[ale] Stupid smart phone

[Steve Litt]

Jim Kinney via Ale said on Fri, 10 Dec 2021 18:22:04 -0500

> Other days it's more like the vcr clock always
>blinking "12:00" for lack of a $0.10 rc circuit to keep the clock
>alive during a power blink.

Speaking of for lack of, how many have noticed that oh-so-modern TVs
no longer have headphone jacks. You remember headphone jacks --- you
just patch the headphone jack to the line-in of any amplifier and bang,
you've got sound, and the sound is controllable by your TVs volume
control.

But noooooo. That's just soooo *legacy*. Instead of a 30 cent
headphone jack, my Samsung TV has one of those silly "toslink" infrared
fiberoptics. So you have to buy a fiberoptic cable for about $15.00,
and then a $40 fiberoptic to line level converter, from which I can use
patch cords to go into my amp's line in. Because I don't have a $500.00
"home theater" system --- but rather have a $30.00 20 watt amp that's
tiny and works just great for TV sound.

Well, after trying for days to get the toslink plus adapter to work, I
read that many Samsungs just don't work with those adapters. For lack
of a 30 cent headphone jack. Oh, and of course, the Samsung's built-in
speakers are guaranteed to be indecipherable, with various oscillations
at frequencies guaranteed to obscure speech.

A couple weeks ago we went out and bought about the cheapest TV on the
market. Picture's not all that great but it had what we really wanted,
a headphone jack. Now we hear great sound that we can raise and lower
with the TV remote. Life is good.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques