Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 413 posts

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

#321

Post by philwelch »

ficklepickle wrote: post #320
philwelch wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds horrifically dystopian.

As a non-brit, I found the concept of TV detector vans[0] to be pretty incredible. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van

Yeah, I was aware of these and while it’s pretty crazy, I also used to drive with a radar detector detector detector[1] so it’s not like electronic warfare with the police is an alien concept to me. I just thought Britain was too polite to literally threaten people with SWAT teams over unpaid TV licenses.

[1] A radar detector is used to detect police radars, which are used to catch speeders. Police responded with radar detector detectors, which detect radar detectors, which are legal but police don’t like them. The citizen countermeasure, built into your better radar detectors, is the radar detector detector detector, which detects radar detector detectors and can additionally protect your radar detector from itself being detected. I am not aware of the successful invention of a radar detector detector detector detector.

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

#322

Post by heleninboodler »

julianwachholz wrote: post #84
unfocused wrote: post #31

Yes! I’ve bought many for my old work as we don’t allow smart tvs. I bought the Panasonics and never had any issues. https://na.panasonic.com/us/audio-video-solutions/profession... Im sure there are other companies. Im on my phone so can’t research. Look for “digital displays” instead of tv. Good luck!

I know them as 'digital signage' or 'hospitality tvs' and they do work for their intended use. But they're usually a lot more expensive than their consumer counterparts? My guess is they are either heavily subsidized and/or built to be powered ON 24/7?

My concern with these is that for commercial use, they're generally designed to be brighter and more eye-catching, so it's hard to get that "picture frame" look like the Samsung Frame has when it's in standby mode (I still honestly don't know how they do it because I've experimented with all the backlight/contrast/other settings on other displays and it doesn't look anywhere near as good, whereas with the Frame, people are often legitimately surprised that it's a TV). I'd also assume that commercial applications also aren't interested in low power consumption. Some of the "digital signage" displays I look at are like 200W where the Frame claims a 0.5W standby.

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

#323

Post by ddingus »

NonNefarious wrote: post #214
LeoPanthera wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing except the dangers of terrible PR, I suppose.

Didn't stop Google from turning the top third of all Android-based TVs' UI into ads a while back. People weren't pleased that their $4000 Sony TVs were turned into a spam conduit, but Google was quite pleased to say FU.

I just saw a TV labeled, "Android TV", and was curious. Wow. I won't be going forward and will probably just pay up for a commercial grade type set, or some combination of monitor / tuner.

So far, I've been lucky. After finally moving off of a CRT for primary TV viewing, I picked up a smart plasma from Samsung. Never put it online, and that TV is awesome! Gonna miss it one day. Looks like OLED is going to deliver nicely, and that's what I'm looking at in the future.

Did pick up two "Hi Sense" ROKU sets, and they are remarkably clean. Apparently, there are sets out there sans the AD spamming, and or I bought in just prior to this all very seriously escalating.

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

#324

Post by sib »

downrightmike wrote: post #113
julianwachholz wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know them as 'digital signage' or 'hospitality tvs' and they do work for their intended use. But they're usually a lot more expensive than their consumer counterparts? My guess is they are either heavily subsidized and/or built to be powered ON 24/7?

The MFG make more money on selling ads to you than you pay for the TV.

It's not that they make more on selling ads than the end user pays for the TV. It's that the manufacturer makes more on the ads than their tiny share of the price that the user pays. A mfr might only make single digit $$ of margin on a TV sold at retail in the US (I'm talking about low-end and mid-tier TVs, not > $1,000 units.)

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

#325

Post by 0des »

heleninboodler wrote: post #322
julianwachholz wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know them as 'digital signage' or 'hospitality tvs' and they do work for their intended use. But they're usually a lot more expensive than their consumer counterparts? My guess is they are either heavily subsidized and/or built to be powered ON 24/7?

My concern with these is that for commercial use, they're generally designed to be brighter and more eye-catching, so it's hard to get that "picture frame" look like the Samsung Frame has when it's in standby mode (I still honestly don't know how they do it because I've experimented with all the backlight/contrast/other settings on other displays and it doesn't look anywhere near as good, whereas with the Frame, peop…

dot pitch, not brightness.

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

#326

Post by linsomniac »

worldmerge wrote: post #6

Jeff Geerling just did a video on a commercial tv that even has a pi in it. Maybe look into digital signage stuff or even a large computer monitor or projector.

TL;DR: It's a $1500 55" 4K commercial display. Yes it fits the definition, but there's a huge premium on it. But monitors have always had a premium over TVs, even when targeted at TV use. I recall back in the '80s people doing the same thing, though not because of ads, just to get rid of the tuners.

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

#327

Post by ddingus »

cyanydeez wrote: post #293
rat9988 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many others would be frustrated if they have to compromise.

Most people see very little beyond 1080p

Frankly, as I get older I can appreciate that statement.

I can see it still, but I don't care. And thinking about it, I quit caring at 1080i. (Growing up with CRT video, interlace isn't something that bothers me)

I super appreciated 1080p :)

And that's all I really need. What I've noticed is that my appreciation of the material doesn't improve with the resolution beyond 1080p. And I really like glowing phosphors in tubes, first the CRT, then a pretty great plasma that I plan on camping on, until whatever OLED thing makes sense at some point in the future.

That set will probably run well beyond 1080p. I won't care, might even run it at 1080p anyway.

Extreme detail seems to take me out of the production sometimes, or I see artifacts that I would not see at a lower resolution. Think people call it the "soap opera" effect.

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

#328

Post by ddingus »

noizejoy wrote: post #276
sumy23 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will work for now, but device manufacturers are working towards building out mesh networks. You may not have connected your TV to the internet, but your neighbor did, and your TV can piggy back on your neighbors connection.

Wonder if anyone here has ever used EMF / EMR paint? If that works as advertised, it maybe could put a stop to undesired mesh networking?

Getting to the point of having to take new devices apart...

And that won't work easily, or for too long. They will just embed stuff in chips.

Maybe we will see "Brazil" style setups with TV's in some sort of Faraday Cage

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

#329

Post by pabs3 »

If Software Freedom Conservancy win their lawsuit against Vizio for GPL violations in their TVs, you will probably be able to install open source Linux distros with Kodi on any Vizio TV and soon afterwards lots of other smart TV vendors will be similar. There is nothing wrong with a smart TV, the problem is allowing the vendor operating system to remain on the device after you purchase it.

https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html

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

#330

Post by mastazi »

Vladimof wrote: post #309
mastazi wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but that's the easy part, there are plenty of distros one download click away. Dumb TVs or large monitors, on the other hand, are not easy to come by and/or very expensive.

TVs all have a dedicated board for WiFi... not sure what happens if you just unplug it?

Yes that's true, the problem is that some smart TVs don't work at all or only partially if not connected... and it's not easy to know which model will suffer from this, since "works without wifi" is not a commonly advertised feature, unfortunately.

I have a Ryzen-based HTPC connected to an old "dumb" TV, when that one dies, I will have to either find a store where they let me test the TV in the showroom (so I can verify that that model works with wifi turned off), or I will have to spend more and get a large monitor instead.

Alternatively I could look at "digital signage" or "hospitality" TVs which are dumb by design. However those are not easy to come by in my local market (Sydney, Australia).

Post reply on HN