Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

I was thinking exactly the same.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

My armchairs are about that distance from my telly. Just not much room in the narrow living room.

Bubblecar said:

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

My armchairs are about that distance from my telly. Just not much room in the narrow living room.

That’s less than four foot in the old scale. Unless I seriously have the wrong end of the stick, you watch the TV with it less than four foot in front of you?

Aldi have TVs on sale practically every week.

AwesomeO said:

Bubblecar said:

AwesomeO said:

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

My armchairs are about that distance from my telly. Just not much room in the narrow living room.

That’s less than four foot in the old scale. Unless I seriously have the wrong end of the stick, you watch the TV with it less than four foot in front of you?

Aye lad, about 3.5 feet. Given that I sit much closer than that to this pooter monitor, which is about the same size, I don’t see why it should be regarded as eccentric.

20*?? that’s a small TV.

Peak Warming Man said:

20*?? that’s a small TV.

That is pretty titchy.

My TV and computer monitor are both about 70cm diagonally, although my TV too is a CRT.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

I did. Twice. The TV room used to be a verandah, before the previous owners bricked it in, it’s not very wide.

Possibly get a used one?

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

I did. Twice. The TV room used to be a verandah, before the previous owners bricked it in, it’s not very wide.

Possibly get a used one?

Nah, get new, it won’t be big and TVs are cheap.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

Check your measurements? 1.2 metres is tiny.

I did. Twice. The TV room used to be a verandah, before the previous owners bricked it in, it’s not very wide.

Possibly get a used one?

Nah, get new, it won’t be big and TVs are cheap.

Yeah, and get a coloured one.

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

I did. Twice. The TV room used to be a verandah, before the previous owners bricked it in, it’s not very wide.

Possibly get a used one?

Nah, get new, it won’t be big and TVs are cheap.

Yeah, and get a coloured one.

Now, now, how profligate do you expect Molly to be?

Doesn’t your house have like a lounge room?

Witty Rejoinder said:

Doesn’t your house have like a lounge room?

they probably call it the ‘lab ‘

Poiky if you’re about you might find this article interesting:

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/apple-shares-drop-as-iphone-s-sluggish-sales-raise-red-flags-20181113-p50fn0.html

It shows how complex it is to make predictions about just one product by one company and all that entails for economic prognostication in general. You could argue that if they can’t be accurate economists shouldn’t even bother but predictions are necessary for the futures markets so they still serve a purpose.

Sorry

Witty Rejoinder said:

Sorry

seriously, dude, fucking up on a Friday night is unforgivable

Arts said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Doesn’t your house have like a lounge room?

they probably call it the ‘lab ‘

The lounge room has two pianos in it, one of them a grand. We took out a wall to fit the grand in. We used to also have a pedal organ and digital piano in the lounge room, but that was a bit much.

Having a TV so close to my nose is a very good solution. We’re never going to have more than 4 people watching TV at once anyway.

mollwollfumble said:

Arts said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Doesn’t your house have like a lounge room?

they probably call it the ‘lab ‘

The lounge room has two pianos in it, one of them a grand. We took out a wall to fit the grand in. We used to also have a pedal organ and digital piano in the lounge room, but that was a bit much.

I have a music room for that stuff… although I don’t have a grand.. that would be awesome

Divine Angel said:

Aldi have TVs on sale practically every week.

I bought an Aldi TV once. The warranty was for 12 months. It died permanently, irreparable, in 13 months. Not Aldi.

If KMart sold TVs I would buy one from there, but they don’t.

JB Hi-Fi & Good Guys don’t sell TVs of the right size.
Big W and Target I’m not so keen on for quality electronics.
Harvey Norman is always overpriced for average quality.
DJ and Myer are always way overpriced.

Outside of those stores?

Any particular brands you like?
With or without inbuilt DVD player?
Any particular screen resolution?
Any particular features? eg. netflix, youtube?

I already know that menu controls for some higher priced TVs are awful. A good “electronic program guide” would be a big help.

>Outside of those stores?

Try eBay for price comparisons.

just go to a place or two and see what they try to sell you.

I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a non ‘smart’ TV these days… remember not to worry about pic quality.. that is looking at two TV’s comparing, because once you get it home there is no point of comparison and the one you have will look fine.

we recently bought a largish panasonic, but we have much more space in our tv room than you do… it’s fine. Our older Sony is also still fine (moved to the kids playroom)

mollwollfumble said:

Divine Angel said:

Aldi have TVs on sale practically every week.

I bought an Aldi TV once. The warranty was for 12 months. It died permanently, irreparable, in 13 months. Not Aldi.

If KMart sold TVs I would buy one from there, but they don’t.

JB Hi-Fi & Good Guys don’t sell TVs of the right size.
Big W and Target I’m not so keen on for quality electronics.
Harvey Norman is always overpriced for average quality.
DJ and Myer are always way overpriced.

Outside of those stores?

Any particular brands you like?
With or without inbuilt DVD player?
Any particular screen resolution?
Any particular features? eg. netflix, youtube?

I already know that menu controls for some higher priced TVs are awful. A good “electronic program guide” would be a big help.

Ideally, a “mute” button that doesn’t leave a large icon on the screen (if it’s muted, I don’t need a far-kin visual reminder to tell me) and a mute that doesn’t stop subtitles for the hard of hearing.

Ideally, a TV that lets me easily delete all the shopping network channels permanently (not popping up again every fortnight or so).

I know one LED TV that leaves ghosts of past images all over the screen. I don’t want that.

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

I did. Twice. The TV room used to be a verandah, before the previous owners bricked it in, it’s not very wide.

Possibly get a used one?

Nah, get new, it won’t be big and TVs are cheap.

Yeah, and get a coloured one.

but they only come in black. though of course i am no expert on tvs

AwesomeO said:

That’s less than four foot in the old scale. Unless I seriously have the wrong end of the stick, you watch the TV with it less than four foot in front of you?

Forget the TV. Get a VR headset.

Virtual screen size 100ft (or whatever I want, actually) , real distance from eyes about 1.5 inches, virtual distance whatever I want, 3D, environment is a virtual cinema or watch sitting on the surface of a virtual Moon or in the virtual depths of hell or whatever I want….

Get with the times you old fogeys!!!

(Please note, I’m not actually advising you forget the TV and get a VR headset… they’re great, but also kind of suck at the moment. Need more development).

I’ll not buy a VR headset until Boris has declared them passe.

Arts said:

just go to a place or two and see what they try to sell you.

I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a non ‘smart’ TV these days… remember not to worry about pic quality.. that is looking at two TV’s comparing, because once you get it home there is no point of comparison and the one you have will look fine.

we recently bought a largish panasonic, but we have much more space in our tv room than you do… it’s fine. Our older Sony is also still fine (moved to the kids playroom)

Good. Will do.

Bubblecar said:

>Outside of those stores?

Try eBay for price comparisons.

I tried that first before starting this thread. It can’t be done. 3,936 results to look through with no way to narrow it down to the size range I want.

Look, I’ll try again. Nothing new under $150 that is bigger than 14”.

• EVOKE 22” Twin Tuner LED TV for $150 made in New Zealand. Evoke televisions are Freeview New Zealand approved and have been through Freeview New Zealand’s rigorous testing. Having both satellite and UHF tuners means that you will be able to tune into New Zealand Freeview without needing an additional set-top box receiver.
• Kogan 19” LED TV & DVD Combo (Series 6 EH6000) $165
• L19G4 Chiq 19” HD LED TV With PVR 12V 3 Yr Warranty $175
• Kogan 24” LED TV & DVD Combo (Series 6 EH6000) $185
• Changhong 24” FHD LED TV – LED24E2000 $198
• AKAI 24” INCH FULL HD LED TV w/ BUILT IN DVD PLAYER/PVR 2 YR WARRANTY BRAND NEW! $200

Very very few for sale on ebay under $200, and only one at that 22” size I’d prefer.

Dang, that New Zealand one is … well …

If you are going to record programs and it uses a stick check where that goes. Mine is badly designed, buried in a hole and in the middle of the back, where a better position would be hanging off the side or better yet the front.

Check out Kogan.

AwesomeO said:

If you are going to record programs and it uses a stick check where that goes. Mine is badly designed, buried in a hole and in the middle of the back, where a better position would be hanging off the side or better yet the front.

get a short extension cord.

Witty Rejoinder said:

I’ll not buy a VR headset until Boris has declared them passe.

Did look at a VR headset once. Wouldn’t buy it.

Now if somebody just had the sense to broadcast a free to air 3-D TV Channel, showing all the old 3-D movies since 1915, with red-blue glasses, then I would be very interested. One that only accepts TV ads made in full 3-D.

JudgeMental said:

AwesomeO said:

If you are going to record programs and it uses a stick check where that goes. Mine is badly designed, buried in a hole and in the middle of the back, where a better position would be hanging off the side or better yet the front.

get a short extension cord.

I ended up doing that. I guess they put it where it is for access to internal gubbins. Still not good.

I bought a 24” 12v el cheapo from Kogan a few years ago, no complaints.
You can play movies on CD or any media on a stick, stick points down.
It’s got a few other bells and whistles as well.
And 24” is not big, to enjoy the viewing experience you need that at the very least.

Witty Rejoinder said:

I’ll not buy a VR headset until Boris has declared them passe.

That’s your choice of course.

They do, however, offer a very unique experience. Not comparable to anything else.

As sad as it may sound to those who haven’t experienced it, watching (or rather, “participating in” would be a better descriptor) the Apollo 11 VR Experience for the first time, 45 minutes of pure amaze-balls, was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Seeing virtual Armstrong take that first step off the landing leg pad, hearing him utter the immortal words “That’s one small step…” as he planted his foot down, moved me to tears… stayed with me for weeks… an affecting experience that I will never forget. It was life affirming… it made me love the human race for once… our capabilities, our achievements… our potential…

Imma go watch it again now.

http://immersivevreducation.com/apollo-11-vr/

Peak Warming Man said:

Check out Kogan.

Add cost of $10 delivery to these. From Kogan website.

• Kogan 19” LED TV & DVD Combo (Series 6 EH6000) $139
• Kogan 24” Full HD LED TV (Series 7 QF7000) $139
• Kogan 24” LED TV & DVD Combo (Series 6 EH6000) $199

Hmm.

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a 24” 12v el cheapo from Kogan a few years ago, no complaints.
You can play movies on CD or any media on a stick, stick points down.
It’s got a few other bells and whistles as well.
And 24” is not big, to enjoy the viewing experience you need that at the very least.

24” ? That’s a mobile phone screen not a TV.

poikilotherm said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a 24” 12v el cheapo from Kogan a few years ago, no complaints.
You can play movies on CD or any media on a stick, stick points down.
It’s got a few other bells and whistles as well.
And 24” is not big, to enjoy the viewing experience you need that at the very least.

24” ? That’s a mobile phone screen not a TV.

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

Peak Warming Man said:

poikilotherm said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a 24” 12v el cheapo from Kogan a few years ago, no complaints.
You can play movies on CD or any media on a stick, stick points down.
It’s got a few other bells and whistles as well.
And 24” is not big, to enjoy the viewing experience you need that at the very least.

24” ? That’s a mobile phone screen not a TV.

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

my TV is 120 inches.

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

poikilotherm said:

24” ? That’s a mobile phone screen not a TV.

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

my TV is 120 inches.

It’s all about the size.

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

poikilotherm said:

24” ? That’s a mobile phone screen not a TV.

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

my TV is 120 inches.

Yeah but you can only watch it from next door.

Peak Warming Man said:

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

my TV is 120 inches.

Yeah but you can only watch it from next door.

The view from up the back.

