If you're looking to buy a TV in 2025, you may be disappointed by the types of advancements TV brands will be prioritizing in the new year. While there's an audience of enthusiasts interested in developments in tech like OLED, QDEL, and [Micro LED], plus other features like transparency and improved audio, that doesn't appear to be what the industry is focused on.
Today's TV selection has a serious dependency on advertisements and user tracking.
[...] One of the most impactful changes to the TV market next year will be Walmart owning Vizio. For Walmart, the deal, which closed on December 3 for approximately $2.3 billion, is about owning the data collection capabilities of Vizio's SmartCast OS.
[...] In 2025, buying a Vizio TV won't just mean buying a TV from a company that's essentially an ad business. It will mean fueling Walmart's ad business. With Walmart also owning Onn and Amazon owning Fire TVs, that means there's one less TV brand that isn't a cog in a retail giant's ever-expanding ad machine.
[...] Further, Walmart has expressed a goal of becoming one of the 10 biggest ad companies, with the ad business notably having higher margins than groceries. It could use Vizio, via more plentiful and/or intrusive ads, to fuel those goals.
And Walmart's TV market share is set to grow in the new year. Paul Gray, research director of consumer electronics and devices at Omdia, told Ars Technica he expects that "the new combined sales (Vizio plus Walmart's white label) will be bigger than the current market leader Samsung."
[...] 'Walmart has told you by buying Vizio that these large retailers need a connected television advertising platform to tie purchases to," Martin told Bloomberg. "That means Target and other large retailers have that reason to buy Roku to tie Roku's connected television ad units to their sales in their retail stores. And by the way, Roku has much higher margins than any retailer.'"
[...] TV brands have become so dependent on ads that some are selling TVs at a loss to push ads. How did we get to the point where TV brands view their hardware as a way to track and sell to viewers? Part of the reason TV OSes are pushing the limits on ads is that many viewers seem willing to accept them, especially in the name of saving money.
[...]Still, analysts agree that even among more expensive TV brands, there has been a shift toward building out ad businesses and OSes over improving hardware features like audio.
"This is a low-margin business, and even in the premium segment, the revenues from ads and data are significant. Also, the sort of consumer who buys a premium TV is likely to be especially interesting to advertisers," Gray said.
[...] In 2025, TVs will continue focusing innovation around software, which has immediate returns via ad sales compared to new hardware, which can take years to develop and catch on with shoppers. For some, this is creating a strong demand for dumb TVs, but unfortunately, there are no immediate signs of that becoming a trend.
As Horner put it, "This is an advertising/e-commerce-driven market, not a consumer-driven market. TV content is just the bait in the trap."
Related articles on SoylentNews:
Facebook Ad Partner Admits to Listening to Your Microphone to You Serve Ads on What You Talk About - 20240904
Prime Video Cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos Support From Ad Tier—and Didn't Tell Subs - 20240217
After Luring Customers With Low Prices, Amazon Stuffs Fire TVs With Ads - 20231112
The Role of TV Ad Content in Viewers' Zapping Behavior - 20220717
It's Still Stupidly, Ridiculously Difficult To Buy A 'Dumb' TV - 20220416
Vizio TVs Are Now Showing Banner Ads Over Live TV - 20220403
TV Advertising's Watershed Moment: It is Finally Becoming More Like Digital - 20200409
Smart TVs Sending Sensitive User Data to Netflix and Facebook - 20190918
Android TV Users are Seeing Ads after Latest Update - 20190404
Taking the Smarts Out of Smart TVs Would Make Them More Expensive - 20190122
Facebook Wants to Hide Secret Inaudible Messages in TV Ads - 20180703
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Submitted via IRC for SoyGuest52256
According to the patent, spotted by Metro, the system would use 'a non-human hearable digital sound' to activate your phone's microphone.
This noise, which could be a sound so high-pitched that humans cannot hear it, would contain a 'machine recognisable' set of Morse code-style beeps
Once your phone hears the trigger, it would begin to record 'ambient noise' in your home, such as the sound of your air conditioning unit, plumbing noises from your pipes and even your movements from one room to another.
Your phone would even listen in on 'distant human speech' and 'creaks from thermal contraction', according to the patent.
TV advertisers would use this data to determine whether you had muted your TV or moved to a different room when their promotional clip played.
