hello everyone today I've got something
really cool to show you it's called a
television and it allows you to see
pictures that are really far away as if
they're right there in the same room
with you wild stuff right but no
seriously this uh is very unusual as
televisions go it's an NC multisync v463
and if you're much of a computer person
you probably realize that name usually
goes on nec's computer monitors indeed
this is not actually a TV uh per se
although we are definitely watching TV
on it right now this is um where the
heck's the remote there we go yeah so
we're watching local Seattle station
10-5 uh which I guess is one of many uh
shopping networks we've got on the
airwaves around here and you'll notice
this is 480i now this TV will receive
1080i signals it displays them just fine
it's a a native 1920 x 1080 panel but
I've picked this station specifically
because I want to show you something you
see the text here is kind of having some
problems actually maybe you can't see
that one moment let's just uh make that
a little
easier uh well that's not going to help
got that PR grade videography gear buddy
let's try that again all right there we
go supposedly this is getting you a nice
closeup now so you can see that uh the
letters are having some trouble well
watch this let's uh get the remote here
jump into the OSD and I'm going to go
over here and turn off DE interlacing
there we go and now now hopefully you
can see that the letters are having very
different
problems if you're not familiar with the
concept of De interlacing uh standard
definition television signals as well as
uh HD 1080i signals uh come to your TV
as uh two separate fields of data it's
every uh even line and then every odd
line one after another and there's not a
lot of agreement on exactly how you
should turn that into uh a full screen
image on conventional CRT televisions
back in the day
they just natively worked that way and
thanks to phosphor persistence and human
Persistence of vision uh it wasn't
really a big problem on LCD displays
which are intrinsically Progressive it's
a much bigger problem this is not the
topic of the video I'm just
demonstrating that this is something you
probably never realized was going on
with your consumer television I I would
say that the overwhelming majority of
consumers have no idea what interlacing
is and they don't care because consumer
TVs just have this solved already I I
know what they all do maybe some of them
do Bob maybe some do weave maybe they
use a hybrid it doesn't matter because
they all look fine they look the way you
expect and consumers generally aren't
too picky about how their local standard
definition stations look on their huge
HD television anyway so this just really
isn't a thing uh that anybody would
bother giving the user a setting for but
of course this TV isn't for consumers at
all and in fact this isn't even a
television I know I've said that several
times but I need to harp on it okay let
me show you the menu in this thing again
okay this is the OSD where you set up
all your your various options for the TV
itself and then this is the control for
the TV tuner and then if I press the
main menu again it comes up over that if
you look very closely you can see one
disappears but right before that the
other one is overlapped on it for a
moment and that's because the actual TV
tuning is being done by this guy which
is a totally separate independent module
that just plugs into the side of the TV
and feeds it a signal uh that's already
been decoded and turned into HDMI this
has no idea how to tune HD television
and this makes sense because this is a
commercial display in other words this
is something meant to be sold to
businesses to use in public spaces you
don't put this in your home you wouldn't
want to anyway cuz for this 46 in EDG
lit LED display this thing was like 20
$500 at a time when an equivalent
consumer set was like
$700 if not less you would never buy
this for yourself but if you're a
business well you'll have a whole lot of
very special needs so what you'd get
this for is for instance to put up in a
hospital waiting room you know it sits
there and shows you either um what the
waiting time might be if they're that
advanced but mostly it just runs a
slideshow with information about what
services the hospital offers and
recommends that if you think you're
having heart attack symptoms you should
probably go let a nurse know so they
don't let you die there in the waiting
room but in that application you need
things that consumers would never need
for instance these TVs are meant to be
left on 24/7 for years and years and
years so they've got more advanced
cooling they uh in some cases claim to
have LCD panels that are more resistant
to burn in for obvious reasons but it
goes much much much further than that
I'll get into some of that but the point
is in an awful lot of commercial
applications you no interest in
receiving local television you're just
going to have the TV sitting there
playing a local feed of some kind off of
an HDMI Source or even off a a USB
driver or something like that so why
include the extra expense of a TV tuner
in fact there's a whole galaxy of
commercial displays that don't have
tuners built in but suppose you own a
ton of these things you're using them
for various purposes and one day you
decide it would be nice to be able to
use this as an actual television well
you can buy this module from NEC that
plugs in and gives you that capability
uh it also gives you a USB port you know
so you can plug in a USB drive and play
you know a slideshow of jpegs or uh MP4
files or something like that and it has
an Ethernet Jack that's used for
something called ipv which I know
nothing about I I briefly Googled it
apparently it's a thing in Europe uh I
guess it's just TV that's delivered over
raw IP that's all I know about it but
the point is that it's completely
optional but it is optional it is
something you can add and typically you
can't add stuff to a television of any
kind even monitors don't usually have
expansion slots but this one does and
it's one of many commercial monitors
that have these slots and we'll come
back to that later I'm going to talk
about everything else about this TV and
then we'll come back and talk about
checkov slot
here let's just uh get another picture
on the screen here don't want to just be
staring at a black rectangle here the
whole time oh wait a minute don't we all
do that
anyway obviously this thing has an HDMI
input which I have not plugged
in I'm definitely prepared I definitely
thought about this video before I
started shooting there we go I'll just
uh I'll just leave that there that
picture is good enough so just to pick a
couple other applications for commercial
displays like this uh menu boards if you
go to McDonald's and you know you get up
to the cashier and you haven't really
figured out what you want and you're
looking at the menu and it keeps
changing to other menus with stuff you
don't want so you're standing there and
they're staring at you and you're
holding up the line because for some
reason they didn't need to do this for
20 years but now they do uh yeah that's
that's what you get one of these for
because they're better engineered to
handle high heat environments low
maintenance environments that sort of
thing and then another example is video
walls if you go to like an airport and
they've got you know a a big uh thorough
far that's got like a huge display made
out of like an 8 by8 grid of 42in TVs or
whatever that's made out of TVs like
this uh they're engineered for that sort
of thing kind of from top to bottom I'll
show you a few different features uh for
that but uh for instance these bezels
these actually come off I can't really
demo this cuz I'd have to take all the
screws out on top but you can actually
snap all the plastic off the TV to make
the bezels thinner also you'll notice
that there's no buttons on the front and
there's also none on the sides because
well one you're going to butt these
things up against each other and two
once you take off the bezel there'd be
nowhere to put the buttons so the
buttons are all here on the back
specifically for that purpose uh
likewise there's no speakers on the
bottom there are speakers but they're
the worst I've ever heard in my life
these guys here and here you know what
let me uh let me see if I can actually
make some sound with those because I I
can't even express to you how much these
things suck I actually have two of these
TVs and they both have the worst
speakers I've heard in my life I'm
actually just going to play the the last
video I shot in here because that won't
get content
ided yes it works uh this thing yeah I I
don't know if it's coming across but
brought back to life unbelievably tinny
and miserable
screen and I think the reason for that
is uh you really aren't expected to use
the built-in speakers for any purpose in
fact uh you absolutely don't need to
because if you look on the side here
there's actually speaker terminals this
thing has a built-in like uh I think
it's like a 10 watt amplifier or
something like that it's not a ton but
it makes a lot of sense because if you
are putting this thing up in some public
venue if you want people to be able to
hear it you're probably going to hang up
a pair of outdoor speakers like
commercial speakers on those little road
