Kitz Forum
Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: sevenlayermuddle on December 29, 2018, 11:05:19 PM
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I browsed Netflix earlier, delighted to see a “new” Black Mirror. Oddly, the duration showed as 2 minutes. ???
Turned out the 2 minute duration was just an advert urging me to buy new hardware, telling me my two year old Firefox OS TV didn’t support this Netflix content. Nor does my Apple TV, despite running latest TVoS.
Moments later I received an email...
We noticed you tried to play Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Unfortunately, this is an interactive programme that is only compatible with newer smart TVs, most streaming media players, game consoles and web browsers, and iOS and Android devices running the latest version of the Netflix app.
Heck, my TV is “newer”, it’s only two years old! >:(
And no way do I want to sit fiddling with an iPad or whatever, I just want to watch TV. This might be the stimulus I need to ditch Netflix. Darned if I’ll pay a subscription that contributes to making of program material that’s 100% incompatible with perfectly modern TVs. :(
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this was a unique situation where the episode was interactive and required certain specs.
but sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but a 2 year old TV running Firefox OS is almost cerainly being close to "obsolete". the TV manufacturer picked a donkey for an OS.
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Per the TV, what I really wanted was a big, high spec TV, with built in freeview, but no smart features. Seemed not to be easily available these days, only “smart” TVs with built in obsolescence. So I settled for the Panasonic, on the basis that at least it wasn’t Android. :D
I’d not mind so much, but the remote has a large and prominent ‘Netflix’ button. It is so large and prominent that it’s easy to hit by mistake and so even after I cancel Netflix, that darned button will still be there. I have no doubt at all that Netflix will have paid Panasonic to put the big button on the remote, so you can’t entirely blame Panasonic.
Anyroads, over the past year or so I had already become fed up with Netflix’s inability to get the black levels right on most movies. A few recent movies have been correctly encoded, but most are still wrong. This seems to be a well known issue, though it may go unnoticed by the majority of viewers. Annoys me so much that several times recently, I’ve paid extra to watch the same movie from another source such as iTunes, rather than Netflix’s washed out version for “free”. Dropping support for my TV is just the final straw.
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support for your TV hasn't been dropped.
this one-off interactive show didn't exist when your TV came out, you still have access to the same netflix now as you did then.
strange you picked firefox OS over android though, firefox OS was never going to be the standard and was dead before it launched.
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Consider the simple economics...
Netflix’s money comes from their subscribers, of which I am one.
They spent some of that money making/buying material that they knew was useless on my TV.
That leaves less Netflix money to be spent on material that would have been useful to me, so I am getting less material available than I did before, hence my view, they have dropped support for my TV. :(
Thanks anyway for your input, Chenks. :)
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so are you saying that netflix should only buy in content that is guaranteed to work on every device ever made that has a netflix button on it?
that's just nonsense.
your mistake was that you bought a TV with an obsolete OS on it the day you bought it.
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Repeat Chenks, many thanks for your comments. :)
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I'd rather have an Android TV than Fire OS but ideally neither built in to the TV.
Sony Androids come with a horrible implementation of YouView.
LG make 1 of the best Smart TV systems with WebOS but even that can quickly become outdated.
I helped my neighbour setup an Amazon Echo yesterday. He read that Alexa can be used to control LG Tv's with voice commands so was keen to set it up.
The Alexa integration requires WebOS 4 but his TV only has WebOS 3.5
He bought the TV in the last 2 years so was surprised and disappointed to hear it wouldn't work.
Not many Smart Tv's or even dedicated streaming boxes have all the terrestrial Apps and all the big online players on a single device.
Much better getting a TV with an extra HDMI port and using an external device for streaming apps.
Fire TV, Roku, Now TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, Android boxes, and many more to choose from.
It's considerably cheaper to buy a new streaming stick/box every couple years than it is to buy a new TV with the latest smart tv features.
These sticks and boxes are also much more likely to be kept updated for longer than many Tv's.
I have a 2014 Samsung TV, just before they changed to Tizen OS.
All the main apps that came with the TV still work.
It has the main online apps, Amazon Video, Netflix, YouTube and even Plex.
