News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads. Parent comment

Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by Freak_NL on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @08:33AM (#24626916)
I've wondered about this. The TV I have (a Sony Bravia) is now almost a decade old (works fine). We got it specifically because it has a slot for a DVB-T module (terrestrial broadcast). DVB-T is now gone (replaced by DVB-T2, but I doubt this will remain in the air long), so we have no broadcast TV now, only our HTPC connected to it with Netflix, local media files, and a browser.

Frankly, we don't miss the TV channels. Streaming works okayish for the public channels, but we rarely bother.

The TV is just a dumb screen connected to a receiver, which has the HTPC as input as well as record player.

So the only thing a 'TV' offers me is its screen. Is that any different from a high end computer monitor these days? Is there a difference based on the viewing distance perhaps?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by jlokier on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @02:43PM (#24631424)
Another difference between a typical TV screen and a typical monitor is many TVs will dynamically adjust brightness depending on what's displayed, and maybe other factors. Sometimes this is on by default and you can turn it off in a menu, but I've met TVs where you can't turn it off.

Using a TV which adjusts the brightness depending on what's displayed can be very unpleasant when trying to do computer work on it. E.g. opening or closing a window may cause other windows to abruptly change brightness. Scrolling through a document may cause the brightness to vary.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by bluGill on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @01:33PM (#24630634)
Historically monitors has better pictures at the expense that you couldn't look at them off angle, while TVs you could look at from anywhere in the room. I think that is gone today but it might be something that comes up again... Though in the safety critical application I brought up off-angle viewing is a requirement.
[ Parent | on HN ]