rotating you know wall mounts and you
know you don't want to have to get a
separate amplifier for the TV right
you're have to find a separate place to
mount it and you're going to have to
find an outlet for it and whatnot ah I
mean most consumers aren't going to care
about this because assuming you aren't
happy with the sound of the built-in
speakers or a soundbar which most people
are then you're probably willing to make
some space for an amplifier you know
figure out how you're going to work your
living room around that but you know a
business that needs to install 25 or or
50 or 2,000 of these things in all sorts
of different buildings all across the
country or across multiple countries
they can't predict what they'll have
room for and every extra step every
extra piece of equipment is a whole
extra level of hassle they have to go
through and so they're willing to pay
extra for every single TV in order to
have this built in now of course you go
well what about all the businesses that
are paying extra for these TVs who don't
need that feature well that's sort of
the story of this whole thing you're
paying a premium to get this incredible
package of capab ities which most
businesses won't need but everything is
in there that you could possibly ask for
which is why if we look at the menu this
thing is absolutely jam packed with
capabilities there's all sorts of stuff
in here that you will never find in a
consumer television an example of that
was the de interlace setting I don't
think I've ever seen this in a consumer
TV maybe if you like dig really deep
into the settings on one of those LG
oleds or something like that maybe
that's in there but I I've never seen it
and then uh there's other stuff on here
like uh the input detection algorithm is
adjustable you've got four different
options for how to detect
inputs who the hell needs that right if
you're using this thing at home and you
turn it on and it's on the wrong input
you just press the button to switch to
the right input well in a commercial
application you don't have time to dick
around with that right you need these
things to turn on when the breaker gets
flipped in the morning and be on the
right input immediately because well
there's a good chance if you're a
restaurant or a hospital that you don't
have anybody around who even has the
time to learn how to fix these things
when they're broke does anybody even
know where the remote is do they know
which button to press are they too busy
to actually press that button the
answers are no no and yes I'm putting a
really fine point on this I know but
it's because an awful lot of people
don't realize those limitations that a
lot of stuff like this gets installed
and then the technician leaves and then
nobody who actually interacts with it
has any idea how to do the most basic
things and that's the reality that
products like this have to be designed
towards uh another example of that if we
go into the menu here there is a
schedule section and you can actually
give this thing like a complicated Day
byday schedule of when it should turn
itself on and off again because you
don't have time for an employee to
remember to do it every day and if they
forget to do it then the TV just sits
there off the whole time just just have
it do it itself right silly thing to put
in a consumer television but mandatory
for something like this let me just uh
switch inputs here I'll show you another
thing you're not likely to find in most
American televisions certainly uh that
might actually make this thing
interesting to some people watching you
might want to actually go out and get
one of these because uh I've switched to
the composite video input and if we go
down here to color system this will do
ntsc and pal and
ccam and 4.43
ntsc and pal-60
so these are all standard definition
television standards but uh the ones
that people mostly talk about online are
ntsc and pal ccam occasionally comes up
but it was only used in a few countries
I think it was oh gosh what was it
France and then I I think some various
Eastern European States but then these
ones down here hardly anybody ever talks
about those 4.43 ntsc I think that's uh
uh ntsc that's been adjusted to work in
like South America off 50 htz something
like that and then pal 60 is the
opposite it's the pal standard but it's
designed to run off of 60 HZ uh which I
think allows it to no I can't remember
what the hell pal 60 is for the point is
these are really weird standards that as
far as I know the overwhelming majority
of televisions that you can buy in this
country don't support but this does it
all now part of that I'm sure is just
cuz these were being sold all over the
world and they just had one model they
sold everywhere but also uh if for some
reason you know you're a business and
you need to hook up some piece of
equipment that got imported from
somewhere and never had a a us specific
model you know a VCR or a DVD player or
something like that then this thing is
compatible with anything you might plug
into it and that's a cool feature that
almost nobody needs but if you do need
it you'll be glad it's there so if I
haven't made my point yet this thing
radiates professionalism and what nerd
doesn't love that we want to fill our
homes only with the stuff the pros use
because the pros get the cream of the
crop they get the best parts and they
don't get loaded down with look
at this OSD it's beautiful right it's so
simple it's so to the point it's just
text minimal controls it's incredibly
readable um when you go into the picture
settings I just remembered this there's
a carbon footprint indicator and as you
turn it down it gets
increasingly positive about saving the
environment so okay there's a little bit
of in there not that I disagree
with saving the environment just that's
such a corny way to do it um but the
point is yeah you're you're allowed to
see everything and it's all just very
plain and straightforward there aren't
seven levels of advanced really Advanced
you know uh everything's just right
there for you to use and this is what we
all want right but the question is do
you actually need most of the extra
features and the answer is probably no
to be honest uh for instance let's let's
go take a look at the PIP feature I mean
every TV has picture and picture these
days right but this one this one has
some features yours probably doesn't let
me get the TV tuner back
fun fact you're not supposed to plug
these in while it's running also fun
fact I've tested it doesn't hurt
anything TV blows up Pop Fizz okay good
I didn't fry it all right now let's turn
on the PIP and set our input here over
to the PC oh I I guess it's been
customized so that it only selects
through three inputs so let's uh go and
change that oh here's another thing
that's it's very business specific keep
pip mode if you turn this on then if you
shut the TV off and turn it back on the
PIP will still be on and that's because
well if you're using the PIP at all then
you always want it there so you don't
want to have to turn the TV on then
press the button every single day right
all right where are our inputs that's
odd this is not letting me pick that
input you know what I may have just
stumbled on something this won't do I
hadn't tried the PIP up until now
actually and uh I don't think it'll tune
uh to two HD signals at once it says
it'll put the display port input down
there though do I have something with
that okay let's see if this will
reach oh I think it
will there we go uh a little
inconvenient but we'll make it work all
right so that's two streams from the
same computer let's switch this back to
the TV on the main input there we go
that's much better now uh the reason I
was doing this though wasn't to show you
the PIP you know the PIP is I wanted to
show you the pop pip mode pop I have no
idea what a pop is by the way I googled
this I could not figure out what it is
it means picture out picture what is
that going to be
oh okay I admit of all the things that
could have been that's not what I was
expecting uh so it just sort
of just leaves that empty sure why not
um the other ones though those make a
little more sense you can do side by
side they call this picture by picture
and if we select this one oh that's
great
[Laughter]
I don't know what the application is for
this but you can do it if you
want I have no idea what to say about
this I had prepared no notes uh now
another feature that's buried in here is
called the text ticker I have no idea
how this works I'm going to turn it on
let's see what it does oh oh excellent
so the manual had no information on how
the text ticker feature worked it said
that it was there so you know when
you're in a waiting room or something
and you've got a you know well just like
this basically you've got a like a local
TV station playing but then at the
bottom there's scrolling text advising
you of information well that's what this
feature is for but the manual didn't say
where the text ticker comes from so I'm
like um it seems like an odd thing to
not document but I have the strong
feeling that they probably assumed
anybody using this would have a service
relationship with them so if there was
anything they didn't know they could
just call their rep and they'd explain
it so the manual is missing a lot of
information okay but now what I see is
