[BlackBetty]

Would love to have multiple sporting events on the screen at same time. Would be a killer feature.

 

[CinciDVR]

Would be a killer feature.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? And yet 15 years ago just about every high end TV had Picture-In-A-Picture. My HD plasma TV had the ability to display 9 channels at once - we'll not quite at once but each updated every second or so. It also had the ability to display two channels side-by-side in real-time, or one channel in a small window inside a larger window showing another channel, and several other options that allowed two channels to be shown at the same time.

And yet in today's world where we have higher resolution TV's (a 4K TV could show four 1080P videos at the same time) I rarely find a TV listing PIP as a feature. What happened?!? Seems people didn't use PIP so manufacturers quit building TV's with it. Pity! Now I have to use my PC if I want to display multiple video streams at once.

 

[dianebrat]

And yet in today's world where we have higher resolution TV's (a 4K TV could show four 1080P videos at the same time) I rarely find a TV listing PIP as a feature. What happened?!? Seems people didn't use PIP so manufacturers quit building TV's with it. Pity! Now I have to use my PC if I want to display multiple video streams at once.

The reason PIP died was not a single "people didn't use it" but the additional fact that with a cable STB or DVR there was no way to get that second channel on the screen, thanks to CableCO's encrypting more and more channels PIP never had a fighting chance.

 

[CinciDVR]

The reason PIP died was not a single "people didn't use it" but the additional fact that with a cable STB or DVR there was no way to get that second channel on the screen, thanks to CableCO's encrypting more and more channels PIP never had a fighting chance.

I don't think it's quite that simple. My HD plasma TV could accept a cable card so I was able to access multiple cable channels at once. I also had an outside over the air antenna connected which provided yet another source. The problem was that you (I) had to know what you were doing to get things setup to support PIP. People weren't willing to go to that trouble.

But today's TV's support streaming, so via the internet there are a lot of video sources that could easily be put in separate windows. With the right streaming services someone should be able to have multiple sources of sports available to be displayed in multiple windows. Yet I'm not seeing PIP make a comeback. Maybe it's just too early in the life of sports streaming, but I tend to doubt it. I think the problem is that the majority of people just aren't interested enough in PIP to use it even if it only involves punching five or six buttons on their remote.

Edit: I've also skipped over the fact that there's no simple solution to provide audio for multiple display windows. Lack of audio really seems to bother people even when they're watching something like sports whose action can be conveyed really well with just video.

 

[ClearToLand]

Would love to have multiple sporting events on the screen at same time. Would be a killer feature.

Expert Connect 4 Ports Quad HDMI Multi-Viewer/Screen Divider/Switch | 1080p @ 60Hz | 5 Viewing Modes

Description: This Multi-Viewer allows 4 different HDMI devices (computer, laptop, DVD player, console etc.) display on the same screen (TV, monitor, projector) at the same time.

NOTE: You'll need FOUR input sources (i.e. 4 TiVos, or 3 TiVos and 1 PC viewing a tuner on a SiliconDust HDHomeRun, or 2 TiVos and 2 PCs each viewing a tuner on a SiliconDust HDHomeRun, etc...)

 

[Resist]

At first I thought PIP would be great until years ago I got a TV that had it. I used it once and that was it. I realized that I hate multitasking and prefer to focus my attention on one thing at a time. I can either do one thing really well or multiple things mediocre. I know kids today think they are really good at multitasking but when you look at all the grammar errors in online news, it shows that they really are not.

 

[dianebrat]

I don't think it's quite that simple. My HD plasma TV could accept a cable card so I was able to access multiple cable channels at once. I also had an outside over the air antenna connected which provided yet another source. The problem was that you (I) had to know what you were doing to get things setup to support PIP. People weren't willing to go to that trouble.

Look at how few sets overall kept CableCARD slots, they were far and few between.
PIP was yet another niche feature that folks like us might enjoy and use, but the general public just never cared about it.

 

[chiguy50]

At first I thought PIP would be great until years ago I got a TV that had it. I used it once and that was it. I realized that I hate multitasking and prefer to focus my attention on one thing at a time. I can either do one thing really well or multiple things mediocre. I know kids today think they are really good at multitasking but when you look at all the grammar errors in online news, it shows that they really are not.

"Mediocre" is an adjective and can not be used adverbially as you have done in the above sentence in bold.

Not to nitpick (I have made my own share of errors in posting), but you have been hoisted by your own petard.