It has the main terrestrial TV catch up apps, iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My 5 and even has STV Player.
If I were buying a new TV now I would probably buy 1 that comes with Freeview Play. I like how you can play catch up programmes straight from the guide the same way YouView does.
I barely use any of the apps on my TV though and instead watch through my Nvidia Shield TV (Android box).
IMO the Nvidia Shield TV (2017) is the daddy of all 4k streaming boxes.
Comparison with other boxes (https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/shield/shield-tv/)
Features and Specifications (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/specs/)
Frankly the specs are insane for an Android box.
VIDEO
4K HDR Ready
Up to 4K HDR playback at 60 FPS (H.265/HEVC)
Up to 4K playback at 60 FPS (VP8, VP9, H.264, MPEG1/2)
Up to 1080p playback at 60 FPS (H.263, MJPEG, MPEG4, WMV9/VC1)
Format/Container support: Xvid/ DivX/ASF/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS/MPEG-TS/MP4/WEB-M
AUDIO
Dolby Atmos
Pass-through
Dolby Atmos (pass-through) and DTS-X surround sound (pass-through) over HDMI
High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB
High-resolution audio up-sample to 24-bit/192 kHz over USB
Audio support: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WAVE, AMR, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, PCM, WMA, WMA-Pro, WMA-Lossless, DD+/DTS (pass-through),
Dolby Atmos (pass-through), Dolby TrueHD (pass-through), DTS-X, and DTS-HD (pass-through)
PROCESSOR
NVIDIA Tegra X1
NVIDIA® Tegra® X1 processor with a 256-core GPU and 3 GB RAM
WIRELESS
802.11ac 2x2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 4.1/BLE
INTERFACE
Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI 2.0b with HDCP 2.2 and CEC support
Two USB 3.0 (Type A)
OPERATING SYSTEM
Android 8.0 (Oreo) powered by Android TV™ and Chromecast™ built in
I also have a gaming PC with an Nvidia graphics cards so the Shield is ideal for using Gamestream (https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/shield/games/gamestream/) .
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Freeview play came as a bit of a disappiointment to me. On the Panasonic at least, it seems to be just a side-door to the TV’s native catch up Apps, ie for BBC progs you find yourself in iPlayer. And worse, when iPlayer stopped working a few weeks ago, as I refuse to sign up to an account, Freeview Play for BBC also stopped working. I don’t think Channel 4 or ITV have ever worked, as I refuse to set up accounts for them either.
For anything that’s broadcast OTA I far prefer trusted old PVR technology. But then, my “old PVR” is an elaborate MythTV set up, that can record up to 20 channels concurrently, HD channels included, all on a central server available to all my TVs. And all in the native broadcast bitstreams, so picture quality is as perfect as it was when broadcast, and surround sound works too if it was broadcast (iPlayer/FreeviewPlay often downscales resolution, does not support surround sound). MythTV is a hard act to follow, and maybe why I am so hard to please. :)
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Come on 7LM, start living in the real world ;) Things go out of date, things move on, I'm sure you know that if you want to stay up date then stay main stream, it's one program although there may be more. Netflix spends a lot of time and money making content that is useless to a lot of people, simply because it's content they are not interested in. They haven't dropped support for your TV, your TV just doesn't support some of their content.
Both TV's in my house are purely used as monitors, the main TV no longer even has aerial/satellite/network cables connected. We use Mediaportal for TV and recordings (on a central server with quad DVB-S2 tuners). In the cinema room I mainly use an Nvidia Shield TV (which receives regular updates), along with a blu ray player, oh and a Fire TV I haven't used for probably over a year as the shield is so versatile ;D
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Can’t agree Ronski.
Things do go out of date, as in kettles, toasters or yoghurt. But a TV is a pretty major investment. Since each one being bigger than its predecessor, there is often an overhead in furnishings and room layout to make way for the thing, let alone financial outlay. I cannot accept it is reasonable of Netflix to expect me to replace every 2-3 years, just to receive the full service for which that I am paying.
Even cheap PCs nowadays usually have a service life of 5 years or more, or at least they do in my household. That’s not just the Apple devices, my Linux based diskless MythTV frontends are now 9 years old, still fully functional, having survived several new releases of Myth as well as the transition to HD when freeview HD started, and to 5.1 audio when I got around to buying a sound system.
