Aug 25 2010
Another sparkling design decision
When we moved to the flat we bought a biiiig television because biiiig televisions are what all the cool people have. We mostly watch DVDs on it but occasionally we use it as a useful backdrop while we watch iPlayer on Helen’s laptop, and feel slightly silly about the whole scenario.
Anyway, the telly is plugged into the hi-fi so we can turn up the audio as loud as we need without the television vibrating its minuscule speakers out of their fixings. At the time I didn’t have an adequate cable so the I had a lead plugged into the headphone socket on the television, which went to a 2-phono lead at the amplifier end. Very silly but it did the job.
I was in B&Q today and spotted the right lead for the job on my way out. When I got it home and plugged it in I discovered that all along I had been using the correct lead because the “proper” way of doing it results in stupidity.
Picture this. You’re watching telly and the adverts come on so you press “mute”. If it’s just a straightforward telly the sound goes off; if the audio is coming out the headphone socket, the sound goes off; but if the sound is going out the Audio Out socket on the back of the television the sound stays on. Yes, I know. The mute button doesn’t affect the proper audio output, only the speakers or the headphone bypass.
So, having done things properly I’ve now lost the mute function on the telly and I think I’ll reinstate the headphone-socket-kludge. Thanks Samsung, great design.
7 Responses to “Another sparkling design decision”
What’s biiiig in SI units? :)
TVs aren’t measured in SI units
Also, does the volume control on the TV remote work for line-level out. I would have thought not. In fact, plugging in to the audio out often doesn’t even turn off the built in speakers on TVs. Yes, really!
@Rob: In non-SI units that’s 37 inches. Not incredibly big but a major step up from a 12-inch laptop screen :-)
@Lawrence: I don’t know about volume control, but the TV audio definitely doesn’t turn off automatically. There luckily is an option to turn it off in the on-screen preferences.
Surely the cable you needed was one to connect the laptop to the TV?
Rory, you are absolutely right and this has been the ‘expected’ option for some time. Years even. Once upon a time, in the dim and distant past, with a different laptop. this was what was had. However, this being apple, I think we actually need two cables and we need to remember to buy it (you know, online or something, uber tricky.) rather than impulse buying it when out shopping for other things.
although, @Rory, this would not solve the sound problem.