Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

blog.smartere.dk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 422 posts

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#381

Post by Asmod4n »

al_borland wrote: post #137
arrozconcosas wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to look for a 'dumb' tv for a long time to get to a setup like this. The ultimate setup would be 1) a totally dumb and stupid tv + 2) a streaming box like Apple TV or whatever. I just want the audio/visual aspect of the screen, nothing else.

Dumb TVs really don’t exist anymore. You just have to buy a smart one and treat it like it’s dumb. Over Christmas my mom was complaining about her TV and I found a setting to have it start up with the last used input, which meant no more dealing with the smart interface and motion remote. I have an LG as well, but I wasn’t able to find the same setting available, unfortunately. Thought the automatic selection seems t…

All LG OLED tv at least can be controlled via an http API. So you don’t need a remote for them. You can turn them on and have them select any input.

That way you can completely use it like a monitor instead of a TV.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#382

Post by GJim »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #348
tantalor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest gripe is how terribly slow it is to navigate UI on a TV. The latency between user input and the UI responding can be upwards of 10-20 seconds. Just incredibly user hostile.

Do you remember analog TVs? Switching channels was a sub second affair.

I remember our first digital TV crashing and needing to reboot it.

"Wow"! we said. This is the future. Having to reboot the TV.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#383

Post by Thlom »

alexfoo wrote: post #74
tantalor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest gripe is how terribly slow it is to navigate UI on a TV. The latency between user input and the UI responding can be upwards of 10-20 seconds. Just incredibly user hostile.

And not always anything to do with the TV. I have BT TV ( https://www.bt.com/help/tv/learn-about-tv/bt-tv-boxes ) and the UI is painfully slow at times (UI response to a button press of 10-20 seconds), searching is horribly slow. Can't wait to ditch it for something more responsive (probably Sky Stream). I also miss an old TV that had a "q.rev" button to allowed you to switch back and forth between two channels with…

Can't you just buy an AppleTV, download the EE/BT TV app and ditch the box? My ISP also sends me these boxes that I never connect to my TV since their app on AppleTV works better than using the god awful TV box.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#384

Post by marcusjt »

georgefrowny wrote: post #329
tantalor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest gripe is how terribly slow it is to navigate UI on a TV. The latency between user input and the UI responding can be upwards of 10-20 seconds. Just incredibly user hostile.

Turn on TV: 3 seconds Roku boots: 10 seconds Meanwhile turn on soundbar: 3 seconds Press Roku remote button: 3 seconds until it wakes up and repairs (remote still eats batteries) Open streaming app: 5-10 seconds Select profile: 3 seconds Scroll about looking for show: 5-20 seconds, or a minute to type it in Select the right episode: 3-10 seconds depending on if it's currently on the right season (somehow not always)…

Your Roku had to "boot" for 10s - why? Would resume from standby in a couple of seconds, so you've chosen to slow yourself down.

My TCL TV runs Android/Google TV, wakes from standby in 2s while also waking the surround in ~3s via HDMI CEC (and I don't need to hear anything until I've chosen something to play) so really it only take me 2s before I can start to open a streaming app (via a button on my remote) vs your 16s to get to the same point.

It's the choosing what to play that's the slow bit for me - every app puts what you were last watching in a different place, and not all apps notify Google TV so its own attempt at letting you resume is incomplete...

It also frustrates me that profiles streaming apps don't link to profiles for the OS (e.g. Google TV) - seems obvious to me that by now they should all be seamlessly linked together in a way that delivers the most personalised experience, instead of muddling up everyone's profiles and watch history!

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#385

Post by unbalancedevh »

vee-kay wrote: post #350
jliptzin wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plug a new chromecast into one of the HDMI ports and use that and only that and weld the setting shut so that you never have to deal with the TV’s default UI ever again.

