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Please make your products work with URLs

anderspitman.net

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Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#281

Post by kbenson »

spaceribs wrote: post #253
kbenson wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure... if you want to pay twice as much as the similar sized TV.[1] I actually just buy 4k TVs and use them as computer monitors instead. As long as you research to find one that has low response times (rtings.com helps with that), it works fine. 1: https://www.vizio.com/tvs/v405g9.html

Yeah another person brought up that the cost is reduced based on the data their mining for usage. I'd also like to point out that most of the sub-$400 Smart TVs on Amazon don't have any DisplayPorts, and the display is probably of a lower quality than something that's designed to be looked at from a couple of feet away rather than dozens of feet. Bigger than 42", I'd just recommend a projector.

You can turn off the content detection features in most (all?) smart TVs that include it. I've turned it off on mine.

What's the main benefit of DisplayPort when most new hardware supports Hdmi 2.0, which does 4k at 60Hz?

How would you define lower quality based on viewing distance? What metrics are we going by that we might expect to be worse? There probably are some, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Reaponse time is the one that comes to mind, not because of viewing distance but because of different intended use cases, but I specifically account for that when looking for a TV to use as a monitor.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#282

Post by peteforde »

While I agree with this post essentially in its entirety, it's weird that he didn't mention the most significant fact regarding his request: the Roku doesn't have a web browser, and the development environment has no hypertext primatives. To that end, there's essentially no way to browse web pages on a Roku unless you literally render the page somewhere else and serve it as an image. (!)

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#283

Post by teruakohatu »

Nition wrote: post #278
justinclift wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sony refused to do anything due to the TV being out of warranty. Interestingly, apparently in the UK (or maybe EU?) there's a defined period an appliance is required to work for, to be "fit for purpose". Note - not a warranty thing, it's a consumer goods thing. Not living in the UK any more (thanks Brexit), so don't remember off hand the period of time though.

Similar in New Zealand, although the exact time isn't defined. The parent comment's case would almost certainly fall under the protection of the Consumer Guarantees Act[1][2] and Sony would have to fix or replace it. Of course, getting a company to actually do something can be harder than just telling them the law. [1] https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/consumer... [2] http://www.legislation.govt.nz/…

In my experience the CGA is generally ignored until the Commerce Commission investigates. The best you could do is take them to the Disputes Tribunal (small claims court) and then the time and energy involved is probably outweighed by the replacement cost unless it's a ultra high end TV.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#284

Post by andrewprock »

justinclift wrote: post #158
duxup wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My standard operating procedure for TVs is: Setup sound bar. Connect new TV to HDMI switch. Get the TV working with my remote. Throw TV remote in a corner somewhere.... I don't even try to use a smart TV's internal functions anymore. They're just big monitors to me.

Don't some smart tv's scan the local wifi networks and try to find one they can connect back home through? eg no password on it. Guessing they haven't started shipping with a dictionary to try brute forcing the most common passwords. :D

No, they don't. All evidence is that this is an urban legend.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#285

Post by peteforde »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #190

Alternative solution: Build your own Roku app. Last time I checked it looked pretty easy; set up a JSON manifest file and a bit of JS on a web server that can also serve video, or something like that. I don't remember how easy it was to install your app on your own Roku but I seem to recall there was a way to do so for testing purposes.

It's not quite as easy as you're making it sound (when it is ever?) but BrightScript is indeed an option. However, there's no concept of an HTML primative so everything has to be a bit of a hack. I have faked more than a few browser-like UIs in Roku apps, and every detail has to be handled by you. Think: offset math and debouncing key events.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#287

Post by satori99 »

mikepurvis wrote: post #163
worble wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Christmas I finally took the time (which admittedly didn't take long; I was just lazy until now) to set up LibreElec on my pi and hook it up to my TV, and I honestly don't know how I've overlooked this for so many years. It's a DLNA/UPNP client so I can cast anything I want from my media server on my computer to it (Bubble UPNP is a great app to control all this from my phone) and even though it doesn't have "ca…

How have you found DLNA? I tried it briefly with the built-in PS4 client and MiniDLNA/ReadyMedia on a headless Ubuntu machine and I found it to be awful— the server side needed to be rebooted in order to discover new media in the folder, the PS4 client was clunky to use (missing obvious stuff like picking up playing a file where you left off), and iTunes instances on the same network would do weird stuff like suddenl…

FWIW, I use a minidlna instance on a Raspberry Pi to serve my media around the house and I have never had an issue with it discovering newly downloaded media.

It currently serves around 3TB of video and audio files, and new files are added daily. I haven't restarted either the Pi or the minidlna service for many months.

I choose this option because it is a very light-weight solution with no features that I will never use (like trans-coding or metadata downloading, poster art etc).

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#288

Post by emmelaich »

anderspitman wrote: post #152
babypuncher wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are set top boxes (Apple TV, Nvidia Shield, etc.) that offer a much better user experience with thriving app ecosystems and regular feature updates, if you don't want the rigamarole of trying to use desktop software in a living room. I used to do the whole HTPC thing but having to use an actual web browser to access half my content felt obnoxious and cumbersome. As for avoiding smart TVs, I found it pretty easy…

Are you aware of any that support the "play this URL" use case I talk about in the blog post?

This may help

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rabidgreml...

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#289

Post by danaris »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #167
danaris wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine it would be possible to set up their system such that they could edit the Markdown file, and a helper process would immediately pick up that the file had been edited and re-run the local rendering to static HTML.

Yes, great, now you've complicated the workflow. What if the service fails to run? Or fails to pick up the changes? Now you've got another thing to think about. Is the overengineering so ingrained in the average HN user that they cannot see why someone might not bother with that?

In the everyday active workflow—the actions the author actually has to take each time—it doesn't add any complication. It merely adds complexity in the processing, which is certainly something worth considering.

However, in a case like this, the alternative—as we can already see—is to add complexity for every single reader on the front-end. So there's not really a perfect solution here—either the author or the reader has to deal with some complexity.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#290

Post by satyrnein »

gregmac wrote: post #241
tempestn wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's awesome. I used to be a big fan of Sage, before they sold out / shut down. Even did the direct capture from cable boxes. I've been planning to get a Shield TV, so good to see these endorsements!

Likewise. I still have some HD300's in my basement somewhere, along with a couple Hauppauge PCI capture cards, and a Silicondust HDHomerun. Shortly after Sage was shut down my cable company started encrypting all their channels, rendering most of my PVR setup pointless. After chasing issues with Youtube breaking API changes, I finally and begrudgingly pulled the plug on Sage. Several HTPC iterations later I feel like…

I actually had the HDHomeRun that supported a cablecard and got my Shield to show channels from it, but it was never great. I eventually abandoned the Shield when I needed to add another device, and I didn't want to return to the bad old days of having to use another remote to manage inputs.
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