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

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

#341

Post by bluGill »

antisthenes wrote: post #204
jjoonathan wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> it feels like integrating a monitor manufacturer would be a quick and easy business win for the TV guys. What does this even mean? The same companies that make panels for monitors usually make panels for the TVs as well. They already have production facilities that can manufacture panel sizes ranging from cell-phone size to 200" commercial wall panels.

Most people don't buy the volume to get a special size panel. Want a panel, you can save a ton of money buying one we already make. My company has obsoleted perfectly good embedded systems and had to redesign a new UI just because the panel we used went out of production. (I knew all along doing pixel perfect UI instead of one that scaled was a stupid idea, but I got overruled, now we spend a ton of money making our UI scale)

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

#342

Post by bick_nyers »

bo1024 wrote: post #137

Summing up the main options and linking to some comments that mentioned them: * extra-large gaming monitors, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29383077 * Sceptre brand TVs (they can be purchased from Walmart) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29383298 * Projectors maybe, but 4k projectors are very expensive. (On the other hand, 1080p projectors look great in my opinion.) * Most big brands such as LG, Samsung, e…

You can DIY a 4k Projector if you don't want to pay nearly as much:

https://youtu.be/YfvTjQ9MCwY

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

#343

Post by hrrsn »

amelius wrote: post #339
Volundr wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 con…

Also, HDMI cables support ethernet connections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#HEC

Sadly - there's basically no hardware support for this. Dead in the water.

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

#344

Post by KennyBlanken »

ARandumGuy wrote: post #83
SamuelAdams wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are there any examples of TVs doing this, or is this just a hypothetical? There are some TVs that will try to connect to the internet via non-obvious means (Samsung TVs were mentioned elsewhere in this thread). TV manufacturers aren't spy agencies though. They're not going to put in that much effort to sneak an internet connection, when most users willingly connect their TVs to WiFi anyway. If I can't find an article…

> They're not going to put in that much effort to sneak an internet connection,

The profit from collecting data on you and displaying ads on the TV is greater than the profit from the sale of the TV.

They absolutely will go to whatever lengths they can.

https://www.cnet.com/news/as-smart-tvs-become-the-only-optio...

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/10/22773073/vizio-acr-adver...

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

#347

Post by neltnerb »

Volundr wrote: post #252
cronix wrote: post #173

All 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 con…

I imagine they'll happily let your neighbor accept the terms and conditions you have yet to accept too =P That's a failure mode I hadn't thought about, I didn't realize people tried to control a TV with bluetooth.

Why would you do this? Initial configuration but then never again? I can't think of a technical reason it meaningfully helps when you can already type in a wifi password with the remote, so I'm inclined to assume that the feature isn't for the customer but rather because they want you to use their app on your phone because the data on your phone is more valuable than the data on your TV.

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

#348

Post by duderific »

Volundr wrote: post #252
cronix wrote: post #173

All 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 con…

My LG tv started having an annoying popup message every few seconds, "Unknown device is disconnected", which was caused by a faulty WiFi module, documented here: https://www.theraffon.net/spookcentral/tcp/2019/07/10/lg-sma...

Since I use a Roku stick for streaming, I have no need for the WiFi module in the TV. I was able to follow the instructions in that post, which involve removing the back of the TV and physically disconnecting the Wifi Module, and correct the issue.

I suppose that's one way to make sure the TV is not silently connecting to WiFi, although I'm not sure how difficult that operation would be on other manufacturers.

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

#350

Post by Scoundreller »

RealityVoid wrote: post #303
FearlessNebula wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only this, but how long until they start including a cheap modem and paying for their own cellular connectivity?

Jesus Christ, at that point I'd just go in the TV and snip a trace in it.

It won’t be long until we start taking a ddwrt approach and jtagging our tvs and replacing them with custom ROMs.

We’ll be okay for another 5-10 years before they securely start locking that down too.

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