Hacker News Reader

Comment by pipeline_peak | Hacker News Reader

Call me cynical but I never once looked at a tv and went “I wish I could see through this”.

I can see attractions in restaurants, shops, theme parks, airports, museums, etc but does it matter to consumers other than fancy picture frames/screen savers and showing the weather?

What if the image or text I’m looking at blends in with the color or texture of the real background? That wouldn’t matter commercially where displayed media is more controlled by the owner, but in a house you’re viewing casually.

View on HN

See through it? Nah, but wish it wasn’t there? All the time. Always hated how TVs ruin a room. However, I don’t think this really solves the problem, for all the reasons others in this thread mention.

If they could build them into the wall, this should mostly eliminate the issue I think. Then you could show an image of whatever you want on them when you're not watching anything: a view of the outside, an image that just looks like the rest of the wall, etc.

All of those can be done today, because none of them benefit from the TV being transparent.

Well yeah, I wasn't talking about transparent TVs here, just the complaint that contemporary TVs ruin the look of a room.

For transparent TVs, I don't see how those are useful at all, except as a novelty or for retail advertising or the like. If they could be transparent when turned off, and then when powered on show an image that looks as good as a normal TV, then I could see the appeal, but (AFAICT) that's not how they work.

A better question you could ask is: have you ever wished you could display images on a window

Nope.

No, window is for looking outside and seeing the world, people and nature, TV / monitor for digital content which is at best a shallow replacement of the above.

If your place has horrible views I suggest to move to a better one, not create some alternative dystopian reality for yourself. But maybe I am just getting old.

As someone who's lived in a basement and felt like I was constantly on a submarine, I could've used a video of some trees lol.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com