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Flipping this around ever paid for Netflix while having a 1080p screen? This mean Netflix shouldn't have introduced 4k content until they knew there were no 1080p screens subscribed to their 4k services?
You're still perfectly capable of using Netflix, just not that specific item on there, much as you were unable to view content in 4k until you'd purchased a 4k-compatible device.
It's a PITA but nothing has been obsoleted. Were you unable to access Netflix at all I'd agree but just this one piece of content not so much - there are many bits of content you can't receive on Netflix UK that are present in other territories for instance.
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Netflix charge higher subscriptions for HD vs SD, and for UHD vs HD, so I don’t think there is a comparison with this latest twist.
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They also force you to pay that to use more than a single screen simultaneously. Anyone wanting to use more than a single stream at once has to pay the next tier up, anyone wanting more than 2 streams must pay for the UHD tier - whether they have 4k-ready devices or not.
Netflix isn't a la carte. Aside from a single episode you're still able to access it. The latest release of Firefox OS was in 2015, the original release 2013. It's not being upgraded anymore so there's no way for apps to support it if they require functionality it doesn't have.
Following the example of PCs cheap PCs can't play the latest games yet you claim they've a service life of 5 years or more. You can do most things with them, but not everything. Some gaming services offer content available as part of the subscription, however people don't complain about not being able to play all of the content despite paying for access to it.
Catering to the lowest common denominator always precludes innovation.
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Whatever.
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A smart TV that cannot update its software, not very smart I guess. ;)
I have some sympathy, I think its a bit unreasonable to expect the average punter to know the ins and outs of operating systems on smart tv's, I think its reasonable to expect to not need to update a TV after 2 years.
Did Firefox OS go into abandonware?
Did the tv manufacturer fail to tie down a contract with Firefox OS for ongoing updates?
Is buying a smart tv akin to buying a smartphone where its considered the norm to replace every 2 years?
Did the tv manufacturer sell and advertise the tv knowing it was a dead platform or was it very much alive 2 years ago?
Solution shouldnt be too expensive tho, no need to buy a new tv, just buy a cheapo device that can play netflix and plug it into the tv, like a amazon or nowtv stick.
From wikipedia, firefox os
Initial release February 21, 2013; 5 years ago
Latest release 2.2.0 / April 29, 2015; 3 years ago
That is shocking, they made a product and abandoned it only after 2 years.
Also, if you got your tv after this date and it wasnt discounted for this reason, you could possibly argue it was been sold knowingly as a dead platform.
In December 2015 Mozilla announced it would stop development of new Firefox OS
It also says the ceased development only 6 months after they agreed for its use in tv's, however if its a Panasonic TV it may not be abandonware, it says Panasonic have continued their own fork of Firefox OS. So if its a Panasonic TV it doesnt seem clear what the situation is other than for whatever reason netflix have not made a new app for it.
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>> Is buying a smart tv akin to buying a smartphone where its considered the norm to replace every 2 years?
I have some sympathy, it appears that Smart technology is progressing at an extremely rapid rate. My Smart TV in the lounge has also become 'obsolete' when it comes to more modern capabilities. Toshiba just never seemed to update anything on the the 'smart' side and any updates I do get are usually for changes to channels.
In the end I abandoned the built in Smart TV and bought a firestick when they were on offer for £20. Suits me fine as it's multiple purpose - Cheaply updated my smart tv, Gave me access to lots of free viewing via Prime, I have a lot of smart home equipment integrated with Alexa.
In fact I even bought another firestick to plug into my JVC TV which is capable of the more modern technologies... purely to replace Chromecase and for Prime TV and smart home integration. IMHO the Firestick is far better than Apple TV or Chromecast.
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Bandersnatch is a new development and won't play on lots of devices including AppleTV, Chromecast, Firestick, TiVo, BTYouView as the interactive play requires caching of multiple streams... so add in the older smart tvs, there will be quite a large audience that can't view it.
I'm sure I read somewhere yesterday that Bandersnatch is an experiment and that planned future Black Mirrors wont be interactive.