For that size room, with 4 people watching – I would go for 32 inch

flat screen, 16:9 ratio

Get a Smart TV. Comes with Youtube, ABC iView, SBS on Demand, Netflix, Stan etc… pre-installed.

I’d go for a name brand like Sony or Panasonic. I have had only Sony TVs for the last 10 years or so. I have a big 55 inch i the living room and my older 32 inch in the bedroom. I sit about 2.5m away from the 55 in my living room.

50800 mm

dv said:

50800 mm

You are quite weird.

You can buy a TV as big as a tennis court but there’s still not much worth watching.

Peak Warming Man said:

poikilotherm said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I bought a 24” 12v el cheapo from Kogan a few years ago, no complaints.
You can play movies on CD or any media on a stick, stick points down.
It’s got a few other bells and whistles as well.
And 24” is not big, to enjoy the viewing experience you need that at the very least.

24” ? That’s a mobile phone screen not a TV.

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

Missy objected when I suggested 22”, claiming that it was too large. I disagree, I want something bigger than my present 20” because a 4:9 aspect ratio is worse than a 2:3.

On the other hand, one website suggests to have a TV size equal to one third of the viewing distance. At a viewing distance of 1.2 metres, that’s only a 16” TV.

Moving it back to a viewing distance of 1.6 metres, that’s still only 21”.

Also, a large TV would be distracting, even my current 20” forces me to look at the ads when I want to look away.

party_pants said:

For that size room, with 4 people watching – I would go for 32 inch

flat screen, 16:9 ratio

Get a Smart TV. Comes with Youtube, ABC iView, SBS on Demand, Netflix, Stan etc… pre-installed.

I’d go for a name brand like Sony or Panasonic. I have had only Sony TVs for the last 10 years or so. I have a big 55 inch i the living room and my older 32 inch in the bedroom. I sit about 2.5m away from the 55 in my living room.

I think my present CRT TV is a Sony, which could explain why it’s lasted so long.

> Get a Smart TV. Comes with Youtube, ABC iView, SBS on Demand, Netflix, Stan etc… pre-installed.

How does it connect to the internet? My Wifi in the TV room is a bit flakey, with signal strength sometimes dropping to zero, which is even annoying for normal internet use. The Wifi hub is in the centre of the house, the TV room isn’t. It isn’t far distance-wise but there are three doors in between. That’s essential for blocking out the sound of music students and opera singers in the lounge room when watching TV. Mrs m keeps opening the doors and I have to keep closing them again.

Check web. “Use a wireless repeater to boost your wireless signal strength. Place the repeater halfway between your router and your TV.” Yuk, that would mean putting the wireless repeater in the bathroom, or the toilet. Or upgrade to a more powerful router for an extra $170.

Check Ebay. No Sony new under $450 or smaller than 32”. One second hand Sony 26” for $200. Check Sony website. Smallest is 32” at $700. Second smallest is 43”.

Check Panasonic website. Smallest is 32”. Normal TV at 32” is $450. Smart TV at 32” is $600.

Although they havent got the best rep, I bought a 52” Vivo about 2008/9 and its been pretty good so far, I got it for $299 as an exdemonstrator minus box and leads (just took a standard computer power cord anyways) and saved 50%- bargain (or those leads are $$$ lol)

Thing is its in my van, and when I lay the recliner down, I can just reach the tv stand with my feet
I love it, its like having your own IMAX theater at home…

Having a close TV doesn’t mean you HAVE to go small…

I saw a Philips Ambilight IRL a few weeks ago. Weird enough to be interesting.

Rule 303 said:

I saw a Philips Ambilight IRL a few weeks ago. Weird enough to be interesting.

I suspect that would get old pretty fast…

mollwollfumble said:

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

All you need is a replacement remote and a set of headphones for Missy.

LOL at boppa, rule 303 and fsm. Interesting ideas.

Get a good projector box. You can make the screen as large or as small as you like then.

fsm said:

mollwollfumble said:

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

All you need is a replacement remote and a set of headphones for Missy.

Good thinking, 99.

Michael V said:

fsm said:

mollwollfumble said:

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

All you need is a replacement remote and a set of headphones for Missy.

Good thinking, 99.

Get cordless headphones. They are a lot less trouble.

Tamb said:

Michael V said:

fsm said:

All you need is a replacement remote and a set of headphones for Missy.

Good thinking, 99.

Get cordless headphones. They are a lot less trouble.

I’ve never yet found noise-cancelling headphones that are cordless.

By the way. There are still advantages in sticking to 2:3 ratio.

• A 2:3 ratio 20” set is higher than a 4:9 ratio 24” set, 31cm high as against 29.5cm high.
• One reason for keeping 2:3 ratio is that more than half of the TV that I like is still broadcast in 2:3 ratio. Including Star Trek, Diagnosis Murder, Midsummer Murders, New Tricks, Father Brown, Foyle’s War, old British comedies (eg. Good Life and Are You being Served) a few other TV series and many old movies.
• But the number one reason for retaining 2:3 format is that it amputates both ends of ads, which makes them more palatable to watch.

Now walked around all the local shops.

5 different brands of 24” TV sets. HiSense, AKAI, Palsonic, TEAC and Polaroid.

JB Hifi lies on their website, which says they don’t have anything smaller than 32”. In fact they have 4 different models, 3 different brands.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Check out Kogan.

I bought a 24” 12v el cheapo from Kogan a few years ago, no complaints.
You can play movies on CD or any media on a stick, stick points down.
It’s got a few other bells and whistles as well.
And 24” is not big, to enjoy the viewing experience you need that at the very least.

Add cost of $10 delivery to these. From Kogan website.

• Kogan 19” LED TV & DVD Combo (Series 6 EH6000) $139
• Kogan 24” Full HD LED TV (Series 7 QF7000) $139
• Kogan 24” LED TV & DVD Combo (Series 6 EH6000) $199

Hmm.

Don’t see anything on the shelves better than Kogan, though all three of Platinum, Palsonic and Polaroid can match it for price.

So Kogan it is. Thanks all.

mollwollfumble said:

I’ve never yet found noise-cancelling headphones that are cordless.

You don’t need noise-cancelling headphones. The headphones deliver audio from the tv and so prevent the wearer from hearing the high pitched sound coming from the crt.

mollwollfumble said:

Tamb said:

Michael V said:

I’ve never yet found noise-cancelling headphones that are cordless.

By the way. There are still advantages in sticking to 2:3 ratio.

• A 2:3 ratio 20” set is higher than a 4:9 ratio 24” set, 31cm high as against 29.5cm high.
• One reason for keeping 2:3 ratio is that more than half of the TV that I like is still broadcast in 2:3 ratio. Including Star Trek, Diagnosis Murder, Midsummer Murders, New Tricks, Father Brown, Foyle’s War, old British comedies (eg. Good Life and Are You being Served) a few other TV series and many old movies.
• But the number one reason for retaining 2:3 format is that it amputates both ends of ads, which makes them more palatable to watch.

You might want to check your numbers. There has never been a TV with an aspect ratio of 2:3. The early ones (until about 1998) were 4:3; since then they’ve (mostly) been 16:9. Early films and TV were also 4:3. When TV started taking audiences from cinemas, films were expanded to widescreen (with 5:3, 16:9, 2.2:1, and 2.35:1 the main new aspect ratios.)

I am a little perplexed. Is buying a TV really this hard? go to a couple of stores, take your budget and your preferred size and pick the one that best fits both of those things…

a new TV is probably not going to last 20 years like the big box ones might and tech will change anyway..

btm said:

mollwollfumble said:

I’ve never yet found noise-cancelling headphones that are cordless.

By the way. There are still advantages in sticking to 2:3 ratio.

• A 2:3 ratio 20” set is higher than a 4:9 ratio 24” set, 31cm high as against 29.5cm high.
• One reason for keeping 2:3 ratio is that more than half of the TV that I like is still broadcast in 2:3 ratio. Including Star Trek, Diagnosis Murder, Midsummer Murders, New Tricks, Father Brown, Foyle’s War, old British comedies (eg. Good Life and Are You being Served) a few other TV series and many old movies.
• But the number one reason for retaining 2:3 format is that it amputates both ends of ads, which makes them more palatable to watch.

You might want to check your numbers. There has never been a TV with an aspect ratio of 2:3. The early ones (until about 1998) were 4:3; since then they’ve (mostly) been 16:9. Early films and TV were also 4:3. When TV started taking audiences from cinemas, films were expanded to widescreen (with 5:3, 16:9, 2.2:1, and 2.35:1 the main new aspect ratios.)

Somehow stuffed up not only the quoting, but also the film ratio 16:9, which was actually closer to 37:20 (most European films were shot in this ratio.) Modern TVs are 16:9, though.

btm said:

You might want to check your numbers. There has never been a TV with an aspect ratio of 2:3. The early ones (until about 1998) were 4:3; since then they’ve (mostly) been 16:9. Early films and TV were also 4:3. When TV started taking audiences from cinemas, films were expanded to widescreen (with 5:3, 16:9, 2.2:1, and 2.35:1 the main new aspect ratios.)

Ahhh! Crash and burn. Just when I was starting to sound intelligent.

Arts said:

I am a little perplexed. Is buying a TV really this hard? go to a couple of stores, take your budget and your preferred size and pick the one that best fits both of those things…

a new TV is probably not going to last 20 years like the big box ones might and tech will change anyway..

It’s what we do.

Peak Warming Man said:

Arts said:

I am a little perplexed. Is buying a TV really this hard? go to a couple of stores, take your budget and your preferred size and pick the one that best fits both of those things…

a new TV is probably not going to last 20 years like the big box ones might and tech will change anyway..

It’s what we do.

well it’s better than talking about politics I suppose

Church of the Jack Lord, starring Dan Ackroyd. Contains the immortal line “The Jack Lord helped me kick valium.”

We picked up a new TV with borked ‘smart’ firmware (everything else works fine, and we have no need for the ‘smart’ functions anyway) half price, as a factory second from a mob called Save Appliances at Factory 1/31 Scoresby Rd, Bayswater. I found the ad on Facebook Marketplace.

Very good to deal with, happy to recommend, but make sure you pull the TV out of the box and check it carefully before buying. ‘Factory second’ can mean a wide range of problems.

Arts said:

I am a little perplexed. Is buying a TV really this hard? go to a couple of stores, take your budget and your preferred size and pick the one that best fits both of those things…

a new TV is probably not going to last 20 years like the big box ones might and tech will change anyway..

Buying a TV is the third hardest purchase there is, isn’t it? After buying a house and buying a car.

Some TVs these days cost more than $15,000. It used to be that you could get a two storey house for that.

Our present TV did last 20 years, which is longer than the car (so far) and longer than many people spend in one house. My father in law still has two TV sets that are probably still working and date back to about the 1960s.

Television sets were a hefty investment in the 1950s-60s. Probably most were sold on hire purchase plans.

Bubblecar said:

Television sets were a hefty investment in the 1950s-60s. Probably most were sold on hire purchase plans.

And you needed a licence.

mollwollfumble said:

Arts said:

I am a little perplexed. Is buying a TV really this hard? go to a couple of stores, take your budget and your preferred size and pick the one that best fits both of those things…

a new TV is probably not going to last 20 years like the big box ones might and tech will change anyway..

Buying a TV is the third hardest purchase there is, isn’t it? After buying a house and buying a car.

Some TVs these days cost more than $15,000. It used to be that you could get a two storey house for that.

Our present TV did last 20 years, which is longer than the car (so far) and longer than many people spend in one house. My father in law still has two TV sets that are probably still working and date back to about the 1960s.

