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The falling price of a TV set

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Re: The falling price of a TV set

#21

Post by HenryKissinger »

jaytaylor wrote: post #13
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people want to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime or other stream services. Modern smart TVs have those integrated.

Just get a Chromecast or any other streaming player device and hook it up to the TV with only HDMI. Solved- TV don't need to be able to spy on you.

This is not always practical. Either you lay your HDMI cable across the living room, or you have to find a spot for your laptop near the television (not always possible), and then you have to get up and walk to the laptop to change anything.

Re: The falling price of a TV set

#22

Post by ProfessorLayton »

mav3rick wrote: post #17
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #14

I just purchased a 55" 4K LG TV from Costco for under $400 out the door. The TV's sole purpose is to display an Apple TV's output, and will not be connected to the internet. Interestingly, it has AirPlay and Homekit built-in, but that's largely irrelevant due to the Apple TV. This TV is replacing a 46" ~10yo Samsung purchased for over 1.1k that has very basic "Smart" capabilities like playing MKV files from a USB dri…

It's probably an edge lit TV. FALDs are more expensive.

Array LED backlighting can be had for under $500. I purchased a 55" 4k Vizio for under $500 3 years ago which I promptly returned when the included remote did not let me adjust the TV's settings, they expected me to download an app.

My only criteria for the replacement TV is that it have better picture quality than the 10yo Samsung it is replacing.

Re: The falling price of a TV set

#23

Post by BelleOfTheBall »

Pretty cool article and highlights the problem of Smart TVs well. I don't think I'll ever get a smart TV but I'm privileged in this because my husband is fine with watching movies on a PC monitor and we don't plan to have kids so it's not like we'll have someone in the house clamoring for Disney+ on a separate big screen. Most households cave eventually because, admittedly, it's sweet to get a huge screen with excellent picture quality for just a few hundred.

My one gripe with the article itself is the introduction: "I’ve noticed something exciting but sort of crazy". Claiming that TV prices dropping fast is 'crazy' seems a bit funny. Prices drop for a lot of stuff though, I suppose, some technology does stay in the same relative range. But it's probably only until it reaches a certain quality point past which there's not much to entice customers into high-end purchases.

Re: The falling price of a TV set

#24

Post by musicale »

uptown wrote: post #3

"The trade-offs for cheap TVs is that customers are themselves becoming the product for TV makers [...] For something to be as cheap as a great TV, people have to give something up — whether they know it or not." Just never give the TV its own direct connection to the internet. Use another device that you do trust, to feed the big screen its content.

The price of dumb TVs has also fallen dramatically.

Re: The falling price of a TV set

#26

Post by saagarjha »

Avshalom wrote: post #9
ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #2

The one thing I never understood about this is, aren't you just free to not hookup your TV to the WiFi? I've bought SmartTVs and have just used them as "dumb" TVs and they work perfectly fine. Aren't you there capturing the benefit of this supposedly lower price without having to give up any personal data back?

And as long as they don't try to connect to any public wifi they see... https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/network/map?zip=87111

That link has your ZIP in it, if you weren’t aware.

Re: The falling price of a TV set

#27

Post by eikenberry »

BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #23

Pretty cool article and highlights the problem of Smart TVs well. I don't think I'll ever get a smart TV but I'm privileged in this because my husband is fine with watching movies on a PC monitor and we don't plan to have kids so it's not like we'll have someone in the house clamoring for Disney+ on a separate big screen. Most households cave eventually because, admittedly, it's sweet to get a huge screen with excell…

You can get a smart TV and just not connect it to the internet. Even lobotomized like this, they still work fine as normal TVs.

You can also get a smart device (Roku, Amazon Fire, etc.) and hook that up to any TV to stream things (including Disney+). You can also just hook that computer up and it would work as well (a TV is just a big monitor with sound).

So there is no need to ever "cave", even if you want streaming on a big screen and don't want a smart TV.

Re: The falling price of a TV set

#28

Post by tyingq »

BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #23

Pretty cool article and highlights the problem of Smart TVs well. I don't think I'll ever get a smart TV but I'm privileged in this because my husband is fine with watching movies on a PC monitor and we don't plan to have kids so it's not like we'll have someone in the house clamoring for Disney+ on a separate big screen. Most households cave eventually because, admittedly, it's sweet to get a huge screen with excell…

So far, TCL has provided a way to turn off the internal Roku...

https://support.tclusa.com/televisions-setup-configurations/...

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