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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?

#501

Post by bj-rn »

HnUser12 wrote: post #434
delecti wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A smart-but-disconnected TV can meet all of those functional requirements, and your nonfunctional requirements (low processing power) frankly don't matter to most people. My smart-but-disconnected TV turns on just as quickly as my PC monitors can return from sleep (a second or two); changing inputs is just as quick (input button on remote, left/right to select, okay to confirm), and the automatic input selection when…

Kinda related note: I also have smart but disconnected Samsung TV. Everything was great until a new neighbour moved in and started repeatedly trying to connect her watch to my TV. Apparently my TV has a bluetooth that's always on and has no way to turn it off.

If you don't mind voiding your warranty, physically disconnect the BT module. There are "how to" videos on yt. Had to disconnect the WIFI module on mine (also Samsung) to make the remote work again...

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

#502

Post by dogma1138 »

pupdogg wrote: post #418
dogma1138 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signage displays do not need to display protected content, they do not need to support standards like DolbyVision and they do not need to support three-two pull-down to display cinematic content without judder. HDCP isn’t supported on all versions of HDMI it’s not part of the spec it is a standard that is supported on top of w/e display interface you are using.

You're right, firmware designer just confirmed that Digital Signage applications don't use HDCP (he actually said "prefer not to use") but he does believe that our controllers using MediaTek SoCs support HDCP and a separate firmware build could be made for this use case...or maybe even a toggle DIP switch could serve this purpose on the controller PCB.

The controllers may support it but you will be the one will have to buy a license and the keys from DCP.

Overall I don’t think you realize just how difficult your venture might be.

Signage displays will make really bad televisions.

They are optimized for long term operations over color accuracy and gamut, they usually operate at fixed refresh rates, and their latency is usually pretty terrible.

I don’t think you realize just how small the market for what you are looking to build in the first place is and how difficult it would be to make anything that is remotely useable as a display for movies and video games.

Those who want a dumb display can already buy one of those 50-65” enterprise displays for meeting rooms however they make pisspoor TVs and having to pay 3-5 times the price of even a high end TV makes them pretty pointless for even the user base that might want that.

The large format gaming monitors are an option but recently they are adding “SmartTV” features to them because that’s what most consumers seem to want.

Both LG and Samsung are making 30-40” gaming monitors with apps these days like Netflix because they seem to be quite popular with students and flatsharers.

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

#503

Post by anonymouskimmer »

autoexec wrote: post #470
madeofpalk wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

meh, i think your response is more 'typical HN'. Nether are more correct than the other, but if you're annoyed or distrustful of all the internet connected factors of a TV, just don't connect it to the internet. I think that's a fine non-perfect, pragmatic solution.

"Don't connect it to the internet" might work, assuming it doesn't aggressively scan for open connections every chance it gets, but if this becomes common it'll only be a matter of time until you're forced to sign up for an account at initial setup, and the TV starts refusing to function at all without an internet connection (or it's been more than x days without one), and searches for nearby bluetooth devices of the…

> The only way to solve this problem for good is to regulate the industry

At a place like Hacker News I expect there will be people who have the technical know-how to make a non-smart TV, or even a modular, pick-and-choose, TV, and crowdfund it. At the very least.

Lots of industries that aren't tech-adjacent, or are very expensive, need regulation in order to stop particular practices from becoming universal trends, but TVs shouldn't be one of them.

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

#504

Post by astrostl »

harry8 wrote: post #414
delecti wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A smart-but-disconnected TV can meet all of those functional requirements, and your nonfunctional requirements (low processing power) frankly don't matter to most people. My smart-but-disconnected TV turns on just as quickly as my PC monitors can return from sleep (a second or two); changing inputs is just as quick (input button on remote, left/right to select, okay to confirm), and the automatic input selection when…

I have a 75" Sony bravia smart tv and it draws 10-20 watts in standby. I have a 70" dell monitor used as a a tv in another room it draws 0 watts in standby.

Look for a power setting related to quick boots. They are common and increase power draw (at a benefit of quicker on/off cycles).

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

#505

Post by oicsmd »

yumraj wrote: post #409
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

Just call it “Not.TV” - is Not smart - does Not spy on you - does Not show you ads - is Not going to harm your family … You get the idea..

[dead]

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

#506

Post by outcoldman »

nfRfqX5n wrote: post #393
rolenthedeep wrote: post #376

"just don't connect it to the internet" is such a typical HN response that completely misses the point. A smart TV with no internet connection is still a smart TV. It still has an entire operating system that needs to load wifi, ethernet, Bluetooth, usb driver stacks. It still has an awful, flashy interface that adds unnecessary steps between changing inputs. It still tries to load god knows what apps every time you…

What TV takes minutes to turn on?

