Annoying Things Manufacturers Do

pepp77

pepp77

pepp77

Soldato
Joined
13 Oct 2008
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SE London Born and Bred
Why do some manufacturers of devices not actually think things through when they make decisions on how these devices are going to act.

An example is my TV, its a Panasonic TX-L42ET5B that is about 2 years old. I use it in conjunction with my Onkyo amp, so have my HTPC, Virgin, Blu-ray and PS3 connecting to the amp and then a single HDMI to the TV. As I do not use terrestrial TV due to not having an aerial I set my TV up to automatically turn onto the HDMI port instead and the TV lets you do this but will only turn on on HDMI1. The TV also has smart features and so I thought I would use it to watch a film on Netflix, I went to my amp and turned ARC on so that I could have the sound through the amp instead of the not great TV speakers only to discover that the ARC HDMI port on the TV is HDMI2 only.

Surely common sense dictates that the same HDMI port on the TV should be assignable to both of these functions.

Anyone have any other little annoying things with their devices?
 
Hiding information about ARC in the user manual instead of the spec page for the TV.

Panasonic having adverts in their TV guide is/was inexcusable.
 
My gripe probably isn't on the same technical level as the earlier posts, but here goes anyway:

Why are the product stickers so big and garish? I understand it's advertising, but come on!
 
lucid said:
E-manuals without a proper printed/pdf alternative.... Bloody useless :mad:
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Feel for you mate, it must make your job a whole lot harder. I'm glad I'm out of installing tellies, when I first started (It'll be 20 years next year :eek:) it was tune the telly in, put the 4 analogue channels in order, & see that the VHS video was playing back OK. Not that many people had Sky TV either. A lot of people were content to have just 4 Channels to watch back then too. I wouldn't want to set up a telly if they have Sky/youview/streaming/Games console etc. & they wanted me to connect it all up there & then, then expect it to work, I'd be there all day. :mad:
 
No 21:9 crop to 16:9 picture re-sizing mode on my Samsung TV (F8000).

It has about a million different variations on stretching the picture except simple crop :mad:

My old Panasonic PZ85 did it just fine...bah!!
 
It's a couple of decades since I did a basic TV install. TBH, that wouldn't present much of a challenge today either. The issue is when building larger and more complex systems.

I often need to have a good understanding of the TVs capabilities and how it will react in a variety of different situations. For example, can I make it default to a specific input. How will it react to PC signals of various resolutions. What are the fail-safe ways to activate, navigate and exit apps? The sorts of things that a regular user will kind of stumble through by randomly pecking buttons, and the other half just won't bother with; these are the features where I need to make their use predicable, reliable and bomb-proof.

The kind of research that I do in the quote and design phase means that product selection is driven as much by functionality and predictability as it is quality. These dumbed- down going-round-in-circles E-manuals just don't cut it.
 
Grimley said:
Feel for you mate, it must make your job a whole lot harder. I'm glad I'm out of installing tellies, when I first started (It'll be 20 years next year :eek:) it was tune the telly in, put the 4 analogue channels in order, & see that the VHS video was playing back OK. Not that many people had Sky TV either. A lot of people were content to have just 4 Channels to watch back then too. I wouldn't want to set up a telly if they have Sky/youview/streaming/Games console etc. & they wanted me to connect it all up there & then, then expect it to work, I'd be there all day. :mad:
Click to expand...

Remember the posh folk that got Sky installed? The tiny white BSKYB dishes... Plus all the hype and excitement from people getting Channel 5 tuned in, back in 1994/5?
 
pepp77 said:
Why do some manufacturers of devices not actually think things through when they make decisions on how these devices are going to act.

An example is my TV, its a Panasonic TX-L42ET5B that is about 2 years old. I use it in conjunction with my Onkyo amp, so have my HTPC, Virgin, Blu-ray and PS3 connecting to the amp and then a single HDMI to the TV. As I do not use terrestrial TV due to not having an aerial I set my TV up to automatically turn onto the HDMI port instead and the TV lets you do this but will only turn on on HDMI1. The TV also has smart features and so I thought I would use it to watch a film on Netflix, I went to my amp and turned ARC on so that I could have the sound through the amp instead of the not great TV speakers only to discover that the ARC HDMI port on the TV is HDMI2 only.

Surely common sense dictates that the same HDMI port on the TV should be assignable to both of these functions.

Anyone have any other little annoying things with their devices?
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You could change the default in hotel mode, I did it on my ST50 and also my grandmothers TV which I think was the same model as yours. No idea whether it would impact warranty but it makes it much easier to use.
 
V F said:
Remember the posh folk that got Sky installed? The tiny white BSKYB dishes... Plus all the hype and excitement from people getting Channel 5 tuned in, back in 1994/5?
Click to expand...

Channel 5 Launched in 1997 IIRC. A lot of people weren't that excited TBH. Still, I liked channel 5 when it was launched, 'cos they showed 2 baseball games a week.
 
The fact that my Panasonic plasma always defaults to Freeview / DTV input when I 1st turn it on rather than simply remembering the last input used really bugs me, particularly as I dont even have freeview. :D
 
I can remember watching TV when we only had 3 channels.....:o
Before channel 4 was launched...


Always found everything on channel 4 (& BBC2) is normally rubbish anyway
 
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pepp77 said:
Anyone have any other little annoying things with their devices?
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My harmony Ultimate remote does not work with my sony PS4 which is a real pain in the ass because I use my PS4 for viewing Netflix on my plasma

This is sony fault because they will not let third-party Bluetooth items connect to there PS4..:mad:
 
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The most annoying feature i find is the HDMI av control, simple things like switching back from a device does not work, it will too but not back.

Viera link on Panas will say they are activating the device but it wont turn on, and the recorders will no longer pause live tv from the Viera link option, what was a 2 button press operation is now around 5.
 
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