Well actually, some TVs cost up to $2.25 million dollars. Or if you want one without diamonds, $1.6 million dollars. Or if you want bleeding edge technology $2,500 for an 11” screen.

https://www.whathifi.com/features/10-worlds-most-expensive-tvs

This set cost about 19 weeks of average wage in 1957:

mollwollfumble said:

Arts said:

I am a little perplexed. Is buying a TV really this hard? go to a couple of stores, take your budget and your preferred size and pick the one that best fits both of those things…

a new TV is probably not going to last 20 years like the big box ones might and tech will change anyway..

Buying a TV is the third hardest purchase there is, isn’t it?

no

Here’s a good telly that you can also use as a substitute for a drive-in. 86” or 2.18 metres.

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

Woodie said:

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

Will it be on TV?

Woodie said:

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

No, you can fucking wait and serve it with dinner like a civilised person.

Woodie said:

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

… while watching TV.

Woodie said:

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

You are free to quaff at will.

Woodie said:

Woodie said:

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

… while watching TV.

Good save.

Woodie said:

Is it permissible, yet non-conformist, to partake in a vessel of Wolf Blass Cab Sav 2012 prior… yes prior to placing a butterflied lamb shoulder, potato and pumpkin in a moderate oven for 2 hours?

Of course.

TV prices should increase quadratically with screen size, yes?
Or less, because the guts controlling the operation stay mostly the same at different sizes. Or a bit more but less than the cube of the size because the thickness increases a bit.

Wrong. TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices should increase quadratically with screen size, yes?
Or less, because the guts controlling the operation stay mostly the same at different sizes. Or a bit more but less than the cube of the size because the thickness increases a bit.

Wrong. TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

Spiny Norman said:

Here’s a good telly that you can also use as a substitute for a drive-in. 86” or 2.18 metres.

Yes, well spotted. The 86” one on that graph is the LG.
The bigger ones are from Sharp, HiSense and Feilongus. Not in normal stores, I found them on Amazon.

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Mine’s a 40” AKAI bought from the local Woolworth supermarket on super-special. It’s fine.

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Imagine the kerfuffle when he bought the baby grand piano.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Imagine the kerfuffle when he bought the baby grand piano.

Shhh. It keeps him amused. Who knows what would happen otherwise…

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Of course. But an 86” screen is only 3.6 times as large in linear dimension as a 24” screen.

So why is it thirty seven times as expensive?

OK, possibly because 3.6^3 = 46 > 37.

I wonder how much the screens for sports stadiums cost? Ah, I see, these screens have big pixel sizes; for one screen supplier, pixel sizes can be 6, 10, 16 or 20 mm across. So a 1080p screen would have a size of, well, you can calculate it, 520” to 1735”.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Imagine the kerfuffle when he bought the baby grand piano.

Real grand not baby grand. Yes, there was a big kerfuffle. I visited more than half of all the piano stores in Melbourne, and I’m not at all happy with what we ended up with.

The task wasn’t too difficult because, unlike TVs, the number of grand piano models available was extremely limited and because quality can be ascertained in a couple of minutes.

It’s just that the grand piano I most liked (top of the range Steinway) was way way out of our price range. And the one we selected (second from the top of the Kawai range) sounded so much better in the sales office than in our home that I’m positive that they used a “bait and switch” on us.

But back to TVs. Our last TV (Sanyo) survived 20 years. The one before (Aldi) died permanently after 13 months. Quality matters, and you can’t tell TV quality just by looking at it.

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

TV prices increase faster than exponentially with size. I wonder if there’s some price gouging going on.

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

I agree

mollwollfumble said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Rule 303 said:

You might be over-thinking this purchase, Moll.

Imagine the kerfuffle when he bought the baby grand piano.

Real grand not baby grand. Yes, there was a big kerfuffle. I visited more than half of all the piano stores in Melbourne, and I’m not at all happy with what we ended up with.

The task wasn’t too difficult because, unlike TVs, the number of grand piano models available was extremely limited and because quality can be ascertained in a couple of minutes.

It’s just that the grand piano I most liked (top of the range Steinway) was way way out of our price range. And the one we selected (second from the top of the Kawai range) sounded so much better in the sales office than in our home that I’m positive that they used a “bait and switch” on us.

glass half empty kind of guy, eh?

mollwollfumble said:

But back to TVs. Our last TV (Sanyo) survived 20 years. The one before (Aldi) died permanently after 13 months. Quality matters, and you can’t tell TV quality just by looking at it.

Did you attempt a warranty claim on the Aldi TV?

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

But back to TVs. Our last TV (Sanyo) survived 20 years. The one before (Aldi) died permanently after 13 months. Quality matters, and you can’t tell TV quality just by looking at it.

Did you attempt a warranty claim on the Aldi TV?

yep, fair use clause.

• Pre-digital so separate desk top box.

If you have no need for a smart tv and that set top is satisfactory, and has hdmi out, then you can just use a computer monitor…

Arts said:

mollwollfumble said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Imagine the kerfuffle when he bought the baby grand piano.

Real grand not baby grand. Yes, there was a big kerfuffle. I visited more than half of all the piano stores in Melbourne, and I’m not at all happy with what we ended up with.

The task wasn’t too difficult because, unlike TVs, the number of grand piano models available was extremely limited and because quality can be ascertained in a couple of minutes.

It’s just that the grand piano I most liked (top of the range Steinway) was way way out of our price range. And the one we selected (second from the top of the Kawai range) sounded so much better in the sales office than in our home that I’m positive that they used a “bait and switch” on us.

glass half empty kind of guy, eh?

I’m a “glass is twice as big as it ought to be” kind of guy. If the glass is too big – I want a smaller glass. If the TV is too big – I want a smaller TV.

You don’t want to ask me about the kerfuffle that ended up with me buying a Chery brand automobile, do you?

JudgeMental said:

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

But back to TVs. Our last TV (Sanyo) survived 20 years. The one before (Aldi) died permanently after 13 months. Quality matters, and you can’t tell TV quality just by looking at it.

Did you attempt a warranty claim on the Aldi TV?

yep, fair use clause.

Yes. 12 month warranty. Also took it to a repairer, repairer took one look at it and said – I’m not touching it, buy another.

furious said:

• Pre-digital so separate desk top box.

If you have no need for a smart tv and that set top is satisfactory, and has hdmi out, then you can just use a computer monitor…

Yes and no. Depends on the connectors. I tried that once but couldn’t find matching pair with the same connectors, I ended up needing to search for a special adaptor. That was just for the picture, I then had to go searching for a pair of computer speakers to get any sound, plus adaptors and cords for that. Not worth the effort.

• Yes and no. Depends on the connectors. I tried that once but couldn’t find matching pair with the same connectors, I ended up needing to search for a special adaptor. That was just for the picture, I then had to go searching for a pair of computer speakers to get any sound, plus adaptors and cords for that. Not worth the effort.

When my last tv died, before i got around to getting a new one i used a monitor. No messing about, just hdmi. Though the monitor had no speakers i did have a reciever already in place. Some monitors come with built in speakers too…

party_pants said:

furious said:

• Pre-digital so separate desk top box.

If you have no need for a smart tv and that set top is satisfactory, and has hdmi out, then you can just use a computer monitor…

Yes and no. Depends on the connectors. I tried that once but couldn’t find matching pair with the same connectors, I ended up needing to search for a special adaptor. That was just for the picture, I then had to go searching for a pair of computer speakers to get any sound, plus adaptors and cords for that. Not worth the effort.

Could I do that? Really. I’ll try that. I have a second set top box in the garage, possibly a third set top box somewhere.

That would give me a second TV in the house. (Don’t ask me about the TV in the garage, I used to have four CRT TVs here, lying around).

furious said:

• Yes and no. Depends on the connectors. I tried that once but couldn’t find matching pair with the same connectors, I ended up needing to search for a special adaptor. That was just for the picture, I then had to go searching for a pair of computer speakers to get any sound, plus adaptors and cords for that. Not worth the effort.

When my last tv died, before i got around to getting a new one i used a monitor. No messing about, just hdmi. Though the monitor had no speakers i did have a reciever already in place. Some monitors come with built in speakers too…

Who needs a speaker when you have subtitles?

mollwollfumble said:

furious said:

• Yes and no. Depends on the connectors. I tried that once but couldn’t find matching pair with the same connectors, I ended up needing to search for a special adaptor. That was just for the picture, I then had to go searching for a pair of computer speakers to get any sound, plus adaptors and cords for that. Not worth the effort.

When my last tv died, before i got around to getting a new one i used a monitor. No messing about, just hdmi. Though the monitor had no speakers i did have a reciever already in place. Some monitors come with built in speakers too…

Who needs a speaker when you have subtitles?

Exactly, although The Sound of Music is not quite the same with just subtitles, still………..

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

furious said:

• Pre-digital so separate desk top box.

If you have no need for a smart tv and that set top is satisfactory, and has hdmi out, then you can just use a computer monitor…

Yes and no. Depends on the connectors. I tried that once but couldn’t find matching pair with the same connectors, I ended up needing to search for a special adaptor. That was just for the picture, I then had to go searching for a pair of computer speakers to get any sound, plus adaptors and cords for that. Not worth the effort.

Could I do that? Really. I’ll try that. I have a second set top box in the garage, possibly a third set top box somewhere.

That would give me a second TV in the house. (Don’t ask me about the TV in the garage, I used to have four CRT TVs here, lying around).

Give it a go, if you’ve got the parts lying around.

My cheap-arse monitor had no HDMI connectors, only the blue and white monitor connectors. I had to get a VGA to HDMI adaptor. Was hard to find, had to order online and wait a week etc.

> It’s just that the grand piano I most liked (top of the range Steinway) was way way out of our price range. And the one we selected (second from the top of the Kawai range) sounded so much better in the sales office than in our home that I’m positive that they used a “bait and switch” on us.

Yeah. The Steinway I liked was $120,000. We ended up paying $23,000 for the Kawai. It’s annoying when price is an accurate reflection of quality ;-(
The Steinway was a whisker smaller in size.

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. 12 month warranty. Also took it to a repairer, repairer took one look at it and said – I’m not touching it, buy another.

Consumer Guarantees under Australian law.

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. 12 month warranty. Also took it to a repairer, repairer took one look at it and said – I’m not touching it, buy another.

Consumer Guarantees under Australian law.

Didn’t know that.

> Since 1 January 2011

This failed 20 years ago.

mollwollfumble said:

Rule 303 said:

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. 12 month warranty. Also took it to a repairer, repairer took one look at it and said – I’m not touching it, buy another.

Consumer Guarantees under Australian law.

Didn’t know that.

> Since 1 January 2011

This failed 20 years ago.

My memory is that these are a watered-down version of the laws they replaced.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

poikilotherm said:

I know, it was for the redoubt.
And I’m trying to tell Moll that 24” IS A FUCKING SMALL TV.

Missy objected when I suggested 22”, claiming that it was too large. I disagree, I want something bigger than my present 20” because a 4:9 aspect ratio is worse than a 2:3.

On the other hand, one website suggests to have a TV size equal to one third of the viewing distance. At a viewing distance of 1.2 metres, that’s only a 16” TV.

Moving it back to a viewing distance of 1.6 metres, that’s still only 21”.

Also, a large TV would be distracting, even my current 20” forces me to look at the ads when I want to look away.

party_pants said:

For that size room, with 4 people watching – I would go for 32 inch

flat screen, 16:9 ratio

Get a Smart TV. Comes with Youtube, ABC iView, SBS on Demand, Netflix, Stan etc… pre-installed.

I’d go for a name brand like Sony or Panasonic. I have had only Sony TVs for the last 10 years or so. I have a big 55 inch i the living room and my older 32 inch in the bedroom. I sit about 2.5m away from the 55 in my living room.

