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In Defense of Dumb TVs

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Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#291

Post by marstall »

karolist wrote: post #255

I've been hunting and buying old (~2008-2012) Panasonic plasma TV's off my local craigslist alternative. They were the best in business as far as plasma screens go and the build quality is insane. Colour reproduction is very natural and deep blacks are just wow, only the OLEDs beat it but I'm not sold on the longevity of OLED screens yet. For example I bought Panasonic TH-42PZ85EA for $30, plugged in an STB for IPTV…

agreed! the pioneer kuro line was considered the high-end during this era. owned one myself. skin tones were blotchy compared to the Sony Trinitron I also had at the time but otherwise pretty good, far superior to LCD.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#292

Post by mikeryan »

blkhp19 wrote: post #205
atoav wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best option that I know of today (in terms of resulting usabilty and long term reliability) is using a dumb computer monitor and roll the rest yourself with a Raspi. While this option is certainly not available to all, it is the only thing that will really fit your needs. I completely gave up on finding anything decent in that market.

The best for who? This is a ridiculous take, nobody wants to roll their own TV UX except HN users looking for a weekend project. What usability / long-term reliability perk does your own software running on a RPI have over an Apple TV plugged into a dumb TV / monitor?

Or just buy a smart TV and just never connect it to the internet.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#293

Post by arh68 »

listic wrote: post #257
karolist wrote: post #255

I've been hunting and buying old (~2008-2012) Panasonic plasma TV's off my local craigslist alternative. They were the best in business as far as plasma screens go and the build quality is insane. Colour reproduction is very natural and deep blacks are just wow, only the OLEDs beat it but I'm not sold on the longevity of OLED screens yet. For example I bought Panasonic TH-42PZ85EA for $30, plugged in an STB for IPTV…

Isn't plasma screen susceptible to burn-out? What search terms do you use?

Plasma & burn-in: I have a '13 Panasonic Viera VT60 with 10,000 hours, no real burn in. I've got a '08 Viera and it's fine, too. I actually bought it with a vertical line malfunctioning, and it's seemingly sorted itself out (looks fine now). No dead pixels, no burn in, tens of thousands hours.

If I watch 24 hours of CS:GO, the white scoreboard text will be visible, but if I turn to max brightness/contrast and play Mad Max for 24 hours, it's always come back to normal.

The panels do get hot, though. That part's always been real.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#294

Post by Jaruzel »

You can tear my dumb 50" Panasonic plasma TV from my cold, dead fingers (or when it finally breaks, whichever comes first!)

Also, see my dumb Panasonic projector, again an awesome bit of kit.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#295

Post by temp8964 »

nerdponx wrote: post #97
temp8964 wrote: post #71

But does anybody here really use dumb TV? How is a dumb TV + a TV stick different from a smart TV?

Of course I do. I bought it for $150 on Black Friday in 2016, not realizing that I would never have a chance to buy one again. I refuse to upgrade. I don't use a stick or anything either, I just plug in my laptop with HDMI.

So that's just a monitor.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#296

Post by rurban »

friseurtermin wrote: post #253

I fully agree about dumb TVs for personal use. Even having to wait for your TV's OS to boot up when you turn it on is a terrible UX. However, when it comes to buying a TV for your conference room where you have a TV running 12hrs/day (when you're not a small startup with 10ppl), invest in a proper commercial TV like NEC or (my personal favorite brand) iiyama: 1) the're dumb TVs from the start, 2) you get proper warra…

The problem is not the mere boot time of your SmartTV. You are waiting for the SmartTV to send your viewing profile home. That's a lot of data. Before that the UI stays frozen. In earlier SmartTV OS versions it was immediate startup, the delay only started some years ago. Never upgrade your OS.

Maybe they are even sending home recorded audio of what you did in your bedroom, that long it lasts.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#297

Post by ghaff »

adtac wrote: post #247
TylerE wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, Apple could charge 2-3x, because the prices have gotten so cheap. People would absolutely pay $1000-1200 for a 55" Apple TV with nice software, and maybe a nice brushed aluminum frame that looks nice on the wall. (For comparison, the cheapest 55" I could quickly find from a major retail is around $300, with a "name brand" starting around $400).

The $300 TV that you found probably has poor audio, viewing angle, contrast ratio, support, etc. From the limited research I did before buying my TV, a 55" TV with good reviews for panel and sound quality that you can rely on for 5-10 years costs C$1,200 today.

Good sound probably requires a sound bar. I'm not sure the physics of flat panel TVs allows for great sound quality. Getting a sound bar went from me mostly using my wall mounted TV as a digital picture frame (which was my primary thinking when I bought it) to actually being the TV I use for streaming most of the time.

5-10 years? I know I'm not on the latest technology step. But 4K isn't worth me upgrading perfectly functional TVs. Maybe if we get to reasonably priced OLED panels but I'm not in a big hurry to upgrade TVs that are working.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#298

Post by ghaff »

knolan wrote: post #279
amelius wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish Apple would just make a TV. But that would be a TV which you can't use to watch adult content. And Netflix and HBO would be 30% more expensive.

And yet I can do all of that on my iPad without extra cost.

And cast it to a TV using Chromecast and/or Apple TV. I basically never use the "smart TV" features on my TV.

Re: In Defense of Dumb TVs

#300

Post by anticristi »

Don't SmartTV manufacturers risk getting fried with GDPR? If I didn't consent to the TV phoning home my habits, then it is legally not allowed to do so.

Remember when Google got fined 50 megaeuros? They sent location data despite user opt-out. I guess Samsung wants to be more popular than Google.

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