What is the best dumb TV? • Hacker News Board

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#431

Post by vestrigi » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:35 AM UTC

canofbars wrote: post #402

lloeki wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France the difference is that you pay a broadcast tax every year for owning a TV. Even if the tuner is unplugged. Even if the TV is covered with dust in a basement. Even if you rip the tuner apart and use it as a screen only (this specific case has been lawyered to death right up to the last court of Cassation). Because computers and smartphones, the law has since been extended to also include the case where you o…

I like Australia's system better. You pay a very minor tax yearly regardless of tv ownership and it funds a few government run TV channels and radio stations as well as a news site. Despite the current governments best efforts, the ABC is still the only worthwhile news site in the country.

Same in Germany but the tax is a fixed price of EUR 17.50 each month per household and no escape from it except for very few special cases (e.g. university students receiving financial support from the state).

Personally I agree with a mandatory monthly cost but it is way too high, should be in proportion to household income and the people in the upper ranks of the broadcasting companies shouldn't earn absurdly high wages and pensions.

Despite that I like to support proper journalism that is accessible to everyone and content that is often ad-free to watch/listen/read.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#432

Post by 867-5309 » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:36 AM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #293

tornato7 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try running it through a pihole. Even better, maybe you can manage to MITM it and replace the ads with something funny.

Some devices bypass the Pihole, and while you can catch them at the firewall, it’s a tedious game.

how is it possible to bypass? if it is the only thing available then it is impossible to use an alternative

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#433

Post by jiggawatts » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:37 AM UTC

markatkinson wrote: post #374

franga2000 wrote: post #355

I love the idea of smart TVs, but every single implementation I've seen in the last few years has been utter garbage. Everything they do is one step forward and like 3-30 steps back. For example, I recently bought a low-end Samsung TV running Tizen, which meant I could return my set-top-box (ISP has a Tizen app), get rid of my barely-functioning miracast stick, bluetooth transmitter (native features) and media PC (ap…

Haha I'm jealous. My tv can only boot to an app and not an input, but the operating system it came with is SO SLOW, that I have to use some kind of casting device.

I know why it's slow, how this happens:

"How much RAM should we put in the TV boss?"

"Well, what is the requirement?"

"Right now, 1.5 GB."

"Then put in 1.5 GB exactly!"

"But we might need more after the next update!"

"You need 1.5 GB, not one megabyte more, that's the requirement, so that's what you're putting in. End of discussion."

... six months later...

"The next upgrade to the TV OS will need 2 GB of memory boss!"

"Who cares? Just let it use the swap volume, the slowdown will encourage people to buy the next TV generation."

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#434

Post by Moru » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:37 AM UTC

kingosticks wrote: post #415

acjohnson55 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple years ago, I discovered the joy of microwaving at low to mid power. The results are far better for foods that have already been cooked, at the cost of mildly longer cook time. The only thing I nuke at full power is liquid.

You and me both. I was fed up of following the cooking instructions only to have some things explode. I was particularly tired of cleaning up porridge which will quickly turn concrete-like. Instead, drop it down to medium, add on a minute or two and it's perfect. Why is it that all microwave cooking instructions say to use high power. I recently bought a soup that included the cook time for a 1000W microwave, I can't…

A microwave only work with an on/off cycle. It runs on MAX for x seconds and off for y seconds. If you want 50% effect, it runs 5 seconds, then wait 5 seconds. Cooking it on low is just letting the food distribute the heat naturally for a while, instead of building up an energy bubble that will expload in steam. So low effect is good. It's still max effect but on half the time.

When cooking oatmeal porridge I usually do one cup oatmeal and 2 cups and a little more of water. In deep plate, full effect in microwave for 2 minutes but I watch it the whole time. When it starts building a volcano I let it go on until the edges of the volcano goes to the edge of the plate. THen everything is nicely cooked and I stuff my butter and a bit of salt in there and stir it until it's the thickness I want. Add milk to stop the thickeninig and eat. Maybe with some applejam on top. Oh, and make sure the oatmeal is not the generic type, it tastes nothing. There are really nice types around that makes oatmeal really great.