 

[humbb]

"Mediocre" is an adjective and can not be used adverbially as you have done in the above sentence in bold.

Not to nitpick (I have made my own share of errors in posting), but you have been hoisted by your own petard.

I wasn't aware that the Grammar Police had an Internal Affairs division.

 

[chiguy50]

I wasn't aware that the Grammar Police had an Internal Affairs division.

Well now, if you are going to write a post criticizing others for their grammar, you had best make sure that your post itself does not contain an egregious grammatical error. That's just asking for intercession from the G.P.

 

[dianebrat]

I wasn't aware that the Grammar Police had an Internal Affairs division.

The TCF division is run as an independent entity...

 

[Resist]

Actually I appreciate when someone grammar polices me, because I'm usually the one doing it to others.

 

[chiguy50]

Actually I appreciate when someone grammar polices me, because I'm usually the one doing it to others.

<rant>

We are kindred spirits in that I also cringe at the bad English on broadcast media. And I don't mean substandard English or argot, but rather errors due to a deficient grasp of one's native language.

The two most common cringe-worthy (to me) examples that crop up with depressing regularity are:

1) "Between you and I" (failure to understand proper pronoun declension); and

2) Use of the indicative mood where the conditional or subjunctive is required. Sportscasters are notorious for this practice, which I would ascribe to an appalling lack of language acumen for a professional speaker. (Example: "If he fields it cleanly, he throws out the runner at second" in lieu of "If he had fielded it cleanly, he would have thrown out the runner at second.") This linguistic avoidance maneuver robs the language of important nuance. Would that it were not so!

</rant>

 

[MikeekiM]

I had a TV with PIP back in the day... I used to call it my "show off feature"... The only time I used it was when I had people over and I wanted to show what my new TV was capable of...

I'd show it... Everyone would "ooo and ahhh" for a bit...and then we'd turn it off and watch what we wanted to watch...

I am sure there are people who find this feature useful...but I never have, having had the capability for years and at my fingertips (and yes, I had two tuners set up so I can use it properly)...

 

[ClearToLand]

I don't think it's quite that simple. My HD plasma TV could accept a cable card so I was able to access multiple cable channels at once...

Interesting. What was the make and model?

...I also had an outside over the air antenna connected which provided yet another source. The problem was that you (I) had to know what you were doing to get things setup to support PIP. People weren't willing to go to that trouble...

Over the decades, more and more 'High Technology' has been made available to anyone with the $$$ to buy it. Unfortunately though, compared to the 1980s when the ONLY folks who owned a home computer were the ones with sufficient knowledge to assemble / setup / troubleshoot them, nowadays ANYONE can buy anything, hook it up WITHOUT reading any instructions (as if the manufacturers actually provide written manuals anymore ), and then complain endlessly in online forums / vendor site product reviews / etc... how BAD the product is (when the problem is actually the user and NOT the product).

...Edit: I've also skipped over the fact that there's no simple solution to provide audio for multiple display windows. Lack of audio really seems to bother people even when they're watching something like sports whose action can be conveyed really well with just video.

IMNSHO, the non-technical majority today don't really know what they 'want' - just what they 'think that they want'. The anonymity of the internet emboldens folks to say things that they would never say to another person face-to-face and the Dunning-Kruger Effect explains why 'people without a clue think that they know it all'. (I'll always be grateful to @fcfc2 for making this old 'Math and Science / Techie / Nerd' aware of a little psychology .)

I had two audio / video 'streams' active on my laptop the other day (a recording currently in progress and a previously recorded show that I was playing back, originally automatically named with just a time date stamp, to identify the content) and the jumble of two different audio tracks (from two difference sources) made both intelligible .

I don't own the "4 Port Quad HDMI Multi-Viewer" that I LINKed to above, but if viewing four sources simultaneously were a requirement of mine, I would prefer the view on the top right (#1 displaying the MAIN source with audio using 50% of the screen; #2, 3, 4 displaying the ALTERNATE sources WITHOUT audio using 1/3 each of the remaining 50% of the screen) and hope that there might be a single button toggle to 'bump' everything up simultaneously (i.e. #2 to 1, #3 to 2, #4 to 3, #1 to 4) round robin style.

Spoiler

Have you noticed how, in true TCF fashion, the majority of the posts are off-topic and the OP is MIA...

