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Modern televisions have made me wish they were just dumb (as possible) monitors with no software interface. Just select the input, power, volume, brightness etc

Modern televisions have made me wish they were just dumb (as possible) monitors with no software interface. Just select the input, power, volume, brightness etc those things no Roku or other smarts.

pupdogg 5y ago
Amen. I also wish cars would just have dumb push-button or radial-knob controls vs a smart touchscreens. I'm a big fan of things that simply work and work for a long time.
- patrickk 5y ago
  There’s so many products that fall into this category. Stuff designed several decades ago was often more reliable and easier to fix with simple tools (I’m thinking of Japanese cars in the 90s up to the early 2000s but you can apply it to many products). And now with ‘smart’ products, aka internet of shit, it’s gotten worse. I have a modded iPod classic for this reason, keep a NAS for ripped media, keep a dumb TV as long as it lives, use a bombproof Casio instead of a flaky smartwatch, etc. You don’t have to waste mental cycles by complicating your life with unreliable crap. I hope the GP succeeds with a Kickstarter or whatever, I’d definitely be in the market for such a TV.
  - mattkevan 5y ago
    Worked in a tv repair shop back in the mid-90s. We would mostly fix aged soldering or replace dodgy capacitors, but even then newer TVs were getting less and less repairable. Just a transformer, circuit board and CRT. They shut down not long after I stopped working there as there was nothing left that they could fix.
    - pupdogg 5y ago
      I miss being able to go into those shops! Nowadays, the closest thing that exists is phone repair shops and they generally don't even know what soldering is. I'm not knocking their business; but something inside me remains irritated knowing that we're more advanced yet we make less reliable/serviceable pieces of equipment.
- ziml77 5y ago
  I'd also love a return to physical controls, but my concern with the touchscreens is actually less to do with durability and more to do with tactility and muscle memory. Before I stopped driving altogether, I had a car with a touchscreen interface. It had more functionality than other cars I'd driven and I appreciated that, but it also felt more dangerous to operate at times. Dedicated buttons for all the controls might have been impractical, but I think they should have at least gone with the older style of having dynamic function, phsyical buttons along the side of the screen.
  - pupdogg 5y ago
    I think that either style interface has its place and can co-exist with the other. For example, in a car, I would prefer to have physical controls for audio and anything mechanical (ie HVAC, wipers, ON/OFF,etc). However, when it comes to preferential attributes, vehicle/user/passenger related settings or diagnostic data/feedback, I would much rather prefer the touchscreen. This goes for things like instrument panel, monitoring tire pressure, situational awareness (sensors/cams), lights on/off settings, etc.
    - nucleardog 5y ago
      This is more or less my car. Volume and tuning are knobs and steering wheel controls. HVAC is all controlled through physical knobs and switches for the heated seats and reported on a small (non-touch) display on top of the dash. The touchscreen is for maps and more detailed radio/audio controls. Configuration and preferences are configured through whichever system it's relevant to. Driving settings are configured on a small screen in the gauge cluster. Configuring the small display that shows the time/date and vehicle metrics (boost, tires, etc) is done via a small button near that screen. Configuring the radio/maps/etc is done via the touchscreen with the radio/maps on it. It sounds kind of complicated in the way I'm describing it, but it's pretty intuitive in practice. "I want to configure that thing" = "Use the buttons on that thing".
      - pupdogg 5y ago
        Please puts us all onto the make and model of your car. Seems like such capabilities are a rare breed nowadays!
- macjohnmcc 5y ago
  I occasionally have to reboot my car’s entertainment system when it says it cant adjust the volume. And every time i start it it turns the audio back on even if i turned it off.
pvorb 5y ago
So you want a PC monitor with a remote, right? I've always wondered why this doesn't exist.
- vageli 5y ago
  Who even needs the remote anymore when devices can be controlled over HDMI?
  - pvorb 5y ago
    I think those do exist. :-)
- TingPing 5y ago
  My benq monitor came with a remote. They exist.
- nfoz 5y ago
  I miss when Macbooks came with remotes.

