Retro devices and Smart TVs

[Gryzor]

Ok, here's an issue that came to me last night as I was waiting for my TV to finish its update which weighed in at 1.3GB, dear gods.


So, I recently got me a nice new TV which happens to be a Smart TV, running Android. And playing with it, it's pretty obvious that the TV is just anohter app for it within its interface (and sometimes not that easy to come to, hence a whole large bytton labeled "TV" on the remote). And I thought, hm, it's got all those inputs, but I guess everything passes through Android and how it deals with the display. Having extensive experience with Kodi (the media player) running on Android and toying with its settings, it's obious how you have to go through the operating system to display stuff.


Which made me think, how does that interfere (maybe) with our older hardware? Sure, the TV has got all the inputs I need, but I wonder what new levels of complexity the operating system introduces. Or, alternatively, if it could be taken advantage of to give us more freedom to tweak some stuff and introduce others (say, a scanlines overlay).


I haven't driven the TV with any retro machine of mine and I don't have a CPC nearby (only a modded Darth Vader, a Dreamcast and a modded Megadrive).


Anyone can offer any ideas?

[Bryce]

I doubt the TV picture is being processed through Android. This would cause many problems for the developers that could have easily been avoided. I would guess that both the TV hardware and Android just both have access to the display memory.

Bryce.

[Munchausen]

I think it will have dedicated video hardware to take the video inputs and will then render this directly to a window (or full screen), much the same as an analogue video capture card. Probably the processor can configure it to write or DMA directly into memory as Bryce says. That or the TV is just a monitor to android and it can configure it to switch inputs and do overlays and things like that. Either way, since the control interface is connected to the processor in the TV somehow, it would probably be possible to get better control over the video settings with the right software (if this ever became available, which is a big question mark). The negative side is that it also means that there might be some processing delay, but on a good TV this should be imperceptible.

[Gryzor]

I wonder, with regards to processing, how 3D works in that case; the TV can understand when it's accepting an active 3D signal and you can even tweak it to gain more 3D-ness. And what with all the windows, menus and pop ups flying around it... I understand I'm severely lacking in knowledge at a basic level here, but the whole thing seems so much integrated that it got me wondering.

[Bryce]

If it's getting the 3D via HDMI, then the TVs processor will recognise the format and can enhance the effect as it wishes. It doesn't need Android for any of that. The popups etc are probably just being done with DMA on the display RAM.

Bryce.

[TFM]

WoW! You guys in Greece are really advanced!!! I got no TV since 10 years or so and I don't miss it. But what do I read here? A TV makes an GB update? Does it has a PS/5 built in.    Looks like that TV is a whole computer system on its own.
Somehow it also reminds me about Orwell 1984 and their TVs which could see everything. Out of curiosity, does the super TV also have microphones and a camera?


Such a TV is quite scary to me... but gives producers or horror movies an brand new world. 

[Munchausen]

WoW! You guys in Greece are really advanced!!! I got no TV since 10 years or so and I don't miss it. But what do I read here? A TV makes an GB update? Does it has a PS/5 built in.    Looks like that TV is a whole computer system on its own.
Somehow it also reminds me about Orwell 1984 and their TVs which could see everything. Out of curiosity, does the super TV also have microphones and a camera?


Such a TV is quite scary to me... but gives producers or horror movies an brand new world. 

Actually that is a valid concern. There are samsung smart TVs with voice recognition, but it turns out that they just record everything and send it back to a server for voice recognition processing because it's cheaper/easier/whatever than putting the processing in the TVs themselves. And so it is sending everything it hears back to samsung! I will not be buying one of those!

Samsung SmartTV customers warned personal conversations may be recorded -

In this article they make a direct comparison to 1984.

[TFM]

Thanks for sharing that    So it's really true. 


Ok, I stick with the CTM644 and (while in NOLA, USA) with a Sony Trinitron. They keep secret what they hear. 

[gerald]

Ok, here's an issue that came to me last night as I was waiting for my TV to finish its update which weighed in at 1.3GB, dear gods.

On a similar subject :



I don't think it needs a translation 

[MacDeath]

That's a nice Telescreen you've got yourself...


1984 is set in 2016 obviously.

It all started when both Amstrad and Apple provided mandatory Monitor with Computers... 


we are f***cked... 


I always prefer button oriented Man-Machine interface.
Voice activation may be valid for peoples with handicap, else you just try to impress the lazy or fools but this has the price of your privacy.
Well, let's say a bit more of your already largely erroded privacy.



= 1984 : had to wait less than one minute for the CRT to warm up, else the computer was ready in 1 second (even less I guess)

= now : have to wait more than one minute for the embedded OS to check your privileges and ask permission to megacorpo to start your "TV".




The funnniest part is that most peoples would willingly accept that.

[Gryzor]

I beg to differ, the TV turns on within a second when in stand by (and it consumes so little power in that state it makes no sense to turn it off). My computer also comes out of standby in a matter of seconds. AVR also turns on instantaneously, and my media player -which falls into sleep by itself- is almost instant-on.

[seanb]

I used to show people my Samsung tv would tell me off when I swore at it and now I find out its all been recorded 

[Gryzor]

Didn't the same happen with PS4? Or was it Xbox One?

[||C|-|E||]

Xbox One  . One of the main reasons I did not buy it was the policy that Microsoft wanted to impose with the crappy Kinetc (well, and many other things they said during that E3). At the end, I ended with a PS4, that is just as intrusive as the previous generation, but more powerful  . Anyway, I live in London, the city where everything you do or type is recorded somewhere  .

[1024MAK]

I have a so called smart TV. It's so smart, that after connecting a HDMI device to watch a TV program that had been recorded on a digital TV recorder (as designed to be done). We could not get any normal digital TV channels. Yet before, we had no trouble watching the channels that had been "tuned" in previously. So had to watch satellite TV channels via the Sky TV satellite receiver.
The following day, I had to contact the manufacturer, they asked which TV transmitter my roof top arial was aimed at. I gave them the reply. Then then told me the TV would not work until I had downloaded an update. I tried to use the "built-in" over the air update, but that could not find any update. So had to go to the manufacturers web site and download an update file to a USB memory stick. Then plug that into the TV.

After a while, the update had finished. Then after a retune, we finally got the normal digital TV channels back.

I was not amused. So as a result, I have never bothered connecting up My LAN to the TV.

You can forget your smart anything. I have decided that I prefer such devices to stay "dumb" 

In my house, only computers, laptops, pads and printers will be connected to my LAN.

Mark

[||C|-|E||]

I have a so called smart TV. It's so smart, that after connecting a HDMI device to watch a TV program that had been recorded on a digital TV recorder (as designed to be done). We could not get any normal digital TV channels. Yet before, we had no trouble watching the channels that had been "tuned" in previously. So had to watch satellite TV channels via the Sky TV satellite receiver.
The following day, I had to contact the manufacturer, they asked which TV transmitter my roof top arial was aimed at. I gave them the reply. Then then told me the TV would not work until I had downloaded an update. I tried to use the "built-in" over the air update, but that could not find any update. So had to go to the manufacturers web site and download an update file to a USB memory stick. Then plug that into the TV.

After a while, the update had finished. Then after a retune, we finally got the normal digital TV channels back.

I was not amused. So as a result, I have never bothered connecting up My LAN to the TV.

You can forget your smart anything. I have decided that I prefer such devices to stay "dumb" 

In my house, only computers, laptops, pads and printers will be connected to my LAN.

Mark

Same here . Well, to be honest, I do not even have TV as such, just a TV screen that is connected to my blu ray player and to the PS4. We do not watch TV at home 

[Gryzor]

Same here, I just use it as a glorified monitor.


That said, the online features like Youtube, its integrated Chromecast connectivity, its ability to install any app I want (like Kodi for instance, or Netflix), its ability to look at my LAN and pull video files from my NAS - all that make it a great device.