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What is the best dumb TV?

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Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#191

Post by mkhpalm »

m463 wrote: post #146
davidhyde wrote: post #73

My advice is to stop seeing a “smart tv” as a feature and see it as an expensive piece of equipment subsidised by extra advertising revenue. Don’t get upset about this, just understand it for what it is. Now, what can you do about it? Easy, don’t connect it to the internet. They will tell you that it needs updates but come on, what is a security vulnerability going to to to something that’s only output is a screen an…

no no no. this is bad advice. 1) "Some Samsung TVs already try and connect to open WiFi networks if you don't connect them yourself." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24629155 2) there is ethernet over hdmi - I would image this is another source of inadvertent connection. 3) samsung tvs require an ethernet cable to "update firmware" so HDMI works. 4) ACR - which will look at ALL the inputs. and wait for the next…

I have a 65 inch samsung tv that kept popping up on my network. I put it on an isolated wifi network once to get the firmware updates. After I did that I turned it back off.

But it keeps trying to come back for just a moment every couple of days. I had to ban its mac address since there was no way to get it to stop in the settings or after factory resets.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#192

Post by Finnucane »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #157

I’m quite content with the Sony I purchased a few months ago. It was simple to make dumb, I just never connected it to a network. Compared to other manufacturers user interfaces it’s quite low key and out of the way.

Our Sony is about 10 years old now, and still works fine. Not only do newer TVs not have any features we want to pay for, but most of them are too big for our living room. We don’t have some gigantic suburban McMansion.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#193

Post by nitrogen »

jasonjayr wrote: post #175
sgrove wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#2 sounded intriguing, but it seems likely to not be the case [0]. I was curious because I have a Vizio that I deliberately keep disconnected from the internet, and rely on an Apple TV. Seems like that's not an attack vector in this case, though #1 is (and #3) seem worth looking into. What's ACR in point #4? [0] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/325215/appletv-eth...

ACR == Automatic Content Recognition. Basically it periodically screenshots what the panel is showing and sends it to their servers to see if it matches the programs they know about to figure out what it is you're watching.

I don't see why people aren't rioting in the streets about this, apart from the fact that there are currently bigger issues already occupying rioters. It's seriously beyond the pale.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#195

Post by klyrs »

nitrogen wrote: post #193
jasonjayr wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ACR == Automatic Content Recognition. Basically it periodically screenshots what the panel is showing and sends it to their servers to see if it matches the programs they know about to figure out what it is you're watching.

I don't see why people aren't rioting in the streets about this, apart from the fact that there are currently bigger issues already occupying rioters. It's seriously beyond the pale.

They're glued to their TVs.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#196

Post by magnetowasright »

I absolutely adore my totally dumb $650 48" JVC 4K LED TV. NFI on input lag stats but I game (offline) and it looks beautiful and my SO games (online) and doesn't have issues outside Australian fraudband speeds. It's got pretty much the same operating system as the ~15 year old cheapo TV (22" 1080i) it replaced. It just works. It's perfect for our usage and I hope it will last as long as the 1080i TV did.

I'm trying desperately to convince some family members who have an expensive LG 'smart' TV to buy something dumb - they don't use the smart 'features' and I am sick of getting calls that they need help re-flashing the firmware because it got stuck booting for the hundredth time or android/the TV app froze again. When the stupid thing 'works' it takes several minutes to boot and the TV app regularly just ...closes. When you try to set the time and date, it saves it wrong or just unsets it so you it can't show you the TV guide which is just atrocious! It can't even have feature parity with the first digital signal pre-'smart' TV TVs. It's almost unusable and it's ~3 years old, which is just unacceptable for a TV from an industry leading manufacturer that cost several thousand dollars. I hope this is not a typical experience.

"Just don't connect it to the internet" does not a dumb TV make. It doesn't negate the atrocious software on the stupid things, or the resulting (imo) shortened lifetime. It also doesn't necessarily stop it from finding a network. "Use a pi-hole", "blacklist it in your router", or "remove the TV's network card" sucks as well; consumers shouldn't have to go to such lengths to circumvent such atrocious anti-consumer practices in the first place, even if they do know how to. It took me a few months to track down a totally dumb 4K TV with a big screen. Most manufacturers just don't make them any more. Why would they? It's so much more profitable for them not to, even if there is a demand. I'd love to know how much of a demand for totally dumb TVs there is.

/rant

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#197

Post by ziftface »

mkhpalm wrote: post #191
m463 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no no no. this is bad advice. 1) "Some Samsung TVs already try and connect to open WiFi networks if you don't connect them yourself." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24629155 2) there is ethernet over hdmi - I would image this is another source of inadvertent connection. 3) samsung tvs require an ethernet cable to "update firmware" so HDMI works. 4) ACR - which will look at ALL the inputs. and wait for the next…

I have a 65 inch samsung tv that kept popping up on my network. I put it on an isolated wifi network once to get the firmware updates. After I did that I turned it back off. But it keeps trying to come back for just a moment every couple of days. I had to ban its mac address since there was no way to get it to stop in the settings or after factory resets.

It's crazy how user hostile TV manufacturers have become.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#198

Post by Something1234 »

swimfar wrote: post #138
vermilingua wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently ordered a bunch of LG Commercial TVs for a job, at 55” they came out to about AUD$1600, which I think is pretty reasonable. As to the hassle, yes you’d probably find it difficult to buy one for personal use. L

The Scepter 50" 4k TVs recommended in the article are $200 at Walmart. The quality probably isn't as good, but at 1/8th the cost that's a hard up-sell.

I have a sceptre. They're really good for the price and super reliable. I won't buy anything else. In fact I might go get a couple spares so I don't have to worry for a while.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#199

Post by grawprog »

summitsummit wrote: post #160
grawprog wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smart 'X' in general has become synonymous with 'paid for by your data we scrape 24/7' at least when it comes to most consumer range products and platforms made by big tech companies... Smart phones Smart TVs Smart speakers Smart doorbell/security cameras Smart home systems If there's one thing these all have in common it's: 'Known privacy issues regarding tracking and data collection by large tech companies.' When a…

> profited additionally by your data we scrape 24/7 since it's not necessarily "paid for" via the advertising

Good point...

Would 'heavily subsidized by' work as well?

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