You would have thought that Netflix could have implemented a default stream play. Apparently if you don't make an interactive decision within 'x' seconds, then you get some sort of a default choice. Surely it wouldn't have been too hard to fall back to a default choice for those devices that are unable to cope with caching of multiple streams. :/
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i'm glad i picked a Sony Android TV, has had quite a few updated since i bought and still runs everything it did when i bought, with some extra stuff thrown in since then.
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Yes it really would make sense to have a default stream for unsupported devices.
The TV may well be two years old, but when was the model first released?
There are many things sold with out of date software, Android phones are probably one of the worst and often never get updates. What about hardware rendered useless when a manufacturer shuts down servers for a service it relies on, now that would be really annoying.
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people should often use this philosophy when buying something.
assume it'll never get any updates and what it does now will all it'll do for the how many years you have it.
if something new comes out at a later date don't assume the device will support it.
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Interesting discussion. I have just had to replace our main TV and initially bought a Toshiba smart TV but that had to be returned as it kept crashing and had to be unplugged to recover. It has been replaced with a JVC one.
I had quite a problem finding a 32 inch TV as there are not nearly as many around now, seems like 40inch plus seem to be the majority. I wanted a smart TV mainly for the Freeview Play facility so as to watch mainly BBC programs which clash with others, as there is no plus 1 channel. Not bothered about Netflix etc. Not sure which OS JVC use but they apparently moving to ROKU in future.
Stuart
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A small confession, my TV turns out to three years old. My, how time flies. :P
I still argue the same though, three years is far too short.
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the TV hasn't stopped working, it still does what it did when you bought it.
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certainly makes me glad I didnt buy a smart tv, to me it seemed bad sense, the same functions been provided by addon box's or usb sticks, but the benefit been those devices are easier to update, and of course if you dont need those functions save the money in the first place.
Ronski's point regarding smartphones is of course accurate as well, the android smartphone situation which seems accepted by the typical consumer is pretty bad.
Ironically tho buying a phone with older android is probably better, my new oneplusix with android 8 or 9 (choice of which), breaks literally half my apps because either the apps have become abandonware and never been updated, or the developer cannot get their head around changes made by google in the OS so the app misbehaves, the android problem I feel is clearly that the development speed of android OS is way too rapid and manufacturers plus app developers cannot keep up with it. It makes me really wish that android hardware was like PC hardware so e.g. if you buy a coffee lake PC you can probably still boot up a 10 year old build of linux. But each android build is tailor made for the device it runs on so you dont have that cross compatibility meaning you cannot use older android versions on newer phones.
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Smart TV does have advantages, not least being a single remote that covers all bases. I can switch from Amazon to iPlayer or to youtube, or to my own home media servers (though that’s clunky on mine).
Yes I know you can get “universal remotes” that operate the TV as well as the Blu Ray as well as the Amazon adaptor, and etc, but they are never as good as the one the set maker designed to match the TV. With the “universals” there are invariably features that you can’t access because there is no button provided, or buttons that do nothing because your appuratus lacks that feature.
Additionally, the various stbs, USB sticks etc all add to power drain. Most TVs are pretty darned efficient, and incredibly efficient in standby, it’s a shame to ruin that. Somebody will now say you can get a remote controlled socket and plug everything into it, but these so called “green” sockets often have much higher standby consumption than a decent TV.
So Smart TVs are useful, but the media publishers need to get their heads around the fact that people will expect them to find a way of providing a long service life. In software, there is nearly always a way of providing backwards compatibility with earlier hardware. It’s just a question of how hard you try.
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Firefox had a TV OS?
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Firefox had a TV OS?
Indeed, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS
Incidentally, contrary to what has been implied by some, it remains supported. Updates still happen, they are spotted automatically and in fact are a pita, as istr it sulks and refuses to work when an update is available, until I permit it to install. :D
Mine is running 3.252, which seems to be from September this year. So Panasonic have held good to support expectations, the question is why Netflix have not bothered to support or update their App.
http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/tv/download/fw/eu_2015/down_eu_uk_cis_02.html
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7LM 'universal remotes' are pants, unless you get a proper programmable remote. I have a Logitech Harmony Elite and also a Harmony Ultimate. They are excellent and have fully programmable buttons (both short press and long press) and touch screen.
