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So one of my three year old kids smashed my 65" LED flatscreen with a die-cast model of the Atlantis shuttle. I was fine with this and was not planning on buying a replacement in any haste but my wife keeps complaining. Would prefer at least 65"+ and absolutely not a smart tv. What suggestions do you have, companies to avoid, etc. Help me SN, you are probably my only hope of not just buying another spysung.
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< nobse> bleh... last night I had a dream... someone NMU'ed vim...
nightmare
-- in #debian-devel
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:29PM (7 children)
As a household, how much TV do you watch on average? And is clarity of image a major issue? If the answers are "less than three hours a day" and "not really" then at least glance at projectors, as an extra bonus if you are good at interior decoration/home improvement you can hide the presence of projector and canvas when not in use.
(Just make sure it can take all the inputs needed - my cable provider streams via chromecast as well...)
Might be a bit more expensive, but not having a TV-sized rectangle of fragile dead wallspace is quite nice.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday January 20 2018, @09:23PM (6 children)
I don't watch TV, but do use netflix and watch moves, and we play games and the clarity of a large 4k TV even for 1080p content makes the text easier to read.
Projectors are also a PITA to wire and use with remotes since they aren't where the rest of the 'stuff' is. I looked at them seriously back when RPTVs and DLP and Plasma were common, but never got one, and now with thin lightweight LED models, I don't think projection brings a lot to the table... unless you are building an honest to goodness home *theatre* and want super massive screen.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Saturday January 20 2018, @09:49PM (5 children)
Wiring is trivial if the house was planned for excessive light (I have a nice little secondary power-plug wired about 15cm/6in from the celing), but even beyond that you only need a a single cable (power, everthing else you send wireless) which often can be hidden (I tend to run cable ducts in the celing/wall junction everywhere [even if empty] and painted in the average colour between wall and celing to allow me to really hide cabling, and one time has been seen to make them match the floorlevel molding).
Regarding the IR - either put up an IR reflector, or IR repeater and it is solved. In my case I dont really mind pointing up instead of forward when operating a projector (nor point far left when issuing commands to the secondary pi). Or even crazier, since you don't use the TV to plan everything around just hide the amp near enough to the projector to be able to run a single IR-repeater to the amp (and nothing really prevents you from using PIs as wireless IR-psuedo-repeaters, this can allow for the simple "master power off" to turn off all TVs and projectors in the house from a single button).
The issue with projectors is that they either are dim, very dim, expensive, (bool)or powerhungry - and rarely (in the sub2k usd range) with good picture but luckily most people has bad enough eyesight to not notice when viewing normally.
(A thing about the resolution and size btw, currently my 1920x1080 24in monitor seems blurry compared to my 40in 1920x1080 TV, mainly due to the fact that the monitor is about 1.5m/5ft away and the tv is 3.5m/11ft away - viewing distance matters quite a bit [perception-wise the monitor is about 20% bigger]).
But I agree that a projector is an issue if you demand clarity of picture (or watch it a lot) - which is why I entered that as conditionals.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:23PM (4 children)
Yeah, i guess it depends. My ceiling in the TV room does NOT have any extra power outlets. And worse, I have a ceiling fan that would complicate line of sight from where the most obvious place for the projector to be, and it would be clutzy to work around. But obviously everyone has a different situation there.
You are right about IR reflectors solving the remote issue. I don't have an issue with pointing at the ceiling, but but if the receiver is here and the projector is there, and I'm using a universal remote... an IR reflector just makes sense. Plus I think its ingrained instinct to point the remote at the picture. Its always irritating if your using the equipment at someone elses house and you have to point off in some weird direction for the remote to work. :)
You mention using wireless for everything else. (ie all your input sources); how well does that work, and what kind of additional gear is required? Can it do 4k? Is it subject to interfence or latency? I guess in your case, your not attaching much to to it? I've got a PC attached to mine, plus a console, plus occasionally the kids drag out the original NES or intellivision for some lulz. Running wires from that stuff up to a projector would be a big hassle, but maybe a wireless link would work.
