OT: Why do flat-panel sets take so long to come on?

Synchronisation with the input signal, at a guess.

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    W
  . | ,. w ,   "Some people are alive only because
   \\|/  \\|/     it is illegal to kill them."    Perna condita delenda est
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CPU boot time diagnostic checks check for signal at input(s) setting up items in memory (last used input, etc)

My Sharp has a "Wait" message that pops up almost immedately. The signal from the "last used input" takes much longer.

Looks very much like booting a PC: put something up immediately (boot ROM on motherboard) then start the operating system and its "wait while I get started" logo.

John

Depends on what you mean by 'display an image'. Does it have backlight while you wait forever. And how long is 'forever' ? If it's over ten seconds I'd be surprised.

I'm sure that all flat panel sets have a CPU that does a POST. Vizio being one of the more economic sets might be slower at processing the POST for whatever reasons. I own an Olevia 42" and it fires up within

5 seconds or less.

Probably a slow processor just doing software initialization.

A 2004 LCD I have takes 7 seconds. A 2007 plasma takes 4 seconds.

What is your idea of forever? 10 seconds?

Nope. It's the time delay needed for the DTV set firmware to contact the RIAA or MPAA DRM server to obtain permission for you to watch copyrighted content on your DTV. The time delay length depends on your location relative to various towers, satellites, or worst case, the transponder they left on the moon. The initial delay is a small price to pay for keeping you legal, honest, and out of trouble with the RIAA and MPAA attorneys.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Not a great joke, but the best one I've heard today.Thanks.

LOL.

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    W
  . | ,. w ,   "Some people are alive only because
   \\|/  \\|/     it is illegal to kill them."    Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

**Modern digital receivers are not receivers in the traditional sense. They are fully blown personal computers, which happen to have a TV tuner attached. They still perform all the usual checks, before booting.

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Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

They aren't full bloan personal computers. I can't recall the last TV set that came with an operating system capable of running the kinds of applications people typically have on their PC. They might have linux burried inside, but they're not going to have enough capability to let you do anything but run the single embedded application.

The similarity is that they have a processor, a program probably in ROM maybe in flash, RAM, etc.

So did a TV or VCR of 10 years ago. So do most microwave ovens today and even my toaster. None of them require enough boot time to be noticeable.

Don't laff too loud. It wouldn't surprise me if some day in the future some of that comes to fruition.

I would agree with the minimal boot time but most sets of this genre run an embedded operating system and go through a self test which requires some computational agility. So seeing that some hand held games can actually run lite versions of XP/Linux while other games like XBOX run embedded operating systems it's not far fetched to assume a technically advance piece of equipment like a flat panel tv have enough cpu power under the covers to run an interactive operating system.

It's likely not far off. Note that many Blu-ray players have an option for Internet access.

Most of my fabrications are amazingly close to the truth (or they wouldn't make a good conspiracy theory). I'm sure DRM via the internet has been suggested, tested, and probably patented. I know Sony had such a scheme, but I have no idea what happened to it.

One of my neighbors just bought a Samsung Blue-Ray player with built in Netflix decoder. I'll try to fire up the sniffer and see if it phones home. I wouldn't be surprised if it does.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Are you kidding? Download a (legal) song or movie from the net & it already happens now. Hell, just install a major piece of software (eg; Photoshop or Word) & just watch the traffic spike on your firewall.

--
    W
  . | ,. w ,   "Some people are alive only because
   \\|/  \\|/     it is illegal to kill them."    Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

Currently a lot of TV's have USB and LAN connectivity and are able to playback media files from hard disks or memory cards via those connections. Moreover, the first TV's wih integrated internet browsers are already available. Linux may be found as embedded OS in Philips flat TV's.

-- Veel plezier Have fun Bert

What the tv makers need to do is let the tv come on before the OS finishes booting and let the bootup continue in the background.

IE: If the software for a web browser needs 15 seconds to initialize, there's no reason the TV itself can't be displaying a RF or video input after 2 seconds.

media files

I've found a lot of electronics devices with POSIX kernels embedded. My SA 8130HD DVR is loaded with peripheral connections. I use an eSATA drive for extra recording time and a USB keyboard to search upcoming recording interests. The internal drive can only record 20 hours of HD programming so I added the eSATA drive to double it. I can also connect the 8130 to a PC via 1394 and record direct to the PC from either tuner. My Olevia TV has USB to upload new software.

So yes embedded operating systems have been around for years. And they do sometimes take a few moments to POST and other things before you can watch/use them. I've waited up to 20 minutes for the DVR to reboot after a software upgrade.

My stand alone Panasonic DVDR will NOT record most programming recorded on my Direct TV DVR.

It's not a case of deformed picture or audio, it tells you flat out that it won't record protected content. However I was able to transfer a couple recordings to my PC via an analog A/V input device with no problems.

I have not tried it yet on my Time Warner SA 8130HD DVR. Nor have I tried it with my stand alone Light On DVDR or my Sony DVDR/VHS combo stand alone.

Adobe CS4 is the phone home King. I just added a couple of their phone home entries into my hosts file to reroute the traffic to 127.0.0.1 :)

Smart arent I?