In our lounge the elite controls the TV, PC (Mediaportal), amplifier, Wii and the lights, even the wife and my daughter's use it.
In the cinema room it control's the Fire TV, Blinds, lights, projector, Nvidia Shield TV, Blu-ray player and amplifier.
They are expensive but the Elite can often be had for £120 on Amazon.
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One nice thing about setting up MythTV was, you kind find a programmable remote that you like, with all the buttons you like, then set it up work with your TV, Optical player, amp, whatever.
You then turn attention to the Myth front end, over which you have complete control as you built it yourself (you even bought some veroboard and soldered together an IR receiver), and configure the front end to “obey” the buttons on the programmable remote in a way that is most useful. For example, I have buttons to skip forwards 30 seconds, and back 10 seconds, but you could make that 40 and 20 if you prefer. And for xample I have configured the “off” button so that its effect is delayed so, if I hit it by mistake, I don’t have to wait for the system to reawaken.
If there are any “spare” buttons left over you can always find a use, such as toggling some obscure video renderring parameter, its just a case of mapping the received IR command onto something useful in the config files.
Best of all worlds? :P
As I say, MythTV is a hard act to follow.
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As I say, MythTV is a hard act to follow.
still can't play the new blackmirror on netflix though. time to ditch it me thinks!
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still can't play the new blackmirror on netflix though. time to ditch it me thinks!
Have no doubt, the decision to ditch it (Netflix) is already pretty much set in concrete.
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I've configured buttons the same for Mediaportal when watching a recording or live/timeshifted TV, up arrow 4 minutes forward (standard advert) , down 4 minutes back, right arrow has different times depending on how many times pressed such as 15 second, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3, 5 etc, left arrow same but backwards. All can be configured.
My Media PC* also plays Black Mirror, having your cake and eating it :P ;) ;)
*my lounge pc is an internally updated Elenox Artisan originally purchased in 2006.
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Just had an email from netflix, it would appear my Windows 10 PC using the official Windows store Netflix app is also not compatible - what I had started playing earlier was something telling me it wasn't compatible, I just didn't let it play long enough to realise.
Oh drat, that means my media PC and TV are obsolete ;) ;) Haven't tried it in a browser though - the wife and kids keep complaining I'm stopping their music. Oh well more cider required :drink:
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Sounds like Mediaportal and Myth share a lot of common ground.
Can’t actually remember what drew me to myth. Think I was just surfing one day and came across the concept of an open source media platform/PVR. I had time on my hands and thought it woukd be fun, so bought the bits to build a Linux PC and went from there, evolving into a separate back end server with additional front end upstairs, and drawing Cat 5 cables all through the house.
In years immediately thereafter, it became a bit of an all-consuming obsession, learning how to build, how to configure, becoming something of an expert in various intricacies of video rendering, frame rates, interlacing, etc. Then came HD and Blu Ray, then 5.1 audio (which required software patching to overcome an error in motherboard pcb tracking!).
I’ve laid it to rest as of about 4 years ago, still use it dailly, but already forgotten most of what I knew. Time will come, probably not to far off, to power it all off for once and for all in favour of modern tech, but it has certainly been an enjoyable endeavour. :)
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Its certainly can be hard work keeping everything up to date. I originally started with the Elonex in late 2006 running Windows Media Centre 2005 IIRC, then moved to the beta of Vista with TV pack, then Windows 7, in 2011 built my WH server 2011 with quad tuner. Prior to MS dropping media centre I moved to Mediaportal as it was relatively straightforward to set up.
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I tend to prefer to use either my games console (mainly PS4 Pro) or a Roku.
All the TV versions of the apps, iPlayer, Amazon Prime (I don't have Netflix) seem to all be a bit flakey, especially if I use a wifi connection. I have Roku downstairs and games console upstairs.
The app that annoys me the most in C5's app Demand 5. It's constantly buggy when it comes to adverts.
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One of the nice things about C5 for me is, there are no ads shown. The program fades to title, ready for ads, then fades back again and carries on. What a fantastic bug. :D
However, all things are not perfect. It was perfect for years then They seemed to update the Firefox OS version a few months ago and ever since, it has a habit of crashing at random intervals. And each time it crashes, it restarts from beginning of programme. Drives me up the wall.
Unlike Netflix of course, I do not pay for C5, so cannot grumble too much.
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On my PC's it works in both Chrome and Firefox.
7LM does your TV have an internet browser?
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7LM does your TV have an internet browser?
Think so, but I don’t think I have ever used it.
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One annoyance I have found on our new JVC TV is that when creating a favourite list it renumbers the channels so for example BBC4 is no longer 8 but 7 and so on when there is a gap. Our old non smart TV did not do this but retained the normal channel numbers.
This makes no sense to me as we often use the direct numbers as per the details in the TV magazine listings.
Stuart
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JVC TVs are no longer the brand they used to be.
the JVC name was sold of to the cheap chinese manufacturers some time ago. they are made in the same factory as all the other cheap brand TVs with a JVC badge stuck on it at the end.
they come with cheap build quality, cheap components, and cheap (and often useless) software.
if you want a decent TV these days you need to stick to 3 brands - LG, Sony and Samsung.
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I would have stuck to those brands if I could have found a TV of the correct size available locally. I dont buy this stuff on the net!
Stuart
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that's a strange limitation to put on yourself, but ho-hum!
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Personally I have no hesitation recommending Panasonic, as long as you don’t need Netflix.
The only nuisance is, despite powering up and displaying a picture quite quickly, it takes a short while (maybe 10-15 seconds) before it starts responding to button pressed. I guess it’s just waiting for some background process to start up.
We’ve an LG upstairs which always performs ok, but the remote barely survived the warranty period before getting flakey. Despite disassembly and cleaning, now a mere 8 years old, hardly any of the buttons still work. Now limping by on a third party remote, not a perfect match, but good enough to get by. I have Never had an issue with Panasonic or Sony remotes.
If you go LG, and you plan on using the TV internal speakers, listen carefully to the sound before buying. Some LGs are ok, others are horrible, tinny, like listing to classical music on a 1960s pocket radio.
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that's a strange limitation to put on yourself, but ho-hum!
I should have added that the new one was needed a few days before xmas initially so no time to get one on the net. Also I do like to see what I'm buying with something like this to make sure it is good enough, I dont trust online reviews - too many fake reviews.
Stuart
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I actually watched Black Mirror: Bander snatch last night, I didn't enjoy it and certainly don't want to see things moving in this direction.
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I should have added that the new one was needed a few days before xmas initially so no time to get one on the net. Also I do like to see what I'm buying with something like this to make sure it is good enough, I dont trust online reviews - too many fake reviews.
Stuart
so if you end up with just 1 shop in your area and it only stocks the cheap rubbish that is the Vestel range of TVs that's all you'll buy?
i don't take notice of any online reviews, but i do my own research and will almost always buy online, as it means it's usually cheaper and it'll get delivered to me.
the short notice thing changes that a little, but if it came to buying a crap TV or waiting then i'd always wait.
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SLM I got no doubt if developers tried then old android would run on new phones, after all its just modded linux, but both custom rom developers and the phone manufacturers have no motivation to do so, so it doesnt get done, what I meant was tho that you dont typically need to do a custom build of linux to boot new hardware on an old version, it usually just works. Whilst each build of android is catered for specific hardware, so when you change that hardware it usually doesnt work.
Does a usb stick really add that much to standby power?
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All TVs have pros and cons and I have more than one shop locally. This TV is fine and it replaces a Samsung one which packed up after 4 years just before xmas and it was the main TV for the house so needed to be replaced quickly. Yes the JVC one has a couple of minor annoyances but I have yet to find a make which does not having had Samsung and LG TVs and SONY HDD recorder they all have minor annoyances.
I like to shop locally and support local traders where possible and they are not always more expensive, for example we needed a new washing machine earlier this year and the local man did what we wanted installed it and disposed of the old one all for a better price than I could get online, yes the machine price was a bit less but to have it installed and the old one disposed of plus delivery brought the total to significantly more than I ended up paying.
