The DVD screensaver was perfect: unobtrusive and did what it was supposed to do: prevent your CRT screen from burning-in an image. On top of that, it gave you something to look forward to when it would perfectly hit a corner (which some people thought was a myth; sadly the GIF version does not).

Now, any screen in your home is fair game for intrusive ads. Why make something simple, elegant, functional, and unobtrusive when that otherwise idle (or even in-use!) screen can be crammed with ads.

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    51·
    2 days ago

    The dvd screensaver was just another screensaver at the time. There used to be cool things. Like install windows 95 or 98 and there’s default screensavers that were basically just programmers showing off - the pipes constantly growing into each other, a starfield, a generative maze that you just wander through, etc. then there was a whole thing for people to make screensavers (Uniqlo made one of the coolest ones).

    Now computers are stupid and monitors just turn off. To be fair this is probably better for the environment

    • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago

      You probably already know this but it’s not just for the environment. Screensavers were almost exclusively used to protect your screen from burn in. During the switch from Plasma to LCD this became (almost completely) obsolete. Screens became less prone to burn in, video protocols (HDMI, DP) got support for turn off signals, and detection of content being played got better, thus making screensavers obsolete as well. So I wouldn’t call computers stupid.

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Well now there’s oled so burn in is very much a thing and screensavers are back on TVs at least, except they suck now.

        And I would definitely call modern computers stupid but it’s not the computers fault, tbf. A computer is just a thing. It’s the fault of greed mainly. Computers are stupid because they don’t have charming features like screensavers anymore. That’s too expensive. Usability, repairability, user control, etc is sacrificed consistently to shove in advertising and opportunities for upselling. Whenever this isn’t the case it’s almost always a temporary moment before venture capital purchases the company that makes the hardware/software and then they will 100% do that

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        I do. It was great.

        Many years later Uniqlo released the uniqlock. It was a clock screensaver that had “seasons” which were advertisements for their seasonal clothing releases but it wasn’t really obvious? It was that era where advertising was stupid and weird and “subversive” but it meant we got a cool screensaver that was updated for like 6 years with new content for free. Normally I despise advertising but this was the kind that was up front about it: it was like here’s a thing, check it out, it’s free, no data collection. Simpler times.

        Unfortunately it was made in flash and died many years ago when flash was kill. That hasn’t stopped people who were also fans of it from recreating it although unfortunately said site doesn’t work great on mobile and is a website, not a screensaver, but still nice to be able to see it again