 

[mattack]

I used PIP all the time when I watched some shows live -- so I could watch something ELSE during the commercials (from Tivo or even before that, with VCRs) and keep track of the original show in PIP. or sometimes "do Tivo season pass culling/maintenance in the PIP while I watch something else on the other tuner"..

but now I have enough tuners I can record everything.. For all practical purposes, I use live TV just to buffer CNN (or sometimes CSPAN)/keep it playing at low volume overnight.

 

[CinciDVR]

Interesting. What was the make and model?

Hitachi 42HDT51. The biggest issue with its PIP was that what you could display in the second window depended on the source (NTSC, 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i) of both the main window and the second window. I'm sure this would have caused most people to sour on its PIP when they couldn't figure out why they couldn't display what they wanted in each picture.

I would prefer the view on the top right (#1 displaying the MAIN source with audio using 50% of the screen; #2, 3, 4 displaying the ALTERNATE sources WITHOUT audio using 1/3 each of the remaining 50% of the screen)

The Hitachi had four PIP modes (POP, PIP, Split, and Surf). You controlled the audio by using arrow keys to move from main picture to sub picture. When watching two sporting events I almost always used the Split mode. If I was watching two non-sports programs and was using the second program to avoid commercials on the first, I'd use the PIP mode. Of course once I got a Tivo, avoiding commercials became so easy I didn't have to use PIP to avoid commercials any more. With the box you linked to, I'd probably use the first (four equal sized windows) and last (two equal sized windows) options most often.

POP mode

PIP mode

Split Mode

Surf mode

 

[Series3Sub]

Dish offered PIP for many years--gosh nearly 20 years, and I've always used the PIP feature. The current Hopper 3 offers PIP 2 channels or PIP 4 channels as in the screen is divided into quadrants for the 4 channel PIP that is referred to as Sports Bar Mode or Multi-View. I use either 2 channel or 4 channel when watching CNN to avoid the CNN bug becoming persistent on the LCD TV screen.

As for TV's with PIP, there were a number of models that offered them before the days of HDMI, including a TV my brother had from Sony that could populate like 30 channels on the big CRT screen. that was easy before the days of HDMI. Once HDMI dominated that really killed the PIP on most TV's except the highest models, and that is because the microchip to make possible PIP for HDMI inputs was far too expensive in those early years when HDMI inputs took over. This limited the PIP feature in later TV's to provide ONLY one HDMI source, but the other had to be any other NON-HDMI source such as TV (OTA), or one of the other ANALOG inputs, but never more than ONE HDMI input for PIP, and that was a big killer for me because I wanted multiple HDMI for the TV's PIP.

The only other devices that dared spend the money on the expensive multi-HDMI PIP were very expensive Video processors like those from DVDO. Today, I think PIP with multiple HDMI is affordable, but the desire for PIP is just not there----UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY USE PIP today, like in the Hopper 3 product. I use it quite often--and not for sports--but to keep track of breaking news while watching something else with one channel in small PIP in the corner, or multiple news channels, or monitoring the start of live debates or Presidential address or even situations like putting the TV series Chucky in the small PIP while I watching something far more interesting until Chucky makes his killing. The Chucky TV series is so BORING, I won't be watching again, especially if I had to put the show in the corner of the screen to watch something else. The uses for PIP are endless--including putting a PIP in the corner to cover a channel's bug so it does not become "persistent" as in the old "burned in."

 

[Bruce24]

While I've had multiple TV's with PIP, even a computer monitor, the only one I ever used regularly was a Sony Wega rear projection TV I bought in the early to mid 2000's. I had a cable card, cable box, TiVo and DVD connected to it, so plenty of sources. For the most part at least one of the two things I was watching was a sporting event.

 

[Jonathan_S]

Expert Connect 4 Ports Quad HDMI Multi-Viewer/Screen Divider/Switch | 1080p @ 60Hz | 5 Viewing Modes

Description: This Multi-Viewer allows 4 different HDMI devices (computer, laptop, DVD player, console etc.) display on the same screen (TV, monitor, projector) at the same time.

NOTE: You'll need FOUR input sources (i.e. 4 TiVos, or 3 TiVos and 1 PC viewing a tuner on a SiliconDust HDHomeRun, or 2 TiVos and 2 PCs each viewing a tuner on a SiliconDust HDHomeRun, etc...)

Though I guess those other TiVos could be Minis all streaming extra shows from the main TiVo.

(Oh and thanks for sharing that multi-viewer product; I never even thought about whether something like this might exist. Cool to see this)