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What is the best dumb TV?

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Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#491

Post by pnt12 »

paleogizmo wrote: post #483
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've never got the meme about numpads on microwaves being needlessly complicated design. On about any decent microwave made in the last 10 year, pushing 1-6 gives a cook time of 1-6 minutes, respectively. Pushing start again after cooking has started will add 30 seconds. For longer cook times, press "time cook." Maybe this sounds a bit complicated, but it's efficient and all written down on the keypad . Mechanical ti…

It's a textbook example on design and UIs, spread by professionals and teachers. Do you just dismiss it as a meme because you don't get it?

From your own post, it's more complicated already. With wheel/knob, you have an interface for time and another for power. A little twist means a short value, a long twist means a high value. If you know what you want to do, you already know how to use this microwaves.

I think the problem is it's slightly harder to use, eg you need to understand that more food needs more time to heat, that different cooking needs different power, etc. But you learn as you go.

I think the equivalent for a car would be to have a buttons for 'fast', 'medium', 'slow', 'bumpy terrain', 'road','long trip', 'short trip'. How crazy would that be?

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#492

Post by jon-wood »

blowfish721 wrote: post #462
b112 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can think if it, they can too. As Samsung is essentially hostile beyond belief, and has thrown away all pretense of 'helping', I'd say yes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they did but isn’t it illegal to connect to an open wifi if you haven’t got the explicit permission to do so?

All they need in that case is a signed contract with Comcast saying they’re allowed to connect to Xfinity networks.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#493

Post by Spare_account »

mateuszf wrote: post #484
girvo wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They use their own DNS rather than PiHole’s.

If they use own DNS then maybe it can be disabled by IP rule in firewall?

If they can't get to their preferred DNS servers directly then they use DNS-over-HTTPS which you can't block.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#494

Post by ethbr0 »

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.

If no one attempts to remove features, bad features make it into the product, adding complexity and sapping time from good features.

If someone attempts to remove a good feature, someone on the team should be able to successfully argue for it in 3-5 sentences.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#495

Post by namdnay »

codeulike wrote: post #423
ornornor wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every mw I’ve ever owned or used turns the magnetron on and off. If it’s a 1000W unit and you set it to 300W, it’ll only heat 30% of the time. You can hear it from the noise it makes, it’s slightly louder when the magnetron is on.

Wow. So basic. That reminds me about dishwashers - you put powder or a tablet in a little hatch and I always wondered what happened behind the hatch, does it inject water, disolve the powder, and then pump it around to the jets? I recently realised. Nope. It just opens the hatch ten minutes into the cycle and the tablet/powder falls into the machine with a clunk.

Mind blown. So obvious, and yet I gad always assumed it was a system like in a washing machine, as you described

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#496

Post by lsaferite »

danielheath wrote: post #400
iforgotpassword wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found the millennial? The knob design is the much older one as it's purely analog. I don't have a microwave anymore for almost a decade now, but even before I used it occasionally only, mostly for heating up food from the day before, nothing where I'd need sub-millisecond accuracy. Also in general food tastes different/weird if you blast it at full power, so going for lower wattage and longer cooking times would redu…

> Found the millennial? The knob design is the much older one as it's purely analog. Modern microwave knobs are not properly analog. They are so infuriating - an analog control fiddling with a discrete setting. As you turn the knob, it will occasionally (with no haptic feedback) tick over to the next discrete value.

Sounds like a UX fail to not use an encoder with detents.

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#497

Post by namdnay »

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…

Honestly I have the opposite feedback for a Samsung TV. It’s a really nice aluminium remote, there are less than 8 buttons total, and yet I can use TV, Netflix and YouTube perfectly. My only gripe is that I can’t VPN with it to get US Netflix. Oh and the ads on the menu :(

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#498

Post by rovr138 »

lostlogin wrote: post #309
kazinator wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other virtues of a dumb TV. Simplicity is probably the best reason for wanting one. If you're getting a dumb TV because it stays off your network, but then get ipTV dongles and boxes for it, then you effectively have a smart TV on the network. I have one and like it a lot. The remote control is beautifully simple. There is no complicated menu structure; it took all of five minutes to go through all the scre…

Could you clarify as I’ve searched and think I get it. You bought a dumb tv, then plugged in a sort of set top box that does stuff. Then you use that things remote? Have you ended up with two remotes?

Probably HDMI. CEC allows controlling one device from the other,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Electronics_Control

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#499

Post by rovr138 »

tshaddox wrote: post #53
_alex_ wrote: post #9

I got a “smart” tv and just don’t let it on the network. Problem solved.

I let mine on the network so it will get updates, but I just don't use any of the smart features. I understand that some TVs (Samsung?) apparently track your activity and show you unsolicited ads, but as far as my LG TV doesn't track me and all the apps and smart features don't do anything unless I choose to open them.

I don’t know on LG or your tv, but I believe part of the tracking that could be done is tracking what’s being shown on the screen and relaying that.

No idea what they do or yours in particular. But something to consider

Re: What is the best dumb TV?

#500

Post by ezconnect »

antman wrote: post #171
jjoonathan wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My TCL starts to bootloop if it goes more than a month without connecting to the internet so it can download screensaver ads. The warranty people force me into the support gauntlet. The support gauntlet's first demand: connect it to the internet.

Edit: Didn't know TCL is a brand, not available in my part of the world... - What brand is your TV?

TCL is a big Chinese company, they even have their own tv streaming service golive tv.
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