Rant: A Tale of 2 TV's

[Phil_S]

Got a new TV. Replaced a 6 y/o Memorex 32" with a Samsung 40" (dumb TV, not smart TV.) I'm not happy with the back panel options. Too few inputs and no outputs. It turns out most TV's these days offer very limited back panels until you get into the high end. The picture on this TV is great. But it's a really hassle to get my 5 y/o retired laptop to stream video. I'm sorely disappointed in the loss of flexibility.

Meanwhile, I read up on cables and the advice seems to be buy cheap because there's no difference. I ordered a <$5 DVI to HDMI so I can continue streaming movies to the TV. Sound will now have to go through the stereo. The 5 jack component input is used up by the DVD player we never use any more. The burden here is that my wife will never figure this out.

Sigh! I guess they expect you to keep spending and spending on this crap. I'm not gonna do it!

Thanks for listening.

[johnnyreece]

Wow, those are pretty Spartan connections on a new TV...I think you have a legitimate gripe there!

[Gibsonman63]

I have written instructions for my wife on how to operate the TV, but she still struggles with it. I went to the Amazon Fire stick and it works well for me for streaming and you don't have to do a separate cable for sound through the stereo. I can't stand TV sound through the stereo. Since the world went crazy over subwoofers, I can't watch anything with commercials because they exploit the hell out of them.

[gui_tarzan]

This might sound condescending but I assure you it's not - did you check the connections before you bought it? We bought a 42" Westinghouse about four and a half years ago and it's got tons of connections.

[Phil_S]

This might sound condescending but I assure you it's not - did you check the connections before you bought it? We bought a 42" Westinghouse about four and a half years ago and it's got tons of connections.

Jim, I am not offended by the question. It's a legit question. Actually, your statement about a 4 1/2 year old TV plays right into my rant. The Memorex I'm retiring is 6 years old. I think it is only more recently they started cutting out the number of jacks. If they could put that much connectivity on a TV 4-6 years ago, what made it so "expensive" that caused them to cut it out?

Yes, I looked at the connections for all sorts of models and brands. I determined I could make this one work, but I still didn't like it. There are all sorts of trade offs. I found a few with more connections but there was always something else that caused me to rule those out. Picture quality and built in sound were at the top of my list. Smart TV's [1] caused automatic elimination and that cut out some with better connection panels. So, that's where I ended up. I noted that many of the lesser brands [2] offered additional connections.

[1] I quickly learned that Smart TV is really not that smart. They depend on the software provided by the manufacturer and it is universally either bad or mediocre. On that basis, I couldn't justify the incremental price. I'm better off streaming from the computer.

[2] I suspect brand is irrelevant, but, at some level, everyone gets taken in. I'm thinking TV's are made in 3 or 4 factories in China and Taiwan. The "brand" is a more like the car factory where this one gets leather seats and that one gets cloth. On the inside I bet there are a limited number of parts they all use.

[Ron Worley]

I went with a programmable Logitech master remote all set up to watch TV, watch Netflix, listen to the radio, etc. I now have zero issues with the wife running the system. Money well spent, and it is programmable to recognize the functions of every device I have.

[drew]

+1 on Gibsonman's suggestion of the Amazon Fire TV Stick. Install Kodi.tv on it and it can wirelessly play video files you have stored on the laptop, in addition to Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, etc. Great little device. The Kodi installation is a slight hassle since Amazon took it out of their App Store, but I can point you to instructions on the web.

[gui_tarzan]

[2] I suspect brand is irrelevant, but, at some level, everyone gets taken in. I'm thinking TV's are made in 3 or 4 factories in China and Taiwan. The "brand" is a more like the car factory where this one gets leather seats and that one gets cloth. On the inside I bet there are a limited number of parts they all use.

For the most part you're right. Most of the components are made by just a handful of factories. I believe it's a crap shoot, and for some reason the "new normal" is they're built to last only a few years like cars. Aside from some module swapping at repair centers, there isn't much you can fix on them anymore. It's sad really, when a 25 year old CRT TV will still outlast everything else on the market today but it doesn't give you the wide screen and high-def resolution everyone is video-recording in nowadays.

[xtian]

+1 on Gibsonman's suggestion of the Amazon Fire TV Stick. Install Kodi.tv on it and it can wirelessly play video files you have stored on the laptop, in addition to Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, etc. Great little device. The Kodi installation is a slight hassle since Amazon took it out of their App Store, but I can point you to instructions on the web.

I like this advice, and I need something to replace my failing Apple TV. I ordered the Amazon Fire TV stick!

[cbass]

I don't even have a TV anymore pro lem solved

[Colossal]

I don't even have a TV anymore pro lem solved

Ha, neither do I!

[Structo]

We bought a 60" Samsung a few years ago.

It has quite a few jacks on the back, access is a bitch since it is hanging on the wall.

If you don't use the HDMI input, you are not getting the best picture possible.

I think they are up to HDMI 2 and a proper cable can give better results even though it is digital.

Ours is not really a smart TV and I'm not sure I want one with all the security problems and having more capabilities that we will never use.

Besides with cable TV there really isn't a need for extra features that are probably better with over the air signals.

Check here for HDMI specs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_2.0

[vibratoking]

A few things:

An extra cable was mentioned for audio when using HDMI. HDMI contains audio and no extra cable for audio should be needed.

The Fire stick is good. The Roku is better IMO. Just mentioning it as an alternative.

Cheap HDMI cables work fine, unless you require a lot of length. Monoprice sells good stuff at the right price. Any box store will abuse you for a cable...sometimes by a factor of 10X or more.

TVs aren't built to fail, but they aren't out to get us either.

SmartTV performance is highly dependent on the manufacturer, the processor, and the firmware. The functionality and stability is all over the map. Fire sticks, Rokus, and the like are far more stable, but require an extra remote unless you spend for a universal.

[Phil_S]

Good news. The DVI to HDMI cable arrived in today's mail. It does a great job of taking the video from the computer to the TV. The sound has to go to the stereo...phono is the only available input and I quickly found out the PC sound output needs to be rather low. Sound quality is quite good as is the picture, so I'm quite happy with the setup, although it is a bit cumbersome to turn everything on and selected.

I paid $3.49 (includes shipping) for the cable on eBait. Frankly the seller's pictures didn't do justice to the cable. It is a plain Jane decent cable. This was, as best I can tell, the same as the $30 cable from the big box store.

VK: yes, HDMI to HDMI requires nothing extra and sound is supposed to ride on that single cable. HDMI is supposed to be the preferred method of input. If your source is not HDMI, you need a work-around.

The limited input panel means there was no alternative for audio input. This is the real crux of my complaint. I know, I chose this. I could have given the back panel priority over picture quality, but that just seemed ass-backwards. Really, the didn't have to be this cheap about it. Phones out and one more audio in -- I can't believe it costs very much to put it on whatever card they choose for the TV.

[Structo]

When I ran a HDMI cable to my old TV it had a DVI input so no sound through that cable.

But what it did have was an optical input so I just ran that.
Only used it when we watched a movie.

For regular TV we just used the TV speakers.