that the text ticker is just another way
of doing the PIP you saw that it shut
off the normal pip when I turned it on
I'm pretty sure that what we're seeing
is just the cut off top edge of the
screen let me uh get my keyboard here
let's see if that's true move the mouse
over oh there it is okay yeah the mouse
is not distorted so this isn't being
compressed into that space it's just
showing you the top edge of the display
so all you have to do is write a a piece
of software that just Scrolls text at
the top of the screen and Bam um you're
good to go I have to admit I really I
didn't I didn't know what to expect but
I didn't expect that and it looks like
it actually makes it partially
transparent which well obviously that
that makes a lot of sense uh and it
looks like you can move it up without
DEC cropping it so you can put this in
the middle of the screen if you want we
can have it crop the image less or more
and we can make it more or less
transparent oh and then detect no idea
what that does oh and so there's a fade
in option here I did read about this in
the manual I believe if we go back and
turn this off and then back
on ah I guess that doesn't work when you
do it this way well basically I think
there's supposed to be a way to turn the
uh text Ticker on and off where it fades
in you roll a message and then it fades
out again uh but again the manual didn't
say uh now what I have noticed is that
you can also put this in vertical mode
uh so you can have a vertically
scrolling ticker as well so is this a
feature that any of us has a use for
probably not but isn't it neat to know
that it would be that easy if you wanted
to do that just get one of these
TVs easier said than done actually we'll
get to that later all right let me uh
get this display port cable out of here
before I trip and break my neck or you
know knock the TV over which would be a
much greater tragedy so I I can't even
begin to explain all the software
features this thing has we'll touch on a
few more but um we should probably take
a look at some of the uh physical
properties first because there's a few
things here that you really need to know
about let's bring our second camera back
cuz there's no way to get this camera in
there so you can see underneath as far
as inputs go it's not too terribly
exotic but there's some strange things
uh for instance I mentioned display port
I don't think I've ever seen that on a
consumer television it's probably out
there somewhere but it's pretty rare
right what's rarer is to see HDMI but
only one of them I mean how often do you
see that uh well this TV makes up for it
by having not just one but two dvis and
that's because has in and out I'll
explain why in a moment it's pretty
weird next up we've got a VGA port but
not just a VGA port it's also labeled
DVD
slhd SLV video2 and that's because uh
here's a pinout for that Port this will
accept VGA and component which they're
referring to here as DVD and then of
course uh if it's a 1080i component it's
HD they're they're just using that as an
abbreviation I I don't know why it's a
very weird Behavior Uh and then video
two is a second composite input the the
primary composite is of course this BNC
connector here so I guess you could buy
a whole bunch of different adapters from
NEC to feed various signals into this so
it's quite versatile but they also
haven't put all those ports on there
individually so they don't waste a whole
bunch of space this thing is actually
fairly compact as things go it's an EDG
lit LCD so uh it could be thinner except
for all this stuff back here but if they
just you know ladled on the ports then
it would be a whole lot bigger and uh
not really worth the extra space since
most people wouldn't need that even in a
business setting so it all makes sense
uh and then of course over here we've
got the buttons like I said all the
controls are on the back uh and then
we've got these we've got two serial
ports and an ethernet port because
absolutely everything on this TV can be
controlled remotely every setting every
feature you can turn it on you can turn
it off you can turn the PIP on you can
set the inputs you can adjust the
brightness and color literally
everything can be done with rs232 and
the reason that there's two ports is
because you can daisy chain them if you
do have these set up in a video wall and
this supports uh video walls of up to
10x1 so 100 TVs in one array you can
just daisy chain the serial signal from
your PC into the first one then into the
next and the next and the next and the
next and each one will repeat it until
gets all the way to the end so you don't
have to run 100 separate control cables
now the ethernet unfortunately does not
have that and that's kind of a bummer
cuz running a 100 ethernet cables up to
your video wall sounds pretty miserable
but I get the impression that maybe you
can't do everything over the ethernet I
think you're expected to use the serial
port for most of it and then the IP
interface is mostly for uh SNMP you can
actually uh monitor the temperature of
this thing and uh several other things
about its health status remotely and it
can email you if something goes wrong if
this TV overheats and shuts off it'll
actually pop an alert email how Wild is
that but speaking of remote control uh
there's a few other interesting things
going on as far as that goes uh for
instance here on the side above the
amplifier outputs we've got uh 3.5 mm
Jacks uh for audio in andout nothing too
wild there but then above that there's
another 3.5 that's labeled remote in and
I admit I'm not 100% sure what's going
on there cu the manual mentions nothing
about it I wasn't able to Google
anything nothing came up there's one
page that just says that that's where
you can connect a wired remote one
possibility is uh that you might have
wanted to use this in an environment
where IR remotes wouldn't work uh I I
don't know if interference is a thing
with those but maybe you got it behind
some glass that blocks IR or you've got
some sort of like wooden trim around the
outside that also hides the IR receiver
you could probably plug in uh like a
photo diode in there and put it
somewhere that the remote can get to so
someone would just have to know that if
they want to turn the TV on they have to
point over here speaking of turning the
TV on though my favorite feature about
this and I wish that every TV remote was
like this it has two power buttons and
that's because one only turns the TV on
if I press it nothing happens cuz the
TV's on you're already figuring out why
this is right the other one turns it off
and that's all it does it only turns it
off why because you come in in the
morning the video wall powered up but
something went wrong two out of your 25
TVs aren't on well if you take your
normal remote with the toggle button and
point it at them and hit the button Now
23 of them are going to shut off and the
other two come on and now you're playing
lights out and you can't win right well
with this if you hit power on any that
are off come on the rest stay the way
they are get it makes a lot of sense
right well if that's not granular enough
you have other options you can customize
the remote codes on these there's an ID
header in them which you can set from
the remote you punch in some code here
and you can address up to 100 TVs
individually or in groups if you take uh
your 25 TVs and you set the top four to
group one then group two group three
group four then you can turn on and off
a whole strip of TVs at once or whatever
else you want to do and those codes also
work over the serial interface so if you
have 100 TVs you don't have to send a
100 commands you can hit them all at
once and then since we're talking about
video walls uh there's a feature in here
that again I've not tried yet I'm really
hoping it works exactly as it's
described uh we come in here to well
they call it multi-display here but they
later renamed it to tile Matrix oh no
there we go it's it's got the option
tile Matrix and there's tons and tons
and tons of settings in here in fact I
think tile Matrix is a submenu here we
go you can actually tell the TV where it
is in the video wall so you tell it okay
our wall is four monitors wide four
monitors high and then I am monitor
number four and you can see it's
illuminated that one so we tell it which
part of the signal it's getting and then
I believe we do
that and there we go it actually slices
out that portion of the image internally
so you don't uh sorry I should probably
explain this a little bit typically in a
video wall scenario you have a video
wall processor so you would take a well
hopefully a 4K image though in the old
days it was 1080 and before that it was
480 uh you take a a high resolution
image you feed it into this thing and
then the processor has you know 25 or
100 outputs and each one feeds to a
different TV well obviously there's
downsides with this you have to run 25
or 100 cables up to your TVs you got to
get them all on the right order and you
have to buy a separate piece of
equipment these guys not only can do the
processing themselves you don't even
need to run more than one cable the
purpose of the Dual DVI ports is daisy
chaining you can run a DVI signal to TV1
then Loop it to the next and so on all
the way to the end of the video wall so
one DVI cable one serial cable and your
entire video wall is wired up for data
you still have to run 100 power cables
what can you do but still that's pretty
damn cool right not that you have any
use for
it so let's talk about something that
you might have a use for let me uh let
me turn off the tile uh tile Matrix here
oh uh real quick if we just adjust this
we can step through which portion of the
image we're getting and then if we
adjust this we can have it get larger
portions of it oh and then what's tile
comp I have no idea what tile comp is
excellent oh you know what it's um tile
compensation I just remembered I read
about this uh you can actually tell the
TVs how thick their bezels are and
calibrate in the amount that's being
lost in between the sets so if I have
four TVs in a square here it's going to
delete a little bit on that edge and
that edge to make up for the part that
would be visually lost here so
technically you're throwing away part of
the image but to the viewer they see a
more coherent total picture if that
makes any sense if not Google it they
got PDFs okay let's uh let's get back
over to the whole topic of the
slot I made a bunch of noise earlier
about how the slot module design allows
you to buy a TV without this unnecessary
tuner feature in case you're one of the
many companies that does doesn't need
that I was kind of blowing smoke I don't
think that's the reason for it at all
there's a lot of companies that make
commercial monitors that put tuners in
them I I doubt it costs very much but it
does mean that you can swap out this uh
big old module here with something that
does something else cuz you're not
likely to be using all these inputs at
once and in particular if you're using
the tuner that's probably all you're
using but if you're doing something else
you're probably never going to need a
tuner so why not swap it out with a
completely different function so for
instance NEC made another module that
gives you HD SDI support not a terribly
common need for this sort of thing I
think but it's there if you want it and
an even less common need I suspect is
the rtsp module I don't know if I'll
find a picture of this but I swear I
found one when I was looking a while
back it's literally um you plug an
ethernet cable into it and then you send
it an rtsp stream so you could like have
OBS transmit directly into a TV right
but the reality is that the vast
majority of businesses are using these
things for static installations with
just like I said like digital sign
displays on them and for that purpose
you're pretty much always going to use
this sort of thing not necessarily this
brand although they are popular but the
market for little gadgets that drive
digital signs is gigantic there is so
much diversity you can get something to
do pretty much anything you can imagine
there are gobs and gobs of little boxes
like this that do stuff as simple as
just playing jpegs off of a USB drive or
video files all the way up to well like
this thing uh is actually sort of a a
little Appliance sied OBS if you will uh
you can actually for instance plug in a
USB drive with some files on it you know
jpegs videos whatever and then you can
plug in an HDMI feed from let's say a
satellite box and then you can have this
thing display the HDMI input on the HDMI
output while periodically overlaying
images from the USB drive on it or uh in
another model I have it actually has a
built-in TV tuner and you can have it do
the same thing with a live television
feed then you can build schedules so at
different times of day it displays
different stuff or you could wire it up
with complex scripting so that uh for
instance uh one person who who
administrates these things told me they
actually use them for emergency messages
so they've got these hooked up to all
the TVs in the building and if there's
like a fire or something like that they
can actually have these things mute the
television and then scroll a message
across the screen telling everyone what
the emergency is so you're already set
to Jet if you're building a digital sign
you got the pick of the litter the only
problem is that well you've got a
separate box now that you've got to
figure out where to put you got to hang
it somewhere either on the back of the
TV or on a wall then you got to give it
power then you got to run an HDMI cable
to the TV and what if you just don't
have the room for it in a lot of places
just simply isn't enough space and and
not enough Outlets um it would be nice
if it was just all one module well so
about that the actual purpose of this
slot is to install one one of these one
of these little guys if you
will I just can't hold all these lines
there's got to be a better way of course
there
is uh let me find a keyboard you can
probably hear this but there's a fan
just going bananas back there because as
I'm sure I don't need to explain any
further this is a full fat PC uh that
just plain old plugs into the television
now let's take a look at some specs here
cuz I have no idea what this thing is
all right this TV is now equipped with a
core i5 thirdd gen 2.5 gig uh 4 gigs of
memory for some reason it's running the
32-bit version of Windows embedded no
idea why uh and this was actually being
used by a school they had a piece of
software on here called octopus which
probably a bunch of people are watching
it be like oh that thing I know that
thing I bought this off eBay so sorry
for just putting someone's data up on
the screen here but you should have
wiped it bud so I'm going to show you a
little bit more about this later uh
because this is actually for a a very
different purpose than um what I've been
talking about up until this point but uh
this piece of software is for kids to do
collaborative like creative activities
on it really doesn't demonstrate very
well on this TV it'll it'll make a lot
more sense later but well it's it's just
a computer it's it's a PC right and um
as I've expressed many times in my
videos particularly the little guys
series which I don't think this will be
in but we'll see maybe maybe I won't
figure out anywhere else to put it uh
but a computer can do anything anything
with a x86 or in this case x64 processor
will do anything you like uh you know I
guess I could probably just walk to the
other room and grab a USB drive and just
boot Linux up on this thing I can't
think of any reason not to do that I'll
be right
back all right this is some copy of
Fedora I found laying around on my hard
drive let's uh shut down here you know
since this thing's shut off I might as
well show it to you before I fire it
back up if you've watched all of my
videos you might recognize this as an
Ops module Ops is the open pluggable
specification and it's an Intel standard
from I think it was 2011 so it's pretty
old at this point which is for exactly
this purpose uh it's meant to let you
make a dumb TV smart or not do that if
you don't want to or change the way that
it's smart if you didn't like this
computer you could swap it out for
another one and this was possible
because the Ops spec is very basic it
doesn't really specify all that much
Beyond some thermal requirements
obviously so you don't have a thing in
the back of the TV that's going to
overheat it right you can't put like a
i7 quad core desktop processor in there
which is not to say that they don't make
i7 modules they actually do I mean as
you saw this one was an i5 the i7s
aren't that much higher powered uh and
this actually does get a decent amount
of juice from the TV this port on the
back here combines pretty much every
interface that you might want for this
application you've got DVI display
display port USB 2 and three uh serial
and CC that's a consumer electronics
control it allows this device to control
the TV or the TV to pass IR codes
through to this device I can't remember
which then there's an audio interface
and then just uh a single voltage power
Rail between 12 and 19 volts uh and
these guys get quite a bit of amperage
off of it this one is rated at 12 volts
5 amps so that's like what uh 60 odd
Watts I'm really bad with math it's uh
it's no gamer rig but I mean you could
you could probably game on it if you're
not a
[Applause]
coward but obviously it's not intended
for putting super high performance
machines into your TV it just doesn't
really prevent that if you want to um
because the thing is that some of what
these are used for is going to be fairly
taxing you you might be using this to
run custom software that was developed
uh inhouse for for your company that who
knows who knows what it'll do it could
do anything under the sun uh and being
limited to like an Atom Processor or
some arm s so or something like that uh
would make a lot of stuff just flat out
impossible but an i53 gen is more than
enough to do just about anything you can
conceive of in this sort of application
I'm going to open this thing up very
briefly and and show you the inside here
there's not a lot to these things U you
take out a few screws the top cover
comes off and then inside you've got
a board with a CPU under a heat sink and
not a whole lot else just miscellaneous
chips um if we flip it over and take off
the bottom panel uh you can get to the
ram but I don't think there's any
expansion interfaces in there because
well you're not really supposed to do
that right the only thing you could uh
conceivably want to add to one of these
would be more memory because they've
