nuclear fusion breakthrough

The U.S. is on the cusp of announcing a scientific breakthrough that has eluded researchers worldwide for decades — one that could, decades from now, turn nuclear fusion into a practical source of clean, inexpensive energy that doesn’t create long-lived radioactive waste or worsen global warming.

The findings, which Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to announce Tuesday, still leave many obstacles to be resolved in turning the nuclear process that powers the sun into a source of Earth-bound energy. But scientists are embracing the historic milestone nonetheless, cheering that researchers have finally created a fusion reaction that produces more energy than it takes in.

Turning that discovery into a source of power for everyday life would probably take decades and cost several hundred billion dollars, said Dale Meade, a retired fusion expert who worked at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey, one of the Energy Department’s national labs. But such a massive effort would be worthwhile, he said.

“Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is whether the U.S. has the foresight and will to move forward,” Meade said.

The Financial Times first reported the research breakthrough Sunday. A person familiar with the findings confirmed to POLITICO that DOE will announce that its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had used lasers to produce a fusion reaction that generated 1.2 times more energy than was needed to create it.

If reports of the experiment’s results prove accurate, “it’s one of the biggest results of science in the past 20-30 years,” said Gianluca Sarri, a professor at Queen’s University Belfast who researches laser and plasma physics. But even then, hope of a fusion-generation power plant is still more than a decade away, he said.

Fusion, which uses extreme heat to combine two atoms and produce massive amounts of energy as a byproduct, is the engine that powers the sun and the stars, as well as advanced thermonuclear weapons. Unlike existing nuclear plants, which harness heat from a chain reaction of splitting atoms in a process called fission, fusion reactors don’t generate a panoply of radioactive waste or pose a risk of meltdowns. Since the 1950s, supporters of the technology have claimed that fusion could someday produce energy that’s cheap and essentially limitless.

But showing that a fusion reactor is even a practical goal has been difficult. A little over a year ago, though, Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility announced that it was finally nearing the step of creating a fusion reaction that produces a net-positive amount of energy.

That still leaves plenty of enormous technological and regulatory challenges, such as finding ways to convert the energy released in the fusion process into electricity.

Former Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), a physicist who was assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, said in an interview that he found the news of the breakthrough "technically interesting, but I'm skeptical about its practicality."

floppy disks live

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (Reuters) - It has been two decades since their heyday, but one bulk supplier of the iconic 3.5-inch floppy disk used to store data in 1990s says business is still booming.

Tom Persky runs floppydisk.com, a California-based online disk recycling service that takes in new and used disks before sending them onto a reliable customer base - he reckons he sells about 500 disks a day.

Who buys floppy disks in an age when more sophisticated storage devices like CD-ROMS, DVDs and USB flash drives have been made increasingly obsolete by internet and cloud storage? Those in the embroidery, tools and dye, and airline industry, especially those involved in aircraft maintenance, says Persky.

"If you built a plane 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago, you would use a floppy disk to get information in and out of some of the avionics of that airplane," said 73-year-old Persky.

At his warehouse, shelves are packed with bright green, orange, blue, yellow or black disks sent from around the world. At one end sits a large magnetic machine with a conveyor belt that wipes out information on disks, while another machine slaps labels on them.

The warehouse also holds 8-inch floppy disks - an even older storage medium - including one labeled as containing the 1960 John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon U.S. presidential debate.

Despite being a relic in the modern world, Persky says floppy disks have several redeeming qualities.

"Floppy disks are very reliable, very stable, a very well understood way to get information in and out of a machine," he says. "Plus, they have the additional feature of not being very hackable."

Persky ended up in the floppy disk business after working in software development for a tax company in the 1990s that duplicated its software onto floppy disks. He says he fell in love with the business and took it on after it was spun off.

But he is not expecting it to survive another 20 years.

"When I see the 'save' icon, I see a floppy disk. But most people just see the 'save' icon," Persky said.

"I'll be here for as long as people continue to want to have these disks. But it's not forever."

DART mission

NASA’s Asteroid Redirection Test Alters Its Orbital Period

robotaxi

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Lyft and Motional are continuing their work towards launching a fully driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas.

According to a news release, starting Tuesday, as part of a partnership with Motional, the two companies have launched a new all-electric, fully driverless robotaxi in Las Vegas.

