TV-B-Gone Card

I’m sorry but what does “highly illegal” mean?
Are there enforcers that shoot you on sight?

There may be levels between legal and shoot on sight, not legal advice though XD.

If you need telling you wouldn’t understand. Interfering with another’s right I would have thought is a clear abuse.

Do it in the UK you may get a good slapping in the US, yes you may get shot.

I think there are questions here both of functional scope and of suitability of the expansion card form factor.

For a TV-B-Gone-like device, with a single or handful of actions (even if each involves sending many different codes), it seems like the expansion card form factor offers only disadvantages over a small handheld device. If the LEDs are in the card, then they’d either:

  • be constrained to point out the side of the laptop, meaning you’d need to awkwardly position the side of the laptop toward the target device,
  • use a protruding expansion card format, which is almost always a nuisance, and would still involve moving around the laptop to direct the light, or
  • use some plug-in or wireless connection to another device, in which case, why not make a USB-C or Bluetooth device in the first place?

A more general IrDA card, on the other hand (perhaps with particularly strong transmission), would provide something beyond a TV-B-Gone, and would make more sense for the form factor.

1 Like

@CGE First of all, thank you for your truly constructive feedback, I welcome it.

You do point out an important fact. While built into the laptop, it could be much more useful as a general IrDa port. Do you happen to know the relevant specs?

As for the IR blaster capability: Adding a small battery as well as a button would make it useful standalone as well as when it’s built in to the laptop.

IrDa on an expansion card is a good idea (assuming there are actually uses for IrDa these days) because you can choose which side you want it on. That would have been useful back when I used to use it for file transfer (mine was on the left side towards the back, which was fine most of the time, my then gf’s was on the front, which was awkward nearly all the time).

1 Like

It could be pretty useful to have an IR Blaster card. I use to install TVs and being able to do troubleshooting and testing just from a laptop would be really useful. This would be especially helpful with IR receiver extenders (when the cable box is rack mounted in the server room).

1 Like

‘Targets’ isn’t a word I’d use…

The intended use for the original TV-B-Gone was turning off televisions in bars and restaurants. At least in the U.S. they’re ubiquitous and extremely annoying - almost always tuned to sports channels or Fox News and at volumes prohibiting conversation, particularly in those places opting for stone and tile surfaces which reflect every sound. On more than one occasion I’ve been unable to speak to the person next to me without both of us shouting. Ask the bartender to turn it down and - after shouting “What?!” A few times - they’ll tell you they can’t because other patrons get mad at them or because they’ll get fired or because the contract with the streaming service forbids it.

I’ve always sympathized with the impulse behind the TV-B-Gone, but potentially antagonizing a roomful of strangers never seemed like a good idea.

4 Likes

Really? That’s my forte. :smiley: