The DVD screensaver was perfect: unobtrusive and did what it was supposed to do: prevent your CRT screen from burning-in an image. On top of that, it gave you something to look forward to when it would perfectly hit a corner (which some people thought was a myth; sadly the GIF version does not).
Now, any screen in your home is fair game for intrusive ads. Why make something simple, elegant, functional, and unobtrusive when that otherwise idle (or even in-use!) screen can be crammed with ads.
Stuff like this had to be killed as part of the corporate initiative to never allow anyone to have a moment of peace ever again.
Wait…it can actually hit the corner? I thought that was just a legend.
A totally appropriate reaction!
I was watching something on a Roku TV through HDMI, when an ad came up at the bottom of the screen for watching the same thing through some streaming service. What the actual fuck??? I’m already watching it!!
I highly recommend unplugging all network cables from your smartTV, disabling its wifi, and using a cheap PC as a streaming box. Adblockers, media ripping (is possible), it can do more than smart tV, you can play games on it.
It’s like getting emails from Amazon advertising products you’ve already bought. It’s like it’s running on the same algorithm that Youtube is. This guy just watched a video about neutron stars. I’ll recommend another video about neutron stars. That makes sense with video content, but not really with a lot of consumer goods. Sure Amazon, the first toilet seat was delicious, I think I’ll eat another.
Showing an ad for a game on a gaming website? Hell no. You bought some pants so here’s an ad for more pants.
TVs were not made to be connected to the internet. If you use the internet to serve ads, you get the block from the router
The dvd screensaver was just another screensaver at the time. There used to be cool things. Like install windows 95 or 98 and there’s default screensavers that were basically just programmers showing off - the pipes constantly growing into each other, a starfield, a generative maze that you just wander through, etc. then there was a whole thing for people to make screensavers (Uniqlo made one of the coolest ones).
Now computers are stupid and monitors just turn off. To be fair this is probably better for the environment
You probably already know this but it’s not just for the environment. Screensavers were almost exclusively used to protect your screen from burn in. During the switch from Plasma to LCD this became (almost completely) obsolete. Screens became less prone to burn in, video protocols (HDMI, DP) got support for turn off signals, and detection of content being played got better, thus making screensavers obsolete as well. So I wouldn’t call computers stupid.
Well now there’s oled so burn in is very much a thing and screensavers are back on TVs at least, except they suck now.
And I would definitely call modern computers stupid but it’s not the computers fault, tbf. A computer is just a thing. It’s the fault of greed mainly. Computers are stupid because they don’t have charming features like screensavers anymore. That’s too expensive. Usability, repairability, user control, etc is sacrificed consistently to shove in advertising and opportunities for upselling. Whenever this isn’t the case it’s almost always a temporary moment before venture capital purchases the company that makes the hardware/software and then they will 100% do that
Remember “After Dark”?
I’ve been using flying Toasters as my screensaver since 2001, I never see it anymore because the display turns off, but its there!
If you’re on Linux, xscreensaver has a 3D version of the flying toaster screen saver!
I do. It was great.
Many years later Uniqlo released the uniqlock. It was a clock screensaver that had “seasons” which were advertisements for their seasonal clothing releases but it wasn’t really obvious? It was that era where advertising was stupid and weird and “subversive” but it meant we got a cool screensaver that was updated for like 6 years with new content for free. Normally I despise advertising but this was the kind that was up front about it: it was like here’s a thing, check it out, it’s free, no data collection. Simpler times.
Unfortunately it was made in flash and died many years ago when flash was kill. That hasn’t stopped people who were also fans of it from recreating it although unfortunately said site doesn’t work great on mobile and is a website, not a screensaver, but still nice to be able to see it again
Or Johnny Castaway.
Programming screensavers is just fun.
Flying toaster > DVD logo
Fight me. 😁
Especially when it’s playing Flight of the Valkyries.
Wow, that is an insanely impressive engineering feat. Stuff like this is why I still love the internet. Thank you for sharing it!
If I could get that in a thinner profile, I would totally and proudly hang that on my wall as art.
Thanks. Now I’m going to have to sit and watch this until it hits the corner juuuuuuuuuust right
Spoiler: The GIF doesn’t. Will spare you the time I wasted waiting for it lol.
Boooooo! What a tease. That gif should be ashamed of itself.
I know right? If you can find a better one that pays out, send me a link and I’ll happily update the post. I couldn’t find one that wasn’t forced and only went in the corner.
Dang. I see what you mean, lots of videos of the screensaver but not many gifs with the sweet spot of a corner. But I did find one that immediately puts out the goods
You will like this song
Screensavers could still have a place for OLEDs, since they have the burn-in issue.
My LG does picture frame looking pictures it came with (never connected to internet).
They seemed to have thought the brightest white of the sun would be the best choice.
Nighttime does not exist if you turn on the TV and the Shield is sleeping.
For sure. My shower thought is just that they won’t be anything like the simple pleasure of the DVD screensaver. It would probably ads that cycle through.
Now you got me thinking about leaving the computer dialed up overnight so I could download custom screen savers.
I felt that. It took me 3 overnight sessions to download the “Throw a pie at Bill Gates” screensaver over 14.4 dial-up back in the day.
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My dumb tv still have this sort of screensaver, but it’s significantly slower
Plex screensaver isn’t far off. Though now you reminded me I have to get myself off Plex. Sigh.
Jellyfin is easy!
It sucks and can’t handle subtitles well.
I too want a good plex alternative that:
- Doesn’t require substantial client configuration or fuckery
- Has robust subtitle support
Huh? What issues are you having with subtitles? I use subtitles on almost everything and they’re perfectly fine.
Do you manually download them yourself or do you pull them at runtime?
I have bazarr set up. So neither of those.
Jellyfin doesn’t require client fuckery. Just URL, login, password.
It takes a little more work on the server side though, particularly to use https connections while self hosting.
And I’m not sure what robust subtitle support you’re looking for, but jellyfin will show them when I enable them afaik.
Jellyfin’s subtitle support is atrocious. If you are from a multilingual household it is simply not suitable.
