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What is the best dumb TV?

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Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#321

Post by dieformycrew »

ggm wrote: post #303
foepys wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the door pops open itself after it finishes washing). Incidentally this feature is a premium feature I'm not so sure about it being a premium feature. Maybe it's different where you are located but a quick search on German price comparison websites showed dishwashers as cheap as 280€ having this feature.

Would it ship from Germany cheaper than a high end wifi unit? Seriously, the Q has merit if "no wifi" is a deal breaker. Personally, I'd run a second open ssid, trap the ip and blackhole packets with a rPi

You could just setup the Pi as an access point and make it act like a bridge. Then drop anything that comes through on it that isn't DHCP.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#322

Post by moksly »

kebman wrote: post #207

I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials. OMG how do I survive with only two dials? How do I program it? Well, the answer is, unsurprisingly, that I don't program it. Instead I crank it to watever wattage I need (usually the top one), and the time I think it'll take until the food I becomes hot. Aaaand that…

My microwave has a wheel to turn the timer, a wheel to set the WATT, a stop button and a start button. If you press the start button it’ll automatically run for 30 seconds, if you press it again it’ll add another 30 seconds to the current run. It took me maybe 4 years of owning it before I learned of the start button feature. Not sure what the hell people are doing with microwaves that connect to the internet, but I sure as hell like mine simple enough for me to operate it. A general theme with most of my kitchen/home appliances really. If something doesn’t work out of the box, or if it has a gazillion “smart” features, then it’s likely just not for me.

A tad ironic to some people, I know. I work in public sector digitisation after all, we’re working with cutting edge tech every day, to help make the lives of citizens easier. Like how to distribute medicine so people with dementia actually take it. So many people naturally assume I’m a gadget person, and in fact a lot of my colleagues are, but I just don’t get why you’d want your TV to be “smart“.

So I’ll happily enforce your message about simple Designs.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#323

Post by gingerlime »

lostlogin wrote: post #312
theshrike79 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's next to impossible to have good or even decent speakers in a flat TV and keep the price at a sane price point. My advice is just to ignore the speakers and get any soundbar, literally anything will be better than the built-in ones. I went all-in on Sonos because it's wireless and the sound quality/UX are excellent. Just got their soundbar (the Beam) first and went up from there to a full 5.1 setup.

I know they are (rightly) slated here for their business practices, but I love my Sonos speakers. I just have the Play Ones and they are so much better than anything I’ve ever had before.

Yes, I also bought the Sonos one, and in terms of sound and design it's delightful.

Unfortunately, under the clean and unassuming look lurks a spying monster. Sonos tracks the hell out of everything. Even in the EU where consumers are supposedly protected by GDPR and other directives.

A look at their privacy policy[0] makes my hair stand

> Functional Data:

> This data is absolutely necessary for your Sonos Product or Service, including Sonos Radio, to perform its basic functions in a secure way and you will not be able to opt out from this data collection, sharing, and/or processing if you want to continue to use your Sonos Products.

> We collect:

> Registration data. This data includes your email address, location, language preference, Product serial number, IP address, and Sonos account login information (as described above).

> System data. This data includes things like Product type, controller device type, controller operating system, software version, content source (audio line in), signal input (e.g. whether your TV outputs a specific audio signal such as Dolby to your Sonos system), information about WiFi antennas, system settings (such as equalisation or stereo pair), Product orientation, names of the music service(s) you added/enabled on your Sonos product, the names you have given your Sonos Product in different rooms, whether your Product has been tuned using Sonos Trueplay technology, system performance metrics (e.g. the temperature of your Product or WiFi signal strength) and error information.

And this is "just" the "absolutely necessary" data ... by default they also collect more Usage data, which as you can imagine, includes much more...

