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Is it even possible to buy dumb tvs anymore? I have been hanging on to my 2014 model (and will probably try to use it for another decade) because the new tvs I
by SomeOldThrow 7y ago
Is it even possible to buy dumb tvs anymore? I have been hanging on to my 2014 model (and will probably try to use it for another decade) because the new tvs I interact with have ruined basic tv interactions. All I want: on/off, input switch, volume control.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- petepete 7y agoLast time I bought one I looked but couldn't find anything that fitted my requirements, (~55", excellent image quality preferably with HDR, supports ARC and CEC). If there was a DumbTV that did all those things and was reasonably priced, I'd have bought it there and then.
- outime 7y agoIf you buy a smart TV and just not connect it to the internet you can use it as a dumb TV.
- mywittyname 7y agoFor now... Just wait until they have always-on cellular service which is used to deliver ads, spy on you, and "upgrade" firmware.
- chopin 7y agoThat's what I fear most. For cars, this is already becoming reality.
- MrMember 7y agoAlways on cell modems are eventually going to be installed in most electronics and it kind of terrifies me. I only want a handful of internet connected devices in my home and at some point that won't be possible. I can keep my "smart" TV offline today, but what about when it has a cell connection? Will I need to physically destroy the cell modem on my TV, refrigerator, stove, etc just to maintain some modicum of privacy?
- imglorp 7y agoUnless it attempts to aggressively get internet for itself. Those xfinity (eg) hotspots from neighbors come to mind. As does simply waiting for days to get a passive crack on any available wifi. And before anyone cries paranoia, look how much effort and customer ill will the IOT vendors are enduring in order to phone home: there must be a pile of money on the table. https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/113502/how-to-prevent-iot-devices-from-phoning-home-via-the-neighbors-wifi https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/113502/how-to-p...
- chopin 7y agoI liked the advice "Use a honeypot router".
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Redoubts 7y agoMay as well RF shield your house at that point. http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html (beware, this place sells literal tin-foil hats)
- imglorp 7y agoOr at least shield the iot device. Kinda hard with a tv though.
- SomeOldThrow 7y agoIt's still a shittier tv experience.
- thom 7y agoI find that even if you don't use the internet features, you're still left with a massive slow box that takes ages to boot up, has a sluggish UI, and regularly gets video and audio out of sync.
- codedokode 7y agoThe vendor can simply add a GSM modem with a pre-paid SIM card.
- 292355744930110 7y agoThat seems like a large expense to get access the small minority of people who won't connect their devices to their own internet.
- turbinerneiter 7y agoSadly, no. Which is a big problem, since Smart TVs are the most user-hostile thing _ever_. Auto-play, ads, pre-installed stuff, non-reprogrammable app-shortcut buttons on the remote, user-tracking. And there is no control, no settings, no opt-out. I have to figure out if I can get an alternative firmware on my Samsungs TV. In theory, Tizen is Open Source. It is so frustrating.
- benrbray 7y agoHalf the buttons on my remote are dedicated to services that have been discontinued
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y agoWhat about buying a commercial display panel? https://www.mwave.com.au/product/lg-se3kdb-49-full-hd-ips-led-commercial-display-ac15890 https://www.mwave.com.au/product/lg-se3kdb-49-full-hd-ips-le... Some of these things look like they have API and what not, so maybe they allow you to turn off all the things you don't want?
- datenhorst 7y agoThe thing is, those don't have DVB-T receiver, which some people out there still require to watch cable TV.
- ihuman 7y agoAre there external DVB-T receivers?
- ascagnel_ 7y agoSiliconDust makes a network-attached DVB-T tuner[0] that works with MythTV & Plex, for DVR + live TV. [0]: https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-connect/ https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-connect/
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y ago
- wila 7y agoSure. See this one for example: https://www.philips.ie/c-p/50PFS5503_12/5500-series-ultra-slim-full-hd-led-tv/specifications https://www.philips.ie/c-p/50PFS5503_12/5500-series-ultra-sl...
- SomeOldThrow 7y agoThis is surprising and good to find out. Thank you!
- pessimizer 7y agoI have one of these Philips and love it, but I was under the impression that shortly after I bought it (10 years ago?) they left the US market. That this link is Irish doesn't give me enough information to doubt that...
- Finnucane 7y agoReally, everything I watch on the TV is fed to it by another device. I don't need or want a smart TV. I just need it to display the picture. It does seem like one could look into just using a plain monitor for this, since that's all you need now.
- mercora 7y agoMost TVs have quite advanced image and motion enhancement filters that have no use in a computer monitor but make a very visible difference in picture quality. I would guess scaling signals is also looked on more closely on a TV set. If your devices already do enough in this directions it is still somewhat hard to use as you have to find a way to turn the TV on. CEC is most likely not present and the only way to control it and the way its done on computers is not understood by most devices.
- feanaro 7y agoWhy do these filters have no place on a computer monitor, but do on a TV? If you ever watch videos on the computer screen, logically it would either also benefit from such filters or they are unnecessary anywhere. What makes the TV special? It does seem to me like these filters could and should simply be ordinary software, not firmware that is baked into the screen.
- zingmars 7y agoThe difference is that a TV is intended to be used to watch movies, TV shows etc. (which is why they do these effects in firmware) although a lot of TVs have a "Game mode" or something similar which disables these effects. Computer monitors are used for a lot of things (so - generic usage), and these effects would usually end up being terrible or unnecessary for the experience (do you really need motion enhancement filters for text editing, web browsing or spreadsheets?). If you need to show a video on monitor you can just process the image on the GPU and show it on a monitor, which is exactly how it's done.