The companies say that as part of the launch, Lyft passengers can control their ride without the assistance of a driver, providing a “custom-designed user experience for a fully autonomous journey.”

As part of the experience, riders can now control the following:

Unlocking doors via the Lyft app

Starting the ride from the new in-car Lyft AV App, an intuitive in-ride display tailored to autonomous rideshare

Contacting remote agents if needed

According to the companies, as part of this phase of the program, there are two vehicle operators present in the front seats. The operators are there to monitor the technology and provide additional support to passengers, if needed, the companies said.

In 2023, Motional says it will remove its vehicle operators and the service will become completely driverless.

“Launching Motional’s all-electric IONIQ 5 on Lyft’s network in Las Vegas represents tremendous progress in our vision to make an electric, autonomous, and shared future a reality for people everywhere,” said Logan Green, Lyft’s CEO and co-founder.

The rides, which can be requested through the Lyft app, are offered in an all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 autonomous vehicle.

The companies say they have been conducting autonomous rides in Las Vegas since 2018 and this launch is the “next milestone” as they prepare to offer the service in multiple U.S. cities in 2023.

“Motional and Lyft have a clear path to widespread commercialization of Level 4 autonomous vehicles,” says Karl Iagnemma, Motional’s President and CEO. “We’ve led the industry in commercial operations for years, and today’s launch signals we’re on track to deliver a fully driverless service next year. Riders in Las Vegas can now experience Motional’s IONIQ 5 AV that will make that service a reality. Through our strategic partnership with Hyundai, the IONIQ 5 AV is fully customized for driverless ride-hail operation, while maintaining the vehicle’s award-winning comfort and design.”

fusion ignition

On 8 August, 2021, 192 laser beams pumped vastly more power than the entire US electric grid into a small gold capsule and ignited, for a faction of a second, the same thermonuclear fire that powers the Sun.

The experiment in fusion power, conducted by the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is explored in detail in three new papers — one published in Physical Review Letters and two papers published in Physical Review E — that argue the researchers achieved “ignition,” a crucial step proving that controlled nuclear fusion is achievable. But definitions of what constitutes “ignition” vary, and however defined, the results of 2021 are still very far away from a practical fusion reactor, despite producing a very large amount of energy.

Nuclear fusion involves the fusion of two elements, typically isotopes of hydrogen, into the heavier element helium, releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the process, which is the process that powers stars like the Sun.

A fusion power plant would produce abundant energy using only hydrogen from water as fuel, and producing helium as waste, without the risk of meltdowns or radiation. This is in contrast with nuclear fission, the type of reaction in contemporary nuclear power plants, which splits the nuclei of heavy elements like uranium to produce energy.

But while fusion reactions take place in the Sun, and uncontrolled fusion takes place in thermonuclear weapon explosions, controlling a sustained fusion reaction for generating power has eluded nuclear engineers for decades. Experiments of varied design have managed to produce fusion reactions for very small amounts of time, but never have they reached “ignition,” the point where the energy released from a fusion reaction is greater than the amount of energy required to generate and maintain that reaction.

But the team at the National Ignition Facility and authors of one of the three new papers, the one published in the journal Physical Review Letters, argue that “ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin ‘burn propagation’ into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain.” That is, fusion began in cold hydrogen fuel and the reaction expanded to generate far more power than in previous experiments.

The 8 August 2021 experiment required 1.9 megajoules of energy in the form of ultraviolet lasers to instigate a fusion reaction in a small, frozen pellet of hydrogen isotopes, — an inertial confinement fusion reaction design — and released 1.3 megajoules of energy, or about 70% of the energy put into the experiment. The output, in other words, was more than a quadrillion watts of power, even if released for only a small fraction of a second.

“The record shot was a major scientific advance in fusion research, which establishes that fusion ignition in the lab is possible at NIF,” Omar Hurricane, chief scientist for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s inertial confinement fusion program, said in a statement. “Achieving the conditions needed for ignition has been a long-standing goal for all inertial confinement fusion research and opens access to a new experimental regime where alpha-particle self-heating outstrips all the cooling mechanisms in the fusion plasma.”