Stuart
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SLM I got no doubt if developers tried then old android would run on new phones, after all its just modded linux, but both custom rom developers and the phone manufacturers have no motivation to do so, so it doesnt get done, what I meant was tho that you dont typically need to do a custom build of linux to boot new hardware on an old version, it usually just works. Whilst each build of android is catered for specific hardware, so when you change that hardware it usually doesnt work.
Does a usb stick really add that much to standby power?
old versions would definitely run, it just needs the drivers and support for the new hardward to be written.
the "version" of android isn't the only part of android. google play services is what delivers most features, and that is seperate to the android "version".
older "versions" of android can receive new features when google play services is updated and pushed out, and that covers lots of older devices.
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yes the machine price was a bit less but to have it installed and the old one disposed of plus delivery brought the total to significantly more than I ended up paying.
disposal of the old washing machine is something all sellers have to offer i believe (due to a law introduced some time ago). not sure if they are allowed to charge for that though.
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I wouldn't buy any rebadged Vestel TV personally, certainly not for my main TV.
JVC, Hitachi, Bush, Alba, Finlux (and many more smaller brands) and the cheaper Panasonic and Sharp Tv's (they only make their own high end Tv's now) are/were all made by Vestel in Turkey.
It's very easy to tell if your TV is a Vestel.
It has made in Turkey on the back, and the paper label with the model number stuck on has a barcode with 4 numbers boxed off.
Only Vestel do this 4 number box off on the barcode and it's simply the year code for Vestel TVs.
2 examples attached below.
Lots of the brands you used to know haven't made their own products for years, sometimes outsourcing, often selling the brand name off.
Argos own a bunch of Manufacturer names or the exclusive licence to sell them.
The same way JVC still exists, but they haven't made tv's for nearly 20 years. Currys have TV's made cheap by Vestel and then slap a JVC label on it, rather than their own names like Matsui/Grundig.
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Does a usb stick really add that much to standby power?
Depends whether the USB is power during stanby, I guess.
My guess would be “hardly anything”, but for a plug in USB device, I’d pitch in with a gambit of maybe around 2-5 watts. Repeat that is just a wild guess, base on hazy recollectings of USB things I have actually measured. If in doubt feel it, if it’s luke warm, it’ll be consuming at least a few watts.
Despite that wattage being nearly nothing, a very wild estimate of annual cost in pounds sterling can be made by equating the Watts to Pounds per year. So a device using 10 Watts continuously might be costing you around £10 a year, (very very very) approximately.
Flip side of course, if it is consuming power in winter, it is contributing to heating your home, so might be saving a similar amount in central heating bills. No simple answer, really. :)
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i can imagine everyone huddled around the USB stick trying to keep warm ;D
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i can imagine everyone huddled around the USB stick trying to keep warm ;D
:)
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i can imagine everyone huddled around the USB stick trying to keep warm ;D
Must be a Fire TV stick ;D
Edit, Actually that's HDMI :blush:
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It's actually both, as are most TV sticks.
HDMI for TV input and USB for power.
Not aware of any TV sticks that don't use HDMI.
My Firestick is in the back of a drawer somewhere now but it did indeed get pretty hot!
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I refuse to sign up to an account, Freeview Play for BBC also stopped working. I don’t think Channel 4 or ITV have ever worked, as I refuse to set up accounts for them either.
Revisiting this because yesterday someone else was using the TV remote on my main TV and attempted to watch something through Toshiba Places... and for the first time I was asked for a login, so it looks like iplayer are 'catching up' (haha!) on all platforms. Because someone was here I didn't want to be messing around entering passwords etc, so at the time I switched to the Firestick,... but...
today I decided to review what info I had given the BBC. They have the following info
- email address
- an alias display name (Not my real name)
- Year of birth (I don't think this was necessary - I'm sure I only put it in to stop the nag screen for certain age content authorisation)
- Postcode ( Necessary to identify correct regional news - but tbh I think I could have put any PC in)
None of the info aside from perhaps my Post code (but not house #) ties up with info held by NTVRLO.