already got everything else you need
video uh ethernet audio I mean what are
you going to do install a GeForce uh and
the hard drive is actually on this
little tray here so you can put as big a
drive as you like in there as long as
it's SATA I'm sure the newer ones
support nvme so these things are
incredibly simplistic but they do also
expose all their ports externally so if
you wanted to uh you could actually put
more equipment back there and and hook
it up to this thing uh you've got the
USB ports you've got the separate HDMI
output uh and some of them actually come
with Wi-Fi so virtually everything you
could want to do uh in this form factor
is possible although there are companies
that have gone above and beyond on U let
me grab one my other modules here
there's a deao extension to Ops I don't
know that it has a name and I don't
think it's official uh but it makes the
modules thicker the outline is still the
same so you could take this module and
put it in a slot for this one but you
couldn't do it the other way around this
won't fit into this TV but the reason I
have this one is because in addition to
a whole load of USBS which I think is
just really funny uh it also has HDMI
and VGA capture in inputs this thing
actually has a capture card and the
reason for that is that these get used
in uh teleconferencing systems where you
need the ability to ingest a video
signal to send to the person at the
other end of the call so uh that's what
that's for and it's both HDMI and VGA
because the signal you're sending might
be from a laptop that sort of thing so
as you can see there's a lot of
different things that have been done
with this standard uh but in this case
we're nerds so all we're going to do is
just mess around so let's mess around
nerd don't want all this professional
grade stuff in order to do something
with it we just want to waste time uh
where's delete on this horrible little
keyboard or is it delete oh it is I'm
not going to do the whole little gu Deep
dive on the BIOS it's a bios it works
pretty much like all the bioses and here
we go yep we got USB boot there we go no
why is that the why is that the top
option on this page Joker's trick okay
looks like we're booting which isn't
surprising this is like a a fedora 35 I
think it's like two or three years old
uh I'm sure it'll run just fine on here
it's really funny though seeing the text
that small but that crisp like I'm
standing right here and oh those pixels
they're so they're so crunchy oh there
we go uh what activities do we have we
have room for activities but what
activities are there I have no idea
what's on the Fedora live disc you got
any games on your TV no doesn't look
that way uh here one moment
we're
networked let's see if we can get tux
racer on this thing oh man did they shut
down the the repos for this already boy
that seems really likely H well that
seems slower than it should be the
hell's going on here nothing's working
oh I don't think this thing likes
working in in only uh uh 4 gigs of RAM
I've just realized because it's actually
uh only got 113 Megs left so uh well
let's just upgrade it then I've got Rams
right again since this is a PC we can
just make it
better all right what do we got in here
oh I discovered I lied earlier this
thing actually has an expansion slot I I
probably put some text on the screen
when I took it apart but uh it looks
like mini PCI or I should say mini pcie
and that might be the variety that only
has the USB lines wired up and it's only
really useful for Wi-Fi or cellular
radios uh yeah looks like that's a DDR3
1600 I'm sure I've got something bigger
what's in the big guy I
wonder 4 gigs
DDR3 dang
it who has
Ram you look like you have
Ram 4 gigs DDR3 damn it
oh my God it's two 4 gig sticks I can't
win my kingdom for an 8 gig I'm offering
you a whole kingdom here come on found
some had to get a laptop out of the
trash oh there we go will this fix our
problem who knows all right here we
go let's just got to the Chase and now
it's running a hell of a lot better uh
but the store still doesn't work so I
had to install tux racer from the
command line because that's the world we
live in oh that already looks like it's
going to run like a like a hot Dam oh
yeah there we go this game from like 20
years ago runs like a dream on here wow
the sound effects are so much louder
than the music by
default these defining
pops
hooray hey he's doing it too okay okay
so I'm I'm putting to f a point on it
again in the moral of the story is you
can do whatever you want on a personal
computer I could put I coup on here I'm
not going to but I could so the point is
Ops an incredibly cool concept you know
it's it's something really should have
been built into every TV being able to
turn a dumb TV into a smart TV or into a
different type of smart TV is in itself
awesome and then for for businesses the
idea of being able to swap out the PC if
it dies or or if you want to upgrade it
or whatever just like that just pop pop
done really cool but we've still only
seen part of what this is capable of uh
this is one of the applications digital
signage and well whatever the hell this
is uh but the other which I alluded to
earlier was digital whiteboards and for
that we're going to need to scoot on
over into the other room all right so
welcome back to the studio this is where
I shoot my normal videos uh the uh set
is over there my desk and the the blue
wall uh and whatnot and this is on the
opposite side for probably obvious
reasons this is my program
monitor it's kind of a big one I think
most people don't use a program monitor
this large you know I need to be able to
see where I am on the screen I need to
know if I'm too close to the side so I
won't have room for onscreen Graphics or
you know if I'm just not holding
something up the right way that sort of
thing you need to be able to see
yourself but well the set I used to have
for this was like 55 in and it worked
fine this one is 75 in and 4K both of
which which are totally
unnecessary but I didn't get this to be
a good program monitor this is just the
only place I could put it that it fit I
got this DB because it has a number of
very special features I mean hell if
nothing else it's got a front panel HDMI
input you ever seen that I've never seen
that in my life I mean consumer TVs used
to all have front panel composite inputs
and even s video uh but that was back in
the days when people were frequently
like plugging their camcorder into their
TV for 20 minutes and then unplugging it
putting it away nowadays I think very
few people have HDMI devices that they
want to plug in temporarily uh it's
usually a game console or something that
you have plugged in all the time so I
understand why they stopped doing that
I'm still mad about it but obviously I
wouldn't have driven across town and
given somebody on Facebook Marketplace
$300 for this thing just for that and in
fact it's even worse deal than it seems
because it didn't come with a remote
control this always sucks you get a TV
used doesn't come with the remote you
try to look it up and all the remote
numbers are like this long and you can't
figure out which one works with your set
so in this case it's great because I
don't actually need to get the remote
the entire interface is touchbased this
is a 10-point touch screen and the menus
the input selection all of it can all be
done without the remote pretty cool but
why because as I was saying earlier this
is actually for doing the other thing
that Ops is used for this is a digital
whiteboard
let me show you what that means by
pulling this out and hopefully not
ripping it Off the
Wall there we go crisis
averted uh it's kind of hard to get in
here there we go so this is the largest
TV I've ever had the pleasure of owning
and honestly even compared to a consumer
75 in this thing is a beast I think it's
something over 200 lb I want to say and
there's not a single stand on the market
that is officially rated to support this
and I'm not even counting wall mounts
I'm saying no stand anywhere is rated
for this much weight like I think this
exceeds plasma TVs which used to be the
gold standard for incredibly heavy flat
screens so this thing is monstrous I
actually literally could not find a wall
mount that would support it anywhere but
then I just happened to go into repc our
local eway store and they had this
absolute unit this thing is rated for
like 400 pounds it is a tank and even
then even with the gigantic spreader bar
on here the Visa pattern on this TV was
still too big for it so uh if you look
closely right by which I mean if I move
the camera I actually had to go to Home
Depot and buy these galvanized steel
channels uh drill new holes in them and
then uh Assemble bigger spreader bar to
adapt this out to this TV and I am
incredibly lucky that this has not
fallen off the wall but I think at this
point if it has and it's not going to so
why did I put in all this effort what
made this thing worth it well it has a
number of interesting features so in
addition to the multiple HDMI inputs
plus the one on the front it also has an
HDMI output and here's the purpose of
that these things are meant to be used
in conference rooms where people often
do teleconferencing at least in theory
and in classrooms where they often do
remote learning where the class is
broadcast online for students who can't
