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Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#471

Post by Matthias247 »

austinshea wrote: post #457
bscphil wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume the tradeoff is probably panel quality, right? I doubt they have OLEDs on the level of an LG or Samsung TV.

I think the trade off is a subsidized price point, and associated specs, and an unsubsidized one. I’d guess the panels are all pretty common.

No they are not. Even the bigger players like Samsung and Sony have dozens of quality levels of panels. The highest quality ones e.g. have a ton of local dimming zones and smart backlighting, and achieve much higher contrast ratios than cheaper models. They also will represent moving objects with high contrast better. Plus, there's usually different levels of color calibration applied.

That means usually in order to get the best imagine quality you also have to buy the model with the most smart features at a higher price point - even if you don't intend to use them.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#472

Post by Matthias247 »

jeffbee wrote: post #86
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #46

As many people said already in the comments, search for digital signage instead of TV. E.g. https://www.lg.com/us/business/digital-signage

These do not necessarily have the same video processors as actual TVs from the same manufacturers, so you might end up being disappointed in the picture quality, depending on your application.

Right. They are also designed for very different applications. Higher end TVs for consuming movies in a dark room, so black levels are important. On signage peak brightness might be much more important, and black levels or color accuracy might be less so.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#474

Post by watersb »

sliken wrote: post #377
matja wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Gigabyte FO48U (48" OLED, same LG panel as the C1) goes for around $1500

83% of the price for 54% of the area.

For use as a monitor, smaller panels may be more desirable, more pixels per unit area.

I don't want a 72-inch wall monster. I'm going to be viewing it from about a meter from my face.

But that's just my face. Other faces might work better.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#475

Post by cube00 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #353
TheDudeMan wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some bombard you with "helpful reminders" to set up networking.

I think Gmail.com has asked me about 500 times to try their app and I’ve said “I am not interested” 500 times in a row. But they seem to have a good feeling about tomorrow.

Same as YouTube Premium, I thought if I did their free trial they're stop bugging me, nope, now I get the same prompts straight up asking me to pay now.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#476

Post by hakfoo »

bscphil wrote: post #448
vineyardmike wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But does digital signage have good panels like "real" TVs? Eg. the high end oleds with deep blacks and stuff?

My experience is that not only are the panels generally worse, support for things like color calibration or Dolby Vision is almost impossible to find. Which is understandable because it's not obvious what advantage HDR would bring to digital signage.

While not HDR, I'd think colour calibration would be fairly important for signage.

If your company red is too washed out, or one section of a video-wall menu board is inconsistent brightness, it looks bad on your brand.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#477

Post by TulliusCicero »

criddell wrote: post #196
TulliusCicero wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would they do these things if you never give the device wifi access?

Built-in cell modem that can only call home? Also, Amazon and other companies are building out networks of their wifi devices. I assume at some point they will start selling access to other companies. So, even if you decline to set up wifi, the appliance might be able to get online through your neighbor's doorbell.

> Built-in cell modem that can only call home?

Doing that to get around a feature they put in themselves just seems like conspiracy theorizing at that point.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#479

Post by Zircom »

Volundr wrote: post #252
cronix wrote: post #173

All TV's are dumb tv's if you only use them as an external display/monitor and don't connect them to the net. I have a dedicated computer for a media center and just use HDMI1 input on the TV. Never enter menus. Never update the OS. Never agree to anything. Never let the TV "phone home." Never set up wifi. Never connect a CAT5 to it. Set the input using the remote and forget it. Treat it as a dumb monitor. Computer i…

That's sadly not really true. I have an LG that I (thought) I was using this way until one day in the middle of watching some TV I get a prompt about a OnePlus phone trying to control my TV, do I want to accept? Needless to say and didn't, but I was baffled by what happened. Turns out that the stupid TV is controllable via an app over bluetooth, and there is no way to turn bluetooth off. I'm just stuck with my TV con…

We have a pretty bad relationship with one of my neighbors. Not gonna get into specifics, but they're quite immature and petty and vindictive, and just generally not pleasant people.

Anyhow, late one night we saw something popup in the list when I was pairing my headphones. "$crappyneighbor's TV". And we saw an opportunity to be a little petty back for once. We connected my phone, and apparently their TV model features no confirmation because it went right through, and started blasting Rick Astleys "Never Gonna Give You Up" until my phone disconnected a couple minutes later. Bit of good harmless fun at their expense.

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