIL a box of Thorntons now and again.
Glad you liked him, great guy.

 

[Dewy]

I just checked the New Yankee site.
17 series so far with 13 episodes each year so 221 programmes although the 2005 series and one of the 2004 series have not been shown on H&L.
Be very careful Stewart.
I started watching when it was TLC (The Learning Channel) and used to joke with my son about all the power tools he used, never thinking that I would ever use them.
Up til then I had done everything by hand with just an old electric drill for small holes and a sander.
One day I was looking round a local tool shop and saw a table saw on special offer.
They were giving the legs free instead of the normal £30 so out came my credit card for £280 and I drove away with my new baby.
Nowadays a similar saw is sold for approx £100 at all the DIY sheds.
That was the start of an addiction that is likely to last until I cant do any more woodworking.
Next came a router, mitre saw, dovetail jig, jointer, router table, pillar drill, bandsaw, radial arm drill, random orbit sander, sliding mitre saw, cordless circular saw to augment the old circular saw I inherited from my father along with all his other tools.
The workshop (garage) is now so full that I will have to build a fair sized shed to move all the garden things into that the garage was originally used to store.
I also have to make a covered area along the back wall of the house to keep the larger tools out of the rain while I remodel the workshop to give me better use of the space.
Then will come a couple of tools I have promised myself.
A new table saw with side and rear extension tables and a sliding carriage and a thicknesser.
I have also decided I need something I have wanted ever since I was 10, a wood lathe.

I dont think anyone will be content with the few tools they start with.
It's a non stop round of new purchases. lol

Incidently Stewart, It's $24.95 for the videos and working drawings, not just the cut down episodes seen on TV.
I have looked at the new Yankee site many times but see nothing there for buying the videos and plans apart from USA and Canada.

Someone on another forum recently went to the states and came back with new NYW episodes on disc.
He said that it shows a lot more than the ones shown on TV.

 

[Philly]

Stewart
Congrats! Welcome to the "Norm Experience" :lol:
He is great to watch, and as you say, quite relaxing, too.
I'd get someone to tape it for you-there's a lot of episodes out there.
Enjoy,
Philly

 

[Argee]

Have a look at BriMarc's site - they're the UK concessionaires for selling NYW stuff. It's at http://www.brimarc.com/home.php3?page=products&pc=C_098

Ray.

 

[wizer]

I have about 30 episodes on tivo that I am still to watch. Been watching it for years but only in the last year been actually getting into woodworking myself.

 

[Gill]

Rather than buy the official recordings of the programmes, wouldn't it be more economical to install a TV card into your computer, record the programmes to hard drive when they are broadcast (or hook it up to a VCR playing recordings that MIL has made - the quality doesn't deteriorate too dramatically), then copy them to a cheap recordable DVD from somewhere like BigPockets http://tinyurl.com/44rm2 ? That's what I do.

Gill

 

[stewart]

Thanks for all of your replies - I will try to be careful about tool accumulation as my wife is already making remarks along the lines of 'wouldn't it be better if we actually did some woodworking rather than keeping rearranging the garage to accomodate the new tool you've bought'!


Gill, can you tell me a little more about the sort of card to install in my computer. I have an ordinary TV card that receives terrestrial channels but we only get BBC 1 and 2, ITV1 and C4. We aren't covered by Freeview either. Are there cards that will pick up H&L I can put in our computer?

thanks
Stewart
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[wizer]

stewart you wont be able to recieve any extra channels through your PC with any ammount of new hardware. Unless of course you want to install a Satelite.

I had a look on the DHL website. Apparently they do a service where you can pay for episodes. But The selection of show is limited.

 

[stewart]

Thanks, WiZeR - that's what I thought, but i constantly live in hope...

If I were to install a dish and get a receiver can I get H&L without having to subscribe to one of Sky's packages? If so, how would I go about doing this (not just a novice woodworker!)

cheers
stewart

 

[wizer]

I'm not sure if it is possible. I know some channels are availible on the old analogue system. Pointing an old 60cm dish at the Astra Sat can get you an array of channels. But AFAIK this is being turned off very soon.

I think your only safe option is to go for Sky (£18pm for the basic package)

 

[Gill]

No matter what sort of TV card you have, you'll still need a subscription to Sky if you want to receive the Home & Leisure channel. However, even a standard TV card can be tuned to a VCR if MIL can be persuaded to record the programmes onto VHS tape.

Gill

 

[Noel]

You need to subcribe. One H + L channel (133) for about £14 I think. £19 for both H + L channels.

Noel

 

[stewart]

Thanks for all the advice about how to get H&L. I'll have to investigate further, meanwhile I think I'll stick with MIL and the odd box of thornton's.
unless, gill...how keen on chocolate through the post are you???? :wink: :wink:
thanks all
stewart

 

[Dewy]

It depends on the service you use to get H&L.
Cable only have the programmes at the stated time whereas with Sky you also get the +1hour channel.
After many complaints to H&L about showing the 2004 series they have recently been showing it (minus episode 1) at 2.30 each weekend.
This means NYW is shown 7 days a week at 2.30.
It's a pity that the Brimarc site say 'Unfortunately, Mugs & Videos are not currently available in the U.K.'
As this leaves us with only one channel to watch NYW on whereas in the states it is shown on 2 different channels.

 

[UKTony]

BTW since we have a Norm thread, for some reason H&L dropped the "Series Link" option on Sky+ so you have to remember to record them manually

 

[Dewy]

H&L have had a mix up of episode sheduled.
The first episode of the 2004 series was replaced at the last minute for technical reasons.
It was then to be shown on Saturday 2 weeks ago but was also replaced by episode 6 from that series.
It turned out that the tape they had been sent had very poor to no sound and after knowing this since 10th January they have still not had it replaced.

 

[kafkaian]

Norm's oldies are great when he comes over to Blighty for a visit, goes into an old antique store in Ply-mouth and asks the vendor; "Can I measure up that table I'm not going to buy?"

 

[John McM]

Hello Chaps,
You don't need to subscribe to sky. You can buy a freeview box that has a slot for a top up card from anywhere like Argos, Curries etc. Subscribe to "Topup TV" about £7.50pm. It usually comes with the box, just ask at the shop. It gives you Discovery Realtime(formally H&L) upto 12am. If you buy a DVD recorder (with or without built in harddisk) you can burn your own DVD's and archive Norm to your hearts content. Hope that makes sense.
Cheers
John

 

[Kane]

I bought one of the videos from the NYW site - no problem with a credit card - just make sure your TV/video/DVD can play an NTSC recording and you'll be fine - IIRC the UK distributors only do the plans not the recording (could be wrong as I haven't been on their site for a while)