Get the Clutter Off My
TV Screen!
"Say, Ian, doesn't the TV picture look a little washed
out? Maybe you could take the brightness down just a bit."
"No problem dear. I'll just get out the ol' remote
control and lemme see. . .
Press MENU.
[A list of four or five control options appears, each
emblazoned with a neat, if meaningless symbol and a fairly cryptic verbal designation.
About half the picture is obscured.]
Press the +/- rocker switch until the little colored
pointer is positioned opposite the most likely candidate.
Press ENTER.
[Another list of options appears, including several
factory-preset color balances and general audio and video categories.]
Press +/- until the pointer is opposite "Video."
Press ENTER.
[Half a dozen control bars fill the screen, indicating the
current settings for color, tint, brightness, sharpness, and so forth.]
Press +/- until the brightness bar is highlighted.
Press ENTER.
[The brightness bar drops to the bottom of the screen. The
other functions disappear.]
Press +/- to adjust the brightness to the desired setting.
Press ENTER.
[The screen re-fills with the control bars.]
Press MENU.
I'm not making this up! This complex sequence of
instructions accomplishes what I can do on my twenty-year-old bedroom TV in one second by
tweaking a knob, and it doesn't fill the screen with gibberish. But at some point,
engineers with floppies for brains were turned loose in the video labs, and the
nerdification of the common TV has been the unwelcome result.
That's not to deny that today's sets do a great deal more
than those of only a few years ago, and generally do it better. If memory serves, my older
set had an instruction manual that ran to about four pages, mostly taken up with
explaining how to attach an antenna (the only signal source) and how to keep the
wood-grain cabinet in shape. Now the range of things you can do with a TV monitor is vast,
from automatic programming to digital picture manipulation.
The initial setup of a new television set can take most of
a day, as preferred channels are entered, the clock and calendars set, a variety of
picture balance modes entered, and so forth. For these once-in-a-while duties, the
computer-like on-screen menu is a very useful device. But after I have programmed all this
info once, I want it out of my face!
The wireless remote control of one TV set I played with
recently had 51 buttons and two switches. These controlled what were probably several
dozen functions, but every time I tried to do anything, however simple, the screen filled
with type, obliterating the picture I was trying to watch.
Frankly, I don't need multi-colored bar graphs on screen to
tell me I am turning up the volume or reducing the contrast. I also don't need a full
readout of a station's channel number, call letters, and audio status every time I change
the channel. At least I would like to have the option of seeing this stuff or not, but few
sets give me that.
As a consequence, I frequently leave a picture less than
perfectly tuned because cluttering it up with letters and symbols would distract the other
viewers in the room (as they are quick to point out when I do make adjustments).
It seems to me that manufacturers of these high-end
television sets could make their products easier to use and less irksome by simplifying
the everyday functions and giving users the option of displaying what's going on or not.
The elaborate command sequences that are now common are probably appropriate for a TV's
initial setup: you hardly want to risk altering some basic function by an inadvertent jab
at the remote when you are merely trying to hit the mute to answer the phone.
But given the number of controls on the average remote, it
would seem to make sense to provide simple up/down pairs of buttons not only for volume
but for brightness, contrast, sharpness, color, tint, and possibly some audio functions
such as bass and treble. Other things you are likely to want to tinker with fairly
frequently could have simple on/off buttons.
A lot of technology has gone into today's top television
monitors, and I suppose it's natural that the designers want to display that. But I know
the technology's there and I don't have to see it every time I pick up the remote.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
|