attend in person and the HDMI output is
useful because it replicates whatever's
on the screen so whatever input you pick
or or even I think if it's the
internally generated uh menu in media
player uh it gets output through the
HDMI port here and it can even be
downscaled from 4K to 1080 or I think
720 and you then feed that into a
dedicated streaming device which is a
big thing at tools they'll just have uh
dedicated appliances where you just plug
in an input and hit go and everything is
preconfigured by some uh third party so
that the teachers don't need to know how
to run the damn things or or do any
Diagnostics or anything so rather than
try and split the input signal that's
going into the TV which is of course
impossible if it's internally generated
in the TV anyway and rather than having
to worry about uh having a a scaler that
the teacher has to know whether to use
or not use everything that appears on
the panel just gets coerced to whatever
resolution you want and spit out and
that makes it really really easy and the
same is true for teleconferencing setups
if you're uh using one of those like
Cisco or polycom multicamera conference
room rigs they usually have video
capture inputs that you can plug in a
laptop or something like that if you
just plug this thing in instead then bam
you're you're good to go uh and this is
particularly important if you're using
the remaining feature this has which is
the Ops slot for which this company
commissioned uh or built I guess uh
special dedicated devices as you can see
from the name active connect goes with
the active panel this looks
superficially just like the other ones
uh except for well it's got a a usbb
port for some reason I'm not even sure
what that's for uh it's got a Micro SD
slot you know whatever uh it has an HDMI
input so it's it's much like the the Ops
module I showed you that had the the
capture card built in this one does as
well uh and of course it's got Wi-Fi but
I mentioned that was a thing with these
so this doesn't look too exotic but what
makes this special is entirely on the
inside instead of x86
this thing has an arm processor and I'll
show you where that is as soon as I can
get out of
here
sucks all right don't fall off the wall
don't fall off the wall
please thank
you all right let's get down to aluminum
tax here so what I've shown you so far
is not what this thing is really
intended for you can do what I'm doing
here you can plug in any HDMI Source uh
and in fact I I mentioned it's a a
multi-point touch screen if I were to
run a USB cable over to my PC I could
actually use this as a touch input to
Windows but none of that is what it's
for Let's uh go to Source input here and
pick
Ops that'll automatically turn it
Ono I love that it actually gives you
this little internal message saying hang
on hang on the module starting I just
know Promethean is going to email me hey
do you want to do an ad no I don't want
to do an ad this is not an ad for
Promethean I got this TV from somebody
who absolutely took it out of the trash
at work and I got all these Ops modules
off eBay and I am not interested in
promoting anybody I have no idea if
promethian product is any good also this
is a huge industry with tons and tons of
competition and I'm sure that uh there's
50 or 60 other companies do pretty much
the same thing probably pretty much the
same way all right so here it is this is
the software and already you're probably
getting some Vibes you're probably
getting some Vibes uh let's just
increase the
Vibes yeah it's it's already obvious
right let's make it more obvious uh are
you getting it yet are you getting it
it's
Android but we knew that it's literally
just uh ordinary Android uh to about
device here version
6.0 patch level
2018 I have no idea when this thing was
sold but I can tell you that the colonel
version says it's from 2020 so
this is a really common thing in low-end
Android devices like if you buy uh an
Android tablet off of all Express
there's a very good chance it's going to
be like Android 8 patch level 2023 cuz
Google has really longtail support for
these things uh but a lot of the time
you'll find out that the kernel is far
more recent like we have here now don't
quote me on this at all I'm not an
Android expert but I'm pretty sure that
the dash dirty and the test Dash Keys
means that they actually shipped this
thing with like a developer mode version
of the OS on it that probably doesn't do
like app signing verification or
anything like that another very common
thing with low-end Android devices don't
quote me on any of that though that that
could all be but the point is
yeah it's just an ancient copy of
Android running on presumably a very
slow processor I I I didn't see the
hardware type in there but you can
imagine that's what it is what if you
look at the developer options does that
say and naturally of course they don't
have the developer options disabled
because this is a developer version of
the OS I'm pretty sure oh let's turn on
the uh screen overlay there we go
there's the multi-touch for you if you
were curious wow that draws really
slowly I don't know what the processor
in this thing is but it's probably no
Snapdragon tell you that and of course
uh I'm sure there's no Google Play Store
on here oh wait oh
gosh there is
uh is this logged in wait hang on did I
log into this oh my God whoever owned
this previously left themselves logged
in when they sold it well okay that's
not my problem well now we've got
to install something let's play a game
what's simple what can we manage on this
uh enormous screen I wonder if they have
tux racer on
here I feel like Vanna White using this
thing um key keyboard
sir the keyboard like stuck down below
this bar here and I oh wait here we go
ah there we are something tells me they
didn't test this too thoroughly um is
there is there a space bar down here oh
there we go oh okay it's just sort of
floating it's not attached to the bottom
of the screen super tux cart excellent
oh this is going to be so unplayable the
hardware in here is probably not going
to handle the 3D very well uh and it's
also going to be impossible to control I
can't wait if you're wondering if the
notifications drawer is there it is you
got to sort of grab up here there it is
a sort of off center and as you can see
it um it has some
problems H but so do I what else is new
all right we're installing place your
bets do you think this is going to work
at all I really don't I mean it's going
to run but it's going to be unplayable
all right here we go oh my God finished
installing time to inst
absolutely loving that Android 4 era UI
okay here we go let's get rid of the
Navar at the bottom there I was standing
here for a moment going H what kind of
controls are we going to use and I
realized this thing probably does not
have an accelerometer or a
gyroscope the menu is running better
than I expected oh okay I maybe this
game is not as graphically intense as I
thought it was I wonder what any of
these maps are based on it's it's not
like this is a a Nintendo game and and
they actually have like a rich port
folio of video game history to draw from
oh wow that that actually looks
reasonable oh I got to get over here it
says uh it's got Auto acceleration so we
should be good oh look at that okay I I
really didn't expect it to run this well
I'm I'm actually kind of astonished oh
man I can't believe this is actually
working well I mean working is a very
strong statement I absolutely cannot get
to the weapons over
there I would need a second person I'd
need a gunner oh no my finger keeps
slipping off the wheel
and when that happens you immediately
stop accelerating um the other fun thing
that happens is if you regrab the wheel
over here then I I think you go into
reverse yeah yeah so it's it's not
playing very well on this screen let me
tell you but it's running a hell of a
lot better than I think anybody could
have
expected
so if you had any doubts it's just
Android all right how do we how do we
get out of here do we drag up oh there's
a little button there there we go but
with all that nonsense out of the way
let's look at some of the things this
was actually intended to do uh so you
think these would be sort of the
flagship apps but they don't seem to be
they're just shortcuts to various
websites this is the gallery Tool uh
this is just Opera itself um what does
this
do can't connect to the camera well what
do you expect oh well I guess actually I
guess you probably could stick a camera
on top and plug it into the USB uh
because again if you're using this for
teleconferencing stuff that might be
useful uh also this here is a screen
share app uh and I believe what you do
with this is you'd run their app on like
your Windows or Mac laptop and then it
would just cast the screen directly to
uh the software here now obviously I
think apple has a solution for this and
windows has its own solution for this
and neither one of them can be easily
supported uh by devices like this
without paying an enormous amount of
money to Apple or supporting a broken
miserable protocol that nobody cares
about from Microsoft uh so this is just
a one that they cooked up themselves
it's probably VNC under the hood or
something like that it's absolutely the
right solution versus telling a teacher
well you should just have a different
brand of laptop but other than that
