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TVs Are Still Too Complicated, and It's Not Your Fault (theverge.com)
In his latest column for The Verge, renowned journalist Walt Mossberg argues that TVs -- their UI, execution, underlying technologies, and remote -- are still too complicated. In the latest weekly, he has shared the experience of buying a new TV, setting it up, and the first few days of getting through it. The modern set, Smart TV for most, comes with a plethora of proprietary and standard features. But only a handful of people actually know what these features are -- and how they differ in the models offered by the same company. Mossberg says folks at Best Buy were of little use when explaining these features, but did a good job making false claims such as "you have to buy a sound bar because the TV doesn't have good speakers" even when that wasn't necessarily the case. Now Mossberg, having pioneered tech journalism as it is known today, knows a thing or two about TVs, but for a general consumer, it is an unnecessary thing that could spoil the experience, and make a bigger dent in their TV budget than it should have. But buying the TV wasn't the worst part. Following are excerpts from his column: But learning to use the TV is a whole other story. The Bean Bird (assistive cartoon feature) setup process was pretty straightforward, but it gets you going just enough to start watching something. Tweaking all of the TV's many features, including common ones like picture tones and uncommon ones like zooming in on a part of the picture or using a built-in web browser, takes hours. You must wade through menus containing scores of choices. And some controversial features common to modern TVs are buried deep in these menus. For instance, while I like motion smoothing others strongly dislike it -- it's sometimes known as the "soap opera effect." If you don't like it, the LG's interface doesn't make it at all easy to understand what's happening to your picture or what setting to adjust to turn it off. It's not even called motion smoothing in the menus -- LG calls it "TruMotion." The user interface is also somewhat confusing. There are at least three ways, for instance, to change inputs and at least two to bring up quick settings. The menu for launching apps like Netflix, inputs, and more appears to have a million icons in it and marches for what seems like miles across the bottom of the screen. So you have to edit it, which takes a bunch of time.Mossberg also found issues with the way the remote was designed to execute. "For instance, it's supposed to become a "universal" remote, controlling all your connected set-top boxes, but I can only get it to control some, but not all, of the basic features of my cable box, a TiVo Bolt. And its voice search is pathetic -- far worse than the one on the latest Apple TV."
Of course, I wasn't stupid enough to spend 10,000 of my own money to give other people the right to spy on me.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I want no TV, I want a monitor. Simple as that. Then I buy a set top box or whatever to connect it to satellite or internet streaming or whatever I use for watching. I dont want a smart TV that sends all I watch and do to the internet. No thanks.
what i wouldnt give for a quality car stereo that just had a volume knob & a usb port & didnt try to razzle-dazzle me like some kind of hopped up slot machine.
There is no need for push button remotes any more. LCD screen remote should be the standard. It's a 1970s technology that has barely evolved with other changes in consumer entertainment.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
http://www.theonion.com/video/...
(nsfw/language)
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I had no problems setting up my Sony Bravia. Walks you through the process pretty seamlessly
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan
To bad cable card failed and tru2way hit the same fate. RVU seems cool but it has some of the same faults as tru2way.
A new FCC mandated gateway system with no forced UI's no per device fees no forced DRV fees is needed to help make people to be able to use one UI / one remote to view TV.
The default should be that people use an app on their phone, with an option to buy your own universal remote.
no phones allowed when the TV is on, take your noise elsewhere
Because there's no chance at all that TV manufacturers would screw up the security on a web based configuration interface, right?
The next wave of malware extortion would be "pay us x bitcoins to remove the password-locked goatse screensaver from your TV."
Too many producers of consumer electronics completely ignore the software side of things. From bad UI design to security, in their rush to market they skimp on the things that make that sort of thing worthwhile.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
It seems the "Smart" TV kids are beginning to learn what some of us have known for decades -- that a rubber-domed joypad is a terrible input device, barely good enough for games, much less controlling a complex computing device.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Some people need a remote that they can throw in the dishwasher occasionally. Just saying.
Have gnu, will travel.
I remember years ago i found out that if i used the parental controls on my cable box to block the 24 hr shopping channels, they wouldn't even show up on my list. I could just cruise through the channels & nobody was going to try to sell me a zirconium ring. It didnt take long before the cable company figured this out & changed the parental controls (so that they basically didnt work anymore)
If our tv/cable boxes were as configurable & user friendly as we'd like them to be... we'd block out all this crap, & nobody wants that.
