Batteries not included
Feb. 8th, 2026 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereMy new DVD player has been a lovely thing in many ways, but what I originally took for the fast forward and rewind buttons were actually skip scene buttons. Naturally, this is completely antithetical to ease of canon review (or just, "hey, I missed that line of dialogue, what?") so today I dug out the remote that came with the DVD player, and which I had blithely ignored heretofore. After all, I had reasoned, the DVD player comes with a host of buttons. Surely everything I need is already—
Wrong! In addition to no rewind, there is no mute, which is also super helpful in canon review (mute is truly the best way to hyper focus on body language, I have found).
So I dug out some AAA batteries (three left in the pack), installed them, pointed the remote at the screen, and excitedly clicked.
Nothing happened.
I pressed harder. Tried other buttons. Shook the remote mournfully. Dug out the manual, feeling ridiculous, because who needs a manual for using a remote control?
Sure enough, the manual just told me to put in batteries, point and click. Thanks.
So I popped the batteries out, planning to put them in again in opposite slots, and noticed one of them had a messed up end. Instantly disposed of that, scrubbed my hands and grabbed the remaining AAA battery, which looked fine. Snapped the remote closed, pointed, clicked...
Success!
I then amused myself for a few minutes rewinding, muting and otherwise enjoying the freedoms which come with a remote control.
This was a roundabout way of saying I haven't made a post in a week, and this was my way of rectifying that. :)
Wrong! In addition to no rewind, there is no mute, which is also super helpful in canon review (mute is truly the best way to hyper focus on body language, I have found).
So I dug out some AAA batteries (three left in the pack), installed them, pointed the remote at the screen, and excitedly clicked.
Nothing happened.
I pressed harder. Tried other buttons. Shook the remote mournfully. Dug out the manual, feeling ridiculous, because who needs a manual for using a remote control?
Sure enough, the manual just told me to put in batteries, point and click. Thanks.
So I popped the batteries out, planning to put them in again in opposite slots, and noticed one of them had a messed up end. Instantly disposed of that, scrubbed my hands and grabbed the remaining AAA battery, which looked fine. Snapped the remote closed, pointed, clicked...
Success!
I then amused myself for a few minutes rewinding, muting and otherwise enjoying the freedoms which come with a remote control.
This was a roundabout way of saying I haven't made a post in a week, and this was my way of rectifying that. :)
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 03:45 am (UTC)I think this is a record for fastest comment I've ever received, by the way! :)
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 03:37 pm (UTC)Related anecdote: Last year, I was given a "certified" television that had been used in a lab (tech, not chem or bio) at work that had finished its projects and was disposing of miscellaneous stuff. Long story short, except for On and Off, it could not be reliably operated manually (it had only 2 buttons! "Power" and "Everything Else"), only by remote. The first remote didn't register. Okay. So. I bought and tried remote after remote -- from its manufacturer, then universal remotes, then from its manufacturer specific to its country of manufacture... before hauling the thing (and all but one of the remotes) to the city recycling center.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 05:23 pm (UTC)That does sound terribly frustrating. I am lucky my problem was less complex.