these are not terribly interesting the
real juice is in this little menu here
uh and this program I think is the
obvious draw
I draw it's a Whiteboard app do you get
it didn't even write that I wrote that
though
congratulations this is everything you'd
actually see one of these used for what
I've heard about this whole category of
product is that it's all based on these
silly ideas of how School actually works
even in like the most Suburban you know
American environment kids are not going
to engage with this sort of thing this
this feels so pandering to me but me
just wipe that that now I assume that
this is why the TV has this metal rail
down here cuz this looks exactly like
where you'd put a piece of chalk on a
chalkboard or a dry erase marker on a
whiteboard and I assumed that they had
some uh uh stylus styli styluses uh for
this thing that looked like that but
were capacitive right seems Seems like a
pretty obvious idea although I mean
since it is multi-touch I don't know
that you'd need them um it's pretty
basic stuff you know it's it's it's a
drawing program for kids right so beyond
the most basic you know multiple colors
and and that sort of thing it also has a
highlighter tool I I can imagine a
teacher using the heck out of that uh
you can set the background to a grid
it's actually kind of neat uh you can
set it to these things which I I assume
are for handwriting practice right like
I've got to assume it's it's for doing
for doing that right I think you can
drop in images right oh oh I can
completely forgot about this so yes you
can insert arbitrary images so you can
like plug in a flash drive and and load
a picture off of it or they've got all
this stuff on here that you can just
inject uh and then put it wherever you
need it uh and then I I suppose you
could you
know write teacher stuff I could picture
teachers using this
maybe maybe uh although I think most
wouldn't bother and that's what I've
heard that it's very hard to get get any
of the staff or kids to interact with
these things they mostly just get
installed uh sit there for years then
get uninstalled and replaced with the
same thing from another company for
another contract but whatever and
obviously they expected that kids might
use it because it has a multi-user mode
where uh depending on on which side
you're on it uses a different color and
gives you your own little um uh toolbar
here oh I almost forgot there's also
some drawing tools so for instance we
can get oh gosh prot TR ctor I barely
went to school I don't know what things
are called it's kind of awkward to
interact with like you can definitely
use it to to measure angles oh oh oh
that's what it's for I thought it was
for drawing lines it's for drawing
regions uh let's see how this guy works
do we just um do we do the do we do the
same thing does this do lines it doesn't
seem to do anything no there's lines
there yeah yeah sure enough there's
lines so you can use this that's that's
actually kind of cool now that I see it
and then what does that
uh just erase everything that we added
on this side yeah oh that's interesting
just's like layers here um the stuff
that I wrote before I went into
multi-user mode that stayed there uh but
this just erased everything uh that I
wrote since I went into that mode so I
guess as the teacher you could prep the
board with something then go to
multi-user mode and the kids could write
on top of it and then you could just
undo it when you're done so it's like
okay that all seems pretty reasonable
right and I don't know why but this does
seem to make more sense as an Android
app I mean it doesn't have to be
certainly let me just um let me make
that point I'll be right
back remember this guy Ops is standard
so of course he'll work here too you're
not supposed to yank these out when it's
running but it's safe I've done it
enough
times oh you know what I left Linux in
there well let's just see what that
looks like h no signal why
this worked
before oh there we go huh
weird uh I guess when you boot Linux on
this it does something that turns off
the uh display port interface going to
the TV uh but Windows plays well with it
I guess um B oh I I guess this module
was made in China and the recovery
software um they never changed it to
English why is it doing a recovery
though maybe I broke it by yanking out
when it was running hm couldn't be all
right there we go took a little bit but
uh looks like it's working now and we
should be able to start octopus here sir
you know what let me uh there we go by
the way this uh has the Box light name
on it and they didn't make octopus it's
just been customized for them box light
is the name of another manufacturer of
digital whiteboard TVs for uh very much
the same purpose as you can kind of tell
already from the style of the software
uh this too uh can I send this over
there now this
unfortunately does not appear to let me
move the toolbar to the right side uh
and I don't want to just be constantly
over here all the time so the point is
you can see this this does the same
thing uh but it's got a lot more tools
so for instance it looks like uh oh come
on every every time I touch something it
tends to to not take but there we go so
we can draw shapes uh what is this is
this a highlighter that's your
highlighter lets you embed images uh oh
oh that's cute it's got this little uh
uh virtual kind of flashlight mode
really definitely radiating a school
room kind of atmosphere here what is
this
uh what oh what does this even do is
this is this just for hiding part of the
board I guess yeah seems that way what
else we got in here uh capture tools
really huh oh I guess if we had a camera
plugged in then we could embed uh video
in there oh this lets us do a screen
capture we do like that um where does it
go oh I it probably goes into a gallery
somewhere okay and then if we oh if we
touch on on things we've already drawn
they're Vector objects sort of uh so we
could resize that is it a vector I think
it is cuz the resolution here looks
really low yet when I resize this it
doesn't seem to be getting any more
pixelated so I I think that actually is
a vector it looks like there's an
on-screen keyboard though I can't tell
oh there's there's a text tool there it
is oh okay it's got this this is
actually quite nice this seems a lot
nicer than the Promethean app again I'm
not promoting anybody I don't know who
the hell box light is I know if they
exist anymore uh let's uh let's just set
that at something more reasonable all
right here we go oh this is a really
strange layout
I I have to admit I'm doing better than
I
expected wow that's like what three
errors it's actually not that bad can we
make this small oh we can oh that's
that's probably a lot more
manageable okay I have to admit I'm
impressed octopus actually seems all
right I don't know why the resolution is
so bad I don't know if you can see this
but it's all super super crunchy do we
have any
settings uh doesn't look like there's
much really going on in the settings may
there's probably some administrator app
you've got to run some buried thing that
only technicians are supposed to know
about uh where you can set stuff like
that but you think it would be set
correctly from the get-go now see this
is the Windows 8 experience right a
touchbased UI this this is how it's
supposed to work quizdom tools anything
going on in there sir sir oh they're
down there there preferences GA does
eail okay nothing going on there oh oh
oh okay I guess quizdom is a different
piece of software then because this
looks like some sort of results SLP
participants oh well the name does
suggest that it's for quizzes so maybe
they had some sort of business where
like kids would do quizzes on like
tablets or something and then the
results would be visible on the screen
view logs uh yeah we got a an
application called answer key love this
logo love this like free software ass
graphic design I mean hell who's ever
going to see it right ooh oh that's that
good Microsoft Office ribbon right
there okay this looks like uh this is
how we set up a quiz using this thing uh
do we have any saved sessions doesn't
look like there's any like samples Ah
that's a bummer I mean you you you sort
of get the idea of what this is for
right you know you build questions with
answers and points and then you'd hit
start session uh and then everybody
would connect to it you got your
participant management here where you
can do all your user enrollment and
whatnot yeah so I think this this sort
of explains itself now I did see there
was a folder called games what do we
think is going on there you got any
games on your whiteboard uh we have
baseball FasTrack Mission to Mars and
quandry oh and they're all Shockwave
Flash objects can we just can we just
open them in a browser that'd be funny
it doesn't seem promising if I'm honest
I kind of think this is supposed to run
inside a larger program also get a load
of that Google Chrome wow been a while
since I saw that version of the UI those
were different days back then we were
amazed at how fast it was I think that's
a nonstarter and I think we're sort of
getting an idea of uh what this thing is
all about uh and as you can see yeah you
you could do anything you wanted in this
space right Ops could be anything you
know this this is running Windows the
other things running Android I'm pretty
