Thoughts aloud: TV firewall for older people

    Disclaimer:

    This post is published almost spontaneously. At half past one in the afternoon, the idea that was described in it seemed sound to me, despite the fact that I did not conduct any serious studies on the payback and feasibility. There are no pictures with the finished device under the cut either, due to the lack of such in nature.

    Perhaps many of us have encountered the problem of the quality of information broadcast by central television channels. Most normal people neglect the box because of the endless stream of low-quality propaganda. Nevertheless, older people, for some reason incomprehensible to me, for the most part do not filter this stream, and take everything seriously.

    As a result, one day you will learn from your parents about burning gay hearts, treating with urine and the coming of the Nazis to power in Ukraine. Stay on the first, and do not switch the channel.

    As practice shows, buying a smart TV with a hard drive full of thousands of your favorite movies, TV shows and stories Discovery does not solve the problem of watching evening news. Television is convenient in that it gives a certain variety that is inaccessible to the playlist, and at the same time does not require any active actions. And most importantly - it solves the problem of choice.

    So, our task is to gradually, without changing any user's habits, and using exclusively technical means to create alternative sources of information for him, thereby correcting the one-sidedness of the information on TV.



    The most logical solution in this situation seemed to me to broadcast the “necessary” news at a certain time instead of broadcasting a particular channel. To comply with the rule of law - all this must happen within the framework of one home ownership. Let us leave for a while the question of the origin of media content, and focus on the technical aspects.

    You can start the video broadcast directly from any android tv box, of which there are thousands on ebay. The next news release should be cached shortly before the start of broadcasting, and at the specified time, forcibly disconnect the TV from the broadcast network and broadcast its own TV signal.

    It all depends on the connection of the TV receiver to the broadcast network:

    • With a conventional coaxial cable, an analog is the most commonly used option in the regions.
    • By an ordinary coaxial cable, a digit through the prefix - installation in the gap scart \ rgb \ hdmi - connections.
    • With a conventional coaxial cable, a digit directly or through a CI \ CI + card is the most difficult option, but quite rare
    • An unencrypted ethernet digit is ideal, but even rarer than CI \ CI +


    Of greatest interest to us is analog broadcasting. Immediately managed to find many VGA-> AV converters, but still this is slightly wrong. In addition, the ideal converter should have an external interface for controlling the broadcast frequency, but we could not find such glands.
    But just such functionality was found in an old Openbox F300 satellite receiver, which suggests that there is no technical difficulty in implementing this issue.

    With the number through the prefix, it is still easier. Boxing is put “in the gap” of the connection between the TV and the console. There are two relatively difficult tasks here - implementing a “break” connection and getting the number of the active channel from the set-top box. Perhaps in some cases it will be easier to reverse the firmware of the set-top box and make a soft injection of the stream.

    Well, the ethernet figure is only a synchronization of the stream format from the difficult technical aspects. Since it changes quite rarely, the setting is actually one-time.

    In general, on the technical side, implementation is not too complicated. The cost of the finished device offhand should not exceed 130-150 dollars.

    We’ll talk separately about the production of media content. It’s quite difficult for me to judge the cost of such work. Perhaps there are people who are involved in the creation of independent TV channels. As far as I understand, the optimal payment format for them is a subscription. And if so, a solvent audience is needed. Therefore, instead of long reasoning, there will be a regular poll further.

    Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.

    How much money are you one-time willing to pay for such a thing?

    • 60.1% Crazy, go to bed 89
    • 22.2% to 3 thousand rubles 33
    • 12.8% 3-5 thousand 19
    • 2% 5-7 thousand 3
    • 2.7% 7-10 thousand 4

    How much money per month are you willing to pay for “ideologically correct” content?

    • 60.2% I say, you are raving, go to bed. 88
    • 17.8% If everything is for the idea here, then I want it for free, of course. 26
    • 10.9% to 100 rubles per month 16
    • 7.5% 100-300 rubles per month 11
    • 2% 300-500 rubles per month 3
    • 1.3% 500-1000 rubles per month 2

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