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Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#81

Post by Kon5ole »

atmanactive wrote: post #67
dreamcompiler wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TVs are much cheaper than monitors. They are produced in larger numbers and their lower price is enabled by spying and advertising.

Agree, but also, much worse image quality. Put a, for example 32" TV and a monitor one next to each other, set native resolution, put up a screen with a lot of text, and you'll see - the difference is night and day.

>Agree, but also, much worse image quality.

I managed to grab a 55" 8K LG before 8K went out of fashion. I run it at 4k120 for games and 8k60 with doubling for productivity.

I've never had a better monitor and if one should exist it's not available in any store I know about. Monitors costing 2-3x as much as this TV did back then are worse. When it dies I will have to downgrade. :-/

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#82

Post by [deleted] »

carlosjobim wrote: post #61
reaperducer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing out on resolution (4K) and picture quality (HDR, contrast ratios, color gamut) improvements by doing this. Not everyone suffers from FOMO. I've only seen one movie that was worth the bother and expense of seeing it in 4K (Rear Window). The rest of the things you mention are mostly for a very small slice of theoretical people with perfect vision in perfectly lit rooms at the perfect height and viewing a…

The OP is not asking for a TV to watch TV on, he's asking for a TV to use as a second monitor for his laptop. When it comes to computer interfaces, the difference between 4K and HD is enormous. Especially for text.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#84

Post by gwbas1c »

twostorytower wrote: post #26
hamdingers wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It disables smart features and many of the settings making it more like a dumb HDMI screen. This may seem like a good thing, but it also usually enables a "vibrant" postprocessing picture mode, motion smoothing, and maximum brightness so the display looks good in a well lit big box store. Unless your viewing environment is similar (or you don't care so much) that's probably not what you want.

Motion smoothing is awful.

Depends on the TV. I prefer it off, but on my fancy OLED TV, there is too much "judder" without it on.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#85

Post by whitehexagon »

chatmasta wrote: post #62

Why does it need to be a TV? Why not a monitor? I don’t know why we even differentiate between the two of them these days… basically the only difference is that a TV might have an IR receiver for a remote. I’d go with a basic monitor and factor out the “smart TV” into whatever device you prefer – Apple TV, Chromecast, Firestick, any SBC with Kodi loaded onto it… an Xbox… why couple the smart features to the display?

I bought a decent 4k monitor to go with my 4k media box, and the required 4k cable, but wouldnt play because 'for your safety, blocked because not a TV' or some such nonsense, think it was HDCP? Annoying enough for me to cancel 4k paid tv, plus they were busy agressively reducing the broadcast bitrate. Also ended up with a load of bluray 4k discs I cant use, and they wonder why people download stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#86

Post by raffraffraff »

chatmasta wrote: post #62

Why does it need to be a TV? Why not a monitor? I don’t know why we even differentiate between the two of them these days… basically the only difference is that a TV might have an IR receiver for a remote. I’d go with a basic monitor and factor out the “smart TV” into whatever device you prefer – Apple TV, Chromecast, Firestick, any SBC with Kodi loaded onto it… an Xbox… why couple the smart features to the display?

I got a nice Philips Evnia 43" OLED monitor. 12 years belt that, I bought a 42" 1080p LG monitor. Monitors all the way.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#88

Post by MBCook »

yesb wrote: post #80
MyOutfitIsVague wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with HDR has been pretty abysmal on a $500 4K TV. Badly tuned HDR is way worse than no HDR at all. I have 20/20 vision, and I really can't tell the difference between 1080p and 4K for video games and movies. I will never do below 4k again on a desktop, but 1080p is more than fine for a TV. Higher framerate makes a far bigger difference than higher resolution for video games too.

Whether 4k is worth it depends a lot on the size of the TV vs how far away you sit. For a 65" TV, I don't see much difference between 4k/1080p above ~8ft away. HDR is indeed effectively a marketing gimmick on many cheap TVs. They are getting better though

Also the content being viewed. High bandwidth 1080p can look sharper than over-compressed 4k.

It’s why even non-4k BluRays sometimes look better than streaming.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#89

Post by MBCook »

hank808 wrote: post #57
addandsubtract wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rear Window? A movie from 1954? Can you explain how that was better in 4K when the footage isn't even 4K?

It was on film, probably 35mm. That film contains more information than 4k video. Resolution is between 4K and 6K.

Plus it’s a black & white movie, and b&w film has a higher “resolution” than color too right? Because you’re dealing with silver particles instead of physically larger color grains.

Or something like that. Someone more in the know please check my math.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#90

Post by whalesalad »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #45

Do recommend the LG C series (C5 or C4 are new or the C1 series if you want a deal on classifieds - same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware bit flip). The OS is very rootable and it makes a great TV that doubles as a monitor. Supports free sync / g-sync. OLED is nice at this scale. Text is very readable, refresh rate is good. It uses the same panels as the fancier G series in the larger sizes. One…

I have a C2 OLED and it is a really nice TV. I've never connected it to the internet or tried to root it though. It behaves as a simple no-frills display.
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