Submitted via IRC for chromas
Taking the smarts out of smart TVs would make them more expensive
CES is always a show about the future of TVs, and this year is particularly interesting. Not only are 4K HDR TVs better and cheaper than ever, but the software side of things is opening up in unprecedented ways. Not only are Google Assistant and Alexa control everywhere, but Apple’s embracing the TV industry for the first time: Vizio and LG TVs will support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, while Samsung TVs will get an iTunes Movies & TV app, as well as AirPlay 2 support.
I just hung out with Vizio CTO Bill Baxter on the Vergecast, and the conversation was wide-ranging and illuminating. Vizio just announced its 2019 lineup of 4K HDR TVs, and they’re as impressive as ever: there’s brighter, bolder colors from quantum-dot technology for the M- and P-series TVs, and the new flagship P-Series Quantum X line has 480 local dimming zones and a wild peak brightness of 2,900 nits. In terms of pure hardware, these are some of the best 4K HDR TVs I’ve seen yet.
[...] And we definitely talked about the pervasive ad tracking that all smart TVs do — especially after I noticed the new Vizio P-Series in my parents’ house seems to ping the network an awful lot. Baxter told me that he thinks Vizio is the industry leader in disclosing what tracking is happening and letting users opt in or out during setup, and that he’s fine if people choose to turn it off. But he was also clear that TV companies are in a cutthroat business, and that companies like Vizio would have to charge higher prices for hardware if they didn’t run content, advertising, and data businesses.
[...] I guess I have a philosophical question. You guys are committed to low price points and you often beat the industry at those price points. Can you hit those price points without the additional data collection that TV does if you don’t have an ad business or a data business on top of the TV?
So that’s a great question. Actually, we should have a beer and have a long, long chat about that.
According to Doug Lynch at xda-developers.com:
Android TV owners recently received an update across multiple platforms that have started to display sponsored content with a "Promotional Channels' title in the launcher of the Android TV software. We're currently seeing reports that it has shown up in Sony smart TVs, the Mi Box 3 from Xiaomi, NVIDIA Shield TV, and others. This has been an incredibly off-putting change for a lot of Android TV users. What makes matters worse is people were unable to disable the ads at first, but Reddit user Felisens seems to have figured out how to disable them.
[...] Update: Google's response
A Google spokesperson gave us the following statement:
Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the entertainment experience at home. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we're running a pilot program to surface sponsored content on the Android TV home screen.
https://www.ft.com/content/23ab2f68-d957-11e9-8f9b-77216ebe1f17
The smart TVs in our homes are leaking sensitive user data to companies including Netflix, Google and Facebook even when some devices are idle, according to two large-scale analyses. The data were being sent whether or not the user had a Netflix account. The researchers also found that other smart devices including speakers and cameras were sending user data to dozens of third parties including Spotify and Microsoft.
The findings are likely to heighten concerns about the privacy of user data on the internet just as smart devices, including televisions, are flooding homes.
In a separate study of smart TVs by Princeton University, researchers found that some apps supported by Roku and FireTV were sending data such as specific user identifiers to third parties including Google.
Roughly 68 per cent of US households had a connected TV device, including external hardware such as Roku and Apple TV, at the end of 2018, according to a Nielsen report from March. Tens of millions of these devices use content recognition technology that tracks everything you watch, to be able to target you better with TV advertising, which now accounts for about half of all digital ads.
The Northeastern University study, conducted on 81 different devices, both in the UK and the US, is the largest published experiment of its kind, and found “notable cases of information exposure”. Amazon, Google, Akamai and Microsoft were the most frequently contacted companies, partly because these companies provide cloud and networking services for smart devices to operate on, the researchers said.
[...] By analysing network traffic, the Northeastern team concluded that third parties receive, at the very least, information about the device people are using, their locations, and possibly even when they are interacting with it. “So they might know when you’re home and when you’re not,” said Professor Choffnes.
Because much of the data being sent out by device manufacturers was encrypted, the academics were not aware of exactly what additional data were being transmitted. “They can definitely see some [viewing] is taking place, but what they can exactly see depends on what the manufacturer is sending, which we have not made an attempt to re-engineer,” said Hamed Haddadi, computer scientist at Imperial College and another paper author.
