In Defense of Dumb TVs • Hacker News Board

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#41

Post by secfirstmd » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:01 AM UTC

pridkett wrote: post #15

I’m really pleased the author called out the Apple TV as a device that lets you avoid ads. We tried to go cheap on another of our TVs and get an Amazon Fire Stick and in addition to it being not as smooth (combo of UX and speed) at the Apple TV, it had a good amount of ads all over the place. There’s lots of griping about the cost of an Apple TV 4k, but I’ll pay that extra $100 to avoid ads and not be tracked so exte…

Yep plus when you start to stretch the Fire Stick and a few other products you find a number of issues. For example I've spend probably in the region of 40 hours trying to fix issues with Firestick and Echo Studio. When they work well they are excellent value for money products. But then you get a glitch (like audio dropping because of a lack of sync) and it becomes a morass. Hours upon hours and no solution (eventually getting to, we need to send this to our Devs). Apple stuff just works. Not as cheap and maybe not as hackable in some ways but it just works.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#42

Post by phkahler » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:03 AM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #19

Last time this topic came up, I asked about the idea of a company producing dumb TV. I know a number of “normal” people who don’t particularly care for internet connectivity in anything so I was curious why no one was doing it, at least not with the sizes and resolutions you see on top of the line TVs. Apparently the margins on commodity hardware like TVs are too small. Someone did bring up and interesting idea of ru…

Any manufacturer could release a dumb model at a higher price and advertise it as such.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#43

Post by stevenwoo » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:04 AM UTC

rubyfan wrote: post #14

I recently bought a new TV and did a little searching for dumb TVs before buying. It’s really hard to find a dumb TV. I learned that you can in fact buy a commercial TV that is dumb which seems like a good option. I ended up going with a smart enabled Samsung TV and have not enabled the TV to access wifi. It wants me to agree to terms and conditions whenever I pull up the main menu. I’ve learned to ignore it but it h…

Don't know if they are widely available or available anymore but the last time I bought a TV, I got a commercial display for digital signage which had no smart tv features. It just had a bunch of HDMI/av inputs which I used with game consoles/android TV box. The screen is not as great as latest TVs for home use.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#44

Post by p1mrx » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:07 AM UTC

> Incredibly, Samsung even recommends (https://www.samsung.com/us/support/tip/TIP00083197/) that you run virus and malware checking on your TV regularly.

The linked page does not contain the word "virus" or "malware"

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#45

Post by ntsplnkv2 » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:08 AM UTC

> like breaking up the traditional channel bundle and increasing access to more personalized and niche content.

Yea this is benefit decreases every day. The "cord-cutting" phenomenon is dead. Want to watch a discovery show? Oh great, it's only on Discovery plus now, $5 a month. Want to watch Premier League soccer? Peacock Premium! Cobra Kai? Netflix... marvel? Disney+. Oh but you can't watch THIS nfl game on here because it's blacked out locally for TV. Champions League soccer? Sign up for CBS All Access. Can't forget HBO Max!

When you add everything up, cable for me was actually cheaper. But now I'm screwed, because they aren't putting shows on TV channels anymore to get people to sub to their streaming service.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#46

Post by abrons » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:11 AM UTC

p1mrx wrote: post #44

> Incredibly, Samsung even recommends ( https://www.samsung.com/us/support/tip/TIP00083197/ ) that you run virus and malware checking on your TV regularly. The linked page does not contain the word "virus" or "malware"

looks like that page did indeed mention both terms: https://web.archive.org/web/20200303012835/https://www.samsu...

now it's a redirect to https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00077524/

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#47

Post by o-__-o » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:37 AM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #37

julianlam wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be tinfoil-hat adjacent, but I have heard that the allure of advertising data is so high that TV manufacturers will program their software to connect to any open WiFi network in order to deliver their collected data. By the way, your post is basically the article, except they mention Sceptre TVs, who specialize in making dumb tv panels.

If you connect to a black hole Arduino AP is it smart enough to detect that and roam to an open Wifi network?

Yes.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#48

Post by o-__-o » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:40 AM UTC

julianlam wrote: post #25

rubyfan wrote: post #14

I recently bought a new TV and did a little searching for dumb TVs before buying. It’s really hard to find a dumb TV. I learned that you can in fact buy a commercial TV that is dumb which seems like a good option. I ended up going with a smart enabled Samsung TV and have not enabled the TV to access wifi. It wants me to agree to terms and conditions whenever I pull up the main menu. I’ve learned to ignore it but it h…

This may be tinfoil-hat adjacent, but I have heard that the allure of advertising data is so high that TV manufacturers will program their software to connect to any open WiFi network in order to deliver their collected data. By the way, your post is basically the article, except they mention Sceptre TVs, who specialize in making dumb tv panels.

So I advertised sceptre TVs here last year about this time. I’ve had one for a year now and I do not recommend it. The color recreation is garbage, lots of glare, poor upscaling, and basically it’s everything you would expect out of a $200 55” tv (or $380 75”, they are stupid cheap) . Also my TV has a line of dead pixels and sceptre seems to have forgotten about my RMA.

While I won’t replace it with an LG Cx series oled, I won’t be ashamed to pickup a hisense or Samsung when I eventually rage quit this trash

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#49

Post by deadmutex » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:45 AM UTC

pridkett wrote: post #15

I’m really pleased the author called out the Apple TV as a device that lets you avoid ads. We tried to go cheap on another of our TVs and get an Amazon Fire Stick and in addition to it being not as smooth (combo of UX and speed) at the Apple TV, it had a good amount of ads all over the place. There’s lots of griping about the cost of an Apple TV 4k, but I’ll pay that extra $100 to avoid ads and not be tracked so exte…

Ehn, no vp9 though (last I checked)... so if you watch a lot of YT in 4K, it uses more bandwidth than say Google TV.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#50

Post by kevinmchugh » Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:47 AM UTC

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #45

> like breaking up the traditional channel bundle and increasing access to more personalized and niche content. Yea this is benefit decreases every day. The "cord-cutting" phenomenon is dead. Want to watch a discovery show? Oh great, it's only on Discovery plus now, $5 a month. Want to watch Premier League soccer? Peacock Premium! Cobra Kai? Netflix... marvel? Disney+. Oh but you can't watch THIS nfl game on here bec…

If a service has something I want to watch, i sign up for it and immediately cancel it. My state has a law that any subscription that allows signups online has to allow cancellations online, so this is convenient.

Doesn't work well for sports, admittedly.