Modern televisions have made me wish they were just dumb (as possible) monitors with no software interface. Just select the input, power, volume, brightness etc those things no Roku or other smarts.

pupdogg 5y ago

Amen. I also wish cars would just have dumb push-button or radial-knob controls vs a smart touchscreens. I'm a big fan of things that simply work and work for a long time.

patrickk 5y ago
There’s so many products that fall into this category. Stuff designed several decades ago was often more reliable and easier to fix with simple tools (I’m thinking of Japanese cars in the 90s up to the early 2000s but you can apply it to many products). And now with ‘smart’ products, aka internet of shit, it’s gotten worse. I have a modded iPod classic for this reason, keep a NAS for ripped media, keep a dumb TV as long as it lives, use a bombproof Casio instead of a flaky smartwatch, etc. You don’t have to waste mental cycles by complicating your life with unreliable crap. I hope the GP succeeds with a Kickstarter or whatever, I’d definitely be in the market for such a TV.
- mattkevan 5y ago
  Worked in a tv repair shop back in the mid-90s. We would mostly fix aged soldering or replace dodgy capacitors, but even then newer TVs were getting less and less repairable. Just a transformer, circuit board and CRT. They shut down not long after I stopped working there as there was nothing left that they could fix.
  - pupdogg 5y ago
    I miss being able to go into those shops! Nowadays, the closest thing that exists is phone repair shops and they generally don't even know what soldering is. I'm not knocking their business; but something inside me remains irritated knowing that we're more advanced yet we make less reliable/serviceable pieces of equipment.
ziml77 5y ago
I'd also love a return to physical controls, but my concern with the touchscreens is actually less to do with durability and more to do with tactility and muscle memory. Before I stopped driving altogether, I had a car with a touchscreen interface. It had more functionality than other cars I'd driven and I appreciated that, but it also felt more dangerous to operate at times. Dedicated buttons for all the controls might have been impractical, but I think they should have at least gone with the older style of having dynamic function, phsyical buttons along the side of the screen.
- pupdogg 5y ago
  I think that either style interface has its place and can co-exist with the other. For example, in a car, I would prefer to have physical controls for audio and anything mechanical (ie HVAC, wipers, ON/OFF,etc). However, when it comes to preferential attributes, vehicle/user/passenger related settings or diagnostic data/feedback, I would much rather prefer the touchscreen. This goes for things like instrument panel, monitoring tire pressure, situational awareness (sensors/cams), lights on/off settings, etc.
  - nucleardog 5y ago
    This is more or less my car. Volume and tuning are knobs and steering wheel controls. HVAC is all controlled through physical knobs and switches for the heated seats and reported on a small (non-touch) display on top of the dash. The touchscreen is for maps and more detailed radio/audio controls. Configuration and preferences are configured through whichever system it's relevant to. Driving settings are configured on a small screen in the gauge cluster. Configuring the small display that shows the time/date and vehicle metrics (boost, tires, etc) is done via a small button near that screen. Configuring the radio/maps/etc is done via the touchscreen with the radio/maps on it. It sounds kind of complicated in the way I'm describing it, but it's pretty intuitive in practice. "I want to configure that thing" = "Use the buttons on that thing".
    - pupdogg 5y ago
      Please puts us all onto the make and model of your car. Seems like such capabilities are a rare breed nowadays!
macjohnmcc 5y ago
I occasionally have to reboot my car’s entertainment system when it says it cant adjust the volume. And every time i start it it turns the audio back on even if i turned it off.

pvorb 5y ago

So you want a PC monitor with a remote, right? I've always wondered why this doesn't exist.

vageli 5y ago
Who even needs the remote anymore when devices can be controlled over HDMI?
- pvorb 5y ago
  I think those do exist. :-)
TingPing 5y ago
My benq monitor came with a remote. They exist.
nfoz 5y ago
I miss when Macbooks came with remotes.