I think my present CRT TV is a Sony, which could explain why it’s lasted so long.

> Get a Smart TV. Comes with Youtube, ABC iView, SBS on Demand, Netflix, Stan etc… pre-installed.

How does it connect to the internet? My Wifi in the TV room is a bit flakey, with signal strength sometimes dropping to zero, which is even annoying for normal internet use. The Wifi hub is in the centre of the house, the TV room isn’t. It isn’t far distance-wise but there are three doors in between. That’s essential for blocking out the sound of music students and opera singers in the lounge room when watching TV. Mrs m keeps opening the doors and I have to keep closing them again.

Check web. “Use a wireless repeater to boost your wireless signal strength. Place the repeater halfway between your router and your TV.” Yuk, that would mean putting the wireless repeater in the bathroom, or the toilet. Or upgrade to a more powerful router for an extra $170.

Connectsto the internet in the usual way. Mine has wi-fi or ethernet cable. At the moment I use the ethernet cable because that was built in when the house was constructed.

party_pants said:

Connects to the internet in the usual way. Mine has wi-fi or ethernet cable. At the moment I use the ethernet cable because that was built in when the house was constructed.

What house has inbuilt ethernet?

Not a bad idea though. Wi-fi has pissweak range.

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Connects to the internet in the usual way. Mine has wi-fi or ethernet cable. At the moment I use the ethernet cable because that was built in when the house was constructed.

What house has inbuilt ethernet?

Not a bad idea though. Wi-fi has pissweak range.

Some new houses do have LAN outlets built-in, but wi-fi is still pretty good for the majority of houses. I’ve been using it here for many years and the range is never a problem. That being said, I’ve run LAN cables up into the roof from the router then down to the pc’s but only because the media player box under the telly requires it and with the version of the software it used (LibreElec) connecting to this pc (the media server) it’s very fussy (though it’s Windows fault) and getting a reliable connection by wi-fi is too difficult. So by cable it is. It did work for years just fine on wi-fi though; recent-ish updates to W10 screw it up nearly every time.
With my wi-fi on the router, I have it set so the identification of the broadcast is hidden, so to join you have to know what the name of the network is beforehand, and also the password of course. That makes it more difficult for anyone to connect to it.

Spiny Norman said:

With my wi-fi on the router, I have it set so the identification of the broadcast is hidden, so to join you have to know what the name of the network is beforehand, and also the password of course. That makes it more difficult for anyone to connect to it.

It definitely makes it more difficult to connect, but it doesn’t really improve security. If you’ve got a strong password, the network is secure.

There are negative privacy implications too, because your devices need to continuously broadcast the network name any time they’re not connected to it, instead of just passively listening for the broadcasts from the router. You can turn off wifi on your phone when you leave the house of course, but that’s just annoying.

cb88 said:

You can turn off wifi on your phone when you leave the house of course, but that’s just annoying.

I only very rarely have my phone’s wi-fi on anyway, so that isn’t important for me. The laptops do use it though.

When shopping for a new tv make sure that you consider pixel pitch, black level, high dynamic range, etc.

Don’t forget to compare QLED to OLED to MicroLED to LED LCD.

Look at HD or UHD or 4K models (with v2.0 HDMI).

Make sure that you take into account refresh rate – 60Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz or HFR.

Check there are enough HDMI ports to accommodate your other devices.

Flat screen, curved screen, 3D.

If you require a smart device make sure that it has the apps that you need installed.

Most modern tvs have crap audio so you might consider adding a sound bar. Stereo, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1, wired, wireless, bluetooth sub, etc.

Avoid any extended warranties or gold plated cables that the sales person may push at you.

If you have crap wi-fi and you don’t want to move your modem or run ethernet cables all over the house then consider Ethernet over Power. You simply plug an EoP device into a power point near the modem and another near the tv.

If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like. There is very little reason to watch the barrage of advertising on free to air television these days.

It might not be advantageous to spend more on a ‘quality’ brand with the intention of keeping it for many years. At the current speed of technological change it is probably a good idea to plan on upgrading your tv every three or four years.

>If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like.

…unless your NBN is as painfully slow as mine usually is.

Bubblecar said:

>If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like.

…unless your NBN is as painfully slow as mine usually is.

Have you found out why it’s like that yet?

Michael V said:

Bubblecar said:

>If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like.

…unless your NBN is as painfully slow as mine usually is.

Have you found out why it’s like that yet?

Haven’t bothered. I just assume it’s because I’m further from the node in this house.

Michael V said:

Bubblecar said:

>If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like.

…unless your NBN is as painfully slow as mine usually is.

Have you found out why it’s like that yet?

I’m on a non NBN satellite connection here and we download movies and netflix all day long without an issue.

sibeen said:

Michael V said:

Bubblecar said:

>If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like.

…unless your NBN is as painfully slow as mine usually is.

Have you found out why it’s like that yet?

I’m on a non NBN satellite connection here and we download movies and netflix all day long without an issue.

Who is that through? Speeds, cost and quota?

fsm said:

When shopping for a new tv make sure that you consider pixel pitch, black level, high dynamic range, etc.

Don’t forget to compare QLED to OLED to MicroLED to LED LCD.

Look at HD or UHD or 4K models (with v2.0 HDMI).

Make sure that you take into account refresh rate – 60Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz or HFR.

Check there are enough HDMI ports to accommodate your other devices.

Flat screen, curved screen, 3D.

If you require a smart device make sure that it has the apps that you need installed.

Most modern tvs have crap audio so you might consider adding a sound bar. Stereo, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1, wired, wireless, bluetooth sub, etc.

Avoid any extended warranties or gold plated cables that the sales person may push at you.

If you have crap wi-fi and you don’t want to move your modem or run ethernet cables all over the house then consider Ethernet over Power. You simply plug an EoP device into a power point near the modem and another near the tv.

If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like. There is very little reason to watch the barrage of advertising on free to air television these days.

It might not be advantageous to spend more on a ‘quality’ brand with the intention of keeping it for many years. At the current speed of technological change it is probably a good idea to plan on upgrading your tv every three or four years.

You seem to have covered about everything there.

Don’t agree with the last paragraph however. We had a dying JVC from the late 70s which had worked brilliantly for all those years. It needed upgrading around 2000 when flat screens where obviously the coming thing but were expensive.

We decided to get a stopgap, really enormous, really heavy Sanyo CRT.. biggest heap of crap ever.. spent lots of time at the repair place.

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Connects to the internet in the usual way. Mine has wi-fi or ethernet cable. At the moment I use the ethernet cable because that was built in when the house was constructed.

What house has inbuilt ethernet?

Not a bad idea though. Wi-fi has pissweak range.

Mine does :)

The NBN connections and wi-fi modem live in a wardrobe. There is an ethernet connection socket and a telephone socket next to them. The ethernet one is connected to the ethernet outlet on the living room wall right near the power socket – which is directly behind where the TV sits. Modem plugs into ethernet socket in wardrobe end, TV plugs in at living room end.

fsm said:

When shopping for a new tv make sure that you consider pixel pitch, black level, high dynamic range, etc.

Don’t forget to compare QLED to OLED to MicroLED to LED LCD.

Look at HD or UHD or 4K models (with v2.0 HDMI).

Make sure that you take into account refresh rate – 60Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz or HFR.

Check there are enough HDMI ports to accommodate your other devices.

Flat screen, curved screen, 3D.

If you require a smart device make sure that it has the apps that you need installed.

Most modern tvs have crap audio so you might consider adding a sound bar. Stereo, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1, wired, wireless, bluetooth sub, etc.

Avoid any extended warranties or gold plated cables that the sales person may push at you.

If you have crap wi-fi and you don’t want to move your modem or run ethernet cables all over the house then consider Ethernet over Power. You simply plug an EoP device into a power point near the modem and another near the tv.

If you get a smart tv and you have NBN then you can basically watch whatever you like whenever you like. There is very little reason to watch the barrage of advertising on free to air television these days.

It might not be advantageous to spend more on a ‘quality’ brand with the intention of keeping it for many years. At the current speed of technological change it is probably a good idea to plan on upgrading your tv every three or four years.

I don’t know what half of those things mean. But few of those really matter – they are just what the salesmen and tech-heads claim matters. Not what really matters.

What really matters is how obnoxious the “mute symbol” is (don’t want one), how good the info is (some TVs don’t show the program following the current one), the EPG is (some TVs truncate the EPG message) and subtitles are (don’t disappear when on mute, not too big, don’t leave lines hanging, and at the very bottom of the screen), and find out whether navigating the remote is worse than escaping from the Minotaur. And accuracy of clock when accessing the info and EPG screens (some TVs regularly display the program title for the wrong day and wrong time). What also matters is that no TV station can change your settings without your permission (adding new channels or changing the channel numbers).

That’s what really matters. Not such insignificant minutiae as black level.

One further comment. I agree not to get extended warranty. But unless the salesman offers you the option of an extended warranty don’t buy the TV. If there’s no extended warranty option then it’s designed to fail fast.

One further comment. I agree not to get extended warranty. But unless the salesman offers you the option of an extended warranty don’t buy the TV. If there’s no extended warranty option then it’s designed to fail fast.

———————————-

Extended warranty works like an insurance policy. You can get it on (almost) anything.

Michael V said:

One further comment. I agree not to get extended warranty. But unless the salesman offers you the option of an extended warranty don’t buy the TV. If there’s no extended warranty option then it’s designed to fail fast.

———————————-

Extended warranty works like an insurance policy. You can get it on (almost) anything.

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

mollwollfumble said:

What really matters is how obnoxious the “mute symbol” is (don’t want one), how good the info is (some TVs don’t show the program following the current one), the EPG is (some TVs truncate the EPG message) and subtitles are (don’t disappear when on mute, not too big, don’t leave lines hanging, and at the very bottom of the screen), and find out whether navigating the remote is worse than escaping from the Minotaur. And accuracy of clock when accessing the info and EPG screens (some TVs regularly display the program title for the wrong day and wrong time). What also matters is that no TV station can change your settings without your permission (adding new channels or changing the channel numbers).

You buy a smart tv. You plug it into the internet. You stream anything that you want to watch: movies, news, documentaries, anything – whenever you want.

You don’t need an EPG. You don’t need tv channels.

There are free streaming services like ABC Iview, SBS On Demand, etc. Then there are subscription services like Netflix, Stan and many others. This is the way of the modern television.

fsm said:

mollwollfumble said:

What really matters is how obnoxious the “mute symbol” is (don’t want one), how good the info is (some TVs don’t show the program following the current one), the EPG is (some TVs truncate the EPG message) and subtitles are (don’t disappear when on mute, not too big, don’t leave lines hanging, and at the very bottom of the screen), and find out whether navigating the remote is worse than escaping from the Minotaur. And accuracy of clock when accessing the info and EPG screens (some TVs regularly display the program title for the wrong day and wrong time). What also matters is that no TV station can change your settings without your permission (adding new channels or changing the channel numbers).

You buy a smart tv. You plug it into the internet. You stream anything that you want to watch: movies, news, documentaries, anything – whenever you want.

You don’t need an EPG. You don’t need tv channels.

There are free streaming services like ABC Iview, SBS On Demand, etc. Then there are subscription services like Netflix, Stan and many others. This is the way of the modern television.

This.

Now that I have a smart TV this is how my viewing patterns have changed. I rarely watch anything on free-to-air TV at the scheduled program time, except for live sports events. Pretty much the rest of it I just go to ABC iView or SBS on Demand and have a bit of a browse to see what mew programs have been added that I haven’t watched yet.

Lunch-:
Toast, buttered then liberally spread with Peck’s Anchovy Paste.
Washed down with a mug of tea (black & 1)

I rarely watch TV of any sort.
I prefer the wireless as my media conduit of choice, it’s the way of the future.

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

One further comment. I agree not to get extended warranty. But unless the salesman offers you the option of an extended warranty don’t buy the TV. If there’s no extended warranty option then it’s designed to fail fast.

———————————-

Extended warranty works like an insurance policy. You can get it on (almost) anything.

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

This.

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

One further comment. I agree not to get extended warranty. But unless the salesman offers you the option of an extended warranty don’t buy the TV. If there’s no extended warranty option then it’s designed to fail fast.

———————————-

Extended warranty works like an insurance policy. You can get it on (almost) anything.

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

This.

So you can get something fixed at no cost if it fails after 18 months without an extended warranty can you?

The Rev Dodgson said:

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

This.

So you can get something fixed at no cost if it fails after 18 months without an extended warranty can you?

usually you get charged for return expenses etc. but extended warranties usually just cover what consumer law already covers except you pay for it.

The best thing to do is simply ask the sales person whether or not you need the extended warranty and if it’s covered by common law.
If they don’t know their supervisor will be able to sort it out and tell you what’s best for your personal circumstances.

The Rev Dodgson said:

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

This.

So you can get something fixed at no cost if it fails after 18 months without an extended warranty can you?

Yes.

Most retailers have a sales goal to upsell the most extended warranties.

fsm said:

You buy a smart tv. You plug it into the internet. You stream anything that you want to watch: movies, news, documentaries, anything – whenever you want.

You don’t need an EPG. You don’t need tv channels.

There are free streaming services like ABC Iview, SBS On Demand, etc. Then there are subscription services like Netflix, Stan and many others. This is the way of the modern television.

Peak Warming Man said:

I rarely watch TV of any sort.
I prefer the wireless as my media conduit of choice, it’s the way of the future.

I love it when opposites agree. In this case:

jsm – you don’t need TV because you stream everything.
PWM – you don’t need TV because you listen to radio.

How about I go more extreme:

mwf – you don’t need TV because you play the piano.

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

One further comment. I agree not to get extended warranty. But unless the salesman offers you the option of an extended warranty don’t buy the TV. If there’s no extended warranty option then it’s designed to fail fast.

———————————-

Extended warranty works like an insurance policy. You can get it on (almost) anything.

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

This.

But what protects you from lawyers?

mollwollfumble said:

fsm said:

You buy a smart tv. You plug it into the internet. You stream anything that you want to watch: movies, news, documentaries, anything – whenever you want.

You don’t need an EPG. You don’t need tv channels.

There are free streaming services like ABC Iview, SBS On Demand, etc. Then there are subscription services like Netflix, Stan and many others. This is the way of the modern television.

Peak Warming Man said:

I rarely watch TV of any sort.
I prefer the wireless as my media conduit of choice, it’s the way of the future.

I love it when opposites agree. In this case:

jsm – you don’t need TV because you stream everything.
PWM – you don’t need TV because you listen to radio.

How about I go more extreme:

mwf – you don’t need TV because you play the piano.

I don’t need a TV because the voices in my head provide me with all the entertainment I’ll ever need.

mollwollfumble said:

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

and mostly it is a con. consumer law already protects you.

This.

But what protects you from lawyers?

didn’t realise one needed protection from them.

i use the internet for all my programs. there is nothing on fta that can’t get via the web. plus i don’t get adverts.

Tamb said:

mollwollfumble said:

fsm said:

You buy a smart tv. You plug it into the internet. You stream anything that you want to watch: movies, news, documentaries, anything – whenever you want.

You don’t need an EPG. You don’t need tv channels.

There are free streaming services like ABC Iview, SBS On Demand, etc. Then there are subscription services like Netflix, Stan and many others. This is the way of the modern television.

Peak Warming Man said:

I rarely watch TV of any sort.
I prefer the wireless as my media conduit of choice, it’s the way of the future.

I love it when opposites agree. In this case:

jsm – you don’t need TV because you stream everything.
PWM – you don’t need TV because you listen to radio.

How about I go more extreme:

mwf – you don’t need TV because you play the piano.

I don’t need a TV because the voices in my head provide me with all the entertainment I’ll ever need.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

:)

JudgeMental said:

i use the internet for all my programs. there is nothing on fta that can’t get via the web. plus i don’t get adverts.

What’s your secret?

Or to out it another way, I was under the impression that most of fta was not on the web, and that what was there is full of ads?

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

And their websites have heaps of shows they don’t show on tv. 9Now have recently released the first 5 seasons of ER on their website so I’m happy.

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

JudgeMental said:

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

Which ad blocker do you recommend, Boris?

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

Which ad blocker do you recommend, Boris?

. clicks pen .

…

I like ads. I like to notice little things about them. For instance, I dunno what the ad is about but it features a woman at a table with a toddler in a high chair and the toddler is talking. She does some dance moves with her arms whilst still sitting. Check out her face and expressions. She has to be the sister of Wayne Hope from Very Small Business.

AwesomeO said:

I like ads. I like to notice little things about them. For instance, I dunno what the ad is about but it features a woman at a table with a toddler in a high chair and the toddler is talking. She does some dance moves with her arms whilst still sitting. Check out her face and expressions. She has to be the sister of Wayne Hope from Very Small Business.

blank stare

party_pants said:

AwesomeO said:

I like ads. I like to notice little things about them. For instance, I dunno what the ad is about but it features a woman at a table with a toddler in a high chair and the toddler is talking. She does some dance moves with her arms whilst still sitting. Check out her face and expressions. She has to be the sister of Wayne Hope from Very Small Business.

blank stare

I’ll gather more details at tonight’s viewing.

JudgeMental said:

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

youtube-dl (yt-dl.org downloads programmes from ABC, SBS, BBC, youtube, and about 400 other sites. You can ask for ads to be included (though I can’t imagine why you would.)

JudgeMental said:

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

Yeah, but…ABC doesn’t have ads anyway, so iView doesn’t have ads. I’ll give you SBS does, but they are lumped.

btm said:

JudgeMental said:

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

youtube-dl (yt-dl.org downloads programmes from ABC, SBS, BBC, youtube, and about 400 other sites. You can ask for ads to be included (though I can’t imagine why you would.)

Is that the one, JudgeMental?

btm said:

JudgeMental said:

Divine Angel said:

All the commercial stations plus SBS and ABC have catch-up tv on their websites. Iview, On Demand, 9Now etc.

Not as many ad breaks, not as many ads, but they’re all the same ads.

I have a program that allows me to download iView and SBS on demand. save to disk and watch later. you don’t get any ads that way. Use adblockers for YouTube.

youtube-dl (yt-dl.org downloads programmes from ABC, SBS, BBC, youtube, and about 400 other sites. You can ask for ads to be included (though I can’t imagine why you would.)

From web.

Windows users can download an .exe file and place it in any location on their PATH except for %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 (e.g. do not put in C:\Windows\System32).

You can also use pip:

sudo -H pip install —upgrade youtube-dl
This command will update youtube-dl if you have already installed it. See the pypi page for more information.

A bit of fiddling here, just like the old Unix days.

DESCRIPTION
youtube-dl is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.

youtube-dl URL
OPTIONS
-h, —help Print this help text and exit
—version Print program version and exit
-U, —update Update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)
-i, —ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist
—abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
—dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
—list-extractors List all supported extractors
—extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
—force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
—default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example “gvsearch2:” downloads two videos from google videos for youtube-dl “large apple”. Use the value “auto” to let youtube-dl guess (“auto_warning” to emit a warning when guessing). “error” just throws an error. The default value “fixup_error” repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching.
—ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given in the global configuration file /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user configuration in ~/.config/youtube- dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on Windows)
—config-location PATH Location of the configuration file; either the path to the config or its containing directory.
—flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them.
—mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
—no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
—no-color Do not emit color codes in output
Network Options:
—proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme. For example socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty string (—proxy “”) for direct connection
—socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
—source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
-4, —force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
-6, —force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
Geo Restriction:
—geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy specified by —proxy (or none, if the option is not present) is used for the actual downloading.
—geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
—no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
—geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
—geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
Video Selection:
—playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
—playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
—playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist separated by commas like: “—playlist-items 1,2,5,8” if you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can specify range: “—playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13”, it will download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
—match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
—reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
—max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
—min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
—max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
—date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
—datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e. inclusive)
—dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e. inclusive)
—min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views
—max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views
—match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see the “OUTPUT TEMPLATE” for a list of available keys) to match if the key is present, !key to check if the key is not present, key > NUMBER (like “comment_count > 12”, also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against a number, key = ‘LITERAL’ (like “uploader = ‘Mike Smith’”, also works with !=) to match against a string literal and & to require multiple matches. Values which are not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the operator. For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100 times and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike functionality is not available at the given service), but who also have a description, use —match-filter “like_count > 100 & dislike_count —no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
—yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
—age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given age
—download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it.
—include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
Download Options:
-r, —limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
-R, —retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or “infinite”.
—fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is 10), or “infinite” (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
—skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
—abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not available
—keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after downloading is finished; fragments are erased by default
—buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)
—no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By default, the buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of SIZE.
—http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default is disabled). May be useful for bypassing bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver (experimental)
—playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
—playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
—xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected file size
—hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg
—hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS downloader
—hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos, allowing to play the video while downloading (some players may not be able to play it)
—external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader. Currently supports aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
—external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external downloader
Filesystem Options:
-a, —batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download one URL per line. Lines starting with ‘#’, ‘;’ or ‘]’ are considered as comments and ignored.
—id Use only video ID in file name
-o, —output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the “OUTPUT TEMPLATE” for all the info
—autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s (default is 1)
—restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid “&” and spaces in filenames
-w, —no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
-c, —continue Force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible.
—no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)
—no-part Do not use .part files – write directly into output file
—no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time
—write-description Write video description to a .description file
—write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
—write-annotations Write video annotations to a .annotations.xml file
—load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information (created with the “—write-info-json” option)
—cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
—cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may change.
—no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
—rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
Thumbnail images:
—write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
—write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
—list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, —quiet Activate quiet mode
—no-warnings Ignore warnings
-s, —simulate Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk
—skip-download Do not download the video
-g, —get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
-e, —get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
—get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
—get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
—get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
—get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
—get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
—get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
-j, —dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information. See the “OUTPUT TEMPLATE” for a description of available keys.
-J, —dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument. If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist information in a single line.
—print-json Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being downloaded).
—newline Output progress bar as new lines
—no-progress Do not print progress bar
—console-title Display progress in console titlebar
-v, —verbose Print various debugging information
—dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64 to debug problems (very verbose)
—write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems
—print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
-C, —call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
—no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
Workarounds:
—encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
—no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
—prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)
—user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
—referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain
—add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ‘:’. You can use this option multiple times
—bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
—sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each download when used alone or a lower bound of a range for randomized sleep before each download (minimum possible number of seconds to sleep) when used along with —max-sleep-interval.
—max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep before each download (maximum possible number of seconds to sleep). Must only be used along with —min-sleep-interval.
Video Format Options:
-f, —format FORMAT Video format code, see the “FORMAT SELECTION” for all the info
—all-formats Download all available video formats
—prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
-F, —list-formats List all available formats of requested videos
—youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and related data on YouTube videos
—merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
Subtitle Options:
—write-sub Write subtitle file
—write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file (YouTube only)
—all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the video
—list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
—sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: “srt” or “ass/srt/best”
—sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use —list- subs for available language tags
Authentication Options:
-u, —username USERNAME Login with this account ID
-p, —password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
-2, —twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
-n, —netrc Use .netrc authentication data
—video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
Adobe Pass Options:
—ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV provider) identifier, use —ap-list-mso for a list of available MSOs
—ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
—ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
—ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
Post-processing Options:
-x, —extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
—audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: “best”, “aac”, “flac”, “mp3”, “m4a”, “opus”, “vorbis”, or “wav”; “best” by default; No effect without -x
—audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
—recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
—postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
-k, —keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post processing; the video is erased by default
—no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default
—embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4, webm and mkv videos)
—embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
—add-metadata Write metadata to the video file

Why can’t unix programmers write software without half a million command line switches?

mollwollfumble said:

Why can’t unix programmers write software without half a million command line switches?