Of course there is a slowcook method too but I haven't tried that yet. Let the oatmeal just stand in cold water over the night, no cooking included.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#435

Post by Razengan » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:38 AM UTC

A good monitor + a computer (or console or even something like an Apple TV)

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#436

Post by alias_neo » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:39 AM UTC

andi999 wrote: post #411

danielheath wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Found the millennial? The knob design is the much older one as it's purely analog. Modern microwave knobs are not properly analog. They are so infuriating - an analog control fiddling with a discrete setting. As you turn the knob, it will occasionally (with no haptic feedback) tick over to the next discrete value.

but much better than the old analog knob. For less than a minute you couldnt even turn it (usually jumped back to the bell or was anything from 20s to 1min)

This. Since becoming a father I realised how annoying our analogue microwave knob is when you just need to blast something for 20 second while dealing with a screaming child. Either it's too short and you get 2 second, or it's too long and you get 60, now you need to do your best to cool the thing down quickly

In the time before baby, the analogue microwave was refreshing, now it's a nuisance.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#437

Post by Moru » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:44 AM UTC

tssva wrote: post #421

iforgotpassword wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found the millennial? The knob design is the much older one as it's purely analog. I don't have a microwave anymore for almost a decade now, but even before I used it occasionally only, mostly for heating up food from the day before, nothing where I'd need sub-millisecond accuracy. Also in general food tastes different/weird if you blast it at full power, so going for lower wattage and longer cooking times would redu…

I'm 52 and have used microwave ovens since my parents bought one in 1981. It had a touchpad and every microwave I have ever used since then has had a touchpad. My experience is that except for the extremely low end of the countertop microwave market it was rare to see a microwave with knob controls until the last 10 years.

All my micro waves have been nob controlled except one but that one broke down after a few weeks so that one does't count. The rest was two analog and three digital nobs. All the digital nobs broke down after 1-2 years but the analog nobs still work after 20+ years. And you can still buy new ananlog nob microwave ovens in the store but they aren't as good any more.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#438

Post by jedberg » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:48 AM UTC

biztos wrote: post #155

jedberg wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That video is already laggy compared to what I remember as a kid. If you were watching OTA analog the channel change was near instant. Even on our cable box it was near instant.

Was it not actually instant? My recollection from the 80's was you switch the channel (physically) and it's... switched! So was there some magical latency there that I just couldn't perceive, or are the "near instant" reports talking about some other type of TV? Or something else?

There was a few ms of latency but you couldn't actually perceive it unless you used a slow motion camera or something.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#439

Post by lqet » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:49 AM UTC

Reading this thread and realizing how difficult it seems to have become to buy such a "dumb" TV, I am extremely happy that I bought a cheap Samsung TV in 2016 which doesn't have any features except cheap build-in speakers, a classic TV tuner (which I don't use) and 2 HDMI inputs. It's connected to a Raspberry Pi running Kodi.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#440

Post by Moru » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:50 AM UTC

knaq wrote: post #394

garfieldnate wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're going off topic now, but why do all microwaves have knobs now? I hate them. I want a number pad like the microwaves had when I was growing up. I want to close the door, press the numbers that indicate the amount of time I want and hit "start". When you turn a knob, either you have no indication of the exact time, or there's a display that moves in increments that the computer thinks are good (usually 10s). I do…

I would be happy with a big red rocker switch. It should have labels "ON" and "OFF". A more daring design uses the door as a switch. Close the door, and the microwave runs. Open the door, and it stops. This is about as simple as it could be. User efficiency is maximized.

Our digital knob micro was like that. This gets a problem when the digital knob suddenly malfunctions and starts the microwave in the night, set on 5 minutes and nothing inside it. Could start a nice fire if unlucky. It only happened during daytime when we noticed it luckily.