sure somewhere out there uh there's like
the bright sign unit that I showed you
earlier I think they made an Ops version
of that uh and I've seen Ops versions of
several other Appliance devices so yeah
pretty much anything you can imagine
fitting into that form factor I think
has been fit into that form factor uh
and so in the end we just have to ask
what does any of it mean for you the
takeaway here is that Ops is a
fascinating technology with a lot of
applications
which at this point in time are probably
no longer relevant to most people even a
lot of nerds watching this not to
suggest that computers of this era
aren't useful I mean an i53 gen and they
make much newer ones in the Ops format
are still absolutely uh cromulent for
all sorts of applications the trouble is
if you're in the market for this sort of
weird thing you probably have the money
to just pick up something a lot more
useful and a lot newer and you probably
don't care that it's not literally built
into your TV I mean for like 50 60 bucks
you can go buy like a Lenovo 1 L machine
like a think Center tiny that has much
better specs much more expandability
isn't limited to this format and isn't
married to a TV that well at this point
if you find one it's probably pretty
outdated the Promethean in the other
room okay that thing's all right at
least it's 4K but it's certainly not you
know new I think it's from like 2018 or
something like that and while there are
newer ones they're not on the used
Market uh so they're going to run you
like $5 to $8,000 cuz that's the thing
all these things were fiendishly
expensive new the only reason that I
have one the only reason that I have
three is because they're older ones that
are getting cycled out and thrown away
now the flip side of this is the older
ones are getting cycled out and thrown
away so if you keep an eagle eye out you
can probably get one in pretty much any
major city and maybe some not so major
ones because again they're getting
installed by businesses who are now
closing offices that they don't need
anymore uh and getting rid of these
stupid teleconferencing setups that
nobody ever used also of course they're
getting cycled out by businesses whose
contract is running out with their
current provider of useless
teleconference stuff nobody is using so
they're signing up with a new provider
who rips out the old stuff installs new
stuff nobody will ever use and the old
stuff just goes in the dumpster and then
employees take it home and they flip it
on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
that's how I got mine that's how you
should get yours and as for the modules
you sort of have the pick of the litter
there um the higher end ones like the
i7s and whatnot those still go for quite
quite a bit unfortunately uh at least
when I found them but you can get lucky
uh because a lot of people have no idea
what they have of course that also means
they're usually not labeled correctly if
you go to eBay and look up Ops module or
AliExpress cuz there's a lot of them on
there you can get mid-range ones for
between $40 and $80 uh very reasonable
prices the higher end ones are more like
5 and 800 and 1200 but if you take the
model numbers and set some saved
searches you could probably get lucky
from somebody who's just like I know
what this thing is and throws it up
there for 50 bucks but that's really
only useful for the tinkerers in the
audience cuz like I said we just have
better options now you don't really need
to do this uh unfortunately as much as
it pains us nerds to hear it smart TVs
work pretty well I I know that makes
people mad but like I I see nerds like
myself go out and buy a TV and strain as
hard as they can and burst a blood
vessel in their forehead trying to get
one that's not smart then they take it
home and plug in a thing that plays net
Flix it's it's the same thing if you go
out and just buy a smart TV they run the
apps that connect to Plex so you can
watch your pirated anime it's the same
thing you don't even need to get a
separate box but even if you're going to
get a separate box you can just get like
uh what the Android TV thing those work
just fine and that's what most people
are doing in my experience and so it
really isn't getting you a whole lot
other than being able to say hey my TV
has a computer in it and it's really
kind of a shame because if everybody
knew these existed 12 years ago when the
first round of them them was being
thrown in the dumpsters then it would
have been a lot more relevant back then
but I really think that ship has sailed
and frankly the ship is probably kind of
sailed on Ops in general it was
absolutely very relevant in 2011 2015 uh
but with the plummeting cost of uh so's
and vendors uh you know supporting
software and embedded devices for much
longer than they used to and and all
sorts of other factors it feels like the
Ops as a concept is becoming irrelevant
uh and at the same time Intel is trying
to kill it uh they have a new standard
called SDM by new I mean it's like 5
years old I think it's the exact same
concept except it's a little bit smaller
it's got slightly newer interfaces and
it's licensed it's not open um I guess
Intel got mad that all these Chinese
companies were making these things and
not paying them anything like that can't
be permitted uh so now you have to pay
them money for every single module I
think and that means that uh I have not
found one that costs less than about
$1,200 and I'm guessing that uh for both
that reason you know Intel ruining what
they had and the increasing popularity
of devices with built-in appliance
modules uh I think this is just going
down the drain nowadays A company that
makes a digital whiteboard or
teleconferencing product whatever the TV
just has an Android s so built right
into it and they're running custom
software sometimes and uh I think they
just keep them maintained for a lot
longer than they used to so yeah I I I
think this era is kind of coming to a
close but nonetheless I know how nerds
are I got three of these things even
though I have absolutely no use for them
I certainly have enough computers so if
you're excited about the prospect of
owning one I recommend you you keep an
eye out uh don't search for Ops TV or
anything you will never get any results
doing that you want to look for digital
whiteboards uh you want to look for anyc
multis syncs uh and then you just want
to look in the TV category on Facebook
Marketplace and keep an eye out for
things with very very rectangular bezels
and look up their specifications um it's
pretty much the best way to do it and of
course the two that I've shown you are a
bit large uh but they do actually come
in smaller sizes SU out there there's
like a 32 in but I actually have another
NEC that's only a 42 in which next to
even this thing looks dinky now an
interesting thing about this one this
thing of course also has an Ops slot but
what's in it is a TV tuner which I
believe is on one of these new SDM cards
so this is actually adapting SDM to Ops
so if you had any questions about
whether SDM actually did anything new
and novel the fact that it could just be
pin converted to the old thing kind of
kind of suggests otherwise but now at
least if you see something like this
while out thrifting or whatever you'll
know what you're looking at so I'm sorry
for not making this a decade ago when it
would have been a bit more useful but
well at least it's here now so I hope
you enjoyed watching it uh if you're new
to my channel um hi welcome hope you
enjoyed this um consider subscribing if
you want to see more stuff like it I try
to make things at least as interesting
as often as I can uh but if you want to
make sure I can continue making things
like this then consider supporting me on
patreon like these folks are doing uh
this is my full-time jobs they're the
only reason that I can afford to do this
they're paying for the space and the
stuff and my gas and groceries and and
every other damn thing so I'm incredibly
grateful to all of them for making this
possible but I just want to harp on this
again because the warehouse space that
I'm in now is just a GameChanger I have
had these TVs or at least this one for
quite a while um actually one of my
patrons donated this to me I think six
or eight months ago and I was really
excited about it because I was unable to
find an Ops tv anywhere I've been
looking for over a year and nothing was
coming up I had eBay searches and
Craigslist and the whole bit and then I
got this thing from this fellow I'm
sorry I forgot your name again but I
already thanked him enough in a patron
video uh and since then since I was able
to actually start experimenting and and
learning how this stuff worked uh that
helped me find more stuff and now I've
got three of these TVs and very soon
I'll have more and my girlfriend to
break up with me but that's all in the
future for the moment this is fantastic
and it's it's just really only possible
because I've got the space to move and
breathe and to set things up in the
middle of the floor and and run cables
all over the place and I just couldn't
do that uh in the studio space it's
great for the sitting at a desk talking
type videos but it just wasn't great for
the sort of Highly active kind of thing
so I just want to thank everybody again
I couldn't do this without you and
everybody else thanks for watching