A bit stupid question maybe, but I've been running my TV through my PC for the last 10 years:
How annoying or workable are streaming apps on modern TVs? Because a 4k TV doesn't really help if I'm still stuck with streamers (Disney at least, as far as I know) not bothering to provide actual full HD or even 4k on PC.
if you buy a mid to high end tv they are ok because they actually put real processors in those (relatively speaking)
but cheap TVs i find pretty infuriating, even good named ones. i like samsung tvs but i bought a little 27 inch samsung for my bedroom and that shit is *awful*. every menu click is 5 seconds... 2023 manufacture date
A bit stupid question maybe, but I've been running my TV through my PC for the last 10 years:
How annoying or workable are streaming apps on modern TVs? Because a 4k TV doesn't really help if I'm still stuck with streamers (Disney at least, as far as I know) not bothering to provide actual full HD or even 4k on PC.
No streamer is going to pull down true 4k, not compared to something like a Blu-Ray. They don't push the bitrate high enough.
A bit stupid question maybe, but I've been running my TV through my PC for the last 10 years:
How annoying or workable are streaming apps on modern TVs? Because a 4k TV doesn't really help if I'm still stuck with streamers (Disney at least, as far as I know) not bothering to provide actual full HD or even 4k on PC.
There's 3 issues here:
1. Is that if the entire chain is not HDCP 1.2 compliant (Meaning the ports on all machines, the software running and the cables) some streaming platforms will downgrade your experience to 720p or even 540p. I think Netflix degrades things they buy more than the things they make, possibly because of some standard contract they have with 3rd parties. On top of that Netflix is only 4k through their PC App or Edge, they don't trust chrome or Firefox.
2. If the bitrate is bad, some scenes will still look bad in 4k HDR. Crushed blacks, scenes with snow, or smoke or explosions, or a ton of random changes between frames.
A good example dropped today in this math video, where in 1080p Matt Parker starts to look like 2008 Youtube because the other side of the screen is different numbers in every frame. You can really see it happen. In 4k on YT this does like decent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyGRDrDfbI.
In the end, YT streams about 5gb/hour when you watch a 4k thing, and a Blu-ray is usually 12gb/hour. There's a gap in total information.
3. The hardware on TVs often sucks, is slow, and spies on you, and often doesn't run things after some arbitrary time because TV makers don't want to do maintenance on their 1636 yearly models with slightly different software.
I'd advice to get a decent streaming box (The new google one, the apple one) that runs all your apps for you. This avoids #1 and #3 completely, at the price of an extra remote. You cannot avoid #2 unless you buy or ..otherwise access Blurays.
It is also a boon for somewhat frequent travellers, one of my friends brings their streaming box with him everywhere, plugs it into the TV and sets up the wifi, and can (Geofencing aside) watch the same stuff everywhere, and everyone in the family knows the UI.
Honestly in your use case a more modern streaming box/device like an Apple 4K TV or the latest Chromecast (make sure its the latest one!) will give you much better resolution than what you could get on even a theoretical, 5090, Intel 15th gen/AMD 9900X3D cpu could get you. Precisely because there is basically zero investment on the part of the streamers and Microsoft to give anyone watching from a PC browser anything resembling an actual 4K resolution or HDR/HD Audio standard.
Edit: Like for example for a little while Win 10/11 used to have Dolby Atmos and Digital support -- but it was summarily rescinded in a recentish update. And to date there's been no standard to encode HDR through a web browser for streaming.
Disney doesn't even have an actual app for windows. It basically just opens Edge. And through that it's limited to 720p. So I'm not even expecting full 4k quality but HD at least.
And yeah, dark scenes and gradients and blacks suck with streaming regardless.
Thanks for the rundown. Might look into the streaming boxes when I get around to a new TV someday
For the longest time Pacific Rim was my test movie of choice but I haven't really decided one for 4K HDR yet.
I can't remember the first but the first time we watched the Matrix 2 DVD was just after moving house
It took us an hour to realise that while the Matrix is green, it's not meant to be that green. The RGB cable was loose and only sending one channel to the TV
+13
Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Honestly in your use case a more modern streaming box/device like an Apple 4K TV or the latest Chromecast (make sure its the latest one!) will give you much better resolution than what you could get on even a theoretical, 5090, Intel 15th gen/AMD 9900X3D cpu could get you. Precisely because there is basically zero investment on the part of the streamers and Microsoft to give anyone watching from a PC browser anything resembling an actual 4K resolution or HDR/HD Audio standard.
Edit: Like for example for a little while Win 10/11 used to have Dolby Atmos and Digital support -- but it was summarily rescinded in a recentish update. And to date there's been no standard to encode HDR through a web browser for streaming.
The Google chromecast is fine, but if you have an iPhone the quality of life of the Apple tv is significantly better.
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Also Apple is the only company that doesn't actively sell your data. They're like Radio Shack - they want the data but selfishly, they keep it to themselves.
Doesn't mean they won't hit hard times and start selling it in the future though!
lol I suppose netflix is right not to trust firefox at least, it is trivially easy to switch to an unprotected video rendering mode that slightly degrades video performance but turns off the bullshit anti-screen-capturing DRM that prevents you from streaming netflix video to watch with someone remotely.