Not a good idea. Then you have to have 2 phones, because you can't change channels or mute the damn thing, when you are talking on the phone etc.
My default assumption is that the MFG already screwed up security. Everything I do flows from that understanding. Because even if it isn't true today, some hacker somewhere will find out a way to get into it and steal my soul.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I know more then a few unfortunate souls with their TV's in the Retina Burning, Vomit Inducing DEMO mode
Reading all the comments here on this story, and honestly only one thing comes to mind... (yes, an obligatory XKCD comic) https://xkcd.com/927/
Give me great shows and programming, I'll figure out how to deal with the TV set (basically like every other gadget I will use only 10% of its features). Current TV is a 10 year old SD set (but it's a flat screen), I haven't seen a need to get a huge whiz bang 80inch set.
mfwright@batnet.com
My personal metric if some technology is too complex is if it can be used or not by my grandma.
And she definitely can't setup and exploit the many bells and whistles of a SmartTV, no matter if she wants to do it.
But she has gotten pretty good at using her cell phone. Probably because she's more motivated by talking/chatting with the family and friends, but she could learn the most common social apps in a short while.
Whatsapp, Twitter, Pinterest are no problem for her. But getting Netflix started and watching a series she wants to see in the Smart TV is like an unsolvable problem.
I had to use Smartphone analogies for getting her to start getting how the damn remote control works. But it seems the many buttons on the evil black box are too intimidating, compared to swiping your fingers over pictures in a sleek glass screen.
Smart TVs are riddled with underpowered hardware, security issues, outdated or plain abandoned apps, empty stores, and they are condemned to get completely abandoned after a while, unless you replace your TV sets as much as your smartphone or something, which doesn't seem to be something most consumers will do.
My Samsung TV came with smart tv functions (I didn't want it, but the price was right for the set), after initially testing the Samsung Hub or whatever they called it, I packed the smart tv remote and other crap that came with it (a bluetooth accessory, 3d glasses, and all that crap) away, and never looked back at them. And afaik, after a couple of years it's basically unusable - outdated, slow as molasses, and now a security issue.
The horrible mess that has been created by a bunch of TV manufaturers wanting to push proprietary shit on consumers has got to stop, that is if TV manufacturers still wants to offer usable smart tv solutions for consumers.
I dunno why Google stopped Android TV development, but that's the way to go. In fact, just throwing regular Android there would be a huge improvement over the shitshow that smart tvs currently are. I mean, nothing like Chromecast and other streaming pendrive/small tabletop devices selling like water to show how ineffective the smart tv strategy was.
Even if smart tvs worked well, were secure, and had good features overall, it's just a failed strategy. You really don't want to combine a product that is supposed to last 10 years or so, with something that will get outdated in less than a year.
Bring in the GNOME guys -- They Gno a lot about putting the GUI in your UI. (Read that aloud)
Provocateur
Some of the comments in this story give me the impression half of slashdot members have no fucking clue how networks operate.
I bought a new TV last Christmas, and my recent experience tends to agree. It wasn't even a smart TV, just a standard one. I still had a whole bunch of problems.
* Terrible interface for trying to figure out how to adjust color/brightness
* Terrible interface for trying to scan for over the air channels. Ran through this probably 5 times to get it right.
* Discovered a firmware bug which would turn the TV on once every 24 hours. This could not be disabled. Spent two weeks trying to upload patched firmware, which included a web site that said the model number was wrong even when it wasn't (no ability to browse, you've just got to know and type it from the box), multiple calls to the main vendor and then sub-vendors, finally getting the firmware patch with no instructions, calling back to find out totally unintuitive process for uploading the firmware, part of which includes "wait for 5-20 minutes while it takes care of itself in the background, and if you interrupt this invisible process you may brick your TV".
* Found that patched firmware didn't actually fix the bug, but that it at least allowed for a sub-feature that, if there's no signal to the TV, it will turn back off 15 minutes later.
* TV had terrible sound. Tried multiple versions of traditional (audio jack) and USB speakers, none of which worked for inexplicable reasons. Eventually took a big risk spending $80 on a soundbar that would handle digital audio, hoping it would work, and got lucky. (Sub-issue: soundbar goes to sleep if the TV is paused for a while, and when you wake it back up, the TV doesn't recognize it. You've got to turn the TV on/off to get sound working again. Sub-sub issue: sometimes Netflix loses track of sound, even when the TV had located it; same fix.)
