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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

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-dont-really-want-a-smart-tv/ http://www.howtogeek.com/176392/smart-tvs-are-stupid-why-you...

LordKano 11y ago
I don't get it either. That article hits the issues why I won't buy one. I'd much rather have a plain old dumb tv and a smart device attached to it. With the same tv, I have been through a Chromecast, a NeoTV, a Roku 2 and a Roku3. I have kept adding features on to the same old tv. Also, I'm concerned about EOL issues. A friend of mine had a smart Blu-Ray player, the manufacturer stopped updating the software and when YouTube stopped supporting the version of the app on his device, he was shut out. It was a minor inconvenience to buy a new Blu-Ray player but if it has been his TV, he'd have to either go buy a new TV or buy an external smart device just to enjoy the same feathers the tv had when he bought it. Meanwhile, I would have spent less for my dumb tv and smart devices while maintaining a more positive overall experience.
- jevinskie 11y ago
  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.
  - GauntletWizard 11y ago
    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.
    - brandoncordell 11y ago
      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.
marcoperaza 11y ago
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 features become obsolete, or I switch to a streaming service that's not available, it still has HDMI ports like any TV. As for this privacy concern, a) it can be turned off, and b) it's nothing new; Netflix tracks your viewing habits, Amazon tracks your viewing habits, Facebook tracks your web browsing habits, etc.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  "It's nothing new" is not an excuse to continue a bad trend.
  - marcoperaza 11y ago
    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.
    - Bud 11y ago
      You trust the companies to leave the features disabled if you disable them? I don't. Vizio is a bad actor, here. This paragraph illustrates that quite well: "Cable TV companies and video rental companies are prohibited by law from selling information about the viewing habits of their customers. However, Vizio says that those laws - the Video Privacy Protection Act and cable subscriber protections - don’t apply to its business."
      - op00to 11y ago
        So lobby your lawmaker and make it illegal, or get them to enforce laws on the books if that activity is illegal.
deleted 11y ago
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TeMPOraL 11y ago
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.

LordKano 11y ago

I don't get it either. That article hits the issues why I won't buy one. I'd much rather have a plain old dumb tv and a smart device attached to it. With the same tv, I have been through a Chromecast, a NeoTV, a Roku 2 and a Roku3. I have kept adding features on to the same old tv. Also, I'm concerned about EOL issues. A friend of mine had a smart Blu-Ray player, the manufacturer stopped updating the software and when YouTube stopped supporting the version of the app on his device, he was shut out. It was a minor inconvenience to buy a new Blu-Ray player but if it has been his TV, he'd have to either go buy a new TV or buy an external smart device just to enjoy the same feathers the tv had when he bought it. Meanwhile, I would have spent less for my dumb tv and smart devices while maintaining a more positive overall experience.

jevinskie 11y ago
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.
- GauntletWizard 11y ago
  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.
  - brandoncordell 11y ago
    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.

marcoperaza 11y ago

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 features become obsolete, or I switch to a streaming service that's not available, it still has HDMI ports like any TV. As for this privacy concern, a) it can be turned off, and b) it's nothing new; Netflix tracks your viewing habits, Amazon tracks your viewing habits, Facebook tracks your web browsing habits, etc.

nitrogen 11y ago
"It's nothing new" is not an excuse to continue a bad trend.
- marcoperaza 11y ago
  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.
  - Bud 11y ago
    You trust the companies to leave the features disabled if you disable them? I don't. Vizio is a bad actor, here. This paragraph illustrates that quite well: "Cable TV companies and video rental companies are prohibited by law from selling information about the viewing habits of their customers. However, Vizio says that those laws - the Video Privacy Protection Act and cable subscriber protections - don’t apply to its business."
    - op00to 11y ago
      So lobby your lawmaker and make it illegal, or get them to enforce laws on the books if that activity is illegal.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

TeMPOraL 11y ago

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.