-- submitted from IRC
TV advertising's watershed moment: It is finally becoming more like digital - Digiday:
Typically, TV networks have sold three-quarters of their national advertising inventory for a given month before that month begins. However [in the USA], as of late March, only roughly one-quarter of that inventory had been booked for April, according to a TV advertising industry executive familiar with the matter. Then less than a week into April, more than half of the national TV ad inventory for the month had been booked, said this executive who took the shift as a sign that advertisers are prioritizing flexibility when spending their money at the moment.
[...] TV advertising's supply-demand dynamic began to shift in March as advertisers with businesses more directly impacted by the pandemic, such as travel-related companies, pulled their ad dollars from the market. In April, it has shifted up a gear. "For the most part, the bigger clients started to cut in April, and I think April will be the biggest [inventory] holes for the networks. In some cases, clients shifted back [to run campaigns later in the year]; in some cases, they cut in totality," said the second agency executive.
TV networks have scrambled to deal with the current supply-demand dynamic. They are working with advertisers to redirect ads meant to air during live sports. They have filled programming holes left by the live sports hiatus with re-airings of classic games and live specials. They are having their internal creative services teams work with advertisers to create new ads for advertisers that are better suited to the current cultural context. And in the case of NBCUniversal, they are reducing the volume of ads on their networks, though an NBCU spokesperson declined to provide figures for that reduction.
"All of my members are basically in 24/7 rework," said Sean Cunningham, president and CEO of industry organization Video Advertising Bureau, whose members include major TV network conglomerates, such as Disney, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS.
[...] Agency executives also see a potential long-term benefit to buying ads in April. "If clients are staying on air during March and April, that gives us a better opportunity to go back later and say, 'Look, we partnered with you during the tough time. How about helping us out in the last part of the year?" said a fourth agency executive. This person said that clients will look for either programming upgrades or lower CPMs "just to make it fair that we continued to be partners during the tough time."
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1648829114
The Vizio TV that you bought with hard-earned cash has a new feature; Jump Ads. Vizio will first identify what is on your screen and then place interactive banner ads over live TV programs.
LG and Samsung have both redesigned their Smart TV platform to more prominently display ads and highlight content from partners, much like Android TV. Meanwhile, owners of Roku TVs have complained about banner ads on live TV.
Vizio is no stranger to Smart TV ads and the company is now taking it a step further with so-called Jump Ads.
- "Jump Ads represent yet another step in VIZIO's ongoing mission to unify the smart TV experience with features that benefit viewers, content providers and advertisers," said Adam Bergman, VP of sales, Vizio Ads.
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/14/its-still-stupidly-ridiculously-difficult-to-buy-a-dumb-tv/
Historically, "smart" TVs aren't always particularly smart. They've routinely been shown to have lax security and privacy standards. They also routinely feature embedded OS systems that don't age well, aren't always well designed, don't perform particularly well over time, are slathered with ads, and are usually worse than most third-party game streaming devices or video game consoles.
Yet when if you go shopping for "dumb" televisions — as in just a high quality display with a bunch of HDMI ports and not much else, you're usually going to be out of luck. There are options, but guides on this front will usually shovel you toward computer monitors (too pricey at large sizes), or business-class displays (ditto).
[...] Of course it's challenging because TV manufacturers now make more money collecting and monetizing your personal data than they do selling the actual hardware. Last year Vizio noted it made $38.4 million in one quarter just from tracking and monetizing consumer viewing and usage data. It made $48.2 million on hardware (which also includes soundbars, and other products) in that same period.
Traditional advertising is making a comeback
Recent studies show that marketers are increasingly turning from online advertising to traditional media such as TV, in part to exploit its high reach. In February 2022, marketers predicted that traditional advertising spending would increase by 2.9%.
However, effective TV advertising requires exposure, which is jeopardized when viewers deliberately avoid ads. For instance, when viewers resort to changing the channel (i.e., zapping) during ad breaks, advertisers lose the ability to communicate the brand message, leading to wasted investment. Zapping is also a problem for broadcasters because it diminishes the attractiveness of the channel for advertisers.
[...] Becker says that "Our results show that the content of ads does indeed influence consumers' zapping behavior. While a high level of creativity in the ads reduces zapping, highly informational content, strong brand presence, and early brand timing increase zapping. Thus, to discourage zapping behavior, managers should invest in creativity and refrain from too much information and branding cues. Furthermore, the brand should be placed more toward the end of the ad."