* I've got 3 remotes: TV, streaming device, and sound bar. The wife and kids get it, but none of our visitors or relatives can figure anything out. I'm *this* close to printing a laminated cheat sheet of instructions, which they probably won't use because it's too complicated.
* Relatives tend to leave the TV either tuned to an over the air signal or a powered-on streaming device, so that when the firmware bug kicks in, then the TV stays on until someone realizes it was accidental and turns it off hours later.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Yes, what a wonderful idea. I would love to put all my controls in the same device... oops hold on, I have a phone call... damn, where's the mute button? Oh, gotta launch that app... oh wait, I have to unlock the device first... ah crap! the battery is dying...
That seems so much easier than just having a nice, dumb IR remote.
An IR remote with tactile buttons, on the other hand, is a great design. It just works and needs line of sight to work which means that if I drop it into the couch or sit on it or look at it funny, it won't register... unlike an RF remote or app (looking at your Roku remote control)
Plus, there is something to be said about tactile feedback... all this touch screen stuff is driving me crazy.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
And it is not your fault either... err well maybe it is.
Let me see if I understand?
Buying a complex piece of electronics is a complex process.
Getting it set up to perform basic functions is pretty simple.
Getting to perform more complicated functions turns out to be more complicated?
More options means more complicated.
Is that about it? When has that ever NOT been true?
How stupid-proof does the world have to be?
Further, "...folks at Best Buy were of little use when explaining these features, but did a good job making false claims such as "you have to buy a sound bar because the TV doesn't have good speakers" even when that wasn't necessarily the case..."
Now, I'll agree that the drones at Best Buy are alternately stupid and rapacious motherfuckers (they sold my 85 yr old aunt a 36" flatscreen tv and sound bar for $1600), but ultimately it's caveat emptor, not caveat auctor. The speakers on tv's generally DO suck, and even a cheap soundbar is going to sound much better generally. Generally.
-Styopa
It is our fault because we (the TV purchasing public) continue to buy. If we refused to purchase things that were overly complicated, manufacturers would create simpler products.
As a side note, I don't personally think TVs are too complicated. That being said, without regard to if they are or are not overly complicated, the quality and complexity of products in the marketplace is ultimately the consumers fault.
As an aging techy, Smart TVs are among the gadgets that I look at and say "Is there something I am missing here, am I finally going over the hill, or is this really just the crappiest dogpile of UX malpractice, feature bloat, and scamware ever created?" It turns out the be the latter (this time).
So no, it's no surprise -- older people are old enough to remember the world of software before it turned to utter crap, when we had well designed UX experiences with crisp response times and common sense discoverability. So naturally we'd be the ones in a position to complain.
Someone had to do it.
I've been wanting to buy a 65" OLED display to replace my old 50" plasma TV from 2003 for a few years now, because the color contrast on standard LED displays isn't as good as the latter's. I don't even need it to be 4K; it won't matter at the distance I'm using it. However, all monitors after a certain size seem to be bundled with extraneous UIs that function like their own OS. I just want a big screen with good colors. It shouldn't need software updates or its own remote. The best way to make UIs simpler is to eliminate them. Maybe have some buttons on the side to change inputs, but that should be it.
As an aging techy, Smart TVs are among the gadgets that I look at and say "Is there something I am missing here, am I finally going over the hill, or is this really just the crappiest dogpile of UX malpractice, feature bloat, and scamware ever created?"
That's been my experience when I go to Best Buy or Frys or whatever and look at the new gadgets, especially TVs.
I look at them and think, "I don't need this shit, just give me a TV without all the 5-level nested menus and other horsecrap." But almost no one makes a TV that doesn't include loads of useless shit. My last TV (a couple years old) has firmware that never seems to have an update available and loads of picture settings that don't seem to do much at all. Adjusting settings is frustrating as fuck, and I speak as someone that's been in tech for 40 fucking years.
My Blu Ray player came with a load of utter bullshit like screen savers and some of the lamest games you've ever seen, and it also doesn't ever seem to have an update available either.
The Blu Ray player's craptastic "Opera Store" doesn't even have a browser available (!!) nor does it have an Amazon TV app, and there's no way to get one. The USB port on the front is WORTHLESS, it's only for showing stored pics and movies, and it won't recognize a keyboard (or any other device), which is really too bad since the on-screen keyboard is the WORST, most user-unfriendly piece of shit in the known universe.
Seriously, fuck you, TV manufacturers, fuck you in the ass with a telephone pole wrapped in barbed-wire.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
.
The only functionality on the remote he really needs is power on/off (turning both set-top box and TV on and off), volume, mute, numeric keypad. closed captions on/off. That's pretty much it.
Yet I get phone calls asking why the closed captions switched over to a different language, or what happened to the closed captions, etc., etc., etc., etc.
I asked the cable company (Time Warner) for one of their "senior citizen" remotes, and it was more complicated than the one that came with the TV.
1. TVs are too complicated; nobody needs a goddamned 'smart TV' to start with, it's stupid.
2. People are getting dumber and lazier so it's no surprise they can't figure out how to run their TV.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Don't forget that Mossberg is a big Apple fan. He tends get cranky when he runs into UI experiences that aren't as slick or easy to use as Mac OS X or an iPhone.
Your use of the term "UX" suggests you aren't nearly as "aging" as you lead on. UX is a term invented after "the world of software turned to utter crap".
I recommend sanyo tvs for anyone with basic tv needs it has this nice reset button on the remote just press it twice and it resets all settings back to default and rescans the channels.
Saves lots of time when dealing with people over the phone.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
So, just because you don't like a device that costs less than five bucks to manufacture and requires no network connectivity, no TVs should have a remote? Yeah, it's annoying to have a million remotes. HDMI-CEC is helping some, and a Logitech Harmony can be a godsend. Having said that, the only way a manufacturer would likely implement something like that is with bluetooth or wifi. That'd make it pretty difficult to fully disable the smart functions. It's also nice to be able to limit access to change what's on the TV to what is physically present in the room. I take it you've never had someone prank you when you're watching something they don't like.
well walking into a BestBuy and dropping enough CASH money that they had to do a double count (and most likely a safe drop) gets you very good service especially when
1 You know more or less exactly what you want
2 you do this 3 times in a week
3 you have an aura of ALPHA GEEK!
4 you are nice about it
but yes as a former RadioShack Sales Support person (hi if you know where 01-1909 was) i have to grit my teeth to not laugh/cringe when i hear BestBuy clerks talk to customers.
and ignoring Best Buy
That's what I do. After the first time there, the only time I've been back was for an emergency cable purchase.
Even when I'm using my phone for nothing else, it goes to sleep after I use it. Then I have to wake it up again when I want to do something. That turns a trivial thing into a bothersome thing.
Sometimes I wonder if these ninnies actually do any of the things they suggest that others do.
Been there, done that. Not amused.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Those paired Roku remotes are annoying. I really should label all of mine so I can keep track of them. My Myth remotes are fine. I have the same model for every machine in the house and they are all interchangeable. They even congregate together (they must all get lonely) and it's all good.
Half the time with the Roku remotes I just don't bother and I use the app. That's still a little awkward though.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Put a motion controller in it and it's great actually. It makes a very nice mouse replacement.
Although simple cursor keys can replace the mouse (or finger) in most GUIs. If that's not the case, then you probably did it wrong.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
That's "initial setup".
Give it a big O of O(c).
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Why should each TV come with its own remote these days? The default should be that people use an app on their phone...
It sounds so logical and wonderful in theory. But as someone who tried it a while ago I can assure you phones are absolutely horrible remotes.
Suppose you just saw Janet Jackson flash a boob during the Superbowl. A reasonable person would want to watch it over and over to make sure they catch every detail of what just happened. What do you do?
1) reach for your phone in your pocket.
2) slide to unlock it
3) enter your password or fingerprint
4) browse to where the remote control app is
5) click on it, wait 3-5 seconds for it to open.
6) select the device you want to control (the tv, or dvr or whatever)
7) and finally you are ready to hit the rewind button.
Even if you cut half these steps, you are talking about at least 10-20 seconds to get to that damn rewind button. You will need to keep your eyes on the phone screen the whole time. That boob is ancient history by now, people have already discussed it on twitter, made thousands of memes, laws have already been enacted to prevent the unholiness of a nipple from destroying more childhoods. Now, your friend who has a real remote wants to talk about wardrobe malfunctions. He could be calling you right as you are in the middle of working towards getting to the rewind button.