For the same reason that they wear socks with sandals.

mollwollfumble said:

Why can’t unix programmers write software without half a million command line switches?

We can. We don’t because we want the user to decide how they want to use the software; that means giving them options. If the software is command-line based, the options must be passed to the program from the command line.

btm said:

mollwollfumble said:

Why can’t unix programmers write software without half a million command line switches?

We can. We don’t because we want the user to decide how they want to use the software; that means giving them options. If the software is command-line based, the options must be passed to the program from the command line.

My ‘socks/sandals/ jube was TIC. Spaliding Jr writes unix stuff sometimes, and i understand that the switches do have advantages.

mollwollfumble said:

Time to upgrade my TV set.

The current TV set is 20” CRT Sanyo with 2:3 ratio and non-functioning remote. Pre-digital so separate desk top box. That’s no problem except that Missy hates the high-pitched noise from the screen.

The TV room is set up so that 4 people can watch the screen from a distance of 1.2 metres. That could be increased to a maximum of 1.6 metres if necessary.

What do you recommend for a replacement TV?

I sit much closer to my puter monitor than my TV because I need to read
paragraph upon paragraph of much smaller text on the computer monitor.

I’ve had far better luck with every TOSHIBA Products over decades than any other
to the point that every electronic I own is either Toshiba, Apple or Black & Decker.
(I don’t have the luxury of replacing junk, so I tend to find what works, then sticking with it.)

Lastly, I SHOP on AMAZON, pay attention to the Reviews… then BUY off e-Bay. :)

> Lastly, I SHOP on AMAZON, pay attention to the Reviews… then BUY off e-Bay. :)

Oh, I like that strategy.

Boris, which adblocker are you using?

sibeen said:

Boris, which adblocker are you using?

I use Opera as a browser. There is one that comes with it. I also use an add-on one. https://adblockultimate.net

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblocker-ultimate/ohahllgiabjaoigichmmfljhkcfikeof?hl=en

dunno if it works with other browsers.

JudgeMental said:

sibeen said:

Boris, which adblocker are you using?

I use Opera as a browser. There is one that comes with it. I also use an add-on one. https://adblockultimate.net

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblocker-ultimate/ohahllgiabjaoigichmmfljhkcfikeof?hl=en

dunno if it works with other browsers.

Ta, I’ll give it a go.

JudgeMental said:

sibeen said:

Boris, which adblocker are you using?

I use Opera as a browser. There is one that comes with it. I also use an add-on one. https://adblockultimate.net

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblocker-ultimate/ohahllgiabjaoigichmmfljhkcfikeof?hl=en

dunno if it works with other browsers.

Thanks for that. I’ll give it a try.

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

sibeen said:

Boris, which adblocker are you using?

I use Opera as a browser. There is one that comes with it. I also use an add-on one. https://adblockultimate.net

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblocker-ultimate/ohahllgiabjaoigichmmfljhkcfikeof?hl=en

dunno if it works with other browsers.

Ta, I’ll give it a go.

You’ve convinced me. I’ll try an ad blocker on Android.

My new TV has arrived. It weighs about 100 gr.

Good thing I keep a sharp knife beside the bed.

mollwollfumble said:

My new TV has arrived. It weighs about 100 gr.

Good thing I keep a sharp knife beside the bed.

100 grains. That’s not much mass.

mollwollfumble said:

My new TV has arrived. It weighs about 100 gr.

Good thing I keep a sharp knife beside the bed.

What did you get?

Michael V said:

mollwollfumble said:

My new TV has arrived. It weighs about 100 gr.

Good thing I keep a sharp knife beside the bed.

100 grains. That’s not much mass.

0.00647989 kg according to go-ogle.

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

My new TV has arrived. It weighs about 100 gr.

Good thing I keep a sharp knife beside the bed.

What did you get?

After all this, after pages and pages of posts and the deconstruction of the TV industry the bastard is not going to tell us.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

My new TV has arrived. It weighs about 100 gr.

Good thing I keep a sharp knife beside the bed.

What did you get?

After all this, after pages and pages of posts and the deconstruction of the TV industry the bastard is not going to tell us.

Delay in responding due to trying it out.

Kogan 24”.

Good features, better than before:

Much better remote design (I can even read what’s written on this one).
Light weight (easier to get to the back).
Slightly better picture quality on HD.
Exceedingly easy to use.
Default switch off auto channel update.
Subtitles continue when on mute.
Default no password.
Good program guide.

Bad features:

Poor sound quality (tinny).
Played DVD OK until I tried to eject it. Didn’t eject. Then wouldn’t play either, said no disc.

Looks like it may be back to the manufacturer.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

What did you get?

After all this, after pages and pages of posts and the deconstruction of the TV industry the bastard is not going to tell us.

Delay in responding due to trying it out.

Kogan 24”.

Good features, better than before:

Much better remote design (I can even read what’s written on this one).
Light weight (easier to get to the back).
Slightly better picture quality on HD.
Exceedingly easy to use.
Default switch off auto channel update.
Subtitles continue when on mute.
Default no password.
Good program guide.

Bad features:

Poor sound quality (tinny).
Played DVD OK until I tried to eject it. Didn’t eject. Then wouldn’t play either, said no disc.

Looks like it may be back to the manufacturer.

Bummer.

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

After all this, after pages and pages of posts and the deconstruction of the TV industry the bastard is not going to tell us.

Delay in responding due to trying it out.

Kogan 24”.

Good features, better than before:

Much better remote design (I can even read what’s written on this one).
Light weight (easier to get to the back).
Slightly better picture quality on HD.
Exceedingly easy to use.
Default switch off auto channel update.
Subtitles continue when on mute.
Default no password.
Good program guide.

Bad features:

Poor sound quality (tinny).
Played DVD OK until I tried to eject it. Didn’t eject. Then wouldn’t play either, said no disc.

Looks like it may be back to the manufacturer.

Bummer.

Turn it off and on again, it might eject after powering up.

Bubblecar said:

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Delay in responding due to trying it out.

Kogan 24”.

Good features, better than before:

Much better remote design (I can even read what’s written on this one).
Light weight (easier to get to the back).
Slightly better picture quality on HD.
Exceedingly easy to use.
Default switch off auto channel update.
Subtitles continue when on mute.
Default no password.
Good program guide.

Bad features:

Poor sound quality (tinny).
Played DVD OK until I tried to eject it. Didn’t eject. Then wouldn’t play either, said no disc.

Looks like it may be back to the manufacturer.

Bummer.

Turn it off and on again, it might eject after powering up.

Should be a little hole you can insert a pin to eject it.

party_pants said:

Bubblecar said:

Turn it off and on again, it might eject after powering up.

Should be a little hole you can insert a pin to eject it.

Off and on again didn’t work. Made an mp3 of the sound it makes failing to load on switching on in DVD mode.

Thanks for the hint in pin hole. There may be a little hole, but if so then I’d have to remove the four screws holding the cover of the DVD player in place. If the response from Kogan online help is useless then I’ll try that.

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Bubblecar said:

Turn it off and on again, it might eject after powering up.

Should be a little hole you can insert a pin to eject it.

Off and on again didn’t work. Made an mp3 of the sound it makes failing to load on switching on in DVD mode.

Thanks for the hint in pin hole. There may be a little hole, but if so then I’d have to remove the four screws holding the cover of the DVD player in place. If the response from Kogan online help is useless then I’ll try that.

The Kogan email help is not so slowly driving me up the F%^&* wall.

They have been totally b%^&* useless, just now they sent me a “does this solve your problem” email. Same f$%^&* email for the third b$%^&* time, even after I told them first time no, it does not solve my problem. The only advice in that email anyway is – switch the TV on, put in DVD mode, press eject button. I had already told them that doesn’t work in the initial complaint.

The only useful email (one of about ten) was one which said “try switching it off and then on again” and “try reset to factory defaults”. Even then they sent me instructions for the completely wrong TV model (probably a 20 year old one) so I had to search around trial and error until I could get the reset to work on my model. Didn’t fix problem. They also lost my case number so gave me a second and now I don’t know which they prefer to use.

They do not have a phone number to talk to, and no address to return it to. They give me the s^&*(. If the help desk had been good i would have trusted them enough to swap for a replacement. Now I’d rather not touch them with a proverbial barge pole.

• To lodge a warranty claim:

• Simply contact our Support team and provide your purchase details along with a quick description of the fault.
  Done.

• Our support team will review the claim and determine whether the product is covered by the Kogan.com Warranty
  It is

• and if so, whether it will need to be returned for assessment. If the product does need to be returned to us under warranty
  It does

• we will arrange return shipping at no cost to you.
  They haven’t

• Once we receive the product, our experienced technicians will assess it and if they can’t resolve the issue quickly, will send it to the manufacturer.
  Ha bloody ha.

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Should be a little hole you can insert a pin to eject it.

Off and on again didn’t work. Made an mp3 of the sound it makes failing to load on switching on in DVD mode.

Thanks for the hint in pin hole. There may be a little hole, but if so then I’d have to remove the four screws holding the cover of the DVD player in place. If the response from Kogan online help is useless then I’ll try that.

The Kogan email help is not so slowly driving me up the F%^&* wall.

They have been totally b%^&* useless, just now they sent me a “does this solve your problem” email. Same f$%^&* email for the third b$%^&* time, even after I told them first time no, it does not solve my problem. The only advice in that email anyway is – switch the TV on, put in DVD mode, press eject button. I had already told them that doesn’t work in the initial complaint.

The only useful email (one of about ten) was one which said “try switching it off and then on again” and “try reset to factory defaults”. Even then they sent me instructions for the completely wrong TV model (probably a 20 year old one) so I had to search around trial and error until I could get the reset to work on my model. Didn’t fix problem. They also lost my case number so gave me a second and now I don’t know which they prefer to use.

They do not have a phone number to talk to, and no address to return it to. They give me the s^&*(. If the help desk had been good i would have trusted them enough to swap for a replacement. Now I’d rather not touch them with a proverbial barge pole.

• To lodge a warranty claim:

• Simply contact our Support team and provide your purchase details along with a quick description of the fault.
  Done.

• Our support team will review the claim and determine whether the product is covered by the Kogan.com Warranty
  It is

• and if so, whether it will need to be returned for assessment. If the product does need to be returned to us under warranty
  It does

• we will arrange return shipping at no cost to you.
  They haven’t

• Once we receive the product, our experienced technicians will assess it and if they can’t resolve the issue quickly, will send it to the manufacturer.
  Ha bloody ha.

Re the last, I believe when it comes to warranty that is a frequent try on. Do some googling to have some facts at your fingertips, but the usual consumer law advice is that you purchased it from them, and it is from then you have a legal and merchant relationship. They can in turn take it up with who they like, that’s not your issue or problem. But the warranty relationship is with them, not you with the manufacturer, Google merchantable and consumer law. There are higher authorities than the companies guidelines on returns.

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Should be a little hole you can insert a pin to eject it.

Off and on again didn’t work. Made an mp3 of the sound it makes failing to load on switching on in DVD mode.

