• EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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    1 day ago

    Because it’s a stupid idea that no one asked for.

    TVs have gotten really cheap, but even if you can’t afford those they are easy to find at thrift shops or even people giving them away if you have a little bit of patience. Suffice it to say, this has a very narrow target audience.

    These are basically e-waste.

    • Barbecue Cowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      So ready for them to become e-waste.

      Can you imagine the possibilities on re-purposing these if they get cheap enough to experiment with after the company goes bankrupt.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        24 hours ago

        there’s likely very little experimentation needed… ripping the panel out and attaching an HDMI controller from aliexpress to it would likely be extremely straight forward

        apple is one of the most proprietary companies in existence and you can do this easily with ipad screens and generic controllers… the same goes for most panels: there’s really not that much difference in the actual “expensive” part, and afaik very little you can do to protect it from this kind of thing

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I imagine one could replace the hardware with something else to drive the display portion. It’d take knowledge and a soldering iron, but I’m sure it’s doable.

    Probably they have some sort of sensor behind the lower screen that can tell if it’s covered. I wonder how sophisticated that is. Perhaps, rather than covering it completely, it could be obscured behind a crystal pattern plastic sheet, like is used for privacy. It would still let the light through, but it would just be an incoherent light pattern. Build a box to enclose the bottom half, and hold the sheet out a few inches in front of the panel.

    EDIT: The correct way to deal with it is to disable the backlight on the bottom display. Found a reddit post about it. It’s cheap and easy enough to do if you have a soldering iron.

    EDIT 2: Apparently it does not have a way to detect if the bottom screen is blocked. Fools. Just build a box around the bottom part, and you’re done. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qD-jaukv85U

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The thing is, screens are cheap and there’s no real reason to replace unless you’re chasing top of the line which this isn’t.

      Save ~$100 now to always have an ad playing isn’t a great deal

    • fullsquare@awful.systems
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      2 days ago

      if there was a way of faking presence of lower display, then you have free tv and extra screen

      this is some idiocracy level shit tho

    • Jay@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      I would have no objections to literally spray painting that lower screen Tremclad Black. Is that all the tv can do though? I would imagine it’s also stealing as much data of yours as it can and possibly even listening in. Also what if there’s ad sound…?

    • unmagical@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      I read their TOS when this first was announced and they had something like they’ll bill you the full cost of the TV if you tamper or obscure it and they deemed the cost of the TV as $1k USD.

      • Saapas@piefed.zip
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        2 days ago

        How would they know you’ve done it? Do they have a way to detect you putting a sheet in front of the bottom screen?

        • unmagical@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          There is a camera on the front. That could be used to detect obstructions or for eye tracking. There could also be additional sensors by the bottom screen that can detect obstructions.

          If you fail to plug the TV into the internet within 5 days of receiving and keep it connected they’ll charge you $1000. If you take it apart they’ll charge you $1000.

          The video above does not go into detail on the long term implications of obstruction and it’s possible the TV does not react immediately to an obstruction.