Display latency is always a big concern for games; stuff like super mario bros and even DDR is unplayable if there is too much display lag; plus audio sync gets painful if you are using a separate receiver/speaker system and the display lags enough to get the lipsync out of whack. I used to have a TV that had all these fancy 'modes' "theatre", and "motion smoothing" etc but it was all useless due to lag. Fortunately it had a 'game mode' with no processing but I had to use that for EVERYTHING including movies because the display lag caused by using the processing modes threw the audio out of sync. (And my receiver didn't have any setting to delay the audio -- i've since seen that's a thing in some models.) My only other choice was to grab the audio out from the TV and run it back into the receiver after the video processing was done, and that worked but then I only had stereo instead of DTS surround. Sometimes you just can't win. :)
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Sunday January 21 2018, @01:00AM
My wireless sources are bluetooth for audio (works well, I like those 3.5mm to bluetooth things when dealing with consumer-tech), chromecast for guests (a friend loves netflix) and youtube, steam link for gaming, and an RPi2 (with HW decoding) or RPi3 for media and VNC.
The net is an AC2600 class with the router placed so that no spot has more than one wall and 8m to it, everything at 5GHz. Most receiver-units are located very near the centre of the apartment.
The lag, well, for the RPi it depends on where the sources really originates from (locally is no issue). But for the steam link it is fast enough for gaming but not fast enough to be imperceptible (less lag than the difference between the "Gaming" and "Movie" modes on the TV however).
The separation of channels - yeah, that can be an issue. But so far none that I've noticed (doesn't say much however since I don't play any game where sound matters, for lipsync it is within tolerance when using consumer tech and adjusted as needed (per movie and selection of speakers) in mpv/mplayer/kodi.
Interference is not an issue in my case.
I don't attach much to the screens, just an HDMI-switch that can be told to change source via IR ;) (that however has a steam link, a chromecast and an RPi hooked up to it, I do this with all screens - and use the forth port for any nearby computer (or hook up a second switch if I really run out of ports) - duplication of setups means it is a nobrainer for anyone to just pick what screen they want to use).
Never tried 4K (nor really seen the point with it - my main movieviewing still is a mix of 480p and 720p) so can't say anything about that.
I recently has to toss all my classic consoles (well, ok, my sister got them) due to issues involving a move, hence all my stuff is right now quite new. But up until that point it was a PITA to get RF up to HDMI to transport.
However - I do admit to some degree of cheating - I do have a 5m HDMI-cable laying near each screen as well for when stuff really refuses to work and I don't feel like dealing with things (this is what is hooked into the fourth port of the HDMI-switch if no computer needs it).
Oh yeah, and my hifi-amp does Dolby and DTS and speaks Toslink just fine with the TV - so with the TV sync is never an issue (actually checked that the TV could talk with my amp properly before buying)
Regarding the celing fan and power - let's just say that if you don't use the fan it might be worth buying your local electrician a drink to discuss the possibilities :) (do not try taking power that way before talking to an electrician however)
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday January 21 2018, @05:32AM (2 children)
I also think you should at least look into projectors. They don't have to be mounted on a ceiling. You'd be amazed at the options out there, for very low cost. They have projectors with very short-throw lenses- designed to "throw" the image up, big, clear, bright, very close to the wall/screen (bizarre looking lenses). https://www.projectorpeople.com/Epson-PowerLite-530-for-SMART/Projector/38957 [projectorpeople.com]
This may not have the resolution you want, but otherwise it's pretty awesome and portable: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L8E5AIS/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01L8E5AIS&pd_rd_wg=mW31Y&pd_rd_r=7Z910ZA2C06MBM6GQ5G6&pd_rd_w=YYb0D [amazon.com]
Or: https://www.sony.com/electronics/projector/lspx-w1s [sony.com]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday January 21 2018, @04:40PM (1 child)
Projectors is the most likely option at this point, havent looked at them too much but seen some nice ones out there. Biggest thing for me when it comes to projectors is noise.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday January 21 2018, @11:09PM
Yes, some of them are crazy loud. I don't know why someone would design / produce something that loud, nor why someone would buy it and not return it. Some of them are essentially silent now.