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Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

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121–130 of 518 posts

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#121
post #69

Look, I think it’s a legitimate question, and I’m not thrilled about most “smart” TV operating systems. But why pigeonhole your search like this? You will almost certainly end up with a worse actual display, which is what you’re spending the money on in the first place. Just buy a nice panel and disable as much of the smarts as you can—-it’ll be fine. Android TV is the best option out there, in my opinion; and it’s w…

Smart TVs also take a lot longer to start up than dumb ones.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#122

Why don't people like their Smart TVs? I've had a 4k smart TV for years and love it. Being able to stream without needing my phone is great. It seems ironic that people are complaining about smart TV ads while the [2] link in the OP has an absolutely MASSIVE video ad that takes up 2/3s of the screen. And it's not like you're not being tracked when you stream from a Roku stick / Chromecast. Edit: I have a 4k Samsung t…

Even running the site's proprietary software (javascript) on that [2] link, I still don't see this "MASSIVE video ad that takes up 2/3s of the screen". Likely because everything else in my computing environment is Free software, which fosters user-representing extensions such as ad blocking that do their best to remove such hostile garbage. If I'm spending ~thousand dollars on a TV display, the last thing I want is it being locked to some proprietary environment where user-representing functionality has been discouraged or even outright prohibited.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#123
post #69

Look, I think it’s a legitimate question, and I’m not thrilled about most “smart” TV operating systems. But why pigeonhole your search like this? You will almost certainly end up with a worse actual display, which is what you’re spending the money on in the first place. Just buy a nice panel and disable as much of the smarts as you can—-it’ll be fine. Android TV is the best option out there, in my opinion; and it’s w…

Is it a battle? Or is it 45 minutes of google searching and reading an HN thread. Vote with your dollars every time you can.

If you’d buy any TV after searching for only 45 minutes, we’re just different types of consumers. Which is fine! But I really like A/V, and I care primarily about the audio and visuals, not so much the politics of the thing.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cant find a source, but I remember a discussion here on a brand of smart tvs that still phone home by connecting to other nearby smart tvs that are connected to a network, even if you don't connect yours to the network.

It was Samsung TVs that will automatically connect to any open Wifi nearby to get their ads updated, even if you tell it not to.

Really? Source? Which models?

I just bought a Samsung 4K TV a month ago. I didn't connect it to wi-fi or do any setup. I just plugged my computer in.

I have not seen any ads. It seems to work fine offline in all respects.

If it actually did this I would definitely return the TV.

In case it matters it was this Q60A "QLED" 43 inch 4K TV: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-43-class-q60a-series-ql...

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#125
post #2

Just don't connect it to the network or agree to any of the license clickthroughs, it can't do things behind your back then. HDMI and the RF tuner can still work fine.

HDMI cables now come with 10/100 Ethernet built in. So it could connect via your devices connection. So pay attention to the hdmi cable you use.

I've been looking for years and I have yet to find any systems (TV, receiver, or injector) which actually take advantage of this feature.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#127
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does (consumer) monitor tech always seem to lag TV tech by a few years? It looks like the situation is still that in the 4k OLED space there are a few ~$4000+ monitors and dozens of ~$1000 TVs. Per the pcpartpicker link, maybe the Gigabyte FO48U will change that, but it's still out of stock. Besides, I feel like this has happened before with HDR and 4k and IPS. First it shows up in TVs, a year later it is cheap i…

> Why does (consumer) monitor tech always seem to lag TV tech by a few years? because there's more money to be made selling TVs than monitors? consequentely, it's TV manufacturers pushing the entire display maker industry ahead? and so they get the newer tech first??

That's what I suspect, yes, but if that's the case it feels like integrating a monitor manufacturer would be a quick and easy business win for the TV guys.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#128

Seems like this would be a good use case for a "TV Honeypot" that would intercept phone-homes, recognize the model, imitate whatever jank rpc is needed to keep the unit happy, and dump all telemetry to /dev/null.

Just don't connect your TV to wifi? That's what I did when I finally had to get one when I was replacing the ancient energy hungry plasma I'd been using. I already have other devices for watching Netflix/YouTube/ChromeCast.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#129

Why don't people like their Smart TVs? I've had a 4k smart TV for years and love it. Being able to stream without needing my phone is great. It seems ironic that people are complaining about smart TV ads while the [2] link in the OP has an absolutely MASSIVE video ad that takes up 2/3s of the screen. And it's not like you're not being tracked when you stream from a Roku stick / Chromecast. Edit: I have a 4k Samsung t…

Ideally your right, but major stream platforms aren’t available on many smart TVs. Apps aren’t updated. The TV is slow, like really slow. Press the Netflix button on my two year old Philips TV and prepare to wait. Other than being slow, the apps are just worse.

The AppleTV is the minimum I accept, and non of the TV make are able to produce anything that comes close.

We hate Smart TVs because the manufactures make shitty software.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#130

Is anyone just opting for a projector instead? How does that work It is a bit ridiculous that TVs have to be a computer with internet access to sell nowadays, but that’s coming to just about every household appliance.

Projector + HDHomeRun. Amazing. It’s like having a 96” TV for under 800$ Cad.
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