But subsequent attempts to replicate the experiment have produced far less output energy, most in the 400 to 700 kilojoules range, leading some researchers to suggest that the experimental design of the National Ignition Facility is a technical dead-end, according to reporting by the news department at the journal Nature.

“I think they should call it a success and stop,” physicist and former US Naval Research Laboratory laser fusion researcher Stephen Bodner told Nature.

The National Ignition Facility cost $3.5 billion, more than $2 billion more than expected, and is behind schedule, with researchers initially targeting 2012 as the deadline to prove ignition was possible using the design.

But the new studies suggest that researchers are willing to keep exploring what the National Ignition Facility is capable of, especially because unlike other fusion researchers, the researchers at the facility are not primarily focused on developing fusion power plants, but better understanding thermonuclear weapons.

“We’re operating in a regime that no researchers have accessed since the end of nuclear testing,” Dr Hurricane said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to expand our knowledge as we continue to make progress.”

methane emissions

If carbon dioxide is an oven steadily roasting our planet, methane is a blast from the broiler: a more potent but shorter lived greenhouse gas that’s responsible for roughly one-third of the 1.2°C of warming since preindustrial times. Atmospheric methane levels have risen nearly 7% since 2006, and the past 2 years saw the biggest jumps yet, even though the pandemic slowed oil and gas production, presumably reducing methane leaks. Now, researchers are homing in on the source of the mysterious surge. Two new preprints trace it to microbes in tropical wetlands. Ominously, climate change itself might be fueling the trend by driving increased rain over the regions.

If so, the wetlands emissions could end up being a runaway process beyond human control, although the magnitude of the feedback loop is uncertain. “We will have handed over a bit more control of Earth’s climate to microorganisms,” says Paul Palmer, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of one of the studies, posted late last month for review at Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Most climate scientists already agreed that the post-2006 methane spike has largely not come from fossil fuel production.

Most researchers think a mix of cattle ranching and landfills in the tropics are the main driver of the post-2006 increase, because they have expanded dramatically alongside populations in the region.

But the sharp acceleration in the past couple of years seemed to require some other source. Studies are now implicating the Sudd in South Sudan, the continent’s largest swamp and a region researchers have been unable to study on the ground because of the long-term conflict in the region.

how to sign out everybody on your YouTube TV

If you keep hitting the three streams maximum on YouTube TV but don't think you should be, it could be that someone else is using your account without you knowing it.  [Or if you logged on at somebody else's house, but forgot to log out.]

What you can do is do a remote log off of all your devices

On a computer, make sure you're logged into your family manager account.  Then go to

https://myaccount.google.com/permissions

Scroll down to "Google apps".

Click on "YouTube TV", then click on "Remove Access".

After that, your account should be signed out of YouTube TV on all your devices.  Then you can sign back on to your devices one-by-one and see if you still have the problem.

If you're still having the problem, you might also have to sign out similarly for your other family member accounts (assuming you set up a Family Group).

[from my log 7/31/22 and 5/31/22

https://www.facebook.com/groups/YouTubeTVUserGroup/permalink/3000207953617346/?comment_id=3000463113591830

https://www.facebook.com/groups/YouTubeTVUserGroup/posts/3114570678847739/?comment_id=3114622855509188]

Sony RM-VZ320 universal remote

[5/20/22] Took home three TVs from my neighbor Steven.  Now testing it.

The first TV was a 32" Samsung (model UN32EH4003F, September 2012), but the remote didn't work.  So I took out my Sony RM-VZ320, but couldn't find the instructions.  Luckily I have the instructions saved as two pdf's.  One with the instructions and one with the codes.

So here's the instructions.

1.  Find the code.  Samsung is 00154, 00156, 00178, 00650, 00702, 00766, 00812, 00814, 01060, 02051

2.  Press and hold set for more than 3 seconds.  The SET indicator lights up.  While keeping SET held down, press the desired Device select button, then release both buttons.

3.  Enter the manufacturer's code.  The SET indicator flashes three times and turns off.

The code 00702 worked.  At least it worked to turn on the TV.  But not to control the menu.  00812 works better.

[12/29/15]  took home the Sony RM-VZ320 from Donna's house because I wanted to teach the eject button to the Philips universal remote.

