Yeah I can here the joke already: "doesn't that defeat the purpose?" or "it exists, and it's called radio".

But seriously. Often I'll turn on the TV when studying or surfing the net and be distracted by the picture. I want to hear the sound, but don't want to turn off the TV. So I end up throwing a blanket over it.

When I'm watching a talkshow, I don't need to see what the people look like. Also sometimes the TV makes that horrible highpitched whining noise . . .

anyway, it'd be very simple to do. This feature could be included in all new TVs.
-- funcrusher, Feb 26 2001

There are a lot of radios which will tune in the audio portion of TV broadcasts (as well as the usual FM radio band, etc.). This feature is advertised for just this purpose.
-- wiml, Feb 27 2001


I've always wanted this one myself as you could censor what you watch without changing channels. All too often the visual are just too daft to bear watching. CNN is the classic example of this and I would keep the sound on to hear the start of the one small segment I'm interested in amongst all the adverts for the other segments.
-- Aristotle, Feb 27 2001


Well, since the term 'mute' is related to hearing their might be a more appropriate phrase here. other than that i sort of like the idea.

one way to achieve this would be to turn the brightness down to zero but that could get to be a pain in the ass. another way is to run your vcr through your stereo and just 'listen' to tv. plus the aforementioned tuning of tv stations through your radio although not all tv stations would be available that way.
-- dgeiser13, Feb 27 2001


You would need the armoire doors on remote though.
-- Aristotle, Feb 27 2001


It's easy to do: use the video input on your TV instead of the antenna (or RF) input. Route the audio but not the video (connect only the audio cable). Use the video input on your TV whilst using the tuner in the VCR to supply the signal.

Related: I like watching TV as I drift off to sleep (sometimes). Generally the picture on newer TVs is waaaay too bright for dark room viewing. I wish they had a 50% brightness setting. A half-baked half-mute.
-- bristolz, Feb 28 2001


Once, I was really, really sick, but well enough that I was also bored out of my skull. So, I staggered out to the livingroom and turned on the TV. It was too loud for my fevered brain to handle, so I muted it. The pictures were still too much for me, so I closed my eyes. That was _just_ right. Visual mute would have been ideal in this situation.
-- clynne, Apr 19 2001


Get an older TV and set the picture to a mad scramble. I had a TV set like that for years--quite purposely. I'd only straighten it out for the Kentucky Derby.
-- thumbwax, Apr 19 2001



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