No love for Roku's set top boxes? I've far and away preferred their UI/remotes over some of the other products (though Apple isn't awful).
They're fine as a device but they're all about selling your data and injecting ads everywhere they can.
Huh, I went into that hidden settings menu and hid all that crap, I find mine to be fairly free of ads. I'm sure they collect data, at this point I've somewhat given up on that detail as everything does these days.
0
minor incidentexpert in a dying field---Registered Userregular
I mostly like the Apple TV because it’s the only set top streaming box that doesn’t feel woefully underpowered and barely able to keep up with its own UI.
I’m sure others have gotten better in the last couple of years, but for a while there every one of those boxes and sticks felt like navigating through molasses.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
The tool, called Locate X and made by a company called Babel Street, then narrows down to the movements of a specific device which had visited the clinic. This phone started at a residence in Alabama in mid-June. It then went by a Lowe’s Home Improvement store, traveled along a highway, went past a gas station, visited a church, crossed over into Florida, and then stopped at the abortion clinic for approximately two hours. They had only been to the clinic once, according to the data.
The device then headed back, and crossed back over into Alabama. The tool also showed their potential home, based on the high frequency at which the device stopped there. The tool clearly shows this home address on its map interface.
In other words, someone had traveled from Alabama, where abortion is illegal after the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, to an abortion clinic in Florida, where abortion is limited but still available early in a pregnancy. Based on the data alone, it is unclear who exactly this person is or what they were doing, whether they were receiving an abortion themselves, assisting someone seeking one, or going to the clinic for another reason. But it would be trivial for U.S. authorities, some of which already have access to this tool, to go one step further and unmask this or other abortion clinic visitors.
i'm leaning hard towards burning all the electronics and disappearing into the mountains
The tool, called Locate X and made by a company called Babel Street, then narrows down to the movements of a specific device which had visited the clinic. This phone started at a residence in Alabama in mid-June. It then went by a Lowe’s Home Improvement store, traveled along a highway, went past a gas station, visited a church, crossed over into Florida, and then stopped at the abortion clinic for approximately two hours. They had only been to the clinic once, according to the data.
The device then headed back, and crossed back over into Alabama. The tool also showed their potential home, based on the high frequency at which the device stopped there. The tool clearly shows this home address on its map interface.
In other words, someone had traveled from Alabama, where abortion is illegal after the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, to an abortion clinic in Florida, where abortion is limited but still available early in a pregnancy. Based on the data alone, it is unclear who exactly this person is or what they were doing, whether they were receiving an abortion themselves, assisting someone seeking one, or going to the clinic for another reason. But it would be trivial for U.S. authorities, some of which already have access to this tool, to go one step further and unmask this or other abortion clinic visitors.
i'm leaning hard towards burning all the electronics and disappearing into the mountains
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
The bizarre amount has been calculated after a four-year court case that started after YouTube banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to the US sanctions imposed against its owner. Following Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 more channels were added to the banned list and 17 stations are now suing the Chocolate Factory, including Zvezda (a TV channel owned by Putin's Ministry of Defence), according to local media.
"Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels," lawyer Ivan Morozov told state media outlet TASS.
The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Owing to compound interest (Einstein's eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called “a case in which there are many, many zeros.”
The bizarre amount has been calculated after a four-year court case that started after YouTube banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to the US sanctions imposed against its owner. Following Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 more channels were added to the banned list and 17 stations are now suing the Chocolate Factory, including Zvezda (a TV channel owned by Putin's Ministry of Defence), according to local media.
"Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels," lawyer Ivan Morozov told state media outlet TASS.
The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Owing to compound interest (Einstein's eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called “a case in which there are many, many zeros.”
If Google had that much money couldn't they just buy Russia?
They could buy the entire world with that kind of money.
Good news, XKCD has already done the math. The Russian fine is only a hundred times smaller than the fine covered in this What If? so just knock two zeroes off and everything else still goes.
Here's how much the elements making up the Earth's crust were worth at 2014 market rates compared to a $2 undecillion fine:
The number is probably a bit different now due to inflation and different pressures on the commodities market, but I'm pretty confident the overall math still holds up. So you'd still have to completely mine the crusts of over 10 trillion earthlike planets to get within the ballpark of $20 decillion.
Numbers get real goofy when you keep stacking up the zeroes.
If Google had that much money couldn't they just buy Russia?
They could buy the entire world with that kind of money.
Good news, XKCD has already done the math. The Russian fine is only a hundred times smaller than the fine covered in this What If? so just knock two zeroes off and everything else still goes.
Here's how much the elements making up the Earth's crust were worth at 2014 market rates compared to a $2 undecillion fine:
The number is probably a bit different now due to inflation and different pressures on the commodities market, but I'm pretty confident the overall math still holds up. So you'd still have to completely mine the crusts of over 10 trillion earthlike planets to get within the ballpark of $20 decillion.
Numbers get real goofy when you keep stacking up the zeroes.
