You have a device like this and you do something with it: TV behavior in 2024
In the technology diary editorial chat, people talk about television. Kirsten Schelper says:
“I would be interested to know: What is television about today? Is it watching together? Does linear programming still exist? And how much time do you spend like that, whole evenings or rather shorter distances (a film/an episode)?”
Others answer these questions in the chat. Then Kathrin Passig says:
“Yes, and if someone were to write this down, one day someone would certainly be happy to receive explanations of what televisions and television were in 2024 and what they did with them (I’m serious, it seems under-documented to me). Exceptionally, I can’t do it myself because I don’t have a TV or watch TV. But this ‘you have a device like this and you do something with it’, I would like more information about that.”
This collective contribution is then created.
Alina Smithee has documented her television behavior separately.
Feathers Mcgraw:
My television is a 53 inch Samsung frame model, which has the advantage that it looks like a (digital) picture with a picture frame on the wall when I’m not watching TV, which I find visually ideal. I recently moved to Germany from the USA and took the television I purchased over there with me. However, this has some disadvantages in use. Firstly, it can only be operated with a voltage converter, but that can be solved to some extent, such a voltage converter is significantly cheaper than a new television. On the other hand, there is the software: I actually mainly watch streaming services on my television, and the big ones I’m a member of (Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime) are already pre-installed. A smaller streaming service that I use (WOWpresents Plus) also has an app in the Samsung TV App Store. However, German providers cannot be found there, i.e. the apps of the German broadcasters, neither public nor private. I also had a few US streaming subscriptions (MAX, Paramount Plus) that I can sometimes use with a VPN on my computer, but not on my TV (I don’t even know if I could run a VPN on it). However, the other software issue is the linear television theme. The automatic channel search on the television is set to American broadcast frequencies and formats; my German cable channels cannot be found there. That’s why I bought a small cable box for 40 euros through which I could watch my German television channels linearly. However, I only do this once a month, when I remember that it’s possible – otherwise streaming is completely sufficient for me. However, I tend to only watch things on the TV that I suspect will look nice on the big screen, such as big budget movies or TV series like Foundation (on Apple TV+, which I only ever watch for the 2nd version). Months in which the new season is on) – I watch the rest on my laptop on the couch.
Alina Smithee (a different Alina Smithee than the one mentioned above):
September 2023
I’m heavily pregnant and exhausted, most of the time I lie in bed. All apps have been read through and all YouTube channels have been looked at. In exactly this situation I feel like watching exactly one type of television, namely reality dating shows from RTL+. I only know that these shows exist because R. works professionally on a project for RTL. This means that R. also has access to content on RTL’s streaming service that you would actually have to pay for. I install the app on my phone, R. logs into it and I watch three or four seasons of absolute nonsense in bed for some time during the day, sometimes for several hours a day. After a few weeks my tank is full. I’d rather spend the rest of the time until the birth reading books. After the birth I’m in the hospital for a few days and stressed out, but the app has forgotten the login and it doesn’t bother me enough to do anything about it.
January 2024
The two-year-old child is sick and needs something to do. We are preparing for a nice afternoon of television: We choose an episode from a series of zoo documentaries from the ARD media library, which we project using a Chromecast with a projector onto a roll-out screen hanging in the living room. Days later the child calls out thoughtfully: “The elephant has bathed! We saw it there on the screen!” A few weeks earlier we were visiting our grandparents’ house and played a YouTube video on a television in the living room. The child called the television “the big speaker.” The child has a very clear idea of what a video is and what “watching television” means, but he has no concept of the television as a device.
Kirsten Schelper (January 2024)
After moving out of my parents’ house, I lost contact with television as a concept and with the television as a device. For a while there was an ancient black and white television in a white plastic case standing around in some corner. But I don’t think I used it regularly. In retrospect, this surprises me a little, because at the time there were neither streaming services nor media libraries. I’ve obviously been busy with other things.
With the iPad, television returned as a concept. Today I like to consume a lot of streaming offers and media libraries. However, almost exclusively English-language films and series. I can no longer find my way around the linear television program. I turn off the TV in the hotel again after two minutes.
I never bought a television again. I suspect that this may also be due to my somewhat oddly designed living room. There is simply no free wall here. The only place that could have made sense to place a television would have been directly above the fireplace.
Thomas Jungbluth (January 2024)
The central television is a Samsung 48-inch device with a 3D display, now a rarity. A Samsung Blu-Ray player plays the corresponding films. The linear television program, which we still use just as intensively as streaming services, is delivered by a satellite dish that hangs next door on our brother-in-law’s house.
For a while I had an HD Plus card in an adapter (common interface) for HD programs, but recently I’ve been using Internet TV for higher resolutions: Telekom Magenta TV in a package with Disney Plus and RTL+. Amazon Prime and Netflix are also on board as well as Wow for six months and Paramount Plus for three (Sky had a combination offer for little money that I couldn’t refuse). I’m just not watching Apple+ right now, I’m waiting for the second Silo season.
The television has various apps, but I use an Apple TV box for the Telekom television service (which, by the way, is well served by Vodafone cable internet) and the streaming services. This means I can also use surround sound via the AirPods when the Teufel soundbar is not in use, which otherwise provides Dolby & Co. with two background speakers.
All devices are built into a pre-wall installation with an MDF board, the Blu-Ray player is behind it and pulls the discs in through a slot on the side. By the way, the wallpaper comes from Harald Glööckler. An RGB light strip behind the panel provides colored indirect light if desired.
We don’t have a TV in our bedroom, and in my office I watch on the PC if I watch at all.
Anne Schüßler (January 2024)
Our TV is a large (I don’t know how big because I immediately forgot the dimensions) flat screen mounted on the wall. There are various apps installed on the TV, and you can install many other apps. Specifically, we use Magenta TV to watch or record linear television, Netflix, Amazon Prime, RTL+, Joyn, Disney+, YouTube and I recently installed Spotify to play music on the television at Christmas.
Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ even have their own factory buttons on the remote control so that you can switch directly to the individual services. We watch linear television via Magenta TV, but that also means that you always have to go to the home screen first, select the app and then select the channel. The television always starts with the start screen, so you can no longer simply switch it on and then what was active when you switched it off will run.
What you can’t do is connect Alexa to the TV. But I only know that because I tried it recently. However, I lost interest so quickly that I couldn’t say whether any crazy tricks might work.
We use television often, even linear television. We also still subscribe to a TV guide and I usually check again before we switch to any streaming service to see if there is anything interesting on any channel.
Most of the time I’m just casually checking my smartphone anyway, be it because I’m playing some distracting game or casually watching TikToks with no sound. Strictly speaking, it is not the smartphone that is my so-called second screen, but the television, because I often only hear the sound from it.
(Kirsten Schelper, Alina Smithee, Feathers McGraw, Thomas Jungbluth, Anne Schüßler)