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My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

polygon.com

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Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#21

Post by somehnacct3757 »

killingtime74 wrote: post #5

I try to spend my time outside of work not staring at a screen, running, cycling, walking, swimming, cooking. I cannot imagine spending time and money perfecting a three television setup? Is there no regret for time wasted? A life wasted?

Your definition of a life 'unwasted' is no more or less correct than the article author's or anyone else's.

Perhaps the author spends their time running, walking, swimming, cooking, and jacking in to the three-tv-experience. You wouldn't know, but you judge nonetheless.

Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#22

Post by foxyv »

arprocter wrote: post #3

Does anyone make a TV that can show PIP from different inputs? Seems like it'd be better to have one large display and then pipe everything into it I was surprised/annoyed to find our new cable box (Spectrum) doesn't even do PIP at all - the previous Cisco one did, but it was very sluggish and eventually died

You could probably make something like this with a Raspberry Pi or media center. However you would have trouble with HDCP protected content. The TVs have a chip that decrypts the content from the provider (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc...) Without a valid HDCP key you can't composite the two video streams to make your PIP. So you are essentially stuck with what your TV can do unless you license an HDCP key for your device.

Luckily there are HDMI switches out there that can do this for you.

https://www.amazon.com/Zettaguard-Wireless-Switcher-Switches...

Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#23

Post by somehnacct3757 »

helsontaveras18 wrote: post #19
ptero wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but a room with two TVs on which two family members can play their own games is, to me, a step in the wrong direction :(.

Not sure why this sensible comment is being downvoted. The living room used to be a place for a family to congregate and spend time together doing shared activities. If everyone is on their own device… there is no opportunity for quality time and shared connection.

I think it's because two tvs on a wall tell you nothing about the way people spend the rest of their time away from the TV.

The living room hasn't changed. Instead of one person reading and one person on the TV; or one person doing crafts while another reads; two people are on two TVs. Why the moral panic?

Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#26

Post by zamadatix »

sneak wrote: post #7

Controversial opinion: if your tv show or film isn't good enough to give it 100% of your attention, then don't watch it and give 100% of your attention to the competing multitask and do the other task better/faster. Most tv and movies are simply not that good, and you can just ignore them.

This assumes every task will get done better/faster if you give it 100% of your attention and therefore "it is good enough to give it 100% of your attention" must be equal to "you are going to give it 100% of your attention".

A matchmaking screen, loading screen, unskippable cutscene you've already seen multiple times, orbital maneuver you have to wait for, game event you're waiting for like enough currency or materials to start your next project, and so on do not follow this assumption. In many cases these parts of the game actually get worse if you give them 100% of your attention.

Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#28

Post by jjuel »

killingtime74 wrote: post #5

I try to spend my time outside of work not staring at a screen, running, cycling, walking, swimming, cooking. I cannot imagine spending time and money perfecting a three television setup? Is there no regret for time wasted? A life wasted?

So you think them doing something they enjoy together is a life wasted? Why call someone else's choices wasting. I enjoy spending time with my kids and doing things with family. Should I tell a couple with no kids who travel they are wasting their lives by not having a family or am I the one wasting my life by not traveling? Seriously to each their own. Let people live without judging. How much life are you wasting by browsing HN?

Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#29

Post by orev »

Insanity wrote: post #4

I used to have a double monitor setup and would program / play games / browse around on primary while watching a series on my secondary. But since some years ago I noticed that I can't do both at the same time anymore. Definitely programming while a series is on the background is a no-go, but if I play games I also just entirely miss the series (or vice versa). Not sure if it has to do with getting older, or my prima…

It’s physically impossible for the human brain to multitask like this (multiple streams that both require cognitive attention), and studies have shown that people who try to do this actually end up with long term damage to their ability to focus. It’s very likely that you never were able to do this, and at some point just hit a threshold of damage to your focus that you finally realized it.

Also, the same study showed that the people who multitask think they’re successful at it, however external observers can see that they’re not. This is why you have so many people who claim that they can do it.

[1] https://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-resea...

Re: My living room still has 3 TVs but I have regrets

#30

Post by ericmcer »

I did this in high school when I had a TV and computer in my room. DVDs of family guy or south park running nonstop while I played warcraft 3 on the computer. My attention span was essentially 0. At school, work or with friends I constantly felt like I needed to be somewhere or had something that was left undone, this is definitely damaging to the psyche.
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