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Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

nytimes.com

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Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#51

Post by Macha »

was_a_dev wrote: post #41
Macha wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this appears to be a HN urban legend. It's always asked in these threads and the closest thing that anyone has been able to provide is one person asking one time on the samsung forums why there tv was connected to the neighbour's wifi (openly in the TV's own menu). So either there's a giant conspiracy which literally nobody else in the world has noticed or attempted to reproduce, or her kids/neighbour/whoever jus…

Fair enough - I think it is most likely something I read via HN

Yeah, HN seems to be the primary community responsible for the belief that this is commonplace.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#52

Post by slackfan »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #10
slackfan wrote: post #6

Article does not give a single not-smart-tv option. The journalism quality is outstanding .

Because they claim the not-smart versions aren't worth it. They suggest alternative solutions, some of which commenters here have already echoed. Why the cynicism?

The "aren't worth it" argument is entirely arbitrary and not backed up by a shred of evidence. Why defend bad journalism?

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#53

Post by giobox »

koolba wrote: post #12
ab_testing wrote: post #5

The Spectre brand sold by Walmart has quite a few 4K dumb TV’s . I bought one a few years ago and connected my Apple TV and works fine.

The TVs are okay for picture but the audio is terrible. An inexpensive soundbar or speaker system goes a long way on those TVs.

This is true of virtually all TVs today, regardless of price point.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#54

Post by anateus »

fideloper wrote: post #13

From a (cynical?) content and affiliate point of view, I like the style of taking user questions (bonus points if H.B. is a real person) and answering it - rather than just a bland list of products by "expensive but good, less expensive but less good" that wirecutter is. This lets the authors also recommend extra tangential items ("get a projector!"). On another note, my trust in these types of things have gone down…

I use rtings.com as base and triangulate with Consumer Reports and Wirecutter, and looks like I'm not the only one.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#55

Post by tomcam »

ghayes wrote: post #27
KerrAvon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that would require an accessible WiFi network. I'm sure someday it'll be impossible because they'll embed 5G chips and do it over cell without involving your consent, but that day isn't here yet.

Simple, just put it in a Faraday cage.

It’s not that simple. The Faraday cage I got from Costco seems to phone home to a server in China. Obviously I returned it and used the money to buy a whole lot of tinfoil.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#56

Post by benreic »

KerrAvon wrote: post #9
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #2

The approach I’ve taken is to just keep my TV off the internet (never join a WiFi network) and make it smart via an Apple TV, which I personally believe to have the strongest privacy protection of any smart TV device. Another bonus is my TV UI hasn’t changed despite changing and upgrading TV brands.

Yes, this. I bought an LG OLED C2 recently, plugged in an Apple TV, have not connected the TV itself to the internet. Works absolutely fine; bonus is that the apparently annoying voice control option is disabled. You don't need firmware updates unless there's a specific bug that you need fixed, and you can update by USB stick if you do need a fix.

I also got a C2 and briefly connected it via WiFi before I had the Apple TV. After hooking up the Apple TV I turned WiFi and thought I was all set, but it keeps turning WiFi on by itself and checking for updates which is really annoying. Might do a factory reset to clear out the WiFi password.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#57

Post by oh_sigh »

CameronBanga wrote: post #14

A couple years ago, I bought the domain "DumbTV.com" and considered looking to source my own television sets from China to sell at a premium with no added features besides HDMI ports. Should have followed through on that.

You could probably just link that to an amazon search result for "commercial TVs", which generally lack smart features and are mostly only designed for HDMI in

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#58

Post by kgwxd »

itronitron wrote: post #11
slackfan wrote: post #6

Article does not give a single not-smart-tv option. The journalism quality is outstanding .

The Betteridge's Law of Headlines strikes again.

For those that don't know, the law states "Any headline that ends in a question mark will contain a comment mentioning Betteridge's Law."

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#59

Post by karaterobot »

> “Any TV worth buying is very likely going to ask to connect to your Wi-Fi, and that’s been the case for many years now,” he says. “If you can find one manufactured recently that isn’t smart, I don’t know that I would trust it to be worth what you’re paying for it, because it’ll likely be missing several other salient features that you may actually want, like Bluetooth compatibility, HDR functionality, built-in channel scanning, or the ability to auto-label and optimize devices by HDMI input.”

TLDR: "Even though you're asking for a not-smart TV, we're denying the premise of your question: you don't actually want one after all. Here are a few smart TVs you might like."

I have a 60" Sceptre dumb TV, it's the exact one that comes up in every single thread on this topic. It's 4K, it cost about $400-$450 whenever I bought it — 3 or 4 years ago — and it is great. It cannot connect to the internet, it doesn't know what a Netflix is, and it has all the ports I need.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#60

Post by jblz »

TillE wrote: post #19

For the HN audience especially, a simple computer monitor seems like the obvious answer. Set it up however you like. Maybe it's a little more complicated if you still have cable or something, but unless you're watching live sports, there's not much value there.

I'm pretty sure Cable boxes all have HDMI these days, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Monitors won't have an over-the-air tuner, so, you'd need to use an external device to watch broadcast TV.

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