But does anybody here really use dumb TV? How is a dumb TV + a TV stick different from a smart TV?
In Defense of Dumb TVs
71–80 of 391 posts
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#72Vizio's CTO confirmed in 2019 that smart TV data harvesting subsidizes their prices: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18172397/airplay-2-homekit...
Not surprising. Every time my Vizio TV downloads an update, it "forgets" that I've opted out of all the tracking and phone-homeing
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#73If only my Samsung tv would stop killing the hdmi ports of Apple TV’s :(
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#74While I let my smart TV connect to the internet for firmware update reasons (bug fixes), I’m running my entire home network through NextDNS, and before that a PiHole. Not seeing any ads in the UI, and I note some attempted logging traffic is blocked. Before I upgraded to LG last year I had a Samsung and it was trying to ping home constantly. It constituted 80% of outbound requests denied by the PiHole
In this arms race, these companies might start shipping with their own resolver.
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Soon they'll be coming with their own 5G chips that phone home over cell networks - no wifi access required. Or, like the Amazon Echoes, they'll form a mesh network with your neighbors TVs and other devices and then just use your neighbor's wifi to phone home. It's coming. I'm buying Spectres and I suggest others do the same.
> Soon they'll be coming with their own 5G chips that phone home over cell networks - no wifi access required This is something I never understood about the IOT bullcrap, even if something can connect to a mobile network, they'd still need the expense of a data subscription which render the whole thing pretty moot. It's not as if 5G providers were operating their network for free.
The device manufacturer will eat the cost of the 5G subscription, since it will likely be lower than the revenue generated from the harvested personal data.
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#76I’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…
I like the apple tv interface, but I really disliked the remote that ships with it. The touchpad like interface feels really awkward, i would lift it up the wrong way pretty much every time. I remember reading about an apple certified 3rd party remote that was more like a traditional tv remote but that was only sold in the european market for some reason. If they ever decide to switch back to a proper remote i'll take a look at apple tv again. I'll keep running a roku til that happens.
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 (eventua…
I never had a single issue with my roommates' Samsung smart TV (casting or otherwise) besides some buggy apps. Apple doesn't have a monopoly on "just works."
Just works vs. just works and also uploads screenshots of what you’re watching for ad targeting analysis isn’t much of a contest.
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#78I upgraded my TV to a Sony X950 because I cannot find a decent dumb TV, got really annoyed with the super buggy Google Android TV thing. The cold start time is absurdly high, the basic feature of a TV - built in OTA TV player has a bug that the channel display stays on forever, the Airplay frequently play video with no sound. The only fix is find the 3 level deep restart menu item, because power on / off doesn’t matt…
I also bought one recently. The most annoying issue for me is that it automatically changes the setting for my audio output and there is no way to tell it to just respect my damn setting and stop doing auto changes.
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#79I’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…
Yes - I wish Apple would just make a TV. Call it a living room screen or a living room monitor or something.
Make it OLED, dumb TV, instant on, Apple TV box plugs in. Separate box with front facing ports that connects to screen with one cable. A remote designed by someone who thought about it for ten seconds (why do modern TVs have dozens of buttons no one ever uses?).
This entire market is in desperate need of someone to make something decent.
The best available option today is LG and it’s still laden with ads and takes a few seconds to boot up.
Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs
#80I 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…
Could you just do a computer monitor? They have an HDMI port so they will show anything you want. Downsides: no tuner. Not a problem if you don’t need one. No remote control. Maybe not much of a downside if you’re just watching using a streaming box. No sound. Not a problem if using a sound bar.
Seems a worthy idea if you’re concerned about tracking, but I don’t see this idea around so I must be missing a downside.