Sling.com Roku (Piece of Shit)

I have Sling.com and Roku and am trying to decide if the combination is a piece of shit or not. Usually when you say the words “piece of shit” you are alluding to one item.  However, sometimes two companies unite forces to mesh together to form one gigantic, combined piece of shit.

That’s what we have here.

I had Sling for ages and then all of the sudden it quit working with Roku devices.  But not all of them.  At one time I had a Roku (Hisense) TV and two TV’s with Roku Ultra’s.   Some of them worked, some of them didn’t.  Spin, spin, spin goes the circle but Sling never loads.

Fuck Sling.  I ditched it and started using Philo.  Fuck Roku.  I ditched them and bought Fire TV’s and a Fire Stick.   Then I was able to get Sling back and watch it successfully.

All was well at Casa John’s Tech Blog until my wife threw an outdoor Ooni Pizza Oven Pizza Party.  I took an old TV out of the attic and put one of those dust collector Roku Ultra’s on it to watch a football game.

Before the party my wife said, “Can I watch the Food Channel on it?”.  “Fuck no”, sez I, “because Sling and Roku”.
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LG 43UQ7590PUB Piece Of Fucking Shit Award

I recently bought a new smart TV from  BestBuy.  The LG 43UQ7590PUB

It’s a Piece Of Fucking Shit and earns John’s Tech Blog’s coveted Piece Of Fucking Shit Award.

I bought it in January 2023 and it has been nothing but trouble.  My wife and I frequently watch TV in separate rooms and just about the time I get comfortable and engaged in some program here comes the call from the other room.

“Honey, the TV sound disappeared”, or “Honey, the TV just rebooted and now XXXX app doesn’t work”.

I’ve reached the point where mild annoyances that this TV produces has now expanded into full blown rage.   Two days ago I told my sweet wife…….“Fuck this fucking TV.  It is driving me crazy.  I’m buying a new TV”.  Normally, there might be a little back and forth discussion coming from the mouth of a reasonable and loving partner.  Option exploring.  My wife is good and real sweet in this department.

No discussion this time.  She was 100% in agreement that this TV needed replaced.  To her credit she didn’t use my US Navy vernacular sentence enhancers.
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AC4 Audio and ATSC 3.0

There is a new digital TV standard coming.  It is called ATSC 3.0 or NextGen Tv.  ATSC 3.0 uses AC4 audio as its codec.

Most TV markets have at least one ATSC 3.0 channel.  Where I live it is 125.11 PBS, Greenville, NC.  I have a tuner capable of ATSC 3.0 and I supposedly have a TV capable of AC4 audio.  So everything should be hunky dory, right?  Wrong.

No sound.

But John, it says right in the LG specs for this specific TV that it supports AC4 audio.  What gives?

TV Specs

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Over The Air TV ATSC 3.0

People don’t think much about their TV tuners.  If you go to buy a TV you’ll see plenty of buzzwords like LED, QLED, or 4K but not much discussion on the tuner itself.   And usually not much about ATSC 3.0.  It is also referred to as NEXTGEN TV.

The current broadcast standard is called ATSC or Advanced Television Systems Committee.  That is a series of standards for digital TV broadcasts.  In Europe, their system is called PAL.  Most TV’s in the US meet the ATSC 1.0 standard however a newer standard, ATSC 3.0 is slowly rolling out.

Someday, your ATSC 1.0 won’t work for you anymore although that day seems to be down the road a ways.  Many TV markets have rolled out at least one ATSC 3.0 channel while simultaneously broadcasting an ATSC 1.0 signal.

And of course you won’t get the benefits of that crisp, more powerful, higher resolution signal unless you have a tuner or TV capable of decoding it.   Where I live there is one NEXTGEN TV signal and it is a local PBS channel.  They also still broadcast in ATSC 1.0 and likely will for years. There doesn’t seem to be any danger of any other channels rolling out in the immediate future.
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