Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

Re:Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their tread... by tharkun__ on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @10:29PM (#29989609)

I looked into it too ;)

    - Large Monitors are unavailable or (if you use business monitors) a lot more expensive and usually don't have latest panel tech.

Agree, monitors in regular TV sizes are way more expensive than the largest 'cheap' monitors. But I'd rather make a decision between paying $300 CAD for a 32" monitor that is 'large enough' but not huge or a ~43" monitor that is way larger, has 4k etc. and costs ~$1200 CAD etc. or a $500 50" 4k "generic Smart TV" in "dumb mode" than to use it as an actual Smart TV.

    - You'll loose surround sound and also 4K on most platforms

There you go, no expensive 4k monitor needed if you can't get it anyway. Surround sound I'll give you but see your sibling if you are so inclined to go the potentially unlawful but ethically probably totally OK route.

    - The integration is usually worse (you'll have to start more devices, if you're lucky CEC decides to work)

To be fair it's been a while that I've had cable and had to deal with that and that was in low-def times (so I had a cable card in the mythtv server). I don't fancy setups w/ IR switching cable channels and such but to be honest, I think it's worth it to at least try if you have to keep actual cable for some reason. Nowadays other viable options than having cable do exist if you ask me.

    - Good luck with HDR

I probably just don't know what I am missing and as long as it stays that way it's like staying on 720p and a monitor most people would think is way too small but actually totally adequate than to complain that my huge 4k one looks bad with that source material ;)

    offline smart TV are good contenders, too

Totally agree, if you're looking for a cheap huge "monitor" that can definitely be a good option as long as you stay away from the actual "features" and are fine with the other limitations.

Personally I'm on a 32" regular HD IPS panel monitor. Given the size of the living room and how far away the sofa is, this is totally adequate (I upgraded from my >>>10 year old 4:3 "I don't even remember the size of it" monitor when it finally broke!). Surround sound depends on the source. If it's Netflix the upmix is "good enough" for most of what the kids wanna watch and then there's other material too where proper AC3 is available. Most of the times I can't really have the bass turned up anyway so as not to wake the kids :P

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Re:Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their tread... by MandieD on Thursday January 20, 2022 @07:24AM (#30007989)

We paid 2000 EUR for a 55" HD (1K) Sony in 2010, and would happily go down a bit in size as it's now mounted over a piano that frankly sees a lot more use than the TV. I'm completely ok with paying 1000-1500 EUR to get a 40"-50" 4K set that we don't have to constantly give the side-eye once the current one gives up the ghost. We rarely watch anything, so it might be more of a question of whether this one will outlive 720p/1080p freeview or not.

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Re:Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their tread... by tharkun__ on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @12:05PM (#29996383)

After a good nights sleep I think I want to revise this (can't edit).

I think it's prudent not to even buy a Smart TV and use it in "dumb mode". If we do this, we are not voting with our wallet. I'm not sure how likely we would be to have a large enough effect numbers wise but one can try. If we don't try, we've already lost.

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Re:Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their tread... by int_19h on Thursday January 20, 2022 @03:30PM (#30014400)

You're still voting with your wallet to the effect of the TV not being able to serve the ads that it otherwise would.

But anyway, ever since content consumption became prominent on mobile smart devices (smartphones, tablets), this battle is already lost - the TVs are merely playing catch-up with the rest of the industry.

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