Learned'd VIII: Less Bewbs, Same Nonsense

[Kompresshun]

Merry Christmas Brian and everyone else!

[WDRacing]

Damnit! Now my Happy Christmas post is gone! Damn you Chris!

[Kompresshun]

We can't win them all Brian. Plus my Pathfinder looks damn fine at the top of this page

[Xdisaster240sX]

Heres a Lama i saw the other day.

[Dattebayo]

I just wanted to share my joy about a project gone good...

I managed to repair my old HD tube TV this afternoon!
It was very tedious, but I invested only about $50 in parts and tools in it all. I had to remove 2 bad IC chips, remove all leftover solder, replace them with IC sockets (because should it happen again it will be easier), and pop new chips in their place.

I took a chance and closed it all up and put the cover back on, but it worked out and I have an awesome working tube TV that will handle 1080 no problem. Rock-on.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Nice! My parents have a similar CRT Wega that's having problems. The picture will slowly move off the right side of the screen, and randomly shake. It weighs about 523 tons and claims to be 1080p but doesn't look like it.

[Ace2cool]

I did the Walmart black Friday thing and got a 120Hz 1080p 50" Emerson for $218. I thought it was gonna be a throwaway brand, but this thing is legit as hell.

[Dattebayo]

Black Friday? Is this post from the future or the past? Pics of said time machine? :p

The TV handles 1080 just fine, its a 4x3 36", so the 16x9 version plays the same as a 32", and it's nice and bright. I love using it for my Wii!

If their picture is moving, then they need to turn the TV off and watch for the red light blinking a code. For my issue, it was 7 blinks. Check it out and let me know, you can get the codes from the TV manual online.

[Ace2cool]

Past tense, Dave. Past tense.

[Dattebayo]

Well in that case, I also got an off-brand LED TV from Black Friday, but I didn't get one with as nice of a refresh rate as you did. With 120Hz, yours probably seems almost like real life! However, I have noticed that off-brands like mine tend not to have bright colors quite like the more expensive screens do...

[MinisterofDOOM]

Impulse-bought a Radeon R9 270x yesterday. BIG upgrade from the 6870 for not much money. Can run pretty much everything on Ultra settings at 1080p again! Also HDMI out means I get to mirror my monitor to my TV for some couch gaming (great for Just Cause 2 and others).

[Ace2cool]

Yeah, I was expecting some off brand Chinese crap, but I ended up with a better TV than the people that walked out that night with one. Satisfied is not even close to how I feel about it.

[Kompresshun]

I wouldn't mind picking up one of the off-brand ones for our bedroom. Our 42" Magnavox LCD has been slowly going downhill for a year or so. I'm waiting for it to completely quit powering on and it'll get out on the curb. We got it for 50% off 6 years ago so I figure I can't complain anyways.

We've got a kick-a** 55" LED Vizio in our living room though. That thing was the best money I've spent in a while. I picked it up as an open box deal at Best Buy for $540 last year.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I made the mistake of buying an off brand several years ago when I bought my first HD LCD TV. I bought a Dynex 32'' and it is the SINGLE WORST PURCHASING MISTAKE I HAVE EVER MADE. Pile of nuclear-grade s***. The most unfathomably terrible television I've ever encountered. Every conceivable aspect of it, along with about ten million you'd never imagine possible, is done as horrendously poorly as possible. I have never used an electronic device as tremendously horrible as that TV.

I will NEVER EVER EVER buy an off-brand TV again. EVER. I saved $50 for 1/500th the product.

As bad as you're imagining from my typical hyperbole; it's actually worse. Much worse. Have to see it to believe it worse. There are not enough anti-superlatives in the world to describe it.

Even the MENUS are bad. Even the popup volume adjust indicator is pain-inducingly bad. It's all 100% unacceptable. I despise it more than just about anything I can think of at the moment.

[Dattebayo]

From knowing your posts, that probably means it was half decent to anyone else. You are certainly a creature that demands excellence...

I'd hate to be employed by you, lol.

[Kompresshun]

^Ditto Dave.

I have a 32" Dynex in my office that I bought a couple of years ago. The only complaint I have ever had is that it's 720p but it gets limited use and that's not the TVs fault. I was looking for a cheap TV and it fit the bill. $200 on the clearance rack at Best Buy.

[MinisterofDOOM]

From knowing your posts, that probably means it was half decent to anyone else. You are certainly a creature that demands excellence...

It's really genuinely terrible, not just by my standards.

