Coping: More UHD TV Realities

Elaine and I have both been working our tails off on projects around the homestead this week, so pardon the short column this morning.

The biggest item left on my to-do list is getting the new 55” UHD monitor installed in the office.  It will replace the four existing monitors – 3 x 24” and a single 32”.

All those monitors were a blessing when I was going through the eye operations last year.  Now that the recovery phase is complete, the 55” will allow me to keep working even when the contacts come out.  Generally at the 8-10 hour mark.

That may seem a sufficient time to create mischief enough, but when you start writing about 5:30 AM, 8 ½ hours only gets you to 2 P.M.  Too early for “adult beverage” time, as the Major points out.

The computer surgeries are a day-long process.  The supercomputer I use presently has four video outs from a pair of Nvidia 260 series cards.  They wolf up lots of space.  Two slots worth.

The new card is a GT730 with 2GB because it takes more memory to map to the 4000 pixel wide screen.  Then, an HDMI Capture Card will go in the other slot and let us snag pictures from Iranian television.

Turns out (such is the world of “progress”) that you can now spend more on a graphics card than the big UHD display – depending on what your screen tastes run.

I keep hoping that the curved screen makers will see the wisdom of a HUGE desktop curved screen – something that would fill a whole cubicle and maintain even sight lines.  But what is an obviously-needed next generation of product to you and me, especially those with limited hours of seeing well…somehow dies in marketing studies.

My buddy Gaye over at www.backdoorsurvival.com was out looking at TVs recently.  Ended up with a smart 55” but not curved.  The experts she and the survival hubby talked with  guided them to the flat displays.  Something about edge distortion.

Never satisfied with just getting a solid report from a long time (40-odd year) friend, I got out the inch-stick and did some measuring.

Assuming I watch the TV from 12 feet away, the curve worked out to only an inch, or so, either side of center – hardly enough to bother with since most people’s eyes can’t tell the different in such a small change of focus.

At a desk?  Different deal entirely.  There, I could use a 55” that has a full foot to 14” of curve to it either side of center.  Think immersive.

Of course this would be a real manufacturing nightmare.  Besides, I’d never get it past Elaine.

She’s the only thing I’m allowed to watch with 14” of curve.

For now we’ll be patiently waiting for someone besides you and me to figure this out because it would be a GRAND thing to have what would amount to an IMAX-like experience on the desktop.  Completely envelop you.

People who live in microhomes would sit in front of these things, plug into those ultra-high resolution streaming networks, and pretend to be at the Grand Canyon (or wherever) from the comfort of the only chair in the house.

If you haven’t tried it yet, get a 4K television with some 4K scenic motion content and look at the center of the screen from about a foot away.  Impressive.

A 65” super-curve for couples might work, provided they both agreed on when to eat garlic.

Years ago, Pappy warned us when the television show The Untouchables was on that we kids (my sisters and I) couldn’t sit any closer than 6-feet to the television.  “Sit too close and you’ll get blood all over your clothes,” he explained.

Whenever the series was on,  the next day at the fire house there would be an hour or so of discussion among the crew “How many did you count last night?

“Twenty-three,” I think was Pappy’s top.

My but times have changed…

A body count of 23 in today’s world doesn’t get you to the first commercial break.

The good news is that since the original black and white Untouchables was on, we’ve evolved the brightest reds this side of the coronary care unit.

Yes sir, this is gen-u-ine progress – a real elevation of the human condition – and I know just the company one of these bright display outfits ought to acquire to spur the next jump in television technology.

See http://www.quikclot.com/.

Write when you get rich, or the bleeding stops,

George@ure.net

9 thoughts on “Coping: More UHD TV Realities”

  1. Lol – if I had a screen as you describe above, I’d have to take Dramamine every time I sat in front of it.

  2. “http://www.quikclot.com/.”

    These are great.. I actually keep a few on hand and one day my drill slipped and I had a small arterial bleed.. luckily I had these on hand and slapped one on. quit the bleeding almost instantly.
    Now the good thing is to buy them is really expensive and if you are on a budget then it is pretty hard to do.. there are two solutions to it. I happen to make wine for christmas and thanksgiving dinner.. one of the things I use just before bottling is CHITOSAN drop a little bit in the carboy and let the sediment drop.
    to make them is pretty simple get some gauze sponges. dip them in vinegar and then in a bowl with the chitosan let it dry you can double dip them.. put them on a rack and put in the freezer.
    I just freeze dry mine then vacuum pack them for long term storage the price difference is amazing. here is an instructable for making them. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Your-Own-Chitosan-Bandages/
    the other solution is even simpler and just as quick. that is almost the same process but using cayenne pepper..

    http://readynutrition.com/resources/make-your-own-natural-quikclot_15082015/

    I haven’t ever made any of those since I have the chitosan on hand and the process is so easy to do.
    I actually got that idea from Gaye.. on her backdoor survival a few months back .. she is on top of it.. to bad she lives where she does and the fukishima problems that will come alive up there way to soon enough..
    I just hope since it is legal there that she has a lot of marijuana plants and sunflower plants that ferociously eat radioactive waste converting it to useful elements..

  3. Oh, and thank’s to you George and Elaine for all the years of hard work on this site.
    I am a 60 year old with a titanic full of health problems and just a quarter and a dime left to rub together at the end of every “Charley Chase”
    high wire act “do I eat tomato paste or craft paste” month.
    I would love to be able to squeeze out the peoplenomics subscription out of my 1250.00 and will do so soon!

  4. I’m gonna have to move my office out of the closet, in order to get a big screen, plus a new video card, and that will require replacing the queen size bed with a Murphy bed.
    Sometimes life gets complicated, and expensive. I guess I’ll have to sell more books.

  5. The question I keep asking is, “How much resolution is enough?” I was a broadcast TV engineer from the vacuum tube days thru ‘Digital’ and ‘Hi-Def’ 1080. Apparently the answer is ‘more, more, more’. As George is finding out, that image consumes more, more, more memory and transmission bandwidth. Infinity is only theoretical, but not achievable.

    • I an a technophile and love my UHD 65″ monitor which I use primarily for PC content. I sit about 5 feet away and this matches the acuity of my eyes quite nicely. I can just make out pixels if I look hard enough. You can still see some aliasing in 4k content, but it doesn’t stick out as bad as 1080p did. While I wouldn’t mind going to 8k, I feel 4k is the sweet spot in term of hardware, cost, and bandwidth needed to support it. 4k matches the resolution of movie theater screens so that is good enough for most I think.

  6. How about stepping outside the box here? Instead of lusting after ever-bigger and curvier TV screens for that elusive “immersion” experience, why not plug in one of those fancy 3D goggles and tweak the computer output to wrap on to the resulting panorama? I’m sure you can handle that challenge.

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