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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?

#361

Post by SeanLuke »

> “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.”

I don't think I would want any of those features.

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

#362

Post by dublin »

Another thing to look at in new TVs, both smart and dumb, is egregious boot times. Instead of the expected instant-on, many new TVs take a Looooooong time to start up - the Sceptre 4K TV I bought for the office last year takes 20 seconds to boot and display output - and it's a dumb TV!

I built IoT sensors with embedded web interfaces 20 YEARS AGO that booted in under a quarter second. It's intolerable in the third decade of the 21st century that we're stuck with boot times for appliances that are two orders of magnitude slower that that! (And FWIW, Red Hat had full Linux booting in under five seconds over a decade ago, but it never caught on...)

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

#363

Post by than3 »

freedomben wrote: post #294
than3 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Sad state of affairs really when you get punished for being rational, respectful, and adult. Do you honestly think your comment was "respectful"? Hacker News is all about rationality and respect, and a big part of that is backing up your opinions/assertions with evidence. Challenging people for unsubstantiated claims is a staple here. If you want to be able to say something like "You'd also be wrong about Apple's p…

> Do you honestly think your comment was "respectful".

Yes, it very much was.

I didn't waste their time, I didn't preach, I didn't lecture on something they did not ask or want to hear. I simply said they were mistaken. It was civil conversation, not disparaging in any way.

If they were receptive to learn more, they would have followed up, and could have asked, and they did not. That was the choice they made.

Any other structure would allow a trap, similar to what's shown in Serenity's The Operative, and I have no time for games.

You really can't be more respectful of their time, attention, or choice.

You are right about challenging with argumentation and building support for persuasion, but that challenge was never accepted. There is an order to these things.

You can't communicate by talking 'at' people, both parties need to engage.

> Apple on HN is risking downvotes too...

Honestly just breathing on HN with an unpopular, but right opinion, risks down-votes. I've already spoken to Daang about the structural issues, not that anything will come of it.

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

#364

Post by andrewia »

NoraCodes wrote: post #278

This article misses the point. I desperately want a non-smart TV because I don't want to deal with the absolute mess that is smart TV software. I want to have a TV with a nice panel, a basic OSD that lets me switch inputs and set up color/HDR profiles, and that's it .

Did you actually read the article? They said their first two picks will boot to the most recent input without any UI to step through, which they consider acceptable. Combined with CEC input switching, I agree that the UI shouldn't be much of a concern. I use a TCL P607 disconnected from the internet, and the UI is not a concern because of CEC switching.

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

#365

Post by snerbles »

Zizizizz wrote: post #345
threeseed wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an LG C2 OLED and had it connected to the internet. It spams me with in-screen notifications at least once a week with either Privacy Policy updates or advertising new apps or TV shows. Great TV but definitely need to leave it unconnected.

If you use nextdns or pihole you can block those. I do so the home screen has no top 2/3 of TV suggestions, just my installed apps at the bottom and the hi Def paintings from the gallery app showing above them.

Eventually these devices will use DoH (DNS over HTTPS) to evade local ad and tracker blocking.

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

#366

Post by Koshkin »

lagrange77 wrote: post #256
pupdogg wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, going to take care of that. Thanks for the heads up. I really looked that one over...didn't think too much of it as the domain was available. It's hard to do anything the easy way nowadays!

How about IDIOT? Edit: Damn, there is 'IOT' in it.

But who/what are you calling "idiot" and why? I would never think of calling that a plain HDTV set - it is still a technological marvel (and also would have all kinds of "smarts" built in anyway, just no apps or wifi).

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

#367

Post by andrewia »

joshchaney wrote: post #327

Amazing that their budget recommendation is the Roku TV. I can tell you from experience if you don't connect them to Wi-Fi there is an LED that will constantly blink on the bottom front of the TV, with no way to disable in software. So unless you like your TV with an electrical tape aesthetic, I would avoid Roku TV's.

It depends on the TV manufacturer, since Roku is just a software layer. My TCL P607 has no such LED.

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

#368

Post by rglullis »

pupdogg wrote: post #133

I've designed and built many such TVs for the commercial/industrial vertical. I am currently working on developing such a TV for the consumer market and launching it under the name DUMBO.TV Let me know your thoughts. Reference pix of 70" industrial display using Samsung LCD panel and in-house LCD controller with physical OSD menu buttons along with IR/RS232 control capability: https://imgur.com/a/k6zrH3s

Is there any chance whatsoever that you can use open source software/firmware for it?

I am not in the market for a TV and I am only a hobbyist with a tendency to spend more than I should on anything that lets me open the hood and tinker with it. If there is any consumer electronics company that wants to be the anti-Apple, I'd support it in any possible way.

Seriously, I even wonder if there could be some type of "Patreon-based" R&D for consumer eletronics. Get a group of software and industrial engineers to design and build all sorts of different projects, and patreons would get access to early prototypes and would be able to "buy" the finished products at cost.

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

#369

Post by hilbert42 »

YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #139
oblio wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine that can be disabled physically?

I also imagine that naïve attempts to disable it would be interpreted as a way of defeating some kind of always-online DRM on the coffee pods. And if coffee pods don't come with always-online DRM yet, I'm honestly surprised at Nespresso's lack of dedication to this dystopia.

If that's the case then it cannot be used in any place/location where there is no signal.

If so, then there would be hell to pay the first time if happened. If it works sans connection, then do what I've said elsewwhere and that's to cut or short out the antenna lead.

Removing the SIM may be deemed provocative by the manufacturer, if there's no signal reception then that's a different matter (the user can't be blamed).

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

#370

Post by kitsunesoba »

Koshkin wrote: post #352
kitsunesoba wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple TV’s hardware is wildly more powerful than that bundled in any smart TV. The current ATV 4K is running on the last gen flagship Apple SoC with a big passive heatsink attached while smart TVs use hardware comparable to that of a low-to-midrange Android phone from 2012-2014. Even the first gen ATV 4K from 2017 is several times more powerful than current smart TVs. That difference in power is felt quite a lot…

I am not sure if "powerful" matters in this context though. (That is, I expect the chipsets built into TVs to be plenty powerful for their intended purpose.)

In many cases the SoCs used in TVs are so underpowered that they can’t render menu screens without frame drops, or if they can they lose that ability after a software update or two because there’s so little margin.
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