The researchers also conclude that the effects of advertising content on zapping vary significantly with category characteristics. As Scholdra explains, "We find, for example, that informativeness is more detrimental in terms of zapping for goods where consumers can only judge quality after consumption, or experiential goods like restaurants, than for goods where consumers can judge quality before consumption, or search goods like electronics." The effects of other content factors, are category dependent as well, thereby underscoring the need for managers to consider category characteristics when selecting advertising content.
[...] Results of the second study indicate that content drives zapping through irritation, but not through enjoyment. "For advertisers, it is more important to avoid psychological reactions reflecting irritation, such as annoyance or offense, than to elicit favorable reactions reflecting enjoyment, such as entertainment, or interest" says Berkmann. Informativeness, brand presence, and brand timing drive zapping by triggering irritation and creativity mitigates zapping by reducing it.
Journal Reference:
Maren Becker, Thomas P. Scholdra, Manuel Berkmann, The Effect of Content on Zapping in TV Advertising, J Marketing, 2022. DOI: 10.1177/00222429221105818
OEMs are increasingly focused on using TVs as a way to show customers ads:
People who buy a Fire TV from Amazon are probably looking for a cheap and simple way to get an affordable 4K smart TV. When Amazon announced its first self-branded TVs in September 2021, it touted them as being a "great value." But owners of the devices will soon be paying for some of those savings in the form of more prominently displayed advertisements.
[...] Some of the changes targeting advertisers, like connecting display placement ads with specific in-stream video ads, seem harmless enough. Others could jeopardize the TV-watching experience for owners.
For example, Amazon is preparing to make Alexa with generative AI more useful for finding content on Fire TVs. This could help Alexa, which has struggled alongside other tech giants' voice assistants to generate significant revenue. Amazon gets money every time someone interacts with digital content through Alexa.
However, the company is double-dipping on this idea by also tying ads to generative AI on Fire TVs. When users ask Alexa to help them find media with queries such as "play the show with the guy who plays the lawyer in Breaking Bad," they will see ads that are relevant to the search.
[...] Maines told StreamTV Insider that advertisers had been asking for a way to advertise against Fire TV searches. "It just makes sense to expand our existing sponsor tile offering to show advertisements on the search screen with no extra effort or cost for the advertiser," she said.
[...] Amazon Fire TV users will also start seeing banner ads on the device's home screen for things that have nothing to do with entertainment or media. This ad space was previously reserved for advertising media and entertainment, making the ads feel more relevant, at least. Amazon opening the ad space to more types of advertisers is similar to a move Google TV made early this year.
The company seems to be aware of how dominating these types of advertisements can be. Maines emphasized to StreamTV Insider how the native ads are "right at the top of the Fire TV's home screen" and take "up half the screen."
[...] The banner ads will occupy the first slot in the rotating hero area, which Amazon believes is the first thing Fire TV users see. These users may have purchased a Fire TV primarily for streaming content from ad-free subscriptions, but Maines described how Fire TVs can still manage to force ads on these users.
On January 29, Amazon started showing ads to Prime Video subscribers in the US unless they pay an additional $2.99 per month. But this wasn't the only change to the service. Those who don't pay up also lose features; their accounts no longer support Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos.
As noticed by German tech outlet 4K Filme on Sunday, Prime Video users who choose to sit through ads can no longer use Dolby Vision or Atmos while streaming. Ad-tier subscribers are limited to HDR10+ and Dolby Digital 5.1.
4K Filme confirmed that this was the case on TVs from both LG and Sony; Forbes also confirmed the news using a TCL TV.
[...]
Amazon announced in September 2023 that it would run ads on Prime Video accounts in 2024; in December, Amazon confirmed that the ads would start running on January 29 unless subscribers paid extra. In the interim, Amazon failed to mention that it was also removing support for Dolby Vision and Atmos from the ad-supported tier.
[...]
As Forbes' John Archer reported, "To add a bit of confusion to the mix, on the TCL TV I used, the Prime Video header information for the Jack Ryan show that appears on the with-ads basic account shows Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos among the supported technical features—yet when you start to play the episode, neither feature is delivered to the TV."
Previously on SoylentNews:
Amazon Adding Ads to Prime Video in 2024 Unless You Pay $2.99 Extra
[I chose to pay the $2.99 extra, because why else am I using a streaming service? In the event I feel like it's not worth it, I'll just dump them.]
"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?":
In a pitch deck to prospective customers, one of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly.
