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EU Probes TVs Over Energy Test Scores
joesreviewss writes: The European Commission says it will follow up on evidence that Samsung and another TV-maker use software that alters their screens' power use during tests. The BBC reports: "One study indicates that some Samsung TVs nearly halve their power consumption when a standardised test is carried out. Another accuses a different unnamed manufacturer of adjusting the brightness of its sets when they "recognise" the test film involved. Samsung has denied any wrongdoing. It acknowledged that it used software that altered its televisions' performance during tests, but said this was the effect of a general energy efficiency feature that came into effect during normal use and had nothing to do with the testing process."
Not quite the same thing. What VW did was recognize the test and change operating modes only during testing. What Samsung did was build a "Home" mode for optimum energy savings and other modes (including changing settings from the defaults in Home mode to give a custom mode) that optimized viewing experience at the expense of power use. The EU's tests use "Home" mode and don't test any other modes, while most consumers immediately adjust the TV for optimum viewing regardless of power consumption, so of course TVs in normal use use more power than their test scores indicate. But the TV doesn't change anything on it's own and it doesn't run any differently during the test than it does in the same mode in normal use, it's just that the EU didn't bother testing the TV in the configuration most consumers are going to set it to. Myself, I'd run the test in every mode the TV has and compare results because you know consumers aren't going to ignore additional modes.
But if company A is honest and company B cheats, then company A will be at a disadvantage until company B gets caught. If everyone cheats, then they are at a level playing field, even after getting caught (what if it turns out that all car and TV manufacturers cheat?).
Volkswagen, Samsung? Anybody beginning to think that companies are acting like a bunch of fucking homos, acting straight when mum and dad come round?
Beginning? Lots of systems detect when benchmarking software is running and alter their performance. I think that a few Android phones do this as well, here is a Slashdot story about it:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/s...
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
In other news, teachers awarded for teaching kids to perform at standardised tests.
Seriously. As soon as there is a standardised test, it's going to get optimized for.
I used to work at the national Vehicle Engineering Lab, and one of the main complaints that we would get is that we do not publish the tests that we do to decide if a custom vehicle or modification is legal. This is precisely why, people will conform to all the published standards yet find workarounds for the intent. Make a vehicle safe, and we'll allow it. Overpower it with no safety features and we won't. Sometimes, wise decision makers are better then well-defined laws.
Of course, finding wise decision makers is very difficult. We were lucky to have a very wise, experienced engineer lead the team and the process, and I really don't know how it will work out when he needs to be replaced. This is why rule of the people was experimented with two thousand years ago, and hereditary government was found to be problematic three hundred years ago.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
This is the same thing that VW did.
You mean that my TV is spewing out vast amounts of NOx when it's not in test mode?!
EU testers were lazy
I wouldn't use that word. Different settings act different in non-defined ways. There's little to no standard way of knowing how consumers set up their TVs and what those settings do, and ultimately you only have limited resources. I see no problem at all with what they are doing. Most items are tested in some generic way with out of the box settings. A car will also have different emissions if you drive it in some standard way vs taking it to a track day.
There's very little a standardised test can do which is why a real-world test is so important.
Myself, I'd run the test in every mode the TV has and compare results because you know consumers aren't going to ignore additional modes.
I have my doubts about that; I think most consumers will never even find the adjustments. Maybe a significant minority will, but I expect most will just plug it in and turn it on.
Sometimes, wise decision makers are better then well-defined laws.
Of course, the problem with government by unwritten rule is that the "wise decision makers" will then use that rule to punish their enemies simply for being their enemies.
Look at the IRS, which targeted people and groups they didn't like for harassment. That's allegedly illegal, but nobody was ever punished for it because "wise decision makers" didn't think it was necessary.
Look at the Secret Service, who did not like that a member of Congress was investigating them, so they leaked that a decade earlier, he applied for a job with them and they decided not to hire him. Allegedly illegal, but no one will be punished for that because the "wise decision makers" don't think it's necessary.
To turn it back to the automotive world, the "wise decision makers" in government decided to PLAY UP an unintended acceleration issue in Toyotas and COVER UP a similar bug in GM cars because the government owned GM at the time.
Part of the reason we have written laws is that they're supposed to protect us from government by the whims of "wise decision makers."