On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 2:28 PM <bzs@theworld.com> wrote:

Every time I've read a thread about using TVs for monitors several
people who'd tried would say don't do it.

And everytime I see an email thread about the difference or not between monitors and TVs I'm taken over by an all consuming rage...

I have a **monitor**.... I purchased it from Dell, and it clearly said "monitor" on the box, it identifies itself somewhere display settings as a "monitor", and even says "monitor" in small letters somewhere on the back.... It's a MONITOR dagnabit... but, for some unfathomable reason it has some tiny little speakers in it, and every time I connect it via HDMI to my Mac laptop, the machine decides to completely ignore the fact that I've told it that I want to use a specific sound output, and starts playing all audio though the monitors speakers. Oh, and because this is HDMI, and Apple apparently follows the HDMI spec, the Mac volume controls won't work ("This device has no audio level control" or something...) and I have to go scrummaging around in some horrendous on-screen monitor menu to make it less obnoxiously loud...

Huh. I have a Mac and my monitor was definitely marketed as a TV and all I do is just turn the volume down on the TV remote and don't have issues with the Mac not honoring where its audio output is. So there is obviously something different between our two setups. It does like you say not have the ability to control volume which I don't understand because my chromecast can do that and its only cable is HDMI so obviously the Mac can too.

All attempts to get this less stupid result in Apple pointing at the HDMI spec and saying that if a device advertises audio capabilites they list it as an output device, and Dell pointing out that they simply advirtise the fact that the device has a speaker, and, well, shrug, not thier issue if things try and use it.

I can understand why they have speakers and all of that even if it's just a monitor because it's probably cheaper to just have one model to manufacture and just rebrand it. There was some device -- gad I want to think it was an old DEC terminal server -- that just filled in the serial ports with glue or something so that you couldn't use them. That was pretty shameless.

Mike