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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?

#91

Post by echelon »

Horrifying realization -

Once maximum customer penetration from WiFi is reached (not all consumers will add TVs to the network), these companies will bake in cheap cellular transceivers and contract directly with wireless carriers without any ability to opt out. They probably won't be used for actual content - just low bandwidth spying and ads.

It's what the early kindles used (called "whispernet"). Soon a lot of products may bake little radios in to spy on us.

Consumer spy tech will start to resemble cold war techniques.

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

#92

Post by gwbas1c »

pessimizer wrote: post #80
cat_plus_plus wrote: post #35

It's one of the things that doesn't make sense anymore, like cars with manual transmission. Smarts in smart TV might cost $25 per unit, but OEMs get paid for streaming service placements on remote / home screen and a cut of revenue if users sign up. Even without streaming functionality, TV would still need some smarts to display tuner/inputs/settings UI and it's cheaper to develop Android apps than go custom route. P…

> It's one of the things that doesn't make sense anymore, like cars with manual transmission. Smart TVs don't make sense when televisions both have inputs, and there exist multiple off the shelf solutions like chromecast, appletv, roku, etc. (I'm lame, I just use an Intel NUC with a full operating system.) Smart TVs are TV/VCR combos at best, and at worst a vector for your network to be attacked after the company mov…

I'm extremely happy with my TVs that have Android built in. I only use external peripherals for audiophile content and physical media.

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

#93

Post by undersuit »

What about getting a smart TV that respects you, because you paid a premium.

I have a Sharp/NEC c651q. The Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module in it lets me watch media on the internet(newer models will accept the RPi4 CM).

It has no integration with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, etc.

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

#94

Post by julianwachholz »

IgorPartola wrote: post #60
bananamerica wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL most car in my country doesn't make any sense :P

Like it or not, it is true. As reliability and performance of automatics gets better and the gas mileage is now also on par and the cost to produce an automatic is reduced by economies of scale, manual transmissions are going by way of horse and buggies. It’s not everywhere but it will be. Also consider that EVs have different requirements for their transmissions than ICE vehicles and there are no EVs with manual tra…

For your interest: Brammo made the Empulse R, a fully electric motorcycle with a six-speed manual transmission.

https://www.wired.com/2012/08/brammo-empulse-r/

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

#95

Post by Brian_K_White »

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #35

It's one of the things that doesn't make sense anymore, like cars with manual transmission. Smarts in smart TV might cost $25 per unit, but OEMs get paid for streaming service placements on remote / home screen and a cut of revenue if users sign up. Even without streaming functionality, TV would still need some smarts to display tuner/inputs/settings UI and it's cheaper to develop Android apps than go custom route. P…

"It's one of the things that doesn't make sense anymore, like cars with manual transmission."

Lost me already. I enjoy manual transmissions. The function they perform which makes sense anymore is being enjoyable.

And I'm allowed to thankyouverymuch. You have confused pointless to you with pointless.

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

#96

Post by undersuit »

soared wrote: post #89

@dang Can we create a list of reposts that get auto killed? This post and “does advertising even work?” are reposted seemingly every month.

I'd rather not we not have this. While reposts are annoying sometimes I'm the lucky person of the day that gets to read something new.

https://xkcd.com/1053/

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

#97

Post by lyrrad »

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #73
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)

If you go this route, you will want to stick to older technology for audio and content peripherals. Otherwise you will have to connect it to the internet for bugfixes. For example, imagine you want to keep a smart TV offline but you also want the latest greatest eARC features over HDMI 2.1; or you want that new Dolby tech to work with your PlayStation 5. That's stuff that came out in the last couple years. Assume it…

My LG CX tv can be updated without internet by downloading the firmware file and loading it onto a USB drive.

A quick search shows that at least some Samsung models have this capability as well.

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

#98

Post by bradknowles »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #45
walrus01 wrote: post #26

Just don't ever give it the wifi password. Drive the TV from a PS4/PS4, xbox series X or home theatre PC. Use the youtube/netflix/amazon video/whatever client software on those platforms. I have a thousand times more confidence that microsoft or sony will keep their operating system patched and free from zero days than some random OS on a TV. And at least they're big enough that their telemetry and data collection pr…

> Just don't ever give it the wifi password This works for now but Amazon is already working on a way to share messages from devices through echo dots etc in the area. Even your neighbors'. It's intended precisely for this purpose :( To capture days from those trying to stay under the radar. It's called sidewalk.

They're going to get more aggressive about putting LTE/5G SIMs into the devices, maybe as eSIMs. That will make it a lot harder to disable their remote monitoring functions.

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

#99

Post by walrus01 »

bradknowles wrote: post #98
GekkePrutser wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just don't ever give it the wifi password This works for now but Amazon is already working on a way to share messages from devices through echo dots etc in the area. Even your neighbors'. It's intended precisely for this purpose :( To capture days from those trying to stay under the radar. It's called sidewalk.

They're going to get more aggressive about putting LTE/5G SIMs into the devices, maybe as eSIMs. That will make it a lot harder to disable their remote monitoring functions.

the equipment will be glued shut too, so if you want to remove the antenna you'll have to take a dremel to the back of the casing and cut out a rectangle in a specific spot so you can snip the small 50 ohm coax going to the LTE antenna too... it'll happen.

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

#100

Post by Brian_K_White »

IgorPartola wrote: post #60
bananamerica wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL most car in my country doesn't make any sense :P

Like it or not, it is true. As reliability and performance of automatics gets better and the gas mileage is now also on par and the cost to produce an automatic is reduced by economies of scale, manual transmissions are going by way of horse and buggies. It’s not everywhere but it will be. Also consider that EVs have different requirements for their transmissions than ICE vehicles and there are no EVs with manual tra…

But a manual is fun to operate. If all you care about is transportation, take the bus.

You have confused personal preference with universal truth.

And aside from that, the difference is complexity and reliability is still a fact.

"Like it or not"

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