Why are we still controlling TVs with IR??? Commercial TVs and those used for hotels often have serial ports or other connections for robust control with feedback. Are there any resi-appropriate TVs available with two-way control capabilities?

Julie,

I know Hitachi's current and last generation of big screen RPTV's have RS-232C

there are some other's but I'll have to find them for you later!

Julie

This sounds like a rhetorical question....

Because adding rs232 would add cost to a product; because a very few of the consumers for this product would actually use the feature; because the industry seems driven to make things as cheaply as possible.....

Sell Plasmas

There is very little use for Consumer TV's to have RS-232. Especially since there are enough th's out there with Fully discrete IR codesets.

Feedback might be a useful feature to automation pros but we are a very tiny market. Fred is correct with respect to the reason commercial displays have serial protocols but consumer sets do not. Similiarly, Pro electronics employ balanced typology while consumer electronic use single ended. Why? Fred has already supplied the answer. Absolute reliablity is not something consumers will pay for and lower prices will lead to greater market share.

Descrete IR is better but feedback is best. Then you might be able to turn on and off the internal speakers in a display. You might know what the picutre settings are and change them for a particular input. You might be able to scale the internal volume bar graph to your destributed audio controller's volume.

But as we cannot even obtain discrete IR codes which cost nothing how can we hope to obtian RS-232 protocols. The commercial world in dominated by consultants who will not specifiy a device without a serial port. The consumer world is dominated by consumers who seek the lowest price and do not value reliablity to the same extant as does the pro world.

Alan

Impaqt wrote:
Sell Plasmas

Even here you need to be careful. Most plasmas marketed at the consumer market have dropped in price and have less conectivity and no serial connections. Indeed some fail to repond to descrete IR codes that used to work. Panasonic is one example and Sony an other. If you use Pioneer Elite or Fujitsu you are correct and Pioneer has even come out with two models that do not require the damned media box. Zenith has made this difficult with its new models as has Samsung. I am not sure about the new LCD displays but I have a suspician that they too lack video and control connectivity.

Alan

Manufacturers seem to look towards the "Walmart crowd" when its the custom installer that makes there product so apealing. I guess thats why they eliminate things that cost a couple dollars more to be more competative with the low priced stuff. If they only had a clue! Just because there returns look good on paper,they forget who brought them to the dance. Sorry for being so blunt.