# Has anyone made TVs and monitors without controls - how much do they save? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490 "2006-06-05T15:45:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490/1 "2006-06-05T15:45:58Z")
Tonight I realised that I have never adjusted any setting on my monitor since I set it up. First time I used it I turned down the brightness so that the whites aren’t dazzling white but I have never touched any of the setting buttons since. Similarly with my TV - I plugged it in, auto tuned it and apart from changing channels, increasing/decreasing the volume, switching it off (all with the remote) I have never touched any controls again. And I don’t think I ever will. If the picture starts playing up I will get rid of it. So has anyone bothered skipping all these unnecessary controls? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490/2 "2006-06-05T18:01:07Z")
I sure hope not. Most TVs look terrible right out of the box and need a good bit of adjusting to tame that punchy eyeball-burning high brightness, high contrast and high color oversaturation that they all seem to suffer from. What bugs me, actually is the loss of controls. I had to dive into cryptic service menus to fix what’s called “red push” on my TV - for some reason, a lot of TVs crank up the red, producing an unnatural image where the red things seem to be jumping right out of the TV. Most TVs now seem to use soft controls for the usual user adjustments anyway, making Brightness jst another menu item. Menus are free, so if anything, it might cost more to edit pre-programmed menus to delete functions. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490/3 "2006-06-05T22:17:09Z")
Monitors and TVs leave the factory set up to look their best in a showroom. That is, in a large brightly-fluorescently lit room. So unless you set it up to use it in a room similar to a Best Buy or Wal-mart sales floor, it will need adjusting. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490/4 "2006-06-05T22:40:27Z")
Monitors and tvs require the control circuits to compensate for the manufacturing process. The various internal parts will have a range in gains, etc., so the display devices need to be adjusted in the factory. You would need these circuits after any repairs as well so it doesn’t make any sense to pull them out. That, and that these circuits are pretty cheap anyway, so you aren’t going to save much per unit. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490/5 "2006-06-06T02:45:04Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > That, and that these circuits are pretty cheap anyway, so you aren’t going to save much per unit. It would cost you more per unit as you have to factor in the returns + the additional expense of factory calabration. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-made-tvs-and-monitors-without-controls-how-much-do-they-save/359490/6 "2006-06-06T03:49:31Z")
As a person who frequently loses remotes, I’d be quite distressed if they started manufacturing TVs without the face buttons.