The picture quality is terrible, for one thing.
It also takes ~30 seconds just to power on. It actually shows "Please wait..." on the screen while booting.
The on-screen display takes ~30 seconds to go away after changing the channel or volume, and it's got a HUGE grey rectangular background that's 5 times the size of the volume bar or channel display it's backing. Which means every time you change the volume, you lose a huge chunk of the screen.
For a long time there were no universal remotes that supported it. I bought one a few months ago that was the first I've ever encountered that works with it.
The stock remote is so poorly designed (underpowered???) that you basically have to point directly at the corner of the TV with the IR receiver for a chance at anything working. And, even then, if you're more than 6 feet away it won't work. This made the lack of supported universal remotes quite frustrating.
There's no "per-pixel" display size setting and it's 1360x768 (not 1366), so NOTHING knows what to do with it. My PS3 thought it was 1080i, my DVD player thought it was 720p but left parts of the edges cut off. Every youtube app for every device known to man gets the outer ~5% of the screen cut off because the TV won't size things correctly. (Photo of the cutoff, vs a display that doesn't suck)
The inputs are scattered all over the back of the TV.
The HDMI inputs and power port are located in such a way that any standard VESA mounting kit is obstructed by the cords sticking out from the TV. I had to find HDMI cables with stubby connectors. And worse, I had to manually cut a chunk of rubber off the power cable fitting so it would clear the mounting brackets.
It's a very low-quality LCD so there's no "sweet spot" between brightness/contrast/sharpness. The contrast levels are atrocious and there's TONS of blocky artifacting visible in darker colors.
It has an enormous LED power indicator strip running ~1-6 the length of the screen right under the center. It glows orange when off (a trend I've seen on many TVs--I KNOW it's off--there's nothing on the screen!!!) and blue when on. The blue distracts from the screen very badly. I ended up sticking blue tack along it and coloring it black with a sharpie so I wouldn't have to look at it. But, since the TV takes so long to boot (even to show "Please wait...") the lack of LED means sometimes I can't tell if the remote was successful in turning it on.
It loses its mind when switching inputs and starts hunting for a resolution setting from nothing, which covers the display in more grey rectangles displaying the data of its confusion.
The speakers are ridiculously terrible, and face completely backward behind a hanging bezel, meaning the sound goes everywhere but where you are.
When I got a sound bar to work around the speakers, I lost the ability to change the volume with the TV's remote, and any attempt to do so is greeted with another wonderful grey rectangle blocking a chunk of the screen and reminding you that "Feature not available".
You can't disable unused inputs, and HDMI is at the bottom of the selection list, which means lots of fun scrolling or repeat button pressing.
Occasionally the audio will just stop working. You have to turn the TV off and back on to remedy this (which, as we've covered, is not a quick process). This began happening the first month I bought it.

It's really, genuinely, non-perfectionist terrible.

I'd hate to be employed by you, lol.

My employees are all the best of the best, so there's no issue there. They share my perfectionist views, which is why they work for me.

[frapjap]

Morning guys! Nice long break, thoroughly needed.
MOD- I think you and a bunch of the guys here helped me pick out my tv. Its a 42" Viera LCD. A few years later and I still love the thing. The only complaint that I have is that black levels don't end up true black on streaming shows on Netflix or Hulu. HD or not, but I don't think that is the tvs fault, probably more because I'm streaming the media. The problem doesn't exist on over the air HD or the Blu Ray player.

[Ace2cool]

Pretty sure Adam (applebonker) was the one who picked your TV out for you and told you the break in process, wasn't he?

MoD, that sounds truly horrendous. I'm so happy I didn't end up with that.

[Dattebayo]

For a long time there were no universal remotes that supported it. I bought one a few months ago that was the first I've ever encountered that works with it.

As with mine, I had to find out what manufacturer made the core of the TV, in this case, having an "element" TV, I found out the core was made by another company, but they also make RCA, so I used an RCA code and it works great. That took me all of 10 minutes, big whoop.

The stock remote is so poorly designed (underpowered???) that you basically have to point directly at the corner of the TV with the IR receiver for a chance at anything working. And, even then, if you're more than 6 feet away it won't work. This made the lack of supported universal remotes quite frustrating.

I bet the IR LED on the end of the remote was pointing the wrong way. Sometimes that happens even with the best TVs and you have to crack em open and re-aim the light correctly.

There's no "per-pixel" display size setting and it's 1360x768 (not 1366), so NOTHING knows what to do with it. My PS3 thought it was 1080i, my DVD player thought it was 720p but left parts of the edges cut off. Every youtube app for every device known to man gets the outer ~5% of the screen cut off because the TV won't size things correctly.

You can use it on your Linux box at least... xrandr is your friend, learn how to use it.

I'd hate to be employed by you, lol.

My employees are all the best of the best, so there's no issue there. They share my perfectionist views, which is why they work for me.

You are actually an employer? Oh god... what is it you do exactly?

[Ace2cool]

He sells boxes of perfection. Or something.

[MinisterofDOOM]

You can use it on your Linux box at least... xrandr is your friend, learn how to use it.

Awesome idea. Once I get more desk space I will probably do that. For now, it's in my bedroom connected to a Roku 3 I got for free. Doesn't really get much use, though, as I don't really watch TV in bed.
Currently, I'm trying to figure out how to enable HDMI output on my new Radeon under Linux. It doesn't seem to see it, regardless of which drivers I use. Once I figure that out it'll make a decent fourth monitor, since most of its drawbacks are TV-specific.

You are actually an employer? Oh god... what is it you do exactly?

I manage an alarm monitoring central station.

He sells boxes of perfection. Or something.

That's just my side business, but it has hit a major hangup. I haven't found a box perfect enough to sell perfection in yet.

[Dattebayo]

Currently, I'm trying to figure out how to enable HDMI output on my new Radeon under Linux. It doesn't seem to see it, regardless of which drivers I use. Once I figure that out it'll make a decent fourth monitor, since most of its drawbacks are TV-specific.

Sometimes TV's report different modes over HDMI than they do over DVI, so try a conversion cable with one side as DVI and see if it helps. Otherwise, you're gonna have to get freaky with xrandr like I said. Did you try checking xrandr --verbose to see if the device is seen at all?

I manage an alarm monitoring central station.

You have plenty of time on your hands then, it would seem to me...

He sells boxes of perfection. Or something.

Nice follow-up.

That's just my side business, but it has hit a major hangup. I haven't found a box perfect enough to sell perfection in yet.

They won't be prefect after UPS has it's way anyhow so it's time to give up. Some things you just can't control...

[sx moneypit]

[MinisterofDOOM]

Sup.

Guess what FINALLY arrived today, after FIVE WEEKS!



It's pretty awesome. I was worried that I'd find Lollipop's lack of Xposed support too limiting, but the OS has evolved to include alot of the features I was using Xposed to gain on KitKat. I'm still missing some convenience features like proximity-based unlock-prevention (no unlocking in pocket even when power is pressed). But everything else is there. It was well worth the wait for the 64GB model, though the lack of expandable memory is still utterly inexcusable.

I'm still not sold on PenTile, though. Even at 493 dpi, it reduces visual sharpness especially on lighter objects. However, the N6's PenTile arrangement is vastly superior the one on my old HTC One S--much cleaner colors and much less edge fuzz.

I manage an alarm monitoring central station.

You have plenty of time on your hands then, it would seem to me...

??? (Not intended to sound defensive, just not sure what you mean.) I feel like I spend far less time on NICO these days than I used to, if that's what you mean. Wish I could change that.

[Kompresshun]

Sup.

Guess what FINALLY arrived today, after FIVE WEEKS!



It's pretty awesome. I was worried that I'd find Lollipop's lack of Xposed support too limiting, but the OS has evolved to include alot of the features I was using Xposed to gain on KitKat. I'm still missing some convenience features like proximity-based unlock-prevention (no unlocking in pocket even when power is pressed). But everything else is there. It was well worth the wait for the 64GB model, though the lack of expandable memory is still utterly inexcusable.

I'm still not sold on PenTile, though. Even at 493 dpi, it reduces visual sharpness especially on lighter objects. However, the N6's PenTile arrangement is vastly superior the one on my old HTC One S--much cleaner colors and much less edge fuzz.

Nice. I looked at the Nexus 6 before I got my new phone, but I just couldn't make myself like it. It's way too freakin' huge for a phone and I just can't get excited about anything Android anymore. I also looked at the Note 4, which I absolutely loved the first couple of times I looked at it but it was infected with typical Samsung BS and just didn't really seem that much better than the previous Note. I just didn't feel like it was worth the price tag attached to it at all.

Android is definitely getting better though and i've gotten the opportunity to play around quite a bit with Lollipop on my Nexus 7. It's a much more pleasant user experience now, but it just isn't for me anymore. It does a bunch of crap I don't care about and does barely anything I actually need it to. That's why my Nexus 7 sits around and collects dust most of the time.