As 404 Media reports based on documents leaked to its reporters, the TV and radio news giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its so-called "Active Listening" software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to "capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations."
"Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers," the deck continues.
In the same slideshow, CMG counted Facebook, Google, and Amazon as clients of its "Active Listening" service. After 404 reached out to Google about its partnership, the tech giant removed the media group from the site for its "Partners Program," which prompted Meta, the owner of Facebook, to admit that it is reviewing CMG to see if it violates any of its terms of service.
An Amazon spokesperson, meanwhile, told 404 that its Ads arm "has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so. The spox added, confusingly, that if one of its marketing partners violates its rules, the company will take action.
This latest leak marks the third time in a year that 404 has reported on CMG's shady voice targeting service. Last December, the independent news site not only put a marketing company on blast for boasting about such creepy tech on its podcast, but also revealed the existence of CMG's Active Listening feature.
Together with this latest update to the CMG saga, these stories bolster longstanding suspicions about advertisers using our phones to listen to us.
"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?" a since-deleted Cox blog post from November 2023 noted. "It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you. When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page term of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included."
Also see: Pitch Deck Gives New Details on Company's Plan to Listen to Your Devices for Ad Targeting
(Score: 5, Insightful) by WizardFusion on Friday December 20, @11:06AM (5 children)
Anyone that plugs their TV into the network for internet is an idiot, or doesn't care.
For streaming services (for those that have them) it should be via a different box.
Services like Pi-Hole (https://pi-hole.net/) and such will stop most of the adverts from being seen.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stormreaver on Friday December 20, @02:06PM
I haven't watched broadcast TV in about 15 years, but I have a few TV's in my house that serve as computer monitors. The large 4K TV's work well for that purpose.
If I ever have a TV that serves up an ad, it will go right back to the store as defective.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Friday December 20, @04:49PM (3 children)
I can only find it in comments [soylentnews.org] but a number of times there have been claims that some smart TVs will attempt to connect to neighbors' TVs or Wifi networks to upload data.
Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Friday December 20, @05:08PM (2 children)
They really shouldn't be doing that, especially if you haven't agreed to the ToS. This whole situation has really gotten out of hand.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday December 20, @08:55PM (1 child)
Not to mention that however minor the sin, hopping on the neighbor's WiFi is technically theft of service unless you have made an agreement with your neighbor and he/she is permitted to offer that by the ISP.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday December 20, @10:02PM
Yes, although, I suspect that if they cut Comcast in, they can get their own log in.
(Score: 4, Funny) by SomeGuy on Friday December 20, @01:06PM (9 children)
Why do people put up with invasive ads and tracking? Do modern TVs come with the same testicle removal vagina upgrade as the iPhone?
I hate to have to ask, but do these TVs even still allow you to turn them OFF? Is it still possible to mute or turn down volume during ads? I'm guessing any recording/streaming prevents fast forwarding?
I think I will stick with my 1990s CRT TV with antenna, VCR, and DTV converter. At least I know it doesn't track me, even though content is all ads these days. I only turn it on for 5 minutes for the "news" anyway.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Spook brat on Friday December 20, @02:09PM (2 children)
Of course not! It stays on so that you can relax, comforted to know that
Big BrotherUncle Jeff is watching out for you and ready to help you buy the products you don't yet know you need. I'm sure that as soon as the Microsoft patents on the Kinect expire that your Amazon TV will also be able to respond to your every gesture. Such a marvelous technological age we live in!</sarc>Seriously, though, George Orwell seems more visionary every year. His biggest miscalculation was that it wouldn't be the Government running the surveillance but the corporations instead. The Cyberpunk crowd could take a lesson or two from the year 1948.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20, @07:01PM (1 child)
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." — Benito Mussolini
Given the state of lobbying in the US, how is there any difference? It's been soft fascism for decades with corporate (and to a lesser extent, non-profit) lobbies writing bills. It's just recently that US fascism decided to put on a uniform, or a hat anyway so it's more obvious.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Friday December 20, @02:43PM (4 children)
They don't. The oldest addicts, the boomers, are STILL putting in five hour of hard work per day watching TV and the less addicted younger generations watch much less. Zoomers are under an hour/day now although half still watch at least something once a month.
TV peaked at over 8 hours per day a generation ago but TV is culturally irrelevant now.
