Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for March 14, 2015

Yes, but today we have DVR! And DVDs or BluRay … On Demand. … and not everyone will agree, but I think the quality of TV shows are better (well, the best of today is better than the best of yesterday though there is just a lot more mediocure or terrible stuff by volume).

Small price to pay for nearly free tv shows.

I feel your pain.

Not only are remotes convenient, they are completely necessary…Have you ever tried to work a TV/DVD without the remote?. Good luck….

With my remotes, mashing the buttons for three to four seconds means “time for new batteries”.

J.J claims the locale of A&J is ambiguous but the south is the only place I know where people say “mash” the button rather than “press.”

I’ll bet ROBIN told Janice to try new batteries.

I have another comment on yesterdays strip. Perhaps Janis & Robin were twins, both given up for adoption. Forward to Gene & Mary Lou, where Mary Lou discovers she’s pregnant with twins. The plot thickens!

It depends where you live. I live in an apartment and there is NO reception.

We baby-boomers passed on the idea of functional on-off switches to the younger generations, and they totally screwed it up.In the 20th Century, we had on-off switches that turned things on or off, and that was it, unless they also controlled volume. Now, you have to hunt for a switch among other identical ones and find the little power icon, often just a raised molding on a black switch, and push it, and nothing happens, and it turns out you have to push it again or hold it down, or use a remote, or do something on a screen, and then, even when it’s off, it’s sucking power. I often end up just unplugging it, if it’s something I can’t figure out within a minute.That is not progress, it is needless complication and obfuscation.

Kinda cranky today, at least no bullets are flying past his head….

#FirstWorldProblems

That remote is pushing Arlo’s buttons!

Replace the batteries.

Maybe just change the batteries

This derives from the growing idiocy of the population and those who cater to them. It’s basically “Are you sure you want to turn this on/off?” The excuse is that many “switches” are not physical switches, at all, and are way too sensitive, making it easy to inadvertently turn something on or off. It has, however, gone way too far. It’s almost as bad as those who program a button to actually act when it is released, rather than when it is pressed.

I agree entirely with Mr. Johnson and Arlo. However, “against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.”

If you have equipment using HDMI connections you are likely to experience long delays in response to button presses due to HDCP (High-bandwidth digital Content Protection) in various flavors. It exists solely to frustrate content piracy but functions mainly to drive users crazy. The more expensive the equipment you have, the more you are to have troublesome delays caused by HDCP.

I’m surprised. Nothing about pi day -3/14/15 9:26 53"

My remote’s batteries died just last night. I had to look up all the components’ codes and reprogram it.

@DavidHuieGreen

I didn’t say it was a bad thing :)

Mash Any Key to Continue.

I don’t know what kind of TV Grainpaw has, but I’ve never had any problems turning on my TV or anyone else’s TV with the proper remote. One little push turns them on and off, no button mashing or holding needed. Heck, my TV has two remotes, the standard one that came in the box and my configured game console gamepad with a constant charge for convenience. I don’t see how blaming my generation helps matters, either, since it’s highly unlikely that my generation took any part in designing or building Grainpaw’s TV. By the time HDTVs became standard here in the US, my generation was either just finishing college with jobs clearing paper jams from company photo copiers and getting coffee for the bosses, still in college, or still in grade school. The older of us may be working on designing and building HDTVs now given what jobs weren’t outsourced yet, but they’re a lot better now than they were years ago. Besides, it’s not like we’ve reached the age or position of experience that we have a say on how TVs should be built to increase profit. If it helps, TVs bought from stores often come with instruction manuals, and if you know your TV’s model number you can google it to get all kinds of help.

What kind of remote is he talking about? None of the remotes I’ve ever had (even the more recent one) do that.

Wait, is the dressing and undressing story done?

If you have to hold the button for three or 4 seconds it means you have Comcast. One of several reasons we dropped it and went another direction.

(Been on the road most of the day.) I usually can’t do anything with our TV, because one remote works one thing (“You use the other remote to change the volume!”), whereas the other works something else. I have to maa-eesh I’m Southern] the power button, then cable (or is it the other way around?) in proper sequence, mash something else for sound, something else for volume, find the channel, etc., etc., etc. When my husband went out of town, I got to know the BrightHouse rep. on the phone very well. I know he was ecstatic when my husband got back.