El Reg reports
The NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council] reckons TV makers are configuring sets to perform well on government tests, while in the living room they become energy hogs.
Its specific claims are:
- The TVs perform well on the US Department of Energy-mandated energy use test--but that's based on a clip that doesn't match real-world video content. ([To El Reg,] that seems like a slip-up by the DoE);
- TVs from Samsung, LG, and Vizio are designed to disable energy-saving features if the user changes their screen settings, but there's little or no warning about this. This, the NRDC says, can as much as double the power consumption; and
- UHD TVs turn into energy hogs when they're playing high dynamic range (HDR) content, but HDR isn't included in the DoE's test (again, surely that means the DoE needs to update its tests?).
The NRDC says European testing seemed to match another observation it made: that during the DOE test loop, some TVs seemed to exhibit "inexplicable and sustained drops in energy use". It suggests that software is specifically detecting the test loop and adjusting the TV's performance to suit.
One assumes that "a clip" refers to the standard video loop used in the tests.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 23 2016, @09:18PM
I said clips, I'm thinking like 30 seconds of video (per year captured) should be adequate.
Yes, the whole problem is in the stickers - I think energy consumption standards make about as much sense as CAFE for cars (little to none).
If I compare two TVs, and they're claiming to draw 30W and 45W, but respectively pull 150W and 50W in my normal use case, because vendor A has gamed the standard, then that's a problem that I want fixed.
The point of capturing new test clips on a regular basis is to reduce the temptation to game the system - recognizing a test clip becomes harder when it changes every year - harder still if you don't have access to all of the test clips.
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