First I had to enter the codes into the Sony remote.  Since the TV and DVD buttons were already programmed, I used the CD button for the codes (actually I messed up later and used the TV button for my TV, so I'll have to reprogram that button).

Anyway I found that these codes worked for my Panasonic TV:  00650, 01480 (looking now below, I see that I found that 00650 worked best).

One thing I noticed was that the sleep button works on my TV which was interesting because there's no sleep button on the original Panasonic remote.

I learned the red record button on the Philips to be the sleep button since that button is nowhere to be found on the original remote.

The code for the Sony Blu-ray player is 11516.  And as noted below the eject button works.  Decided to use the (-) on the Philips as the eject button.

What about Apple TV?  The code for that is 52615.

It works.  The menu button is the MENU button.  But apparently the play/pause button is not supported.  But I guess you could have the Apple TV learn the Sony remote (instead of vice-versa).

How about the Roku?  The code is 52371.

It works.  Partially.  Up, down, left, right, OK work.  The Roku home button is Menu on the Sony remote.  But there's no back button (the up button didn't work for me) and no asterisk.  No instant replay either.  [Well, playing around, I see the up button sometimes works like the back button.  For example when you're at the play menu in Netflix.  But it doesn't work in general as the back button.  In general, the up button works as the up button.]

So this remote had its pluses and minuses.  This is the only remote that I found that would work (at least partially) on a Sony home theater system (well I assume a Logitech Harmony would work too).  It supported the sleep function on my Panasonic plasma TV (a function that's not even on the original Panasonic remote).  It supported the eject function on my Sony Blu-ray player, which was not a function on the original Sony remote.

It mostly works on the Apple TV.

However the Roku support wasn't entirely satisfactory, lacking support for the back and * buttons.  So if you have a broken Roku remote, your best bet is to buy a generic remote from ebay.  Then if you want to minimize the number of remotes, get a learning remote to learn the Roku buttons, which is what I did.

So far I'm refusing to pay for a Logitech Harmony which can cost as much or more than the device you're trying to control.

[earlier posts ported from here]

[12/30/15] Donna now has HawaiianTelcom TV which uses a Cisco box.  Tried to program the RM-VZ320 for that box.  Didn't work.  Tried to search for the code.  Didn't work.

*** [7/13/14]

Took the Sony RM-VZ320 remote to Donna's house (to replace her broken Sony RM-ADP015)
Here are the codes I found that seem to work for her system
TV - Toshiba: 01256, 01356, 01524
Satellite Receiver DirectTV: 41377
Sony Home Theater DVD: 31622, 32522

The main reason for this remote was got get her subtitles working.  The B button works for this.  However a major disappointment is that the Menu button doesn't work, so I can't easily get back to the main menu after the movie has started.

[6/4/16 - actually pressing the favorites button sometimes gets back to the DVD menu]

*** [7/5/14] Bought a Sony remote control (Remote Commander RM-VZ320) from Best Buy.  This is intended for Donna because the remote for her Sony DVD player doesn't work.  Well, it's not strictly a DVD player but part of a Sony home entertainment system (with amplifier and speakers.  But hopefully it'll work.

I also want to see if it'll work with the Sony DVD/VCR combo in the dining room at my mom's place.  In particular, I want to see if I can access the setup to see if it's set up for a wide-screen TV.

I see the manual is online along with the code list.

Anyway, I tried it out with my equipment at home.

To set up any device, first press the SET button for 3 seconds until the light goes on.  Then while still holding the SET button down, press the appropriate device button (e.g. TV) then release both buttons.  The light should still be on.  Then enter the 5-digit code that you looked up in the code list.

Here's the codes that seem to work best for my equipment.

Panasonic 42" Plasma TV: 00650

Scientific Atlanta cable box: 50877 (the menu button brings up the settings menu), 51877 (the menu button brings up the DVR menu).  I can't find a setting where both the setting and DVR menu are both accessible.

Toshiba DVD-R: 12277.  Unable to bring up the setting menu (where you can adjust for the aspect ratio of the TV for example)

Apex TV: 00765.

Sony Blu-Ray player: 11516.  The subtitle button (the B button) doesn't work.  However the eject button does work.  That's interesting because the official Sony remote doesn't even have an eject button.