[0] https://www.sonos.com/en/legal/privacy

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#324

Post by [deleted] »

kioleanu wrote: post #268

I bought a Phillips dumb TV about 2 years ago after spending way too much time searching for a TV. The caveat is that it’s in the low cost range, otherwise my alternatives were extremely limited. In the TVs manual they mention multiple times and in a fatalistic tone that I must register my purchase with them and always install the latest updates. The register form needed my full address and phone number. And that’s n…

[deleted]

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#325

Post by romwell »

kebman wrote: post #207

I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials. OMG how do I survive with only two dials? How do I program it? Well, the answer is, unsurprisingly, that I don't program it. Instead I crank it to watever wattage I need (usually the top one), and the time I think it'll take until the food I becomes hot. Aaaand that…

>I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials.

Same here! I only worry about the day when it stops working, because no UI designer seems to realize that there is nothing better, and new microwaves come with atrocious, laggy, pointless UIs.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#326

Post by romwell »

greetings wrote: post #211
kebman wrote: post #207

I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials. OMG how do I survive with only two dials? How do I program it? Well, the answer is, unsurprisingly, that I don't program it. Instead I crank it to watever wattage I need (usually the top one), and the time I think it'll take until the food I becomes hot. Aaaand that…

Ok, I'll ask. Which Microwave do you have?

I have an old TATUNG I bought off Craigslist for $10, and I'm clinging onto it for my dear life (4 years and 2 interstate moves later).

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#327

Post by blame_lewis »

kllrnohj wrote: post #282
clouddrover wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Easy, don’t connect it to the internet. Maybe not so easy in the future. TVs might eventually have 5G internet connections built-in and paid for by the manufacturer. It could be worth it to them if they get enough revenue from their software platform through user tracking and advertising.

Only if there's enough users who refuse to give their TV wifi to justify such a crazy expense. Which seems highly unlikely.

There are IoT SIMs available on most major carriers, which are intended for economical occasional low-data usage on large numbers of devices. They're popular in GPSes among other things.

5G is looking to reduce the cost of them further as LPWA is a key part of the standard.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#328

Post by bananamerica »

kebman wrote: post #207

I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials. OMG how do I survive with only two dials? How do I program it? Well, the answer is, unsurprisingly, that I don't program it. Instead I crank it to watever wattage I need (usually the top one), and the time I think it'll take until the food I becomes hot. Aaaand that…

My microwave has a lot of buttons but I basically use it like you do.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#330

Post by garfieldnate »

kebman wrote: post #207

I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials. OMG how do I survive with only two dials? How do I program it? Well, the answer is, unsurprisingly, that I don't program it. Instead I crank it to watever wattage I need (usually the top one), and the time I think it'll take until the food I becomes hot. Aaaand that…

We're going off topic now, but why do all microwaves have knobs now? I hate them. I want a number pad like the microwaves had when I was growing up. I want to close the door, press the numbers that indicate the amount of time I want and hit "start". When you turn a knob, either you have no indication of the exact time, or there's a display that moves in increments that the computer thinks are good (usually 10s). I don't want to scroll to the time I think is good, and I don't want to fight the thing trying to get smaller increments, which I need for doing more sensitive foods (microwave cake, for example). The knobs can also be difficult for people with certain disabilities.

While I'm griping already, a lot of people hate the button interfaces some (rare) microwaves have because they use capacitive touch buttons with no haptic feedback, and careful aim is required to press the correct button. I wish manufacturers would make microwaves with button blister keypads instead. For blind users, blister buttons can also have raised braile indicators, or users can buy "bump dots" to make the buttons easier to find and actuate.

What do blind users do with a microwave that has knobs? If the knobs click and they use the microwave regularly, I guess they could memorize the number of clicks to turn them. If they're ultra-smooth digital no-click knobs, then they have to memorize quarter-turns and turning speed, etc. Sounds awful! Or perhaps I am mistaken and there is actually a microwave with both knobs and voice guidance (though if I were blind I think slow voice guidance would drive me nuts).

[Edit]: formatting

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