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It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

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Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#231

Post by BrandoElFollito »

philistine wrote: post #196
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not connected to internet From the article: “As a dumb TV fan who has bought several sets in the last decade, I’m usually told something akin to: “well, just don’t connect the TV to the Internet!” But that route locks you out of firmware updates, and some TV makers remove functionality if you refuse to participate in their online ecosystem. Many smart TV GUIs also need to load before you’re even allowed to swi…

I don’t get that point. A dumb TV would not need firmware updates. And if you’re already shopping like a madman, you should be able to figure out which TV locks out functionality. And the loading UI for the TV; I guess that’s the only fair point. But it’s clear there’s a hidden point in the argument; I don’t want functionality I won’t use. I don’t want the risk of connecting my TV. The temptation to see what it looks…

There may be a firmware that, say, gets you a better decoding algo, or fixes bugs.

It's not always the ads or apps.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#232

Post by MiddleEndian »

Havoc wrote: post #47
lordnacho wrote: post #11

What's frightening is that I can see on my PiHole the huge spike of requests that happens when one of my TVs comes on. Just the standard graph in the front page is enough to see exactly when the kids have turned it on. Most of the requests are rejected though, maybe someone can say whether that is enough to protect me from corporate surveillance.

Not just TVs...I can see my freaking lightbulbs in my pihole charts. What a time to be alive.

Why give your TV and light bulbs network access in the first place?

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#233

Post by bagacrap »

eddieroger wrote: post #207
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not connected to internet From the article: “As a dumb TV fan who has bought several sets in the last decade, I’m usually told something akin to: “well, just don’t connect the TV to the Internet!” But that route locks you out of firmware updates, and some TV makers remove functionality if you refuse to participate in their online ecosystem. Many smart TV GUIs also need to load before you’re even allowed to swi…

The TV doesn't need firmware updates as long as it's able to show me my sources, and "laggy" doesn't matter when the only input it ever has to deal with is whichever smart stick I choose to stick in HDMI 1. I got a smart LG and let it go on the Internet to get a feel for the apps and webOS (as a Palm fanboy who was curious of how that story ended), and after trying it for a few weeks, it went back offline. Now the TV…

to me the lag is pretty annoying because it takes like 10 seconds and 4 button clicks to select hdmi every time

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#235

Post by woldenron »

andix wrote: post #37

TVs without a tuner are quite popular in Austria. You save around 30€ per month on payments to public TV stations, if your TV is just a monitor and has no tuner. You can get for example one of those (german, but you probably can read the specs anyway): https://nogis.at or https://www.gisbefreit.at/ Most devices are not high end though.

Do you perhaps know how does it work in Germany? I heard you have to pay the TV tax regardless if you have a TV or not.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#236

Post by memcg »

evolve2k wrote: post #186

Anyone have suggestions around the peak sweet spot for second hand tvs. Eg that moment just before smart TVs went big. Any suggestions for great second hand higher res models?

I paid $75 for a Samsung LN46A650 (46" LCD) in 2019 to replace a Philips HD CRT. Since, I have bought two more ($50 and $20). So, I use two and have one as a backup or parts. All from Craigslist. I also have picked up three LN46A550 ($20 total) on CL with minor problems.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#237

Post by agotterer »

sgjohnson wrote: post #154

I for one enjoy that my Smart TV is subsidized by all the morons who think that my data is worth anything. It's not connected to internet. It's connected to Apple TV box. Thanks for the discount.

I recently purchased a Samsung TV that I hooked up to the internet. When I turned on the TV I was prompted to agree to their TOS. When I tried to agree to the terms it just kept erroring. I went away for a bit assuming it was Samsung network issue. It took me another hour once I returned to realize that my network was blocking their tracking domains. I had to connect the TV to my phone to accept the terms and bypass my blockers. The point is, you couldn’t even use this smart tv without first connecting to the web and accepting their terms.

I also haven’t really loved the Samsung TV. The UI is not great and it often forces me into their undeletable live streaming TV app.

I also recently purchased an LG tv, and I love it. The UI is great, there’s no ads, or intrusive apps. I’ll likely only buy LG tvs moving forward.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#238

Post by kjs3 »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #131
TACD wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what we did. Our ‘television’ was never hooked up to actually receive broadcast signal, we’ve always just used it as a big screen for the media/gaming PC set up in the lounge, and at some point I realised if I’m going to spend my evenings staring at Good Screen I might as well upgrade from this 40” 1080p TV with a dead pixel row. So I looked around and eventually bought a Philips 559M1 55” monitor ins…

Monitors are now starting to go smart. Not just the Apple one. And you no longer always have the option to prevent a net connection unless you live in a faraday cage. The only way they won't all be smart eventually is if there is a market for dumb monitors that outweighs what the manufacturers make from putting remote agents into them. I doubt that will happen. The people that even know or care at all are few, and ev…

We should start a bidding pool for which monitor manufacturer starts stuffing ads onto the screen first.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#239

Post by Kon-Peki »

syedkarim wrote: post #108
Root_Denied wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had cable for 15 years at this point and don't miss it, but I generally have had a TV in the living room with a Chromecast or Fire stick plugged into it. It's nice to be able to throw a movie from the plex server on there with my SO and have a stay-in movie night with some popcorn. Especially during covid lockdown we did this almost weekly with movies, documentaries from youtube or netflix, and tv shows we…

Did they advertise the fact that an internet connection was required to initially turn the tv on? What happens when a TV like this is purchased for places without internet connections?

Perhaps it is brand by brand?

I purchased a HiSense TV with Roku from Costco. When I first turned it on, it asked to connect to Wi-Fi. I said no, and it hasn’t bothered me since. There were no terms of service or click-through licenses to agree to, or accounts to create. I imagine all that comes after you connect it to Wi-Fi.

But never having been connected to the internet, the HDMI ports and TV tuner all work fine.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#240

Post by falcolas »

GuB-42 wrote: post #135
mrjin wrote: post #41

Smart TVs were created for all kinds of agendas but none were actually for us the consumers. All those agendas require an OS which takes time to boot. Making it worse, some of those TVs' CPU are crap and thus every operation takes much longer than those dumb ones. Lots of vendors also start to ship new remotes that removed all the essential buttons, especially the video source button, and I have to press 5 or more ti…

> So we are actually paying more We are actually paying less, because all these sponsors and ads pay the manufacturer, which in turn lowers the purchase price. So if you don't use the smart features, it is actually a good deal, and if you do, well it is still a good deal. The one who pay for your discount are those who pay for the advertised services (ex: Netflix) without buying the TV. Probably the best thing to do…

If triple A gaming has taught me anything, no, the prices are not lowered in compensation for the additional revenue stream. There’s no upside for them to do so.

Even if they sell a third fewer models, the ad revenue way more than makes up for it, and it’s recurring revenue to boot.

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