Compare that to the remote that comes with your dvr
1) Pick it up
2) click rewind.
You don't even have to look at the damn thing, you can keep your eyes on the nipple the entire time. It takes 1-2 second.
Now imagine this every time you want to fast forward a commercial or pause it to get a beer. You have just invented a new very effective technique for interrogating prisoners in Guantanamo.
I got fed up with the phone as a remote very quickly and bought myself a real remote with damn physical buttons.
Front tech-bench employees got into a routine of charging $60 for a diagnostic on any computer problem (non-refundable). For a virus, they'll run an anti-virus scan ($30), which fails to remove the virus, and cease trying (manual removal gets disciplinary action from the tech supervisor). They inform the user that he needs an OS reinstall. That incurs $70 for a back-up service and $60 for an OS re-install. Then it's $30 for each additional software--if you want your new OS to not die immediately, you'll pay $30 to install anti-virus and $30 to install anti-spyware, plus $30 if you wanted MS Office installed again. Everyone who walked in was $300 of sales.
It's cheaper to buy a new machine at this point.
some karma... and kinda lukewarm about it.
What if the TV refuses to function without a network connection?
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
we had well designed UX experiences
Nope, a good UX is pure fantasy. I'm still waiting for one.
They all try to put too many options together. They all still have a pile of "miscellaneous" functions that all get lumped together. They still all use the technical / marketing terms of the designers (rather than the real-world experience descriptions of actual users). Almost none have sensible default settings or logically connected changes and it's a rarity to see them structured in any sort of workflow: good or bad. They always seem to be designed "logically" (captain) rather than with the most frequently used options the least number (i.e. 1) key-click away. And the layout of the remote control needed to operate them is frankly, awful.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I bought a smart tv a few months ago. It wasn't any trouble to set up and the UI isn't bad. The remote is just a remote, nothing special or difficult about it. I don't understand why so many here have such trouble setting up a tv. I guess people just like to complain.
Your use of the term "UX" suggests you aren't nearly as "aging" as you lead on
His UID is barely six digits; unless he was about 10 when he found Slashdot, he's "aging" as far as mainstream marketing demographics go. If you aren't 18-35 they don't really care what you want or don't want, most products are being designed for the next generation despite many of them not having any dollars to spend. I'm pushing 40 and I find myself asking the "am I just getting old?" question too, but I'm perfectly capable of using more recent terminology like UX, DevOps, etc.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Why would I want a tuner in my TV? It's just about guaranteed to be garbage, I can't upgrade or alter it without replacing the rest of the TV... and frankly, it's of no use to me where I live now, and to me it's just a very annoying input which I can't disable (unless someone out there knows something about SHARP TV special menu hacking that I don't... still, it's not a GUI option) and to which I sometimes switch accidentally when my multifunction remote is in the wrong mode.
Get that stupid tuner out of my TV. Leave me lots of inputs. Make sure one of them is VGA if it's only 1080p, and report all the modes the TV supports correctly. Done and done.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
oops hold on, I have a phone call... damn, where's the mute button?
If your phone is your remote, it should mute the TV automatically when you get a phone call.
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Every day, I wonder who exactly designs the interfaces for appliances and other gadgets we use every day. It shouldn't be that hard! But anything with more than four buttons now seems to not be designed for intuitive operations. The worst example of this would have to be my car stereo. It's some mid-range thing with a graphical display. Things that annoy me about it: Toggle control which both navigates and controls the volume and in some modes the settings.Many buttons with multiple uses: Band/Esc, Power/Source. Buttons with mysterious labels on them, "List" for example, which could mean anything. Settings for the same thing in two separate places. One set of settings which are only accessible by turning the unit off and then starting it in a certain way. And it came with a remote control which I have never ever used. What am I going to do, change the volume from the back seat??? My kid often fiddles with it, and get it into states where it's even less usable.
Heh. After I posted I said "Damn I wish I had thought to link that," so thanks.
Someone had to do it.
