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It's going to get more and more difficult to find a "dumb" TV. Almost all medium and high quality TVs are "smart" TVs now. It costs TV manufacturers very little

by edaemon 10y ago

It's going to get more and more difficult to find a "dumb" TV. Almost all medium and high quality TVs are "smart" TVs now. It costs TV manufacturers very little to add "smart" functionality and it brings in a lot of customers. I think it's more pragmatic to look for a TV that suits your needs, including any tracking, advertising, etc. Some platforms let you turn it off and others don't -- e.g. Samsung's smart TVs show ads in the menus that you can't disable. I would never buy a TV like that. I just bought a Vizio recently, but I knew about their tracking software so I knew how to disable it during initial setup. Far from ideal, but I wanted a quality 4k display so I was pretty much stuck with "smart" TVs. Also, for what it's worth, Vizio changed their "smart" platform to just be a built-in Chromecast which isn't as terrible as most smart TV platforms. I have an HTPC hooked up to my TV but 4k content is mostly limited to "approved platforms", meaning I have to use some kind of device to stream it.

criley2 10y ago
Harder but certainly not impossible. IMO you and others choosing to patronize overpriced and pointless smart systems is why it is becoming harder to find. If even the people who care don't care, then sure, they'll surcharge $100+ on every model happily. For what it's worth, my dumb Vizio was found in a stack of 20+ at a local Target during Black Friday. They were literally stacked at the entrance to the store. I couldn't miss it. It wasn't that hard to find.
- edaemon 10y ago
  That doesn't make much sense -- if I'm unable to find a product to meet my needs with a particular attribute, I'm going to buy one that meets my needs despite not having the attribute. In fact, the TV I got is the closest I could get to a dumb TV. It just has a Chromecast built into it. Is your dumb Vizio a 4k TV? From my research, there was not a single 4k TV from a reputable brand that did not have some "smart" features.

by edaemon 10y ago

criley2 10y ago

Harder but certainly not impossible. IMO you and others choosing to patronize overpriced and pointless smart systems is why it is becoming harder to find. If even the people who care don't care, then sure, they'll surcharge $100+ on every model happily. For what it's worth, my dumb Vizio was found in a stack of 20+ at a local Target during Black Friday. They were literally stacked at the entrance to the store. I couldn't miss it. It wasn't that hard to find.

edaemon 10y ago
That doesn't make much sense -- if I'm unable to find a product to meet my needs with a particular attribute, I'm going to buy one that meets my needs despite not having the attribute. In fact, the TV I got is the closest I could get to a dumb TV. It just has a Chromecast built into it. Is your dumb Vizio a 4k TV? From my research, there was not a single 4k TV from a reputable brand that did not have some "smart" features.