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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

#371

It will be a hard fight to fight. Soon TV's will come with built in 5G, you won't even need to setup its wifi. It will be a difficult to win battle.

Do you honestly believe that? The TV manufacturers will subsidise a cellular connection to allow users to stream hours of 4K content in exchange for a few pennies of ad revenue? Smart TVs don't make any sense unless they are connected to a home network.

The 5G connection can be limited to phone-home functions.

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

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I need a firmware update for my TV that I use as a big monitor? It has no network access, I switched it to "PC mode", it displays pixels, it makes sounds, I very occasionally switch inputs.

My new 65" Sony has never been connected to the internet. We can't get 4K resolution, presumably because it's never been updated. Sony tells me they don't have a USB update available "yet." Had I known this would happen I wouldn't have bought it - my old plasma is still working. I didn't wish to connect just for the update and then disconnect over concerns that they would use that connection to download ads onto the…

That sucks. My Samsung did not have that issue (although it has other weird issues, such as having a button to turn it on without the remote, but not one to turn it off lol)

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

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days it's the other way around. If you pirate everything it's all very easy, it's the guessing game and multiplying streaming services where you have to deal with inconvenience. It's all just a little bit of history repeating...

I know all about this, my Plex server is rapidly approaching 200TB of content. Is it really convenient? Sure! As long as you ignore all the work that goes into setup and maintenance. I’d be deluding myself if I tried to pretend that this is anything but yet another part of a really expensive and time consuming home theater hobby. Even at it’s best DIY piracy is still miles away from just being able to open up Netflix…

What about opening up putlocker and binging a much wider catalog?

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

#374
i have found that an external broadcast television tuner with a regular hdmi display works well for my needs. the mediasonic HW220STB includes a PVR function to record broadcasts but the firmware is a bit old. Contemporary Research 232-ATSC is an older but fully capable tuner with rs-232 and ethernet remote control and can be had for around $100. there's a newer model called "232-ATSC 4K" which retails for around $1k and offers 4K output - the older one only goes up to 1080.

these are both ATSC tuners so they're fine for me in the US, but there is of course a different broadcast standard in non-US countries so this advice won't apply there.

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

#375
I wound want with: no operating system, no HDMI, no internet, no transmit, no OSD (a simple segmented display or lights could indicate mode/input selection, if needed). Input can be composite, component, VGA, Digi-RGB, etc. I should put my own computer, which can be used to provide such functions as captions, volume, picture setting, etc. I should want a remote control that has numbers on it (which can be used with the computer to control the TV-oriented functions).

Is there possibility to disassemble the TV set to get the display and then connect that to your own equipment, somehow, if you do not want all of the other functions?

One comment in the linked article says:

> A panel with a bunch of inputs should not need firmware updates. Personally, I’d go simpler: one input (HDMI or DisplayPort), no remote, automatically turns on and off depending on signal availability. Maybe with a knob for brightness.

That could work, but I don't like HDMI; other than that it looks like a good idea. (My idea is Digi-RGB, which I had written the specification; I think is much better than HDMI)

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

#376

My TCL has not had any problems not being connected to the internet except it flashes a light on the front to helpfully remind me. I keep telling myself I’m going to take a sharpie to it but it doesn’t bother me that much.

You can connect it to the network and have it download whatever latest updates might be there and if your router is an Asus you could install wrt Merlin and use skynet and diversion to pretty much block everything from Roku and the light never blinks and you could still use your phone as a remote for the TV.

Nice. That sounds like a fun weekend project one day.

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

#377

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…

Generally I recommend factory reset, then hook up to a roku or similar and just use it as a dumb display. If it fails in that configuration return the TV immediately.

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

#378
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…

Consider a projector.

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

#379
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…

It sounds like you are out of touch with the average consumer. They absolutely love smart TVs and would consider a TV without apps and streaming to be broken. In fact, even the ideal HN approved setup is just a smart TV where the online bit is a removable stick on the back. The average consumer just doesn’t care about being able to swap it out.

Yeah all of this could be solved as far as I'm concerned by just selling the TV with a bundled smart stick, a built in USB supply on the back for it, and a port angled so it would still be thin.

What would I do with a dumb TV without apps? Only watch broadcast TV? Drag my laptop in? Pay as much as the TV itself for a media center PC that probably won't be as reliable and snappy ad Android?

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

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know all about this, my Plex server is rapidly approaching 200TB of content. Is it really convenient? Sure! As long as you ignore all the work that goes into setup and maintenance. I’d be deluding myself if I tried to pretend that this is anything but yet another part of a really expensive and time consuming home theater hobby. Even at it’s best DIY piracy is still miles away from just being able to open up Netflix…

What about opening up putlocker and binging a much wider catalog?

And now you’re watching stuff at an even worse quality than you would on Netflix.
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