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

It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

techdirt.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 434 posts

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#271

Post by JohnFen »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #131
TACD wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what we did. Our ‘television’ was never hooked up to actually receive broadcast signal, we’ve always just used it as a big screen for the media/gaming PC set up in the lounge, and at some point I realised if I’m going to spend my evenings staring at Good Screen I might as well upgrade from this 40” 1080p TV with a dead pixel row. So I looked around and eventually bought a Philips 559M1 55” monitor ins…

Monitors are now starting to go smart. Not just the Apple one. And you no longer always have the option to prevent a net connection unless you live in a faraday cage. The only way they won't all be smart eventually is if there is a market for dumb monitors that outweighs what the manufacturers make from putting remote agents into them. I doubt that will happen. The people that even know or care at all are few, and ev…

Maybe it will be necessary to do what has to be done with newer cars: physically disable the radio transceiver.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#272

Post by amelius »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #170
amelius wrote: post #149

We should have a law that says that any product sold at a large scale should first be approved by a consumer organization. Let's stop producing junk that works against the consumer's interest.

> any product sold at a large scale should first be approved by a consumer organization You’ve created a government body gating market access. Surprise! Only the incumbents’ products get approved. Even if it doesn’t get corrupted, the wait times and specialist skills required to prepare the requisite documentation and answer questions properly will add a huge barrier to entry for new entrants.

1. It only becomes active after (say) 10K-100K products are sold (threshold can depend on market/product type).

2. You can still go to court where a jury of consumers can look into the case.

3. Surprise, without government intervention the market doesn't function like it should (see this very article).

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#273

Post by AndyMcConachie »

ortusdux wrote: post #259

I'm on year 3 of not accepting the EULA on my 'smart' tv. It has never been connected to the internet. It is effectively a dumb tv that was slightly cheaper because it has dormant bloatware.

Same. I don't understand why more people simply don't connect the thing to the network.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#274

Post by jokowueu »

mrjin wrote: post #41

Smart TVs were created for all kinds of agendas but none were actually for us the consumers. All those agendas require an OS which takes time to boot. Making it worse, some of those TVs' CPU are crap and thus every operation takes much longer than those dumb ones. Lots of vendors also start to ship new remotes that removed all the essential buttons, especially the video source button, and I have to press 5 or more ti…

I don't know how but Samsung tvs take like 5 seconds to immediately turn on if u unplug them and replug it from the wall

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#275

Post by basch »

panax wrote: post #200
izacus wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The premium for a dumb TV screen is about 500-1000$ though. Are you ready to pay that? Because manufacturers will earn more than your 100$ with ads and all other smart features on you if they don't let you buy a dumb screen.

This one only costs $370, cheaper than comparable 'smart' TVs https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sceptre-55-Class-4K-UHD-LED-TV-HD...

This only works if you consider the panel a commodity that is interchangeable. TVs are so so different from model to model.

The quality of the picture is much lower than high end budget tvs like the Hisense 55U6G. If youre buying a TV primary for the panel, to watch video, being "dumb" isnt going to take preference for me over the better panel.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#276

Post by ezfe »

AndyMcConachie wrote: post #273
ortusdux wrote: post #259

I'm on year 3 of not accepting the EULA on my 'smart' tv. It has never been connected to the internet. It is effectively a dumb tv that was slightly cheaper because it has dormant bloatware.

Same. I don't understand why more people simply don't connect the thing to the network.

I have a TCL Roku TV that was much cheaper than the competition, but the tradeoff is that it requires connecting to the internet to setup. If you unplug it from the internet, the little light at the bottom blinks FOREVER.

The trick, though, is to connect it to the internet and then block it on your router. For some reason this doesn't trigger the light to blink.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#277

Post by psion »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #80
Gigachad wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you are out of touch with the average consumer. They absolutely love smart TVs and would consider a TV without apps and streaming to be broken. In fact, even the ideal HN approved setup is just a smart TV where the online bit is a removable stick on the back. The average consumer just doesn’t care about being able to swap it out.

Yeah, they love also facebook, which monetize all their private life or sugary food, which alter your diet balance or cigarettes who can literally kill you. Not to mention all of them are addictive. The fact consumers love something doesn't make it a good thing.

Piggyback to this, wasn't it Steve Jobs who said something about how the users don't know what they want or need?

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#278

Post by ezfe »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #166
sgjohnson wrote: post #154

I for one enjoy that my Smart TV is subsidized by all the morons who think that my data is worth anything. It's not connected to internet. It's connected to Apple TV box. Thanks for the discount.

> It's not connected to internet From the article: “As a dumb TV fan who has bought several sets in the last decade, I’m usually told something akin to: “well, just don’t connect the TV to the Internet!” But that route locks you out of firmware updates, and some TV makers remove functionality if you refuse to participate in their online ecosystem. Many smart TV GUIs also need to load before you’re even allowed to swi…

I've got a cheap TCL Roku TV that definitely fits the description of a cheap TV being subsidized by Roku's software.

The UI is pretty snappy and fast to load up HDMI inputs, and once you figure out how to block the internet without triggering the flashing light, there's not really any loss. The whole POINT is that I'm not using online functionality, so I don't care if I lose it.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#279

Post by JohnFen »

tapanjk wrote: post #265

Perhaps I do not get it, but a big screen never appealed to me. I think of smart TVs as a big screen with a built-in computer, and a laptop as a computer which has a built-in screen. I always thought the laptop is a better bang for the buck. Perhaps I am missing the point because I do not live in the western world. I have observed my people who moved to the west are into large screen TVs, but I never understood the l…

I live in the western world, and I've never really seen the point either. But I know a few people who value a large TV, so I know they exist. It's just a matter of what floats your boat in the end.

The state of the TV market is why I haven't purchased a new TV in a decade or so. And the way things are going, I probably never will. When the one I have dies, I'll likely not replace it.

Re: It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV

#280

Post by andrew_ »

ortusdux wrote: post #259

I'm on year 3 of not accepting the EULA on my 'smart' tv. It has never been connected to the internet. It is effectively a dumb tv that was slightly cheaper because it has dormant bloatware.

Same here. 2018 Samsung has never been connected. I use an HDMI with Arc peripheral that I have complete control of to run everything that streams.
Post reply on HN