361–370 of 434 posts
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Plex actually requires 0 maintenance, it’s the radarr/sonarr bit which deals with content acquisition that’s often a hassle. (Still infinitely better than having to manually choose and download torrents) Even a network share would take more work to set up than Plex. Why Plex? Easy set up, vastly better UI than a network share, works from outside the home. I travel often and frequently benefit from the transcoding fea…
How is playing directly from a computer not a good option? All of my computers on my network are sharing all of their drives all the time and I just go on to other computers drives to get things and I double click them and they play on every computer on my network from Linux to Mac to Windows from H264, 65, vp9, av1... Anything.
Can you even properly playback 4K HDR content from Linux? I don’t think so.
Format support on desktop platforms is awful.
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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…
>A dumb TV would not need firmware updates. Post processing, and other parts of rendering are still occurring. For example, if you game, have an Xbox, and a Sony TV, VRR is a feature that gets added to the TV after you buy it.
I'm on my second Roku OS TCL tv, and no new features are ever added to those. The firmware updates strictly deal with the app environment.
Quick story. I purchased a Sony tv with android OS. In the store, the OS did everything I wanted. When set the system up at home, it worked just like in the store. Then five days later, an OS update forced ads onto the front page. The entire home page was changed from what I had purchased. Fortunately, I could reset the device back to the previous OS version and not let it anywhere near a wi fi. What I purchased and…
Friendly tip: new hdmi cables include ethernet. Make sure to use old ones to connect your media player
It has no software, no updates, two hdmi inputs, an USB port and some minor inputs.
I absolutely love it.
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.
And then Apple getting a "monopoly" on your personal data and metadata is better, somehow...? Nevermind that this data is then shared between them. And anyone and anything else getting in through the doors in the back.
Apple also does a pretty good job of securing devices against “back access”.
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But if there are no dumb TVs for sale, how do you know if that's the consumer's desire or not? The much simpler explanation is that TVs plastered with ads and surveillance are more profitable to companies.
I assume there are capable people working at these large TV companies who can ascertain reasonably well what kind of demand there is for a dumb TV. Also, TVs went from dumb to smart, so empirically, sufficient buyers voted for smart even when they had an option for dumb. The alternative is all the manufacturers simultaneously pulled all dumb TVs out of the market even though selling them would provide a competitive a…
Never a great assumption really.
> working at these large TV companies who can ascertain reasonably well what kind of demand there is for a dumb TV.
Companies are focused on maximizing profit. Demand is secondary.
The hardware cost difference between a smart TV today and a dumb TV is negligible, but the loss of years of spying on you and serving you ads isn't.
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…
Are you sure that’s always true?
What about smart TVs that seek out open wifi networks or try to access the internet via HDMI?
The problem with smart TVs is that you loose control of what they’re actually doing.
i.e. LG smart TVs searching your network for media and sending a log back to… somewhere.
Or Samsung smart TVs sending hashed images of what you’re watching back to… somewhere.
This happens regardless of if you’re using the smart features or not.
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What do you plan on putting on that screen once it’s on?
Not your business. :) I want it, I can pay for it, it's weird that it's getting harder to do so.
Besides, buy commercial panels. You’ll pay a premium for your premium needs and get a much more robust device in the process.
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Not your business. :) I want it, I can pay for it, it's weird that it's getting harder to do so.
Sure. But as a practical matter, if your plan is to hook it up to a Roku, an Amazon Fire, or an Apple TV, then what does it matter if it’s built in or not. Besides, buy commercial panels. You’ll pay a premium for your premium needs and get a much more robust device in the process.
You got any recommendations?