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Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#61

Post by tootie »

IgorPartola wrote: post #57

https://www.newegg.com/Commercial-TVs/SubCategory/ID-3672 Try this. You’ll likely pay more but your TV won’t be subsidized by ads and such.

Yeah, these are commercial signage displays. Compared to average retail models, these tend to have thicker, sturdier (and much heavier) housings, higher brightness, more resistance to burn-in, better heat dissipation and a dizzying array of inputs. Most of which is entirely superfluous for home use, but they can actually be worth the money. They're also typically sold without stands but will have VESA mount points.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#62

Post by ajaimk »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #38
jitl wrote: post #4

I’ve kept my Samsung offline since I purchased it in 2019. I’ve kept my LG offline since I purchased it in 2016. As long as you have an AppleTV or similar connected to service your need for “smarts” it won’t be hard to leave the TV offline. (I recommend LG over Samsung - Samsung TV has native undismissable ads from 2019 still)

> (I recommend LG over Samsung - Samsung TV has native undismissable ads from 2019 still) Wow you get ads even when you never connected it to the internet? That's really user hostile design. If I get a tv it'll be LG anyway because they do real OLED, not that Qled stuff that Samsung does.

Sadly, Samsung is leapfrogging LG with QD OLED :-( Which is going to be better technology (brighter colors with OLED blacks)

Owner of 2 LG OLEDs

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#63

Post by mrweasel »

Shank wrote: post #5
jitl wrote: post #4

I’ve kept my Samsung offline since I purchased it in 2019. I’ve kept my LG offline since I purchased it in 2016. As long as you have an AppleTV or similar connected to service your need for “smarts” it won’t be hard to leave the TV offline. (I recommend LG over Samsung - Samsung TV has native undismissable ads from 2019 still)

> As long as you have an AppleTV or similar connected to service your need for “smarts” it won’t be hard to leave the TV offline. Do these TVs start up and boot directly into the selected input for something like an Apple TV, or do you have to go to extra hoops when it starts up to switch to your desired input? I'd actually be perfectly happy with a smart TV that's disconnected if it never throws its UI in my face wh…

We never use the remote from our Philips TV. The AppleTV can turn the TV on and off, auto select the right HDMI, and control the volume.

I only had the TV online once to update the firmware, not sure that was needed.

The TV also have one other nice feature: you can remove the logo, there’s just one screw holding it in place.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#64

Post by aviditas »

jancsika wrote: post #22
giantg2 wrote: post #2

This has been brought up several times on here. Maybe you can use the search to find those similar questions. One of the suggestions I remember seeing is to buy a large display/monitor instead of a TV. I don't remember the specifics.

> Maybe you can use the search to find those similar questions. But the answers are probably out of date by now. E.g., my answer about buying a cheapo Spectre from Walmart-- that one has been out of stock for at least two of the several times this topic has been brought up now.

Walmart stocks them during November for shopping season. The sceptre tvs are my go to for large viewing needs. If you are into perfect picture quality, it takes some settings tweaking to get to tolerable but in my opinion is ideal for just normal TV watching and video games.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#65

Post by aviditas »

foogazi wrote: post #55

I have a TCL with Roku that I was able to turn into a dumb display for my AppleTV Turned off networking and did factory reset The biggest annoyance was the Roku “smart” remote needing new batteries every couple of weeks

My roku remote finally died after consuming an obscene amount of batteries over the years. RCA has a roku compatible universal remote. Doesn't have the headphone jack or voice assist but I have yet to replace the batteries so it's a net win.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#66

Post by jeffbee »

IgorPartola wrote: post #57

https://www.newegg.com/Commercial-TVs/SubCategory/ID-3672 Try this. You’ll likely pay more but your TV won’t be subsidized by ads and such.

Many displays made for this market have atrocious picture quality and no video processing features because their target customers don't care about them, they only care about brightness and longevity.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#67

Post by amelius »

metadat wrote: post #25
jitl wrote: post #4

I’ve kept my Samsung offline since I purchased it in 2019. I’ve kept my LG offline since I purchased it in 2016. As long as you have an AppleTV or similar connected to service your need for “smarts” it won’t be hard to leave the TV offline. (I recommend LG over Samsung - Samsung TV has native undismissable ads from 2019 still)

+1, this is great advice. I've been doing the same; get an AppleTV or GoogleTV dongle and never, ever attach the LG or Samshung TV to the network. Benefits of this strategy: * So simple, even non-savvy folks can follow the rule * Protects your privacy * Eliminates an unnecessary, highly invasive, and parasitic advertising vector (ads directly from LG or Samsung) * Protects your TV performance and functionality from s…

> It's unfortunate the manufacturers are in a position where such perverse anti-customer incentives exist.

Why can't we have a consumer organization that protects us from having to buy stuff that we don't want.

Wouldn't it be great if any product sold in mass quantities would have to pass a consumer/environment protection committee first?

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#68

Post by jeffbee »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #29
sathomasga wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't give it WiFi credentials. (I've got a 5-year-old Samsung that's never connected to any network and it works fine.)

How do you then get the software update, to fix buffer overflows while decoding the video stream? (ok, most TV vendors won't bother to fix and most video sources ate somewhat trusatable not to exploit ... especially as an exploit can't do much unless it is connected to a network)

If you are using them at dumb displays, you aren't decoding video on them, you are sending them HDMI signals that were already decoded by your other thing.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#69

Post by danachow »

tootie wrote: post #61
IgorPartola wrote: post #57

https://www.newegg.com/Commercial-TVs/SubCategory/ID-3672 Try this. You’ll likely pay more but your TV won’t be subsidized by ads and such.

Yeah, these are commercial signage displays. Compared to average retail models, these tend to have thicker, sturdier (and much heavier) housings, higher brightness, more resistance to burn-in, better heat dissipation and a dizzying array of inputs. Most of which is entirely superfluous for home use, but they can actually be worth the money. They're also typically sold without stands but will have VESA mount points.

As far as burn in - even most newer consumer displays have similar anti burn features.

And notably those LG signage TVs still run webOS.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a TV on the market without “Smart TV” features?

#70

Post by jeffbee »

walterbell wrote: post #32

Some LG TVs, which are based on WebOS, can be jailbroken, https://rootmy.tv/

My webOS TV has been online the whole time and it has just sat there in silent service without any stupidity at all. Hardly seems worth the trouble of jailbreaking it.
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