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Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

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Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#31

Post by brandoncordell »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #26
jevinskie wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. A smart TV makes you find a single product that is both a good A) TV and B) media center/computer or whatever you want to call it. Decoupling the devices makes it easier to shop for the best TV and the best TV media center.

I have a smart TV only because there are no alternatives. TVs in larger sizes that are just TVs are hard to come by, and were even two years ago when I bought it. If you find me a TV with 4k resolution and more than four HDMI ports and no 'smart' features (except CEC, because having my Chromecast and amazon fire stick turn on the TV is magical), I'll switch in a heartbeat.

Is 4+ HDMI ports a must-have? If you can deal with 3 HDMI ports, you can get a 4k Seiki non-smart TV for cheap. I think the 40" was around $399. I'm not hip to all the 4k stuff yet, so I don't know how it would compare to a higher-end Sony or Samsung, but I think mine looks fantastic.

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#32

Post by pdkl95 »

windexh8er wrote: post #14
qq66 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much safer to never give the TV network credentials.

One of the crappy things is, for example, the way LG chooses to approach this. My guess is they're just as bad as Vizio with their new "WebOS" TVs (disclosure: I own one, started reading disclaimer - they send all activity to LG proper as well). Opted out of everything thinking I won't watch any OTA or cable on the TV anyway since it's a media room panel, however I did want to use the built in Netflix / Amazon from t…

> Netflix the app on the TV needed ... agree to all ToS

Was the Netflix app one of the advertised featured?

Was this ToS presented[1] to you before you purchased it?

If they advertised a feature but failed to deliver it in the product you paid for, then I think you deserve your money back. They failed to deliver a merchantable good, as required[2] by UCC § 2-314(2)(f).

[1] "It was posted on our website" doesn't count, unless that was the place you purchased the TV. Requiring consumers to search every manufacturer's website before purchasing anything is insane.

[2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/2-314

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#33

Post by hueving »

rodgerd wrote: post #22
wildmusings wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smart TVs don't cost more. And they function just fine as normal TVs. I got a 60 inch Vizio smart TV for about $400 and I'm pretty happy with it. I was pretty skeptical about the Smart TV features, but the built-in Netflix and Amazon Prime apps are actually very convenient and are more user friendly than a Chromecast. I can search, pause, rewind, change episodes, etc. without using my laptop. When the Smart TV featur…

> Smart TVs don't cost more. Yes, they do. My non-smart Panasonic was a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than the equivalent smart ones.

Maybe because it was an older model? That case isn't common.

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#36

Post by TeMPOraL »

ourmandave wrote: post #3

I don't understand why you'd want a Smart TV. If something goes south (in this age of disposable tech) it becomes like those TV/VCR combos of the past where 1/2 of it doesn't work. http://www.howtogeek.com/176392/smart-tvs-are-stupid-why-you...

You wouldn't. I wouldn't. Members of general population... that's a different story. Companies do everything in their power to make people choose smart TVs. They deceive people with marketing and price smart TVs below dumb TVs. They also make sure customers aren't aware of the expected lifetime of such smart TV. Couple it with the fact that for a non-technical person, setting up two separate devices that sorta, maybe will work together is infinitely more complex than just getting one that has all the "smart" features bundled and working out of the box, and there's no surprise that people buy those.

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#37

Post by [deleted] »

wildmusings wrote: post #25
nitrogen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's nothing new" is not an excuse to continue a bad trend.

So long as it can be turned off, I don't really care. My decent-quality TV was cheap and I'm sure that it would have cost more if Vizio didn't supplement their revenue with this program.

[deleted]

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#38

Post by [deleted] »

pdkl95 wrote: post #19
bsilvereagle wrote: post #2

The "fix" to this is to not let your TV connect to the internet. Instead, use a set top box that you trust to stream Netflix, etc. Mythtv or tvheadend are good solutions for live tv if you have a computer with a capture card.

That works until manufacturers make a deal with cellular networks. precedent: onstar

[deleted]

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#39

Post by Silhouette »

Bud wrote: post #28
bsilvereagle wrote: post #2

The "fix" to this is to not let your TV connect to the internet. Instead, use a set top box that you trust to stream Netflix, etc. Mythtv or tvheadend are good solutions for live tv if you have a computer with a capture card.

No. The fix is to militate against "smart" TV makers and boycott them until they remove this malware and stop snooping as a means to gain more revenue. That is the only fix. No other fixes are trustable and verifiable at this point. The fix is, don't ever buy a smart TV. Buy the stupidest TV you possibly can. TV makers don't know anything about software and security, and they don't care at all about user privacy. So…

TV makers don't know anything about software and security, and they don't care at all about user privacy. So they shouldn't be allowed to write software and put features in their TVs.

I'm not sure that blanket restrictions on evolving technologies are a good idea, but the manufacturers and any store selling their products should be required to prominently disclose any unexpected or potentially unwanted behaviour so potential purchasers can make an informed decision. If we are truly going to see the Internet of Things invading our homes and household devices coming with privacy policies, perhaps we should legislate that those policies must be written on packaging and displayed alongside the products in stores in text large enough to read from as far away as you can usefully see the product itself. ;-)

Re: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

#40

Post by op00to »

rodgerd wrote: post #22
wildmusings wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smart TVs don't cost more. And they function just fine as normal TVs. I got a 60 inch Vizio smart TV for about $400 and I'm pretty happy with it. I was pretty skeptical about the Smart TV features, but the built-in Netflix and Amazon Prime apps are actually very convenient and are more user friendly than a Chromecast. I can search, pause, rewind, change episodes, etc. without using my laptop. When the Smart TV featur…

> Smart TVs don't cost more. Yes, they do. My non-smart Panasonic was a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than the equivalent smart ones.

If you expect a certain set of features (3D, higher quality display, etc.), the only devices that satisfy those requirements have smart functionality built in. The non-smart TVs I've viewed at Best Buy in the last year or so all look washed out or otherwise inferior. It sucks, and I prefer to use a streaming box versus the smart functionality, but to get the features I wanted I had to pick a smart TV.
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