- 7y ago
- pjmlp 7y agoIn Europe it is, there are plenty of offers around.
- pengstrom 7y agoSuch as?
- pjmlp 7y agoSuch as Kaufland and Real stores in Germany.
- skocznymroczny 7y agoI see many offers from Philips and LG TVs that have "Smart TV: No" next to them.
- bsenftner 7y agoLook for the "Anytyme" brand of 4K TV Monitors - they are only a monitor, no "smart" no built in CPU of any sort, it's just a big, beautiful, dumb mutherfucking 4K monitor - and they cost around $200 US - I have 4 of them.
- jmckind_ 7y agoDid you mean Atyme?
- iamnothere 7y agoBuy a decent projector and mount it to the ceiling. Or if you don't need an "entertainment center", just get a large monitor and some speakers. There's really no need to have a specific "TV" device anymore. If you want "TV apps" then get a cheap Roku box, this way you can upgrade it when the tech changes.
- mohaine 7y agoNo, but it is super easy to just not connect your TV to the internet, which is basically the same thing. I've recently bought 2 new Samsung TVs and just pressed the SKIP button on the setup wifi screen. Then I disabled the home screen. After this I have a dumb TV as far as I can tell.
- SomeOldThrow 7y agoIn my experience there are still problems: slow to turn on and off, audio/video syncing issues, bugs, terribly designed remotes, and of course you’re paying a much higher cost for hardware and software you don’t use. So it’s still a major problem that only smart tvs are available: they’re just shittier.
- pessimizer 7y agoWe need a linux distribution that could be installed on one of those Intel NUCs (for example) that give you a digital tuner and the applications that you want to have on you TV. I've always thought that attaching computers to dumb monitors to escape the tyranny of smart tv centralization would establish a good base for more generalized home servers. Why not have my indie smart tv handle my email and PVR stuff, too?
- Sendotsh 7y agoSounds like you want Kodi: https://kodi.wiki https://kodi.wiki
- jpindar 7y agoThat's called an HTPC, and people have done it with many different types of computer. Kodi is probably the most popular software. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_theater_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_theater_PC
- tomp 7y agoLarge computer screen + laptop + VLC/Netflix. That's basically what I currently use my large TV for anyways.
- barrkel 7y agoA projector and screen. Best decision I made, once we moved to a house with the space for it. It also discourages mindless TV watching, makes it an event since you tend to want to dim the lights.
- phponpcp 7y agoGee that sounds awesome when I'm trying to watch the local news at 9AM in the morning.
- barrkel 7y agoNot for habitual watchers of broadcast TV, sure (I haven't watched broadcast TV in 15 years). But if you use TV for quality series and movies, and the occasional live sports, it's fantastic.
- trycrmr 7y agoIf you're not into dimming the lights, get a projector that's at least brighter than 3000 lumens. Occasionally, when watching something dark during the day, I'll need to adjust other light sources. Basically the same degree of annoyance as resolving glare issues when watching TV. I've had a projector for a year in an apartment with a floor to ceiling window (that has blinds) in the room where I watch. Having greater than 1080p quality is the primary compromise, IMO. But that costs more whether getting a TV or projector anyways.
- cmsonger 7y agoThey are all pretty dumb if you don't connect them to the network. :) I cable the TV's up to do software updates and then remove the cable and leave them unconnected. I handle streaming with a "less ad invasive" box.
- Lindby 7y agoYou can get dumb panels if you look into the b2b offerings. These are ment to be mounted in various business settings (show commercials in the checkout line in the grocery store etc). Often they don't even have any speakers, but the normal builtin speakers are crap anyway. A chromecast or android tv box and a sound system and you have yourself a smart TV setup where each part can be upgraded separately. The downside is the price and inconvenience (as a consumer they are not easy to find). Buying a consumer grade smart tv is usually cheaper than buying the same panel as a "panel only tv".
- sleepybrett 7y agoPrice for these units is prohibitively expensive.
- iwasakabukiman 7y agoI'd also imagine that the image quality is pretty terrible on those compared to a comparably priced OLED TV.
- jogjayr 7y agoIt's really hard, and the choices are limited, but it's possible. Insignia, has some non-smart TV options. I've had the 55-inch for a little over a year. It's pretty good, and was cheaper than smart TVs. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-55-class-led-1080p-hdtv/6172325.p?skuId=6172325 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-55-class-led-1080p-hdt...
- whymsicalburito 7y agoJust don't give your TV network access
- OrwellianChild 7y ago"Dumb" TVs cost much more than these smart TVs cost, since they are able to amortize the benefit from all their tracking/ads and price the hardware competitively. Its a razor/blades model, only someone else is buying the blades... That said, the easiest way to make a smart TV into a dumb one is to connect it to your local internet through a Pi-Hole or other gateway, and then block everything but the Netflix/Amazon domains needed to stream content. If the Smart TV can't phone home, it can't leak data.
- SomeOldThrow 7y agoI’m less concerned with putting it in a condom than I am the notably degraded functionality of the core tv.
- mattbreeden 7y agoYes, there's definitely some out there. I got this one this year and I'm very happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C2N7DKG https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C2N7DKG I prefer my TV a bit smaller, but I found larger 'dumb' tvs as well when looking for this one.
- pndy 7y agoI read months ago here on hacker news that digital signage devices are the way to escape from smart tv because these IIRC are not bundled with any "smart" software but very basic stuff only.