What is the best dumb TV? • Hacker News Board

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#401

Post by canofbars » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:35 AM UTC

Normal_gaussian wrote: post #358

kebman wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine's father is an architect. He designed his living room spesifically for having guests. So instead of the living room being in front of a telly, there are two big sofas facing each other accross a lounge table. Behind the seating arrangement is a Bang & Olufsen stereo with a turntable and a shelf containing records. But that's not all. To top it off, the ceiling skews down towards elongated windows pla…

Practically anyone with a large enough house ends up with a sitting room and a TV room seperate to their living room. Its just the majority cannot afford said house, so the TV room joins the sitting room in the multi-function space that is the living room.

Might just be my experience but the sitting room usually never gets used / is too cold and eventually gets converted in to a storage room.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#402

Post by canofbars » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:37 AM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #369

bananamerica wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the difference between a TV and a monitor anyway? My TV is only used for Netflix and videogames. Just like I’d do with a monitor.

In France the difference is that you pay a broadcast tax every year for owning a TV. Even if the tuner is unplugged. Even if the TV is covered with dust in a basement. Even if you rip the tuner apart and use it as a screen only (this specific case has been lawyered to death right up to the last court of Cassation). Because computers and smartphones, the law has since been extended to also include the case where you o…

I like Australia's system better. You pay a very minor tax yearly regardless of tv ownership and it funds a few government run TV channels and radio stations as well as a news site. Despite the current governments best efforts, the ABC is still the only worthwhile news site in the country.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#403

Post by vanderZwan » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:38 AM UTC

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…

TDoET is a classic. If you like digging further into philosophical musings on the subject of design, you might also enjoy What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections On Tochnology by Peter-Paul Verbeek. Here's a review:

[1] https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/what-things-do-philosophical-reflec...

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#404

Post by lostlogin » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:39 AM UTC

panpanna wrote: post #317

lostlogin wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some devices bypass the Pihole, and while you can catch them at the firewall, it’s a tedious game.

So what we need is a jailbreak and custom firmware?

Very very much so.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#405

Post by jiggawatts » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:40 AM UTC

lb1lf wrote: post #373

moksly wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

-AOL. I work in automation&controls in the oil industry, and my customers are always puzzled when I start to whittle away at the features suggested, rather than adding to them; my mantra being that 'If it isn't there, it cannot fail.' My experience echoes yours - I keep my appliances as simple as possible, both at home and professionally. Add complexity wherever you have to, not wherever you want to.

I work in the IT systems integration industry, and I have unironically used the phrase "fewer moving parts" when describing the benefits of my preferred architectures.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#406

Post by canofbars » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

franga2000 wrote: post #355

I love the idea of smart TVs, but every single implementation I've seen in the last few years has been utter garbage. Everything they do is one step forward and like 3-30 steps back. For example, I recently bought a low-end Samsung TV running Tizen, which meant I could return my set-top-box (ISP has a Tizen app), get rid of my barely-functioning miracast stick, bluetooth transmitter (native features) and media PC (ap…

My parents have a high end Samsung tv from about 5 years ago and somehow the thing has slowed down to unbearable levels. Just changing the volume and channel is difficult. A factory reset didn't fix it so I suspect the issue is software updates.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#407

Post by jeffreygoesto » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:53 AM UTC

Can I upvote this multiple times? I own a similar Microwave and would never want something else. Maybe we tech people lost contact with the real world some time ago.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#408

Post by mdhen » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:55 AM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #186

The displays in the article are TVs for people who hate their eyeballs. If you are looking for a quality picture there's really no substitute for LG OLED. They are smart TVs but the features are unobtrusive and work well. If you want extremely good picture quality and also insist on "dumb" the best you can get is a second-hand Pioneer or Panasonic plasma display. I don't think any of these ever had "smart" anything,…

yeah I've got the last model plasma that panasonic made. it's got absolutely incredible image quality, you just need to be okay with not having 4k. and it is dumb.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#409

Post by jeffreygoesto » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:56 AM UTC

henrikschroder wrote: post #382

GordonS wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My microwave has a knob and a digital display - so turning the knob updates the display. The knob also has "clicks", rather than turning smoothly. I like this interface - it's tactile and usable.

I had a microwave like that as well, and it was absolutely fantastic! One big wheel to set the time, and it was 100% deterministic, so you developed muscle memory for setting it at different times. Loved it, never been able to find one like it since.

https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-ME82V-SS-XEG-Mikrowelle-silber...

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#410

Post by muyuu » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:01 AM UTC

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 feel somewhat self-conscious about being old-fashioned but that's exactly the way I liked it. I've also never had or intended to have a "smart TV" or a smart-almost-anything. Just the computers, and the smartphone and I feel like that's already a huge concession... use it in the most untrusted way possible.