New Technology

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Just when I thought I was safe…

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I was quite chuffed recently when setting up my Bluetooth enabled Radiolink TX on my smart phone. The App was an obvious revelation in managing th limits and orientation of each of the 8 channels. Good result!

However, I have just bought a new TV to replace our 2014 'sort of smart' model. Nothing special, just a middle of the road budget set it appears. Good enough for the signal you get from Freeview.

It arrived yesterday with pictorial instructions on how to screw it to the stand and that was pretty much it. No other information. Forewarned by online reviews I sought out the online manual which I found runs to 160 pages so I downloaded that and printed out a selection of what seemed to be the most relevant ones for setting the thing up.

The options are nothing short of amazing and equally confusing. It took me all morning to get the beast into a semblance of working mode and connected to my internet router but I got there eventually..

Having mastered the basics I now have to delve into the fine tuning. Waving the remote around produces a cursor onscreen to allow you to select choices as opposed to stepping throught the options but finding all the relevant choices is still elusive. I could find myself playing with the thing for days on end!

My old TV needed to use an optical digital sound connection to the soundbar as there were no free HDMI sockets, The new TV seems to be a bit picky about the optical connection, it works but you can't change the volume on the TV remote, only on the soundbar.m Reading the manual suggests that an HDMI ARC connection might make things easier so I have ordered a suitable cable

When I was a kid we didn't have TV for years at all and people who did had big cabinets with the cathode ray tube mounted horizontally inside and displaying the picture via a 45 degree mirror. Lots of shiny varnish surrounding the small picture.

In 1971 after I got married we just had a black and white portable. In the early 80s I spent a fortune (£250) on a colour portable so I could develop games for my Sinclair Spectrum 48k. I sold two of them to Model Boats magazines and you can still download and play them using an emulator.. It didn't make much money but my new skills impressed my employers and launched me into a new career direction which really paid off in the long term with my present pension. Such is life!

Anyway, I surprised Mrs B by linking into YouTube and playing 'Peaceful Easy Feeling' by the Eagles which was not exactly my feeling at the time! It did help though!

Colin

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

I wouldn't normally condone putting children to work but they're good at tech stuff, our grandchildren could probably setup in half an hour what would take us half a day. It's not really work and they could be rewarded by playing the games that they find in the TV system. Or ice-cream.

Ask them what windmills do – if they say "make electricity", you know they'll be able to setup your TV!

Dave

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Unfortunately no Grandchildren so we are on our own! Some of us Boomers have to hold out out until the end!

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Tellys so cheap now, relatively speaking. I would love a smart tv, but the present 43 inch flat screen is working well and I wouldn’t ditch it just for the sake of it. This is a replacement for our big 26 inch crt job which expired on a Christmas Day some years ago so we went out and got one at B&Q or somewhere on the Boxing Day (sales). For about £50 extra we could have had a massive 50 inches but it just didn’t fit the gap betwixt wall and chimney breast.

Not tried linking it to the pad or laptop to use as a massive screen presumably an easy thing to do (?.?) and then it would be a smart-telly! It’s got a USB port and some other holes.

Ashley

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Ashley

Yes it is very easy to connect a computer to the TV – an HDMI cable will do the picture but doen not carry sound. If you want sound the you need a separate audio cable (nnormally 3.5mm stereo headphone jack to phono plugs.

A couple of other thing to be careful of. Your TV normally does lots of procssing of the picture but for a computer monitor you do not want that. There will be (on all the TV's that I have been involved with) one of the HDI slots on the TV that can be set up as a PC monitor with no processing.

Secondly you might loose the edges of the image on the TV. There will be an adjustment somewhere on your TV menus to correct this.

None of the above changes your normal TV viewing.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Cheers Chris. I will have a butchers at some time. Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

HDMI ARC cable arrived this afternoon and I identified the correct ARC enabled sockets on the TV and soundbar. It appears to have actually worked. Sound is much better. Bit of a struggle accessing the two sockets though. Optical link disconnected.

Tried retuning the set this afternoon hoping for London channels. It offers a choice of South, South East or London regions but will only actually store the South region channels. We live halfway between London and the Coast so can live with that.

Hopefully the basics are now all working and I can explore some of the bells and whistles such as Bluetooth connection to my hearing aids.

I have to say this has all been almost as difficult as pulling my socks on each morning…

Edited By Colin Bishop on 25/09/2023 17:23:22

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Hi Colin,

Now you're all tech savvy, you should check out your camera. You might find it has a mini HDMI connector so you can look at all those lakeside photos and videos on your new TV!

(with a mini HDMI to HDMI cable)

Dave

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Had one of those for a while but connecting laptop to PC to display photos. TV also accepts USB drives.

Colin

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Posted by Chris E on 25/09/2023 09:02:41:

Ashley

Yes it is very easy to connect a computer to the TV – an HDMI cable will do the picture but doen not carry sound. If you want sound the you need a separate audio cable (nnormally 3.5mm stereo headphone jack to phono plugs.

A couple of other thing to be careful of. Your TV normally does lots of procssing of the picture but for a computer monitor you do not want that. There will be (on all the TV's that I have been involved with) one of the HDI slots on the TV that can be set up as a PC monitor with no processing.

Secondly you might loose the edges of the image on the TV. There will be an adjustment somewhere on your TV menus to correct this.

None of the above changes your normal TV viewing.

It appears that HDMI does carry sound if the computer is set to allow it to do so. Personally I have always used the audio connectors but it shouldn't be necessary.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Yes HDMI will carry soumd (maybe not all cables) but the sockets at each end need to be configured to transmit/accept it. Only one of the HDMI sockets on my TV is set up to control the soundbar which allows volume to be controlled from the TV remote.This has to be selected in the TV settings.

It's very much a case of reading the small print for each device. You can't necessarily assume plug and play.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

The small print these days is often so small that I can’t read it, and it is not helped by the ever-popular fasion of light grey letters on a white background!  

 

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