***

OK, testing at CCOH.

The Sharp TV in the dining room: 00818

The Panasonic DVD/VCR combo: 10864.  Unfortunately I can't access the setup menu.

How you can help endangered species

 “At some point climate change will find its way to your backyard. It will affect everybody,” says Nikhil Advani, director of climate, communities and wildlife for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Here are some ways to make a difference today.

Go Native: A garden with native plants (plants that grew in the U.S. before the settlers came and have evolved to survive) conserves water and electricity, says the WWF’s Advani, and it’s likely to attract pollinators. A native oak tree can support the caterpillars of 500 species of moths and butterflies, providing food for songbirds, says Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. A non-native honey locust, in contrast, supports just three or four caterpillar species. Encourage your local schools, governments and parks to plant more native species. Plug your zip code in the NWF’s database for a list of native plants in your area.

Eat Local: For example: Most of the oysters harvested in the U.S. are farmed in coastal waters by small businesses; buying those aquacultured oysters “supports small businesses and is a surprisingly direct way to help,” says Sarah Cooley, climate science director for the Ocean Conservancy. Because aquafarms hatch and produce their own oysters, wild oysters and oyster reefs are left intact. “Aquacultured oysters help clean the water and improve the area while not asking a whole lot of the environment in return,” Cooley says. “That, plus the overall strong environmental stewardship philosophy of U.S. shellfish growers, make oyster aquaculture in the U.S. a real win-win for the environment.”

Cut Down on Plastic: Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic pours into the world’s oceans—that’s a garbage truck of plastic waste every minute, says the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Three kinds of plastic—fishing debris, filmlike plastic (like on your store-bought veggies) and latex (such as balloons)—are responsible for the majority of deaths among 80 “marine megafauna” species, including dolphins, whales, seals, seabirds and sea turtles. Say no to plastic bags, swap out plastic wrap for reusable food storage bags and don’t release balloons. (Instead of party balloons—which can take years to break down—try nontoxic bubbles. Visit Bubble Tree online to find an eco-friendly refillable bubble system.) Check out rePurpose to calculate your own annual plastic footprint.

Eat More Fish: Consuming protein that leaves a small carbon footprint can make a big difference. Swapping beef out for fish even twice a week is “a good move in the right direction,” says Katie Matthews, chief scientist with Oceana. “Fish is one of the most climate-smart and nutrient rich sources of protein on the planet. And it requires no fresh water or grazing space.”

Use Your Buying Power: Contact manufacturers and retailers whenever you buy something with excess plastic packaging to suggest they make changes; social media is a good way to bring attention to the issue too. Ask your area stores to carry more local goods, which cuts down on environment-unfriendly shipping.

Support Monarchs: Adult monarchs need your help: They feed on hundreds of different flowers and need nectar from spring through fall. Make your garden monarch-friendly by planting several kinds of pesticide-free native milkweed that flower at different times, says Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). Avoid tropical milkweed, which is invasive, or milkweed that’s been treated with insecticides to be aphid resistant. Go to Save Our Monarchs to request free seeds.

Vote for the Next Generation: “Talk to your friends and neighbors about climate change. Make climate a key voting issue,” says Shaye Wolf, climate science director for the CBD. “Action right now is critical to what kind of planet we leave to our children.”

Speak Up: Contact your local and federal politicians to express your support for legislation that will help protect species, from clean energy bills to the the Big Cat Public Safety Act to protect tigers. “Biodiversity conservation is a bipartisan issue. Wildlife conservation is a bipartisan issue,” Advani says.

Be Aware: Since the pandemic began, illegal trafficking of items like tiger furs, rhino horns and elephant ivory has moved from brick-and-mortar stores to online, says Colby Loucks, vice president of wildlife conservation for the WWF. The WWF and other organizations are pushing social media companies to remove ads for items like these. You can familiarize yourselves with commonly trafficked endangered species (“A lot of people might not know what a pangolin is or that it’s one of the most trafficked species in the world,” Loucks says), and how to report it if you see endangered species and their parts/products for sale online. Every platform (e.g. Facebook, eBay, Etsy) typically has its own reporting mechanism, but you can go to Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online to file a report.