I'm on a M1 Pro currently, so it feels like there are gains there for myself. Out side of the chip itself, I'd be bumping up from 512gb to 1tb which is nice and then memory of 16gb to 24gb.
A lot of photoshop and lightroom, photo stacking apps but that's all personal and then I do game on mine currently.
Posts
For the longest time Pacific Rim was my test movie of choice but I haven't really decided one for 4K HDR yet.
My dad was an F-4 engine mechanic in the air force.
How annoying or workable are streaming apps on modern TVs? Because a 4k TV doesn't really help if I'm still stuck with streamers (Disney at least, as far as I know) not bothering to provide actual full HD or even 4k on PC.
but cheap TVs i find pretty infuriating, even good named ones. i like samsung tvs but i bought a little 27 inch samsung for my bedroom and that shit is *awful*. every menu click is 5 seconds... 2023 manufacture date
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
No streamer is going to pull down true 4k, not compared to something like a Blu-Ray. They don't push the bitrate high enough.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
There's 3 issues here:
1. Is that if the entire chain is not HDCP 1.2 compliant (Meaning the ports on all machines, the software running and the cables) some streaming platforms will downgrade your experience to 720p or even 540p. I think Netflix degrades things they buy more than the things they make, possibly because of some standard contract they have with 3rd parties. On top of that Netflix is only 4k through their PC App or Edge, they don't trust chrome or Firefox.
2. If the bitrate is bad, some scenes will still look bad in 4k HDR. Crushed blacks, scenes with snow, or smoke or explosions, or a ton of random changes between frames.
A good example dropped today in this math video, where in 1080p Matt Parker starts to look like 2008 Youtube because the other side of the screen is different numbers in every frame. You can really see it happen. In 4k on YT this does like decent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyGRDrDfbI.
In the end, YT streams about 5gb/hour when you watch a 4k thing, and a Blu-ray is usually 12gb/hour. There's a gap in total information.
3. The hardware on TVs often sucks, is slow, and spies on you, and often doesn't run things after some arbitrary time because TV makers don't want to do maintenance on their 1636 yearly models with slightly different software.
I'd advice to get a decent streaming box (The new google one, the apple one) that runs all your apps for you. This avoids #1 and #3 completely, at the price of an extra remote. You cannot avoid #2 unless you buy or ..otherwise access Blurays.
It is also a boon for somewhat frequent travellers, one of my friends brings their streaming box with him everywhere, plugs it into the TV and sets up the wifi, and can (Geofencing aside) watch the same stuff everywhere, and everyone in the family knows the UI.
Edit: Like for example for a little while Win 10/11 used to have Dolby Atmos and Digital support -- but it was summarily rescinded in a recentish update. And to date there's been no standard to encode HDR through a web browser for streaming.
And yeah, dark scenes and gradients and blacks suck with streaming regardless.
Thanks for the rundown. Might look into the streaming boxes when I get around to a new TV someday
I can't remember the first but the first time we watched the Matrix 2 DVD was just after moving house
It took us an hour to realise that while the Matrix is green, it's not meant to be that green. The RGB cable was loose and only sending one channel to the TV
The Google chromecast is fine, but if you have an iPhone the quality of life of the Apple tv is significantly better.
Satans..... hints.....
Doesn't mean they won't hit hard times and start selling it in the future though!
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
They're fine as a device but they're all about selling your data and injecting ads everywhere they can.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Huh, I went into that hidden settings menu and hid all that crap, I find mine to be fairly free of ads. I'm sure they collect data, at this point I've somewhat given up on that detail as everything does these days.
I’m sure others have gotten better in the last couple of years, but for a while there every one of those boxes and sticks felt like navigating through molasses.
There's an old Chromecast Ultra for anything the PS5 can't do.
i'm leaning hard towards burning all the electronics and disappearing into the mountains
Well that's fucking horrifying.
PSN:Furlion
A representative government would have put reasonable privacy laws in place.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2024/10/29/russian_court_fines_google/
Finally, a fine with some real teeth.
PSN:Furlion
is okay. we set up easy payment plan.
They could buy the entire world with that kind of money.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Good news, XKCD has already done the math. The Russian fine is only a hundred times smaller than the fine covered in this What If? so just knock two zeroes off and everything else still goes.
Here's how much the elements making up the Earth's crust were worth at 2014 market rates compared to a $2 undecillion fine:
The number is probably a bit different now due to inflation and different pressures on the commodities market, but I'm pretty confident the overall math still holds up. So you'd still have to completely mine the crusts of over 10 trillion earthlike planets to get within the ballpark of $20 decillion.
Numbers get real goofy when you keep stacking up the zeroes.
Of course he's already done the math, lol.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I see the pages are up, might grab me a 14"
I would have loved to have seen an OLED screen, but looks like that could be a couple years still.
in many respects it is the most impressive computer i have ever used
its about 80% as fast as my tower but uses 10% as much electricity and makes 1% as much heat
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
A lot of photoshop and lightroom, photo stacking apps but that's all personal and then I do game on mine currently.
I ran a windows emulator and ran a copy of Steam on my mini for games that weren’t supported. Worked pretty decent
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981