A recent article over at
Entertainment Weekly got our gears turning, and we began to wonder if anyone actually takes advantage of picture-in-picture anymore? On one hand, it's still a (minor) selling point on even the fanciest of sets, and viewers sure seem
to love those
multi-screen broadcasts
put out by DISH Network and DirecTV. Consequently, we can't even remember the last time we utilized PiP for more than a moment or two in order to keep track of two sporting events simultaneously. Who knows, maybe it's the ability to record one show while watching another that's curbing our usage of picture-in-picture, but we're curious just how dusty your own PiP button is / isn't. Tell all below!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
scjessey @ Jun 21st 2008 12:12PM
My stupid TV won't do picture in picture if I'm using HDMI. I have used it in the past, however.
yanks86 @ Jun 21st 2008 12:14PM
I only use it on occasion for sporting events, and on my one TV without a DVR. I use it occasionally on sporting events to monitor two games. Other than that, I will use it see when what I am watching comes back from commercial while I am scanning other channels.
C. T. @ Jun 21st 2008 12:50PM
It is in fact my greatest annoyance that PiP has all but disappeared from today's televisions. I used to have a DLP with PiP that I used all the time, and I miss it a great deal on my current plasma.
crawdad62 @ Jun 21st 2008 1:13PM
I remember when PIP first came out I thought it would be a godsend. I used it a couple of times.
My new TV doesn't even support it (but my DVR does) and I haven't used it in years.
The Aggie CEO @ Jun 21st 2008 1:27PM
I didnt get a TV with it on there because most of them dont even support that VIA certain connection types.......i.e. you cant use PiP if one is HDMI or something stupid........
when they get that fixed(if they ever do) then I will consider getting a TV with it on there........until then I will just use the PiP feature on my cable box......lol
Big John @ Jun 21st 2008 1:49PM
I just have a SDTV but I used it a lot in May when Detroit had a whole lot of sports action to keep tabs on two games at once.
Mitch @ Jun 21st 2008 2:26PM
I .. never use it. Hmph. Actually I forgot it exists.
mntwister @ Jun 21st 2008 2:59PM
Had the capability for a long time and never used it once. I guess I like to watch one thing and concentrate on that.
Ed @ Jun 21st 2008 3:23PM
I never use it myself. I have a friend with a Sony set that has TwinView, and that's pretty nice.
Adam @ Jun 21st 2008 3:34PM
I use mine to play 360 one the big screen and then watch a sports game on the little one.
Jeff @ Jun 21st 2008 3:38PM
I spent a lot of time configuring my system and universal remote (Pronto) to support PIP... but I never use it. I just never had a real compelling reason to do it. And now that I have dual-tuner Tivo, there's definitely no reason. Just pause one channel and switch to the other. When a commercial comes, pause it, and switch back.
Jeff
J3 @ Jun 21st 2008 4:46PM
On college football Saturdays I wear that feature out! Major news stories I sometimes use it to keep up with who has the latest. But other than that there really isn't much other use for PIP. So where else would you use it? I'm not criticizing the feature. Just curious where else you think it could be used usefully.
TheIcemanCometh @ Jun 21st 2008 4:46PM
My Toshiba 62" DLP has something similar called Picture Over Picture, which actually puts two inputs on the screen side-by-side - the same size. I use it all the time.
CDN Crockett @ Jun 21st 2008 5:14PM
I PiP quite a bit, between Xbox 360 and TV. Now note that I'm using rabbit ears for my 42" Plasma so with the one HD channel I get............
I have a hard time paying for commercials!!!
Garst @ Jun 21st 2008 5:29PM
I would if I had a TV with it and the PIP was capable of displaying ATSC broadcast. That way I could use a smallish TV with my bedroom PC and have a little TV when using it as a monitor. Then have a nice TV when I'm going to sleep to watch.
jacksonian @ Jun 21st 2008 5:31PM
PiP is a great feature without a great need. In all the years it's been available, I've used it maybe once or twice. And with a dual tuner TiVo that allows me to pause one ball game while watching the other and then reverse that, there's really no point. PiP basically became obsolete when we came out with dual tuner DVRs.
Camperton @ Jun 21st 2008 7:10PM
Never. There's really no point when your cable box has on screen program listings with a window showing your current program while you browse.
Ben @ Jun 21st 2008 7:10PM
My Samsung won't let me use it with except with OTA or if I plug my cable signal directly into my TV, neither of which I do so I never use it. It might be useful if I could use it for the HDMI or component inputs.
I think my DVR might supposed to be able to do it, but I've never bothered with it.
Chad @ Jun 23rd 2008 12:51PM
My Samsung plasma is the same way. Although I've never used it on any of my tvs.
T-bone @ Jun 21st 2008 7:59PM
I think the biggest reason it isn't used that much is because on a lot of TV's, one of the pictures in the PiP is required to be the internal tuner...how many people (other than me) actually use that.
KilgoreTrout @ Jun 21st 2008 8:46PM
I do use it .