I think we discussed this topic several months back when iplayer first started asking for login and I will just say I honestly don't mind the fact that iplayer does have my login info. I have even gone so far as to opt for "personalisation" which you don't have to. I actually find it quite handy now because it remembers how much of a program I have watched, so no messing around if I swap between TV's. It's also recommend a couple of progs for me based on my past viewing.. of which I have actually enjoyed a couple programs. (again you can easily switch recommends off)
I also aim to watch a box set it's recommended for me today, of which normally I may have completely missed, but upon reading the blurb it sounds like something I would enjoy.
So thought I'd report to you that several months back we were moaning about having to sign in, but now I find it perfectly fine and actually beneficial.
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My Firestick is in the back of a drawer somewhere now but it did indeed get pretty hot!
I've just checked. Neither of my are.
Did you have it directly plugged in to the TV? Both of mine are attached via the dongly thingy rather than direct into the socket, so not sure if that makes any difference.
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Thanks for the update re iPlayer login.
My gripe is just a point of principle, I hate signing up to accounts. I hate having to think of a new password, and I feel a shiver run down my spine when I skip reading the T&C small print, as we nearly always do. Anytime I am purchasing anything online, and the checkout process mandates register an account, I look elsewhere for somebody who’ll let me checkout as guest. Only as a last resort do I register accounts.
However... a few days ago other half remembered she’d set up an account at BBC ages ago; she worries less than I do. So we are using iPlayer on the Panasonic TV again. Glad we’re signed in as her not me, though, as we subsequently had to confirm a tick box, “I have a TV licence”. Since the licence is in her name that was fine. If logged in as myself, I’d probably have declined to confirm. We’ve lived together for several decades so her licence covers the house and is perfectly valid for my use, but even so I know the nightmare that can ensue if TV licencing pick up on anything that they wrongly think is the least bit suspicious. :'(
IPlayer on Apple TV contunues to work without login, but only in SD. Can’t remember if it was always that way, I thought it used to be HD. ???
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Some versions of iPlayer don't specify HD but say something like "Best Quality" or some similar term.
Did you have it directly plugged in to the TV? Both of mine are attached via the dongly thingy rather than direct into the socket, so not sure if that makes any difference.
Direct to the TV yes, powered by the Tv's usb port.
It's a Hitachi (Vestel) TV I inherited for the bedroom a couple years ago.
The only TV I've ever owned where Firesticks/Chromecasts keep playing after the TV is switched off.
Turn the TV back on half an hour later and it would be a further 30 minutes into playing whatever was streaming.
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The only TV I've ever owned where Firesticks/Chromecasts keep playing after the TV is switched off.
Turn the TV back on half an hour later and it would be a further 30 minutes into playing whatever was streaming.
that'll be because the USB port continues to be powered when the TV is in standby mode.
most kill the power to the USB when in standby mode.
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It both powers the usb port and doesn't tell the devices the input has changed. The hdmi cec doesn't work at all.
The usb still providing power shouldn't matter as many power them from wall sockets anyway.
Brand new tv's should have working hdmi-cec, it has been around for years.
My other bedroom has an 8-9 year old Sony Bravia.
It can continue to provide usb power when the TV is switched to standby but the 2nd Gen Chromecast connected to it knows the TV has been turned off.
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My LG in the bedroom kills the USB power when the TV is put in standby.
does mean that the firestick plugged in to it gets power cycled every day so it always running as fast as it should.
i only use it for the Dreamplayer app anyway, so i can watch live TV from my zgemma box in the livingroom.
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Most/all modern TVs seem to have a two-stage standby. When you switch off, it initially enters a standby state but still consuming significant power. After a period, maybe about 10-15 minutes, if you have not changed your mind, they enter a deeper sleep, consumption dropping to a fraction of a Watt.
I think the reason for the first stage is, if you do change your mind and power on again, it is less stressful on the TV’s electronics. It’s probably also quicker. Point is though, it is quite possible that USB power might be maintained in the first phase, then turned off for the deeper sleep that follows?
Only way to distinguish between the two states, on my Sony or Panasonic at least, is to connect to the mains via a plug in power meter, and then check at intervals until it drops to <1 Watt.