Stuff is scary. I feel like at some point we'll ask same question but for HDMI etc cables..
Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
251–260 of 518 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#252All TV's are dumb tv's if you only use them as an external display/monitor and don't connect them to the net. I have a dedicated computer for a media center and just use HDMI1 input on the TV. Never enter menus. Never update the OS. Never agree to anything. Never let the TV "phone home." Never set up wifi. Never connect a CAT5 to it. Set the input using the remote and forget it. Treat it as a dumb monitor. Computer i…
That's sadly not really true. I have an LG that I (thought) I was using this way until one day in the middle of watching some TV I get a prompt about a OnePlus phone trying to control my TV, do I want to accept? Needless to say and didn't, but I was baffled by what happened. Turns out that the stupid TV is controllable via an app over bluetooth, and there is no way to turn bluetooth off. I'm just stuck with my TV constantly advertising it's presence to everything around it.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#253Seems 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.
Imagine if it could replace the ads with pictures of your family, news, inspirational quotes…
With pihole you could. Have the ad domains pointed to your own webserver that served you such things.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#254Seems 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.
Also make sure there are no open access points anywhere nearby. Some models automatically connect to them.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#255Seems 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.
That isn’t going to work for long, your neighbor’s Alexa is now automatically sharing his internet with you, it’s just a matter of your TV manufacturer striking a deal with amazon for access to their mesh network.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have seen stories of smart TVs doing active scans for any unsecured wifi network in range, then connecting and phoning home without ever informing the user or showing anything in the menus. Is that a real thing?
How would the TV phone home if it's not connected to the internet?
Amazon had (perhaps still has) whispernet - a global coverage of cellular networks. It was used to download books to your kindle, essentially anywhere in the world, without having to have a local plan or WiFi.
It was 2G iirc, enough for book download. Uploading a perceptive hash of what you are watching - e.g. a frame every few seconds - also fits on 2G speeds.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#257Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#258All TV's are dumb tv's if you only use them as an external display/monitor and don't connect them to the net. I have a dedicated computer for a media center and just use HDMI1 input on the TV. Never enter menus. Never update the OS. Never agree to anything. Never let the TV "phone home." Never set up wifi. Never connect a CAT5 to it. Set the input using the remote and forget it. Treat it as a dumb monitor. Computer i…
My Vizio TV's settings can only be changed with a phone app. It comes with a regular remote, but there's no button for entering the settings menu. For the app to work, it requires to be in the same WiFi.
I dodged the bullet by setting up a restricted WiFi (no internet), but that shows how TV manufacturers try to force you in connecting your TV to the Internet.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#259Here's a list of LG 4K OLED TV models that professionals use for color grading, 10 bit HDR movie work, etc.: https://www.richardlackey.com/low-budget-davinci-resolve-mon...
You can put those into a special HDMI dumb screen mode using the service remote.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why does (consumer) monitor tech always seem to lag TV tech by a few years? Well, “always” seems like an exaggeration; consumer monitors were far beyond 480i before consumer TVs were. > It looks like the situation is still that in the 4k OLED space there are a few ~$4000+ monitors and dozens of ~$1000 TVs. That’s not monitors being behind in tech, that’s TVs being cheaper because of economies of scale and opportuni…
Scale and ads are plausible explanations for why monitors are behind in tech, but they're still behind in tech.
I don't quite see how "TVs are cheaper because they earn money beyond the sale and have more economies in scale" translates to "monitors are behind in tech"? They have similar tech, but at different price points.