Thanks for the hint in pin hole. There may be a little hole, but if so then I’d have to remove the four screws holding the cover of the DVD player in place. If the response from Kogan online help is useless then I’ll try that.

The Kogan email help is not so slowly driving me up the F%^&* wall.

They have been totally b%^&* useless, just now they sent me a “does this solve your problem” email. Same f$%^&* email for the third b$%^&* time, even after I told them first time no, it does not solve my problem. The only advice in that email anyway is – switch the TV on, put in DVD mode, press eject button. I had already told them that doesn’t work in the initial complaint.

The only useful email (one of about ten) was one which said “try switching it off and then on again” and “try reset to factory defaults”. Even then they sent me instructions for the completely wrong TV model (probably a 20 year old one) so I had to search around trial and error until I could get the reset to work on my model. Didn’t fix problem. They also lost my case number so gave me a second and now I don’t know which they prefer to use.

They do not have a phone number to talk to, and no address to return it to. They give me the s^&*(. If the help desk had been good i would have trusted them enough to swap for a replacement. Now I’d rather not touch them with a proverbial barge pole.

• To lodge a warranty claim:

• Simply contact our Support team and provide your purchase details along with a quick description of the fault.
  Done.

• Our support team will review the claim and determine whether the product is covered by the Kogan.com Warranty
  It is

• and if so, whether it will need to be returned for assessment. If the product does need to be returned to us under warranty
  It does

• we will arrange return shipping at no cost to you.
  They haven’t

• Once we receive the product, our experienced technicians will assess it and if they can’t resolve the issue quickly, will send it to the manufacturer.
  Ha bloody ha.
  

Sympathies, sounds a bugger.

Bubblecar said:

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

Off and on again didn’t work. Made an mp3 of the sound it makes failing to load on switching on in DVD mode.

Thanks for the hint in pin hole. There may be a little hole, but if so then I’d have to remove the four screws holding the cover of the DVD player in place. If the response from Kogan online help is useless then I’ll try that.

The Kogan email help is not so slowly driving me up the F%^&* wall.

They have been totally b%^&* useless, just now they sent me a “does this solve your problem” email. Same f$%^&* email for the third b$%^&* time, even after I told them first time no, it does not solve my problem. The only advice in that email anyway is – switch the TV on, put in DVD mode, press eject button. I had already told them that doesn’t work in the initial complaint.

The only useful email (one of about ten) was one which said “try switching it off and then on again” and “try reset to factory defaults”. Even then they sent me instructions for the completely wrong TV model (probably a 20 year old one) so I had to search around trial and error until I could get the reset to work on my model. Didn’t fix problem. They also lost my case number so gave me a second and now I don’t know which they prefer to use.

They do not have a phone number to talk to, and no address to return it to. They give me the s^&*(. If the help desk had been good i would have trusted them enough to swap for a replacement. Now I’d rather not touch them with a proverbial barge pole.

• To lodge a warranty claim:

• Simply contact our Support team and provide your purchase details along with a quick description of the fault.
  Done.

• Our support team will review the claim and determine whether the product is covered by the Kogan.com Warranty
  It is

• and if so, whether it will need to be returned for assessment. If the product does need to be returned to us under warranty
  It does

• we will arrange return shipping at no cost to you.
  They haven’t

• Once we receive the product, our experienced technicians will assess it and if they can’t resolve the issue quickly, will send it to the manufacturer.
  Ha bloody ha.
  

Sympathies, sounds a bugger.

They probably think he should read the instruction manual.

PermeateFree said:

Bubblecar said:

mollwollfumble said:

The Kogan email help is not so slowly driving me up the F%^&* wall.

They have been totally b%^&* useless, just now they sent me a “does this solve your problem” email. Same f$%^&* email for the third b$%^&* time, even after I told them first time no, it does not solve my problem. The only advice in that email anyway is – switch the TV on, put in DVD mode, press eject button. I had already told them that doesn’t work in the initial complaint.

The only useful email (one of about ten) was one which said “try switching it off and then on again” and “try reset to factory defaults”. Even then they sent me instructions for the completely wrong TV model (probably a 20 year old one) so I had to search around trial and error until I could get the reset to work on my model. Didn’t fix problem. They also lost my case number so gave me a second and now I don’t know which they prefer to use.

They do not have a phone number to talk to, and no address to return it to. They give me the s^&*(. If the help desk had been good i would have trusted them enough to swap for a replacement. Now I’d rather not touch them with a proverbial barge pole.

• To lodge a warranty claim:

• Simply contact our Support team and provide your purchase details along with a quick description of the fault.
  Done.

• Our support team will review the claim and determine whether the product is covered by the Kogan.com Warranty
  It is

• and if so, whether it will need to be returned for assessment. If the product does need to be returned to us under warranty
  It does

• we will arrange return shipping at no cost to you.
  They haven’t

• Once we receive the product, our experienced technicians will assess it and if they can’t resolve the issue quickly, will send it to the manufacturer.
  Ha bloody ha.
  

Sympathies, sounds a bugger.

They probably think he should read the instruction manual.

Just reread, re return to manufacturer, if you didn’t purchase it online from Kogan take it up with who you did purchase it from, it’s their problem to take up with Kogan not yours.

Without going back through it all what is the problem.
The CD wont eject?
The CD wont go in?
The CD wont play?
I’ve got a 24” Kogan 12v TV.
It’s up the farm, from memory it doesn’t have a tray, just a slot like car CDs

Of course purchasing on line can be convenient but it can be a PITA if something goes wrong, which is offset to a degree by leaving the mother of all feedback bombs.

Cheap might be cheerful but it doesn’t mean restful.

You might be warned at check in that your fire alarm might start chirruping warning of a flattening battery, in which case you are advised to just ring reception. I guess if you are operating the cheapest motel in town it is a false economy to replace the periodically chirruping battery until it gets positively frantic. No profit in being preemptive.

And if the room is a little austere that it is to be expected for the price after all you only want to sleep in it and after all, it is the cheapest motel in town. Right?

It is cold in Seymour in winter, and later that night when you return from your function upon entering your motel room which you briefly confuse for a meat locker, you have a choice, you can shiver through the night breathing out clouds of condensation or you can turn on the heating. Then you can attempt to sleep, but now, not just shivering but also kept awake by the roar of a reverse cycle that labours noisily to deliver an asthmatic wheeze of barely warm zephyr for no measurable outcome.

If after all this you manage a form of sleep that might get interrupted when your fire alarm starts chirruping constantly at five in the morning, batteries after all are known to fail in cold conditions and if you decide to ring reception and complain you will realise that another economy has been made by not providing a phone.

All this and with walls so thin you can hear the neighbours boiling a kettle it is hard to recommend the cheapest motel in town.

But still, the irrepressibly cheerful manager will happily refuse to refund any of the money you paid in anticipation of a reasonable expectation of a good nights sleep, citing that you were due to get up anyway, and that he was already the cheapest in town. Serious, these are the words he used.

If when passing through or staying at Seymour you desire a good nights rest I recommend you spend an extra twenty dollars and avoid the cheapest motel in town.

My sister is donating this TV to me because they have a new one. So my CRT & set-top-box can finally go to the tip.

Bubblecar said:

My sister is donating this TV to me because they have a new one. So my CRT & set-top-box can finally go to the tip.

Well that’s your Christmas present all done and dusted pilgrim.

PermeateFree said:

Bubblecar said:

mollwollfumble said:

The Kogan email help is not so slowly driving me up the F%^&* wall.

They have been totally b%^&* useless, just now they sent me a “does this solve your problem” email. Same f$%^&* email for the third b$%^&* time, even after I told them first time no, it does not solve my problem. The only advice in that email anyway is – switch the TV on, put in DVD mode, press eject button. I had already told them that doesn’t work in the initial complaint.

The only useful email (one of about ten) was one which said “try switching it off and then on again” and “try reset to factory defaults”. Even then they sent me instructions for the completely wrong TV model (probably a 20 year old one) so I had to search around trial and error until I could get the reset to work on my model. Didn’t fix problem. They also lost my case number so gave me a second and now I don’t know which they prefer to use.

They do not have a phone number to talk to, and no address to return it to. They give me the s^&*(. If the help desk had been good i would have trusted them enough to swap for a replacement. Now I’d rather not touch them with a proverbial barge pole.

• To lodge a warranty claim:

• Simply contact our Support team and provide your purchase details along with a quick description of the fault.
  Done.

• Our support team will review the claim and determine whether the product is covered by the Kogan.com Warranty
  It is

• and if so, whether it will need to be returned for assessment. If the product does need to be returned to us under warranty
  It does

• we will arrange return shipping at no cost to you.
  They haven’t

• Once we receive the product, our experienced technicians will assess it and if they can’t resolve the issue quickly, will send it to the manufacturer.
  Ha bloody ha.
  

Sympathies, sounds a bugger.

They probably think he should read the instruction manual.

It doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Apart from a single page naming the buttons. But it’s so simple to use that it doesn’t need one. Plug in. Scan for channels. That’s all there is to it.

AwesomeO said:

Just reread, re return to manufacturer, if you didn’t purchase it online from Kogan take it up with who you did purchase it from, it’s their problem to take up with Kogan not yours.

I did buy it online from Kogan. They don’t have a phone number or address.

Seems like a negative recommendation for Kogan online store then?

Peak Warming Man said:

Without going back through it all what is the problem.
The CD wont eject?
The CD wont go in?
The CD wont play?
I’ve got a 24” Kogan 12v TV.
It’s up the farm, from memory it doesn’t have a tray, just a slot like car CDs

The CD went in. Played.
The stop and pause button worked perfectly.
The eject didn’t work at all.
Now, after playing perfectly once, it won’t play again either.
It keeps telling me “no disc” when I can clearly see the disc in the slot.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Without going back through it all what is the problem.
The CD wont eject?
The CD wont go in?
The CD wont play?
I’ve got a 24” Kogan 12v TV.
It’s up the farm, from memory it doesn’t have a tray, just a slot like car CDs

The CD went in. Played.
The stop and pause button worked perfectly.
The eject didn’t work at all.
Now, after playing perfectly once, it won’t play again either.
It keeps telling me “no disc” when I can clearly see the disc in the slot.

have you tried turning the machine on its side and shaking it gently?

party_pants said:

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Without going back through it all what is the problem.
The CD wont eject?
The CD wont go in?
The CD wont play?
I’ve got a 24” Kogan 12v TV.
It’s up the farm, from memory it doesn’t have a tray, just a slot like car CDs

The CD went in. Played.
The stop and pause button worked perfectly.
The eject didn’t work at all.
Now, after playing perfectly once, it won’t play again either.
It keeps telling me “no disc” when I can clearly see the disc in the slot.

have you tried turning the machine on its side and shaking it gently?

Thanks yes, I did try that. When it arrived there was no cover over the DVD slot so some packing could have fallen in during transport.

I also tried pressing gently against the rods holding the DVD in place, while it was trying to eject just in case they were sticking.

I have not tried disassembly of the cover over the DVD yet to see if there’s a hidden pinhole or button that will release the DVD.

Moll, if I understand correctly, you’ve put a DVD into the TV and it won’t eject. I’ve had similar problems with Apple computers; in those cases I’ve found that the rubber around the slot for the DVD can stiffen, so when the system tries to eject the DVD it gets stopped by the rubber. I’ve found that running my fingernail around the slot, against the edge so the rubber is deformed, can fix the problem. It may not work for your TV, but it can’t hurt.

btm said:

Moll, if I understand correctly, you’ve put a DVD into the TV and it won’t eject. I’ve had similar problems with Apple computers; in those cases I’ve found that the rubber around the slot for the DVD can stiffen, so when the system tries to eject the DVD it gets stopped by the rubber. I’ve found that running my fingernail around the slot, against the edge so the rubber is deformed, can fix the problem. It may not work for your TV, but it can’t hurt.