My vizio 75” oled TV takes a minute to turn on. Disconnected from internet. Sometimes annoyingly asks to connect to wifi

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

#507

Post by b212 »

I’m amazed home cinema projectors aren’t more popular. There’s nothing better than Apple TV box connected to an Epson or BenQ and screen size of 100” or more. I know, it’s off topic but why so many people still need TVs? Television just makes you dumber and is bad for your children. Also all the smart features are crazy bad. Of course the image quality of good TVs is superior but still worse than the one of good monitors.

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

#508

Post by actually_a_dog »

bj-rn wrote: post #501
HnUser12 wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda related note: I also have smart but disconnected Samsung TV. Everything was great until a new neighbour moved in and started repeatedly trying to connect her watch to my TV. Apparently my TV has a bluetooth that's always on and has no way to turn it off.

If you don't mind voiding your warranty, physically disconnect the BT module. There are "how to" videos on yt. Had to disconnect the WIFI module on mine (also Samsung) to make the remote work again...

When this happened to me, I just renamed my tv to "STOP TRYING TO PAIR WITH THIS FUCKING TV"

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

#509

Post by derefr »

jader201 wrote: post #460
rolenthedeep wrote: post #376

"just don't connect it to the internet" is such a typical HN response that completely misses the point. A smart TV with no internet connection is still a smart TV. It still has an entire operating system that needs to load wifi, ethernet, Bluetooth, usb driver stacks. It still has an awful, flashy interface that adds unnecessary steps between changing inputs. It still tries to load god knows what apps every time you…

I was actually pleasantly surprised to see the "just don't connect it to the internet" comments, as most of these smart TV threads are usually full of comments complaining about them on principle, even though most of the world doesn't care (connected to the internet or not), and in this case, I think it does solve most of the issues. It's more common for HN to argue against something on principle, even when there's a…

I have a smart TV (in fact, the very one recommended in the article), connected to a Sony sound bar, and an Apple TV. I wake the whole assemblage from sleep by prodding the Apple TV remote — and then it takes fully 60 seconds before I can use it, because it seemingly

1. Wakes the TV up in SDR, syncs with the Apple TV;

2. Starts playing audio;

3. Which wakes the soundbar up;

4. Which forces a re-sync as the TV switches to eARC mode;

5. And then the TV notices that the Apple TV is offering to negotiate Dolby Vision, so it does so, and re-syncs again;

6. Which kicks it out of eARC mode, so it needs to re-sync another time to get back into it…

And that’s all just if I left it on the Apple TV’s input when putting it to sleep. If I sleep the TV by sleeping a game console when it’s the only thing awake, and then wake it up later with the Apple TV remote, then there at least two more resyncs involved, and also seemingly ten seconds of complete blackness where it’s doing literally nothing.

Also, this one’s not the TV’s fault, but YouTube for tVOS gets so confused by these repeated mode-switch re-syncs, that if it’s what would be playing on resume from sleep, then instead the audio will play from the YouTube video, with the first frame of the video frozen on the display and the event loop stalled for another ~60s (I.e. my prompting to go into the task manager to kill the app is ignored, and then 60s later it suddenly happens, but at that point the video resumes so I don’t need to do it any more.) Doesn’t happen with any other app waking from sleep.

Oh, and sometimes the TV will just wake to its home menu despite being woken up by the Apple TV remote, and while the system apps will be responsive (once I grab the TV’s remote), it will refuse to open the input switcher, or the device preferences (in order to gracefully reboot it.) when it does this, I have to get up and unplug the damned thing to get it working again.

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

#510

Post by ipcress_file »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #151
nofinator wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do the same and it works well. We prefer a handheld keyboard/mouse to control it. We've tried several and the Lenovo N5902 [1] is our favorite by far. It's also useful to have the Unified Remote server [2] running on the media computer so you can control it from your phone when you need to. [1] https://www.newegg.com/p/09N-00A7-00001 [2] https://www.unifiedremote.com/

Thumbs up for the Lenovo keyboard/mouse combo. I preferred the trackball one, but the "trackpad"-y one works well too. It feels good in hand, it's nicely sized, fits easily in the drawer of nightstand table, and works well :). (not sure if it's discontinued btw; I struggled to find it in Canada last few years; but there are seemingly-identical unbranded alternatives usually available on amazon, e.g. https://www.amazo…

I think they are discontinued.

I needed another one for work a while back and ended up buying one of these (at $15, not the current price): https://www.amazon.ca/Computer-Accessories-Wireless-Keyboard...

It's actually relatively good, but not as good as the N5902.

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