7 ms·

That's what I do. I bought the "dumbest" TV I could find; I just want a display with speakers and HDMI inputs. Give me something I can plug the latest smart s

by mrbill 10y ago

That's what I do. I bought the "dumbest" TV I could find; I just want a display with speakers and HDMI inputs. Give me something I can plug the latest smart streaming box into and change that box as needed.

sankalp_sans 10y ago
That's where we have a huge gap in device ecosystem. If you want one of the best displays on a TV, it comes "bundled in" with "smart" features. It's a shame that appliances industry doesn't let us customize exactly what we want (that lasts longer and hence would be comforting to pay a good price for).
- rsync 10y ago
  "If you want one of the best displays on a TV, it comes "bundled in" with "smart" features. " Not true. If you buy a commercial display (you know, those panels you see in airports) not only will it be a far higher quality display than any consumer model, but it will also be the dumbest display you can imagine. They're not that much more expensive - which makes sense, since end users are sometimes building video walls out of 10 or 12 or 16 of them ...
  - gozur88 10y ago
    What I worry about with televisions is they'll come out with new standards that will render my keep-it-for-30-years TV obsolete in three or four years.
    - ptaipale 10y ago
      HDMI won't be going away any time soon. You can replace the receiver, and keep the good display. Yes, TV broadcast standards will change. Over here, we lost analog TV a few years ago, and in about three years we'll lose DVB-T on only have DVB-T2.
    - someonenice 10y ago
      Some one will come up with an external adapter that will do the conversion. Generally saw this with the PS/2 <-> usb mouse. usb <-> ethernet etc.
  - manmal 10y ago
    Interesting, can you please tell us how to google those?
    - Natanael_L 10y ago
      Keywords frequently include terms like "digital signage", and sometimes "industrial", "commercial", etc... You might like the one NEC makes with a slot for a Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/compute-module-nec-display-near-you/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/compute-module-nec-display-... https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/hq/en/Launch.xhtml?id=PandVSeries https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/hq/en/Launch.xhtml?i...
  - baddox 10y ago
    Will they really be higher quality displays for viewing television, movies, and video games? I would expect commercial displays to perhaps be brighter, but I would be surprised if they focused on things that matter more for home viewing, like color accuracy, refresh rate, and contrast ratio.
    - dwyerm 10y ago
      Some commercial displays are tuned for bright, static, signage, which would naturally make poor video displays. However, I suspect that their actual display technology is usually identical to the consumer versions. Certainly the panels themselves come from the same factory. But for what it is worth, my NEC commercial display doesn't look as good as a 4K display, naturally. It isn't a great monitor for text. I can't imagine how you could make 1080p at 55" look great at only arm's length away, though. That's just too much real estate to fill with too few dots. But it's more than sufficient, and I greatly enjoy gaming and the occasional movie on it. It looks much better than the 42" off-brand it replaced, but not as good as the 32" Samsung in the other room. I'd buy again and recommend them. I'm certainly a big fan of them having a simple remote and a serial port with a well-documented control protocol. The biggest problem with NEC and commercial displays in general is that you aren't really going to be able to do any pre-sales checks. They're not going to have an NEC hanging on the wall at Best Buy to compare. So all you have to go on is people like me who took the chance and offer up terribly unprofessional reviews, that might be pretty deeply contaminated with self-justification.
wickawic 10y ago
I just ripped the "smart" buttons off my remote and never gave the TV my Wi-Fi password. Wish I could have found a TV that was the same quality without the "smartness" but as another commenter stated, it is basically impossible.
- ce4 10y ago
  Have a look at NECs 24/7 display series [1] (think pro devices for hotel lobbies etc). They even offer cool stuff like raspberry pi integration [2]. [1] https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uhd/en/portfolio.xhtml https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uhd/en/portfolio.xht... [2] https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/press/pressreleases/dp/Products/Shared/News/2016/PressReleases/Company/RaspberryPi/RaspberryPi_uk.xhtml https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/press/pressrel...
mherrmann 10y ago
I think it should be that way with cars. Just include a screen and some buttons, then let people connect their smart phones.
- phillc73 10y ago
  Which is a fine idea, until you drive to a different country and the data connection starts costing a fortune. I have a 2016 Hyundai Tucson. To obtain the traffic camera alerts, I need to tether my phone to the car. The car then uses my phone's data connection to obtain the latest traffic updates. However, whenever I drive out of my home country, which is quite often as I live in Central Europe, I turn off my phone's data connection. Otherwise, I'm slugged with a big bill for data roaming. If I had to use the phone's data connection for, as an example, the entire navigation system, it would seriously degrade the experience once I'd left the borders of my home country. As it is now, I already lose the convenience of traffic camera alerts. I appreciate there are options - OsmAnd with local maps, a better data roaming package or simply rely on paper maps. Nonetheless, I don't believe relying entirely on the phone for in-car functionality is viable until data roaming has been addressed.
  - mherrmann 10y ago
    I live in Austria, so can relate. But "just a screen and buttons" does not mean "permanent internet access". It could/should work without inet as well. But really, who wants car nav systems, when Google Maps on my phone is so much better?
  - tonyedgecombe 10y ago
    First world problems :)
  - tracker1 10y ago
    So, use an app with offline data and maps for the areas you are roaming into...
    - phillc73 10y ago
tracker1 10y ago
I don't even care about the speakers or too many HDMI inputs... I have an AVR for all of that.
thedice 10y ago
This is what I also try to tell people when they ask me for advice on a TV. I got a sharp TV about 6 years ago and it still works perfectly and has more HDMI ports than most TVs coming out now, with none of the "smart" features.