I have ze good news. I have ze bad news.

Good news. I dismantled the TV set using a hacksaw (note: this is a first for me). Pushed and prodded it a bit, cleaned it a bit.
Switched power back on. Now the DVD player is working properly. It ejected, played, accepted and stopped the DVD properly, twice so far.
Reassembled the TV (ignoring the screws left on the bench) and it works.

Bad news …

… The remote has stopped working.

mollwollfumble said:

btm said:

Moll, if I understand correctly, you’ve put a DVD into the TV and it won’t eject. I’ve had similar problems with Apple computers; in those cases I’ve found that the rubber around the slot for the DVD can stiffen, so when the system tries to eject the DVD it gets stopped by the rubber. I’ve found that running my fingernail around the slot, against the edge so the rubber is deformed, can fix the problem. It may not work for your TV, but it can’t hurt.

I have ze good news. I have ze bad news.

Good news. I dismantled the TV set using a hacksaw (note: this is a first for me). Pushed and prodded it a bit, cleaned it a bit.
Switched power back on. Now the DVD player is working properly. It ejected, played, accepted and stopped the DVD properly, twice so far.
Reassembled the TV (ignoring the screws left on the bench) and it works.

Bad news …

… The remote has stopped working.

I had cut two lines of a ribbon cable. Fingers crossed I can figure out how to reattach them.

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

btm said:

Moll, if I understand correctly, you’ve put a DVD into the TV and it won’t eject. I’ve had similar problems with Apple computers; in those cases I’ve found that the rubber around the slot for the DVD can stiffen, so when the system tries to eject the DVD it gets stopped by the rubber. I’ve found that running my fingernail around the slot, against the edge so the rubber is deformed, can fix the problem. It may not work for your TV, but it can’t hurt.

I have ze good news. I have ze bad news.

Good news. I dismantled the TV set using a hacksaw (note: this is a first for me). Pushed and prodded it a bit, cleaned it a bit.
Switched power back on. Now the DVD player is working properly. It ejected, played, accepted and stopped the DVD properly, twice so far.
Reassembled the TV (ignoring the screws left on the bench) and it works.

Bad news …

… The remote has stopped working.

I had cut two lines of a ribbon cable. Fingers crossed I can figure out how to reattach them.

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

Cymek said:

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

I have ze good news. I have ze bad news.

Good news. I dismantled the TV set using a hacksaw (note: this is a first for me). Pushed and prodded it a bit, cleaned it a bit.
Switched power back on. Now the DVD player is working properly. It ejected, played, accepted and stopped the DVD properly, twice so far.
Reassembled the TV (ignoring the screws left on the bench) and it works.

Bad news …

… The remote has stopped working.

I had cut two lines of a ribbon cable. Fingers crossed I can figure out how to reattach them.

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

mollwollfumble said:

I had cut two lines of a ribbon cable. Fingers crossed I can figure out how to reattach them.

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

Bloody naysayers.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

mollwollfumble said:

I had cut two lines of a ribbon cable. Fingers crossed I can figure out how to reattach them.

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

Why?

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Is it the remote itself or the tv ?
If its the remote you can get remote apps from Google Play.
The one for my Panasonic is really well designed

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

Why?

Mad scientist moment were he was going to cobble parts to make a time machine

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Well that’s no good, re the comments. Thanks for that heads up if I am ever looking at a Kogan appliance.

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Or work for the dole people

Cymek said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

Why?

Mad scientist moment were he was going to cobble parts to make a time machine

I could actually conceive an image of that. ;)

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Most tech it’s best to try and buy the quality version, it’s expensive but usually lasts longer than the cheap brands.

Cymek said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Or work for the dole people

Chinese work for the dole leaves you no longer Muslim, amazingly thin and loving the Communist Party. It’s going to be a wild ride people!

roughbarked said:

Cymek said:

roughbarked said:

Why?

Mad scientist moment were he was going to cobble parts to make a time machine

I could actually conceive an image of that. ;)

Yes me as well

Cymek said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Most tech it’s best to try and buy the quality version, it’s expensive but usually lasts longer than the cheap brands.

Yes. It’s so annoying when price actually means quality.

Cymek said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Most tech it’s best to try and buy the quality version, it’s expensive but usually lasts longer than the cheap brands.

I’ve been pretty lucky with Palsonics and Hisenses bought at reliable bricks and mortar businesses like Hardly Normal. I imagine they quickly find out which models and brands are more trouble than they’re worth.

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Most tech it’s best to try and buy the quality version, it’s expensive but usually lasts longer than the cheap brands.

Yes. It’s so annoying when price actually means quality.

When did it not?

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Most tech it’s best to try and buy the quality version, it’s expensive but usually lasts longer than the cheap brands.

Yes. It’s so annoying when price actually means quality.

Not always but lots of mid range devices exist which seems to crap themselves after a few years and the warranty is gone and they aren’t worth fixing and are throw away.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Most tech it’s best to try and buy the quality version, it’s expensive but usually lasts longer than the cheap brands.

Yes. It’s so annoying when price actually means quality.

When did it not?

Cars.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. It’s so annoying when price actually means quality.

When did it not?

Cars.

When a Kia gearbox cost more than a Mercedes to replace?

Cymek said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

In the TV itself. I accidentally cut them when opening the back of the TV set with a hacksaw.

Why?

Mad scientist moment were he was going to cobble parts to make a time machine

I like it, but I don’t believe in time machines.

Now got a pair of male-female IDC 9 pin plugs. Hope that will fix the cut.
I reckon my chance of success is about – oh – 5%.

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

roughbarked said:

Why?

Mad scientist moment were he was going to cobble parts to make a time machine

I like it, but I don’t believe in time machines.

Now got a pair of male-female IDC 9 pin plugs. Hope that will fix the cut.
I reckon my chance of success is about – oh – 5%.

Darn. The soldering iron is misplaced. And the wire spacing in the ribbon cable is wrong for that plug.

Not enough space the strip and solder the ribbon cable, unless I hacksaw another hole in the back of the TV.

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

I think you can kiss a warranty goodbye.

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Fixed it totally now. The Kogan 24” TV /DVD is working properly.

To summarise:

• Cost $200 (I now see that they’ve reduced the price to $160).
• Out of the box it swallowed my DVD and wouldn’t eject it or replay it.
• Opened back, requiring a hacksaw cut.
• Fixed DVD player but now the remote and the standby light had stopped working.
• Found that when using the hacksaw, four wires had been cut, three from a ribbon cable.
• Cut extra bit out of the back to get enough wire length to solder.
• Six soldered joints.
• Reassembled.
• Works perfectly. All three of DVD player, standby light and remote. I Have a TV!

Total repair cost $13, for a new soldering iron.
Thankfully, Kogan had put plenty of wire length into the TV.

How to celebrate?

mollwollfumble said:

How to celebrate?

alcohol.

mollwollfumble said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Fixed it totally now. The Kogan 24” TV /DVD is working properly.

To summarise:

• Cost $200 (I now see that they’ve reduced the price to $160).
• Out of the box it swallowed my DVD and wouldn’t eject it or replay it.
• Opened back, requiring a hacksaw cut.
• Fixed DVD player but now the remote and the standby light had stopped working.
• Found that when using the hacksaw, four wires had been cut, three from a ribbon cable.
• Cut extra bit out of the back to get enough wire length to solder.
• Six soldered joints.
• Reassembled.
• Works perfectly. All three of DVD player, standby light and remote. I Have a TV!

Total repair cost $13, for a new soldering iron.
Thankfully, Kogan had put plenty of wire length into the TV.

How to celebrate?

Guinness.

mollwollfumble said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Fixed it totally now. The Kogan 24” TV /DVD is working properly.

To summarise:

• Cost $200 (I now see that they’ve reduced the price to $160).
• Out of the box it swallowed my DVD and wouldn’t eject it or replay it.
• Opened back, requiring a hacksaw cut.
• Fixed DVD player but now the remote and the standby light had stopped working.
• Found that when using the hacksaw, four wires had been cut, three from a ribbon cable.
• Cut extra bit out of the back to get enough wire length to solder.
• Six soldered joints.
• Reassembled.
• Works perfectly. All three of DVD player, standby light and remote. I Have a TV!

Total repair cost $13, for a new soldering iron.
Thankfully, Kogan had put plenty of wire length into the TV.

How to celebrate?

I think you should write Kogan an apology.

mollwollfumble said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

mollwollfumble said:

I kissed it goodbye first. No phone number, no return address and a “help desk” that does nothing except quote inappropriate and useless web pages and generate new case numbers.

The online reviews of Kogan vary from “awful, I’ve already contacted consumer affairs” to “save yourself time and effort by throwing it in the bin” to “nobody at this address will help you”.

Anyway. I did Fix the DVD player.

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Fixed it totally now. The Kogan 24” TV /DVD is working properly.

To summarise:

• Cost $200 (I now see that they’ve reduced the price to $160).
• Out of the box it swallowed my DVD and wouldn’t eject it or replay it.
• Opened back, requiring a hacksaw cut.
• Fixed DVD player but now the remote and the standby light had stopped working.
• Found that when using the hacksaw, four wires had been cut, three from a ribbon cable.
• Cut extra bit out of the back to get enough wire length to solder.
• Six soldered joints.
• Reassembled.
• Works perfectly. All three of DVD player, standby light and remote. I Have a TV!

Total repair cost $13, for a new soldering iron.
Thankfully, Kogan had put plenty of wire length into the TV.

How to celebrate?

A nice cup of tea.

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Doesn’t sound like you did your due diligence before your purchase… Kogan TVs might be getting made in the darkest reaches of the PRC by now

Fixed it totally now. The Kogan 24” TV /DVD is working properly.

To summarise:

• Cost $200 (I now see that they’ve reduced the price to $160).
• Out of the box it swallowed my DVD and wouldn’t eject it or replay it.
• Opened back, requiring a hacksaw cut.
• Fixed DVD player but now the remote and the standby light had stopped working.
• Found that when using the hacksaw, four wires had been cut, three from a ribbon cable.
• Cut extra bit out of the back to get enough wire length to solder.
• Six soldered joints.
• Reassembled.
• Works perfectly. All three of DVD player, standby light and remote. I Have a TV!

Total repair cost $13, for a new soldering iron.
Thankfully, Kogan had put plenty of wire length into the TV.

How to celebrate?

A nice cup of tea.

A darn shame there’s no alcohol in the house today. And too pooped to go to the pub right now.

But I do have a special tea brew that Mrs m isn’t allowed to drink. That will help. Ta for the idea.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Fixed it totally now. The Kogan 24” TV /DVD is working properly.

To summarise:

• Cost $200 (I now see that they’ve reduced the price to $160).
• Out of the box it swallowed my DVD and wouldn’t eject it or replay it.
• Opened back, requiring a hacksaw cut.
• Fixed DVD player but now the remote and the standby light had stopped working.
• Found that when using the hacksaw, four wires had been cut, three from a ribbon cable.
• Cut extra bit out of the back to get enough wire length to solder.
• Six soldered joints.
• Reassembled.
• Works perfectly. All three of DVD player, standby light and remote. I Have a TV!

Total repair cost $13, for a new soldering iron.
Thankfully, Kogan had put plenty of wire length into the TV.

How to celebrate?

A nice cup of tea.

A darn shame there’s no alcohol in the house today. And too pooped to go to the pub right now.

But I do have a special tea brew that Mrs m isn’t allowed to drink. That will help. Ta for the idea.

No worries.