As audiences shrink, what the push to viewers gets weirder and weirder which pushes even more of the general population away, etc.
The future is no TV at all, not watching more ads on TV.
There are also interesting demographic shifts where the income level of people who still watch daytime TV in 2024 does not work with "full priced" TV they have to do ad supported. Also see the ever exploding cable bill. At some point there may be a push to add just another $100 to the cable bill to get a TV along with your subscription.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday December 20, @04:28PM (2 children)
Isn't the TV that thing you plug your Hexbox, Snitch or PreyStation into?
Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday December 20, @10:04PM
Possibly, but monitors are pretty cheap and can't connect directly to the Internet, with or without permission.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Whoever on Friday December 20, @10:37PM
Personally, I connect a couple of Roku boxes to my Roku TV. The TV is not configured for WiFI.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21, @01:25AM
There are a significant number of people who leave the TV on because they live alone and the illusion of other people can reduce the feelings of loneliness and isolation. They don't really care that it's ads, and in some ways ads are even better than tv shows, and much better than movies for that. They are (or seem to be) live and current and are talking directly to the person.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday December 21, @05:47AM
Because they would rather put up with this crap than pay a lot more for a TV.
Do you think, if consumers would pay 5-10x more for a TV with no invasive features, that TV companies would decide, no, we would instead make these TVs with invasive features and sell them for 5-10x less?
If there were a sustainable market for that, then somebody would be selling those TVs. And if not, why don't you sell it, because if you think the market is there, it's literally free money.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Friday December 20, @03:36PM (4 children)
What happened before: I picked up that roadside find 42-inch Philips TV (unfortunately still a CCFL rather than LED), curious what might be wrong with it. One standby SMPS IC and one small transformer from an obscure Chinese source later, I have spent 10 bucks, or maybe 20 including shipping, on what amounts to a hands-on consumer device power supply course. Some really good educational value for the money. I also have a working 42-inch TV now, that I have no real use for.
Now, 42 inches are exactly the format that is needed to build an original sized virtual pinball table. Alas, the anemic scaling silicon in consumer TVs isn't very fast with its signal-to-eye speeds. The included software also is super annoying and laggy. Therefore, an inclined nerd may get the idea to toss out all the TV crap and replace it with decent monitor logic. It wouldn't even need to scale. Now, with TFAs stupification of TVs, it sounds like a much broader application idea than just pinball. Dump the TV crap and slap on a Raspi with Kodi or such.
In general, large screen panels have "T-Con" ("timing controller") board(s) which convert more-or-less LVDS input(s) to what the matrix needs. So the idea would be to have something that takes DVI and maps it to what the panel needs with minimal latency. I just tried searching a bit, but couldn't find much on the net. Are there any good leads or stories of people who succeeded?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20, @09:50PM (1 child)
"Success" means buying a commercial digital display, a Jumbotron if you wish. Roll yer own media player to hook up
Funny how a simple monitor can be five times more expensive than a TV
(Score: 2) by Rich on Saturday December 21, @01:30AM
Well, the DIY idea was along the lines "save that factor". The TI SN65DSI84 DSI to dual LVDS bridge costs a tenner, and if someone had a little board with it that could be hooked up between a slaughtered consumer telly's panel and a Raspi, we'd be set. Up to FHD/WUXGA only, though. 4K seems to be a little bit more of a challenge....
(Score: 3, Informative) by quietus on Saturday December 21, @11:25AM (1 child)
Maybe here's a starter [kennisportal.com] (you have to translate that page from Dutch to English). That project, coincidentally, also started with a 42inch TV.
They've used this software [mbed.com] (Pinscape Controller), and refer to this virtual pinball forum [vpforums.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Saturday December 21, @02:27PM
I've been loosely following the visual pinball stuff, it always was a vile Windows mess. But what I didn't know until now, recently someone took on the monstrous task and kludged together an environment from Wine and ReactOS bits that allow it to build and run on an amazing number of other platforms, too.
The dutch guy you linked to did just use a TV as is. This is a bit unfortunate, because, as I mentioned, the scaling hardware in such TVs may lag a frame or two.
The virtual pinball people have a lot of screen transforming going on (e.g. to run their DMD displays from a simulation), but DSI-to-Panel was not among that so far, I guess because it was so Windows-centric. With the Pi 5 becoming a viable platform, maybe this may change...
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Friday December 20, @05:02PM
Lower quality.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!