I use an Amazon FireTV Stick on my old non-smart LG TV. And the advantage is that the FireTV has a simple cute little remote control device. There is a nifty Setting in the Amazon FireTV UI to allow its remote to turn on/off the TV too. So it's been a long time since I had to wrestle with the TV's built-in OS. I just use the pleasant UI of the FireTV Stick to watch Netflix, Prime, Disney+, etc. on that decade+ old TV…

I have this setup, and the Firestick UI is horribly slow. Sometimes it takes 30 seconds or more for it to give any response to a button press. It's worst when I'm trying to watch something on Amazon Prime, to the point that I hardly watch that anymore because the UI is so annoying.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#386

Post by austin-cheney »

moring wrote: post #375
austin-cheney wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody complains about performance. Slow software feels like poison. Except, anything written with a large JavaScript framework is allowed to be slow. In fact slow as syrup is strongly encouraged. To prove it just ask the developers. Mention it could be 8-50x faster just by not using their favorite framework and note the response. Even better, show them a proof of concept and take note of their unemotional objecti…

Non-constructive reply: Developers have been burned too many times by snake oil vendors and "solutions" that only work for toy examples. Also, I've never seen being slow to be encouraged anywhere. Most consider it an acceptable tradeoff though. Constructive reply: What would be an approach to writing a large web frontend (large as in, many pages and controls) without using a large framework? I'm asking this because I…

> without using a large framework?

I have explained this countless times. It rarely sinks in and quite often is met with hostility, so I don't bother any more. The problem is simple: its where people stake their career. Do they build their career upon writing original applications or upon using a tool? This difference is rather extreme.

By the way, without React shouldn't default to jQuery. If that is your perspective of reality you are already at the maxim of your potential.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#387

Post by gosub100 »

nar001 wrote: post #101
cheschire wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my grandmother was in her late 70's, she couldn't figure out the concept of menus on DVDs, so she stuck with VHS well beyond the point others had let it go. The capabilities of individuals over 70 are hugely varied. Some folks are clear-minded until 100, others start to lose their mental faculties much, much earlier. I don't think the generation is forgotten, just so vastly different in needs from the core audie…

I do wonder how much of that is just convenience, a lot of people just don't want to bother, even if they would figure it out if they tried - they just don't. Your grandmother probably could've figured it out, but tapes were just much more convenient even if you had to rewind them (Obviously there's a learning curve, though)

They don't want to bother because of the terrible UX on these devices. It's absolute lack of empathy for how people use their products.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#388

Post by ckozlowski »

eigencoder wrote: post #106
neutronicus wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a Yoto here as well, for our six-year-old. The concept is great - RFID as a replacement for cassette audiobooks (with fewer storage limitations!). I do wish it integrated better with sources of free audiobooks. The Libby app gets us access to a lot of audiobooks through the public library, many of which are not even available for purchase through the Yoto player. We can only use it to play them for him as a B…

The make your own cards are really nice for this. We bought a bunch of them and you can add any mp3s you want onto them. We even print stickers to put on the front.

Seconding this. We've made Daddy Mix Tapes, "Mommy Reads Stories", and other compilations.

Adding to the plethora of good ideas here: My wife bought these hanging tabs to stick onto the cards[1], and then strings a keycable[2] through them so my son has groups of them together. Yoto makes folding binders for them as well, but the keycable method seems to be a bit easier for our 5yo to handle.

1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2JL79PY

2. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XXFZHJQ

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#389

Post by ezst »

palmotea wrote: post #32

There are some off-the-shelf products that work similarly in the audio space: https://us.yotoplay.com/ https://us.tonies.com/ I had plans to build something that for the TV, but having kids means I never had the time. And honestly, that might not have been such a bad thing since it made setting limits easier. I was able to teach my kid to turn the TV off when she was fairly young (and pause more recently), which seem…

Yoto is quite amazing, well thought-out product, for both parents and kids.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#390

Post by ioseph »

usrnm wrote: post #342
johnisgood wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do not know any better, I suppose. Reading these threads just makes me wonder: if you guys have so many problems, why do you not torrent?

Torrenting is easy, but what are you goung to do with the torrented files then? Without additional external hardware you probably won't be able to play your downloaded files on your large TV, and most people prefer a laggy simple route over having to do more work. I do torrent from time to time, but the hassle associated with the whole process really highlights why streaming apps took over.

What additional hardware? If you're torrenting you have a PC or laptop, plug said device into your TV and you're good to go
Post reply on HN