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

Post by pupdogg » Sat, Apr 08, 2023, 7:32 PM UTC

lagrange77 wrote: post #923

pupdogg wrote: post #880

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi lagrange77, I like this name too. Thank you for the suggestion. It's a bummer that primi.tv is already taken, but I'm fairly optimistic that I can find another easy-to-remember domain. Also, I'll do some digging beforehand to make sure that I'm not overstepping any existing trademarks or copyrights. If everything works out, I'd like to give you one of these displays if and when I get the prototype unit off the gro…

Hi pupdogg, thank you very much for the generous offer! Actually, I don't own a TV, and besides, it would be the coolest story to tell when people ask me where I got this device. So I would like to gladly take you up on the offer IF you actually end up using the name, everything worked out as you hoped and you're in serial production. I really like the design btw, clean, uniform bezels and logo-less. That's what i al…

Post by aidenn0 » Sat, Apr 08, 2023, 8:04 PM UTC

nabilhat wrote: post #441

aidenn0 wrote: post #321

> “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 chan…

That's where it became clear that the article was taking advantage of the question to frame the source as an out-of-touch weirdo. "If you can find one manufactured recently that isn’t smart" implies they didn't try to find one and made up this content to avoid doing so. The assumed "missing salient features" are smart features; this statement framing the article's thesis is tautological. It's a disingenuous response…

Post by dhc02 » Sat, Apr 08, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

jasomill wrote: post #893

parker_mountain wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your LG C2 is a dumb tv - if you dont connect it to the internet. You can even buy a $10 IR remote control on amazon and use that to switch inputs. Or, in my experience, all of my external devices support HDMI CEC and auto switch when i use them.

Furthermore, if you're connecting devices like PC GPUs that don't support CEC, most LG TVs have an RS-232 interface that supports all the basic "dumb TV" commands, including most of what you'd want to do with CEC or IR remote (power on/off, input select, volume, brightness, and other basic audio and video settings). RS-232 control also has a command to disable OSD, which has the pleasant side effect of disabling anno…

Post by 1shooner » Sat, Apr 08, 2023, 10:14 PM UTC

Post by actionfromafar » Sat, Apr 08, 2023, 10:35 PM UTC

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #826

actionfromafar wrote: post #815

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, every TV UI is slow . But how can games have responsive UI on 8-bit hardware? People are doing things wrong. You have a real chance here of having a UI which is instant .

Because 8 bit hardware was realtime? It's quite difficult to implement everything we expect likely nowadays without multiprocessing... realtime Linux exists but it's not a panacea Honestly to compete with mass market TVs, it's going to be difficult to avoid have more- not less "bloat". Built-in Android would be a great selling point (saves you $200 on a NVidia Shield as long as it doesn't track you or lock down featu…