--- Parade, April 12, 2022, Kathleen McCleary (edited)

global plastics treaty

Feb 18 (Reuters) - United Nations member states are set to meet this month in Nairobi to draft the blueprint for a global plastics treaty, a deal that could see countries agree for the first time to reduce the amount of single-use plastics they produce and use.

It's being touted as the most important environmental pact since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

A global explosion of disposable plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is increasing carbon emissions, despoiling the world's oceans, harming wildlife and contaminating the food chain. More than 50 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, are calling for the pact to include measures targeting plastic production.

That's a problem for big oil and chemical companies. The industry is projected to double plastic output worldwide within two decades.

Publicly, plastic industry groups representing firms like ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N), Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Dow Inc (DOW.N), have expressed support for a global agreement to tackle this garbage.

Behind the scenes, however, these trade organizations are devising strategies to persuade conference participants to reject any deal that would limit plastic manufacturing, according to emails and company presentations seen by Reuters, as well as interviews with a dozen officials involved in the negotiations.

Leading that effort is the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a powerful group of U.S.-based oil and chemical firms. The Washington-based ACC is attempting to forge a coalition of big businesses to help steer treaty discussions away from production restrictions, according to an Oct. 21 email sent from the trade group to a blind-copied list of recipients. Reuters received a copy of that email from an employee of a consumer goods company who requested anonymity.

The ACC has dubbed the proposed alliance "Business for Plastic Pollution Action," according to the email, which called on firms to "shift the debate" by focusing governments' attention on the benefits of plastic. The group planned to hold monthly meetings and share policy recommendations with governments, according to the email.

The ACC did not respond to Reuters' questions about the email or the proposed business coalition.

Plastic is embedded in modern life and indispensable to sectors such as automaking. The plastics industry has been quick to cite such applications in defending unfettered production.

But it is throwaway plastics such as food wrappers, grocery bags and delivery packaging that are the main focus of the U.N. conference. Single-use plastic accounts for around 40% of all production, according to a landmark 2017 study in the journal Science Advances.

The ACC has long defended disposable plastics as better for the planet than alternatives such as glass and cardboard, which are heavier and require more fossil fuel to transport. Some climate scientists say that analysis is flawed because it doesn't take into account the massive societal cost to managing plastic garbage, which is hard to recycle, slow to degrade and expensive to collect, bury and burn.

IPTIRLLTDOTI

Pearls Before Swine, 1/30/22

how to adjust your TV settings

Most people's TV settings are way off to my eye.  Usually the color is set too high (like people are radioactive) and often the brightness is too low (to offset the high color intensity).

The way I usually adjust a TV (I must have read this someplace) is to turn the color down to zero and make the picture black and white (or as close to it as possible).  Then adjust the brightness and contrast, so the picture looks about right.  And then turn up the color again just enough so the picture looks realistic.  Then tweak the brightness and contrast again.

Usually the color adjustment is a lot lower than most people are used to.  But I want the picture to look as realistic as possible.  Like I'm viewing the scene in real life.

In general, the picture settings on phones and tablets look about right to me.  Though, even on my Google Pixel 3aXL, I turned the colors to "Natural".  The other settings sere Boosted and Adaptive.  (Adaptive was the default.)

If I don't want to start from scratch, I generally just turn down the color until it stops looking radioactive.  Then turn up the brightness until the pictures doesn't look too dark.  Then I might adjust the contrast so the picture doesn't look too faded.

***

Anyway, this seems to work on most older TVs.  But when I tried it on my friend's Sony 4K TV, changing those settings barely changed how the TV looked.  I think HDR largely locks in the picture.  Also when I try to adjust the 4K HDR picture on my niece's TCL Roku TV, it still looks too dark.

Anyway, here's some other guides on how to adjust a TV.

***

CNET: If you want better TV, you need to change these picture settings.  We'll walk you through how to tweak your TV's color, brightness, picture mode and other settings. It'll make a big difference.

***

HelloTech: The Best TV Picture Settings For Every Major Brand  (the article doesn't mention any brands)

***

Consumer Reports: TV Settings That Deliver the Ultimate Picture Quality.  (This article mentions "With some sets, you’re blocked from making some picture-quality adjustments when the TV is in an HDR mode; other TVs give you total control over all the individual settings.")