Yep, I don't like the touch screens either. I can't even type fast like Data. I can type fast and loudly, like a machine gun, on clicky keyboards though.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The TV should just be a display device and we need an app that agregates content from different providers (Netflix / Amazon / Hulu / Whatever) I dont care about whether what I want to watch comes from Netflix or Elsewhere . I want to use the same interface to access all my media from my subscriptions , local content and other sources. My user experience should be : select item for viewing and play on tv. Thats it - I dont want to spend half an hour browsing netflix for something to watch , and then another half an hour checking Amazon because i couldnt find anything suitable.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
I just hope the future doesn't contain the sole option of buying a TV or monitor that has a camera and microphone built in.
With those two features inevitably embedded, all bets are off in terms of fully guaranteeing the avoiding of privacy infringement.
I want full control over the cameras and microphones in my home (car, business, and so on).
That includes ensuring my 'smart' phone is on the other side of the 'do not disturb' sign, but that probably goes without saying.
Sines of Impending Sines
I have a Vizio 3d smart TV. It's around 4 years old, so things may be crazier now but I never had any of the issues described. My only problem is that they stopped updating the software and I don't think the Yahoo! platform it's based on is still supported. Pretty sure it was deprecated the year after I bought it. Its also pretty slow. That said, most functions are easy to access/find, have sensible names, and the remote has buttons for things like Netflix, Amazon, 2d/3d modes, etc.
I use another button: input select. But otherwise, yes to all of this.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Well, that would be annoying as all fuck if you just happened to be in the room with someone else watching TV, or a ton of other situations that I can come up with in a couple of seconds thought...
I don't think so. I think it would be ideal, even in that case. Especially if it didn't mute unless you actually took the call.
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That happened a lot when eMachines were $250.
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have you bought a new car lately? with a 7,000 page manual that tells you things like the secret combination of keys to press to alter the speed-sensitive volume adjustment on the sound system, or how to calibrate the compass in the rear view mirror to optimize it for your particular location? (that's a real thing, btw)
or the weird little 500 page, 2 by 3 inch manual thagt comes with your new smartphone; meanwhile you can't get any sort of instructions for 90% of the apps you might want to use.
what a world, what a world....
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Why should each TV come with its own remote these days? The default should be that people use an app on their phone, with an option to buy your own universal remote. Instead we're wasting resources with the sale of every piece of living room electronics and middle-class houses get cluttered with remotes to different devices. It's inefficient.
Of course, only a portion of the market would acknowledge that, so you would need a good marketing strategy and probably a phase-out period.
as a connoisseur of obsolete but functional hardware that I get from Goodwill for $15, I attest that any manufacturer who builds equipment where vital functions are only accessible via the remote and not on the equipment itself, and furthermore only via proprietary codes which no "universal" remote can duplicate, needs to go out of business ASAP. Because that remote is going to vanish magically at some point and never reappear.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Yes, what a wonderful idea. I would love to put all my controls in the same device... oops hold on, I have a phone call... damn, where's the mute button? Oh, gotta launch that app... oh wait, I have to unlock the device first... ah crap! the battery is dying...
That seems so much easier than just having a nice, dumb IR remote.
An IR remote with tactile buttons, on the other hand, is a great design. It just works and needs line of sight to work which means that if I drop it into the couch or sit on it or look at it funny, it won't register... unlike an RF remote or app (looking at your Roku remote control)
Plus, there is something to be said about tactile feedback... all this touch screen stuff is driving me crazy.
like when your remote car unlock is an app in your phone, and the battery dies. ah, fun.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Some people need a remote that they can throw in the dishwasher occasionally. Just saying.
Anybody remember when Audio magazine reviewed the A11-1n-1sky audio system by Lirpa Laboratories of Bucharest, in the April 1983 issue? The system achieved a tiny shelf space footprint by moving many of the functions to the remote, which was the size of a small refrigerator and required a 12 volt car battery.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
I worked at a new car dealer for a miserable year. None of this sounds unfamiliar.
All true. But that is also all solved by having one remote, packaged separately from the half dozen devices in your living room, which you can use to control all of them. Currently we waste resources (albeit a small amount) by having many middle class living rooms with multiple remotes.
Real lawyers write in C++
Why ? Maybe I don't want to interrupt my movie to answer every robocall I get.
So don't answer.
Or, if you insist, have the phone app pop up a TV mute (or unmute) button so you can make the decision after you answer. There are lots of ways to solve this.
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