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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?

#391

Post by aidenn0 »

bmitc wrote: post #140
haunter wrote: post #32

4K monitors. You need a soundbar though or some kind of audio setup + remote. Also no built-in tuner or such but I assume you get a set top box from your service provider or use a streaming device (Apple TV, Fire stick etc.) 4K OLED https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#r=384002160&P=7 4K IPS https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#r=384002160&P=2 4K VA https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#r=384002160&P…

4K OLED monitors are insanely expensive. You can get an LG 65" OLED TV for $1,800. The OLED computer monitors I have seen start at $4,000.

AW5520QF (55" 120Hz) is on sale for $2500. That's getting down to about double the cost.

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

#392

Post by clairity »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #386
clairity wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not petty, that's downright patriotic. we have an inalienable right to privacy, security, and liberty, and absolutely no obligation to let companies (or governments) invade or curtail those rights.

> we have an inalienable right to privacy, security, and liberty I assume you’re referring to the US constitution. The rights you’re referring to constrain the government, not companies. You do not have a legal right to privacy w.r.t. your TV spying on you.

no, not just the constitution, it's inalienable because it's intrinsic to being civilized people, not because some piece of paper says so. on the contrary, companies have no right to spy on us.

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

#393

Post by willcipriano »

I have the Hisense 65U8G, it's not a dumb TV, but you don't have to hook it up to the internet and it has a physical switch to turn off the microphone. Otherwise according to my research it's about the best TV you can get for around $1000, or at least it was this summer.

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

#394

Post by deergomoo »

ssully wrote: post #209
alx__ wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the key being never let it connect to the internet

I would check what TV you have and what patches are available. I have a smart Sony TV, but I've only connected it to a network twice to get patches. I did so once because it fixed an audio issue that was very annoying.

You can often download patches to a USB stick and install them from that.

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

#395

Post by wiredfool »

vineyardmike wrote: post #365
femto113 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another approach is to look not for things advertised as "monitors" but instead look for "digital signage"[1]. Nowadays most of these contain some networking features but they'll be oriented at local control (i.e. by you via something on your LAN), not some third-party control center accessed via the internet. Anecdotally this is the approach I took ~20 years ago when buying a (then slightly exotic) plasma flatscreen…

But does digital signage have good panels like "real" TVs? Eg. the high end oleds with deep blacks and stuff?

It depends. I have an Iiyama 44” and the display, while nominally 4K, is noticeably not as good as a good 32” 4K monitor. It’s not really visible when watching video, but using it as an external display looks horrible close up.

This is one of the ones with an android board in it, and if I did it again, I’d be getting someone sold as a computer monitor.

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

#396

Post by Volundr »

laumars wrote: post #355
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…

Which model have you got? I have a few LG TVs and there’s various options across the different firmwares that might disable that. Eg LG Connect Apps I’ve also often wondered if “store mode” disabled all of the radios because that’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t want enabled in a store.

It's an LG OLED55C9PUA. FWIW I went though all the menus, as well as searching the internet, and couldn't find any way to turn it off, nor as far as I could tell could anyone else who discovered this "feature".

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

#397

Post by behnamoh »

azinman2 wrote: post #361
duderific wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Be aware that Roku is one of the worst offenders in selling your watching habits.

What are some better alternatives?

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

#398

Post by terinjokes »

jonnycoder wrote: post #329
KETpXDDzR wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How old is your Vizio? All modern Vizio tvs in the past 6 years have a remote with a Menu button. And they ask for accepting Privacy Policy before you can connect to wifi. You can very easily avoid connecting a Vizio to a network and just use it as a dumb tv.

I have a 2016 model Vizio that came with a very simple remote without a menu button, expecting you to use a mobile app for all settings. They made a more complete remote available 18 months later as a separate purchase. If you didn't buy the remote you could get softlocked not being able to navigate away from the Smartcast channel.

While the remote does have a menu button, many settings continue to be available only via the mobile app.

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

#399

Post by neltnerb »

laumars wrote: post #360
neltnerb wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I used to quite like BT control of the TV back when my kids were babies. Advance warning though, these are going to be pretty niche use cases… I would feed them and they’d fall asleep in my arms but sometimes I would be terrified to move them in case they woke (and sometimes I’d just enjoy cuddling them as they slept). However the TV remote might have been too far to reach, whereas my phone was always in my pocket. B…

So that does make sense, for sure, though my thinking was about how once it's connected to your home WiFi surely your phone is too and is less range limited.

But in terms of involving installing an app on your phone to emulate a remote, both are the same so it's no different. At least it's for more than just to configure it, mandating a connection to a phone you may or may not have seems like a stretch. At least by making it possible to use your BT for a remote you're expanding the features rather than breaking them.

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

#400

Post by Volundr »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #307
snerbles wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IR is line-of-sight, and the receiver can be blocked with a small piece of electrical tape.

Bluetooth can be turned off in the settings.

It can't. Which is sort of the point of my comment. If it could I'd have no problem with this feature.
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