by mrbill 10y ago

sankalp_sans 10y ago

That's where we have a huge gap in device ecosystem. If you want one of the best displays on a TV, it comes "bundled in" with "smart" features. It's a shame that appliances industry doesn't let us customize exactly what we want (that lasts longer and hence would be comforting to pay a good price for).

rsync 10y ago
"If you want one of the best displays on a TV, it comes "bundled in" with "smart" features. " Not true. If you buy a commercial display (you know, those panels you see in airports) not only will it be a far higher quality display than any consumer model, but it will also be the dumbest display you can imagine. They're not that much more expensive - which makes sense, since end users are sometimes building video walls out of 10 or 12 or 16 of them ...
- gozur88 10y ago
  What I worry about with televisions is they'll come out with new standards that will render my keep-it-for-30-years TV obsolete in three or four years.
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    HDMI won't be going away any time soon. You can replace the receiver, and keep the good display. Yes, TV broadcast standards will change. Over here, we lost analog TV a few years ago, and in about three years we'll lose DVB-T on only have DVB-T2.
  - someonenice 10y ago
    Some one will come up with an external adapter that will do the conversion. Generally saw this with the PS/2 <-> usb mouse. usb <-> ethernet etc.
- manmal 10y ago
  Interesting, can you please tell us how to google those?
  - Natanael_L 10y ago
    Keywords frequently include terms like "digital signage", and sometimes "industrial", "commercial", etc... You might like the one NEC makes with a slot for a Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/compute-module-nec-display-near-you/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/compute-module-nec-display-... https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/hq/en/Launch.xhtml?id=PandVSeries https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/hq/en/Launch.xhtml?i...
- baddox 10y ago
  Will they really be higher quality displays for viewing television, movies, and video games? I would expect commercial displays to perhaps be brighter, but I would be surprised if they focused on things that matter more for home viewing, like color accuracy, refresh rate, and contrast ratio.
  - dwyerm 10y ago
    Some commercial displays are tuned for bright, static, signage, which would naturally make poor video displays. However, I suspect that their actual display technology is usually identical to the consumer versions. Certainly the panels themselves come from the same factory. But for what it is worth, my NEC commercial display doesn't look as good as a 4K display, naturally. It isn't a great monitor for text. I can't imagine how you could make 1080p at 55" look great at only arm's length away, though. That's just too much real estate to fill with too few dots. But it's more than sufficient, and I greatly enjoy gaming and the occasional movie on it. It looks much better than the 42" off-brand it replaced, but not as good as the 32" Samsung in the other room. I'd buy again and recommend them. I'm certainly a big fan of them having a simple remote and a serial port with a well-documented control protocol. The biggest problem with NEC and commercial displays in general is that you aren't really going to be able to do any pre-sales checks. They're not going to have an NEC hanging on the wall at Best Buy to compare. So all you have to go on is people like me who took the chance and offer up terribly unprofessional reviews, that might be pretty deeply contaminated with self-justification.

wickawic 10y ago

I just ripped the "smart" buttons off my remote and never gave the TV my Wi-Fi password. Wish I could have found a TV that was the same quality without the "smartness" but as another commenter stated, it is basically impossible.

ce4 10y ago
Have a look at NECs 24/7 display series [1] (think pro devices for hotel lobbies etc). They even offer cool stuff like raspberry pi integration [2]. [1] https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uhd/en/portfolio.xhtml https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uhd/en/portfolio.xht... [2] https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/press/pressreleases/dp/Products/Shared/News/2016/PressReleases/Company/RaspberryPi/RaspberryPi_uk.xhtml https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/press/pressrel...

mherrmann 10y ago

I think it should be that way with cars. Just include a screen and some buttons, then let people connect their smart phones.

phillc73 10y ago
Which is a fine idea, until you drive to a different country and the data connection starts costing a fortune. I have a 2016 Hyundai Tucson. To obtain the traffic camera alerts, I need to tether my phone to the car. The car then uses my phone's data connection to obtain the latest traffic updates. However, whenever I drive out of my home country, which is quite often as I live in Central Europe, I turn off my phone's data connection. Otherwise, I'm slugged with a big bill for data roaming. If I had to use the phone's data connection for, as an example, the entire navigation system, it would seriously degrade the experience once I'd left the borders of my home country. As it is now, I already lose the convenience of traffic camera alerts. I appreciate there are options - OsmAnd with local maps, a better data roaming package or simply rely on paper maps. Nonetheless, I don't believe relying entirely on the phone for in-car functionality is viable until data roaming has been addressed.
- mherrmann 10y ago
  I live in Austria, so can relate. But "just a screen and buttons" does not mean "permanent internet access". It could/should work without inet as well. But really, who wants car nav systems, when Google Maps on my phone is so much better?
- tonyedgecombe 10y ago
  First world problems :)
- tracker1 10y ago
  So, use an app with offline data and maps for the areas you are roaming into...
  - phillc73 10y ago

tracker1 10y ago

I don't even care about the speakers or too many HDMI inputs... I have an AVR for all of that.

thedice 10y ago

This is what I also try to tell people when they ask me for advice on a TV. I got a sharp TV about 6 years ago and it still works perfectly and has more HDMI ports than most TVs coming out now, with none of the "smart" features.