I upgraded my iPhone 5S to the 6 Plus a couple of weeks ago and have been very pleased with it so far. Nothing really to rave about, but I enjoy the larger screen and the change back to the rounded phone design, plus I sprung for 64GB myself too. My 5S was a 16GB and that is just plain useless for someone like me. I totally agree with you there too - not having expandable storage is just plain dumb, but everything that did I hated.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm a fervent big-phone-hater but I quite like the N6's size. Why?

Well, the main reason is: this device replaces both my N7 and my N5 in one, while being as pocketable as the N5. I used to carry my phone plus tablet for work. Now I don't need the Nexus 7. Which is good, because its cheapass NAND flash memory means performance is pretty horrendous. Multitasking is basically not doable on it. The N6's screen is barely smaller than the N7s, but the device itself is only negligibly bigger than the N5 in comparison.

When the N6 was announced officially, I was pretty irritated. I was hoping the N5's successor would be another 5-inch phone but with a 64 bit processor and qhd display for a good price. The N6 is the opposite of the N5.

BUT...

I was sick of only having 12GB of usable space on the N5. I generally had 3-5 free in practical use. The biggest N5 is 32GB and when I ordered mine they weren't even available through T-mobile.

Then I picked one up in a shop and found I really liked it. The size wasn't too bad due to the form factor (curved moto style). The screen was phenomenal and the ergonomics were great.
Then I saw that it has a 3200mAh battery. And then I saw that it could be had with 64GB onboard.

So I decided to order one.

I am eagerly awaiting MultiROM support for it, so I can triple boot Android, Ubuntu Touch, and Tizen.

Just flashed a new boot image to eliminate forced encryption (which REALLY slows down this very powerful phone) which means redownloading ~12 gigs of apps. Hooray for unlimited 4G data!

[WDRacing]

I love me some big phones. The Note 4 is what I'll probably upgrade to next. The camera is 100X better than the previous versions.

As far as Samsung crap goes, um, they make the best phones and pretty much everything else electronic. I don't use apps I don't like and they don't hurt anything by being there. Unless you're so anal just knowing they are there bothers you. The quality you get from Samsung totally dwarfs any negative aspect the phone may or may not have...imho anyway.

......................................

Sweet fix on the tv Dave!

[Kompresshun]

I like big phones too and the N6 wasn't absolutely horrible to hold, but it was just a little uncomfortable for a phone that i'll use daily. If T-Mobile sold the new Moto X, I probably would've been very tempted by it because it's the perfect Android phone IMHO.

What kind of battery life have you seen out of it so far MoD?

I still use my N7 from time to time, but if it weren't for needing something to run my Torque app I probably would've dumped it long ago. It's still a decent tablet, but the battery life sucks on it and it's not really as kid friendly as the iPad so it just sits around collecting dust.

I love me some big phones. The Note 4 is what I'll probably upgrade to next. The camera is 100X better than the previous versions.

As far as Samsung crap goes, um, they make the best phones and pretty much everything else electronic. I don't use apps I don't like and they don't hurt anything by being there. Unless you're so anal just knowing they are there bothers you. The quality you get from Samsung totally dwarfs any negative aspect the phone may or may not have...imho anyway.

Samsung can EAD. Seriously. It's not even the interface that bugs me, it's the long term overall quality of their products. I think they're products are HIGHLY overrated.

Here's my biggest problem with Samsung phones though in particular - They try to market their phones and make their phones look like high end devices but they aren't. Really sit down and look at their phones sometime. Look over every detail of the Note 3 and Note 4, then walk over and look at the Nexus 6, LG G3, and iPhone 6 Plus. The only thing I found better about the Note 4 was that the screen was fantastic on it. It's a novelty though, because on a day to day basis I don't give a damn how much better the screen is because most everything else that competes with it has a perfectly acceptable screen too.

Oh and as for the camera on the Note 4, the Nexus 6 and iPhone 6 Plus whooped it's a** in every test I read. It has a really good camera, but it still has the same flaw as it always has - On paper it looks like the best camera in the world, but in real world use it is no better than it's competition in most cases.

[Dattebayo]

Samsung can EAD. Seriously. It's not even the interface that bugs me, it's the long term overall quality of their products. I think they're products are HIGHLY overrated.

AT least your no biased or anything. lol

Seriously, you must be that guy who had that one thing go wrong with a Samsung and now you're on the warpath? I've had several and no problems yet, and I'm a damn hard user of these things. As far as "quality" goes, they're actually better built than most... if that means they use a lot of plastic, than so be it. Good plastic.