For exemple To know if Italy passed the quarter finals on the champion league this week I had to look at the game of Holland too, and my Kouro let me use whatever tuner i want (it seems so at least).
But scanning the progs from my parabole receiver I can see the programs they broadcast and read info about them while scanning. so apart for sport there are not many other reason to use it.
xemumanic @ Jun 21st 2008 9:05PM
Its really cool for sporting events. But its especially great during the Olympic Games. I remember I has Dish network for the last games, and they had some sort of cool PiP thing going where you could see all 6 channels that were airing content from the games, and whichever one you highlighted was the one you heard audio from.
Jeppe @ Jun 21st 2008 10:08PM
I used to use it while waiting for some show to start/get interesting. I would switch to a DVD or video game, and have the TV in the corner.
With cable/satellite boxes becoming more and more used, I guess it makes sense for TVs to remove the PiP support.
These days I'm not using it at all since my Sony TV won't do PiP between 2 HDMI sources. It will do it between the regular TV tuner and anything else, but as I have satellite thats about as useless as it gets.
longhairbilly @ Jun 21st 2008 11:54PM
I LOVED PiP on my old Wega. I used to play Xbox and put the Yankee game on in the corner. My Kuro don't handle PiP as well as a $5,000 TV should.
WebDev511 @ Jun 22nd 2008 10:34AM
I use the DirecTv, HD DVD and Blu-Ray 1.1 PIP, but don't not the TV's.
DeadPixel @ Jun 22nd 2008 1:45PM
i would if i could, my samsung wont let you do PiP if you run hdmi, only over the 2 tuners
JetShred @ Jun 22nd 2008 3:16PM
I have a cheap Vizio and I play 360 over HDMI in the corner while my girlfriend watches DirecTV over component on the big screen, or I watch a Blu-ray while I am working on a PC connected through RGB. I love having it and use it quite often.
ahow628 @ Jun 22nd 2008 11:26PM
I use the split picture all the time during the football season. I usually make the game I'm more interested in bigger. I can highlight whichever one I want the sound for. Extremely convenient.
John @ Jun 22nd 2008 11:59PM
my tv does POP, picture on picture, 2 equal size screens on a 62in dlp. nice feature you just press back and forth on the remote for sound. the only downside is you can only have 1 hd signal, either hdmi or component and the other input has to be non hd or antenna which could also be hd if i didn't live in an area stuck in the past. the best thing about it is for watching tv and playing my 360 at the same time.
Randall Lind @ Jun 23rd 2008 9:56AM
I have it buit into my 8300hdc cablebox the only time I use it is when I flip channel and get a message that I am recording 2 programs.
I use it to find out what the other channel is since I can only record 2 channels watching one of them at a time.
severian00 @ Jun 23rd 2008 11:54AM
I used to use it all the time on my Hitachi 50". I would put it on split screen and play a game like tiger woods golf or some other game that didn't require my 100% attention and then I'd watch movies or tv shows on the other half. I used to love it. Now I have a Sony 60" and I no longer have that option.
Gadi @ Jun 23rd 2008 4:00PM
The problem is that you need 2 tuners to affectively use the pip. Especially since analog chanels are going away.
I use a Tivo so I would need a second tivo or piece of equipment to get 2 streams. I think Tivo should implement this functionality since it has 2 tuners. That would make a TV with pip obsolete. Or Tivo could stream to 2 outputs.
Peter F @ Jun 23rd 2008 4:32PM
Nope, never had a need to use PIP
Mr. B @ Jun 24th 2008 5:29PM
PiP is practically useless with my otherwise awesome Samsung LNT3253H lcd tv. It only works with analog OTA stations and one digital source, even though my set has 3 hdmi ports. The DirecTV HR-21 HD-DVR has no PiP in spite of having two tuners... sad really.
stuwart @ Aug 4th 2008 9:27PM
why cant I pic in pic two hdmi sources like ps3 and hd tv? I have two hdmi inputs on a samsung 32 inch lcd. (I can of course pic in pic with 1 source using the tri-colored cable and other hdmi)
thanks
dalascby @ Aug 9th 2008 1:06AM
I LOVE the dual tuner PIP on my old Hitachi 65xwx20b rear projection. The split screen feature is outstanding for watching simultaneous sporting events (NFL and definitely March Madness!) Also, as others have mentioned, using the split screen with video games. Also, my Hitachi CAN show the DIGITAL OTA picture in a PIP screen! I now have the Samsung 67 inch LED DLP (Hitachi needs an expensive repair), fantastic HD picture, probably the best bargain on the market today, but I am completely upset about their "dark ages" PIP implementation, a "single tuner, "analog only" PIP! Only the analog ota signal can be in the "sub-window". I swear, if I had been paying attention in the store I probably wouldn't have bought this set, just because of the poor PIP features. Didn't Samsung realize that after Feb. '09 this tv won't have a PIP feature at all! Two thumbs down for Samsung, a real black eye on a TV that would otherwise score a perfect 10 in my book (best bang for buck). So, yes, I would to see very robust PIP features return to both TVs and STBs!!