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What is the best dumb TV?

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Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#451

Post by microcolonel »

natch wrote: post #445
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 one round dial that turns. That’s it. And zero buttons. It’s fantastic. Turn the dial, and it starts. The farther around you turn it, the more time you get. The scale is clearly marked around the dial with large readable numbers and gives progressively more coarse as you turn through about 340 degrees or so (less than 360). To abort and turn it off early, just turn the knob back to the zero. Otherwis…

> Oh, the things it won't do! It won't baste, mist, sense, probe, convect, or take your food for a horsy ride. It doesn't care to know if you're cooking pork or potatoes, or if something's thawed or frozen, solid or liquid, or 1 lb. or 5. It doesn't issue odd advice ("Stand and Cover"! "Pull Apart"!). You can't use it as a nightlight. It won't tell you the time. It won't match your decor. It won't even cook anything for more than 6 minutes at a time. There's nothing to choose, nothing to alter, nothing to select, nothing to enter. All it's got is a big, smooth 1950's style dial that does a backwards countdown, with an accompanying red light marking the time as it goes. A great appliance that hardly does anything at all. Highly recommend.

I see you're in love.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#453

Post by whatch »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #426
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…

I don't own a microwave, but find routers to be one of the most frustrating machines to deal with. All communication is done via different lights either on/off or blinking, and none of it makes any sense. How much is a freaking display these days?

I've just bought new xerox printer with wifi feature. No display, just couple of leds and buttons. After half an hour and numerous google searches I was able to use it over wifi, but only 2.4GHz. Spent another hour trying to set it up with 5GHz. Now it is connected via USB only and I am happy.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#455

Post by ascar »

moksly wrote: post #322
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…

I want a smart TV so I can access Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ etc. right from the TV and don't need a separate device for it.

Many people suggest buying a dumb tv and then an apple tv. The problem is, now I have two devices and instead of trusting [TV manufacturer] I have to trust Apple. I don't see a big gain in it and also don't consider Apple to be especially trustworthy. [TV manufacturer] should just sell me a smart tv without customer hostile "features".

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#456

Post by satysin »

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,…

Agreed. Sadly you have to choose. If you want a dumb TV you have to accept poor image quality. If you want good image quality your only option is a smart TV.

I still have my Pioneer Kuro LX6090 which is/was the most incredible TV at the time. For older, non-remastered content I still prefer it over my LG OLED.

However if you want the very best image quality with 4K HDR Blu-rays then you can't get better than an OLED.

IMHO the best option on the market today for movies are the Panasonic OLED range followed by Sony and LG which are roughly equal (to my eye).

If you want it for gaming as well I would recommend an LG though. While the image processing isn't quite up there with Panasonic or Sony they offer more options and features that next gen consoles will benefit from and let's be real unless you're a professional I very much doubt you will notice the difference between an LG OLED and a Panasonic OLED but you will certainly notice the 1-2 grand price difference and most likely the next-gen console features like VRR :)

I also have a Sony PVM which I have setup for older consoles as games on PS2 and earlier systems look awful on a flat screen (LCD, plasma and OLED) compared to even a mid-range CRT. I managed to pick up the PVM for 'cheap' a few years ago from a media company that was relocating and selling off old equipment from storage. It is also the best way (imho) to watch most VHS content, especially non-professional/camcorder stuff.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#457

Post by em-bee »

theshrike79 wrote: post #262
nfoz wrote: post #52

LG sells them as some of their "Business" tvs, intended e.g. for hotels. In Canada some of them are branded as "Commercial Lite". Here's an LG 65" 4k HDR dumb TV: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/business/commercial-tv/lg-65UV340H I have a similar model from a few years ago (purchased from Canada Computers fwiw), and I love it. Because I don't notice it exists. It just does its job, like a TV should.

Even if you're not getting a dumb one, I think LG has the best "smart" TVs around. Just don't give them access to the internet and they'll do the job of displaying anything you give them via a HDMI port. Integrates nicely with home automation with an API too. Oh, and they don't have ads in the menus like Samsung does.

no power on ad either? i use our smart tv the same way, as a huge computer monitor via hdmi. then i run kodi on a laptop as a media center. works fine, and the only irritation is an annoying ad every time the device gets switched on. fortunately it's just an ad about a tv, and probably because of no internet, it's always the same ad too.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#458

Post by josteink »

nfoz wrote: post #52

LG sells them as some of their "Business" tvs, intended e.g. for hotels. In Canada some of them are branded as "Commercial Lite". Here's an LG 65" 4k HDR dumb TV: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/business/commercial-tv/lg-65UV340H I have a similar model from a few years ago (purchased from Canada Computers fwiw), and I love it. Because I don't notice it exists. It just does its job, like a TV should.

> I love it. Because I don't notice it exists. It just does its job, like a TV should.

Yes. This should be the goal of any good product.

Nowadays, every single time I’ve had to help my wife with the TV (you have to help people with TVs now!) it has been because it is the polar opposite of this.

As a result I’ve setup some macros on my Logitech Smarthub to try to force the TV away from these “smart” aspects, but they still sometimes fail.

Smart TVs are just horrible.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#459

Post by blunte »

"Smart" TVs are a terrible terrible thing. Old people buy them, not knowing what they are getting into; and then we, HN-type people, end up forever being called to someone's house (family, whom you cannot really deny) to fix stupid things that really aren't the fault of the user.

Also, when it takes 3 minutes to "boot up" your TV, that just sucks.

I'm going to blame manufacturers for taking an essentially saturated market and adding useless crap (and marketing it) to justify someone needing to buy a new TV. Indeed there are some visual improvements occasionally, but the benefits of those improvements are often diminished based on many factors (vision of viewer, room lighting/light interference, etc.).

Choice is nice, and competition is nice. But useless or likely-to-never-be-wanted-or-used features are just a waste of money, peoples' time, and environmental resources (the making of new TV, the discarding of old).

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#460

Post by cm2187 »

nfoz wrote: post #52

LG sells them as some of their "Business" tvs, intended e.g. for hotels. In Canada some of them are branded as "Commercial Lite". Here's an LG 65" 4k HDR dumb TV: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/business/commercial-tv/lg-65UV340H I have a similar model from a few years ago (purchased from Canada Computers fwiw), and I love it. Because I don't notice it exists. It just does its job, like a TV should.

But if you don’t plug them to the internet, can new TVs still be used as dumb TVs or do they annoy you with splash screens and other annoyances?
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