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"The trade-offs for cheap TVs is that customers are themselves becoming the product for TV makers [...] For something to be as cheap as a great TV, people have
by uptown 7y ago
"The trade-offs for cheap TVs is that customers are themselves becoming the product for TV makers [...] For something to be as cheap as a great TV, people have to give something up — whether they know it or not."
Just never give the TV its own direct connection to the internet. Use another device that you do trust, to feed the big screen its content.
- baroffoos 7y agoThis is getting really hard with some devices. I got a bose soundbar at the start of the year and it comes with a remote that has a few basic features but it is almost impossible to use properly without configuring it via the app and the app demands that you first create an account and then give the device your wifi password. In the end I eventually caved and installed the app and connected it to the internet to configure and then blocked the device from my router.
- B1FF_PSUVM 7y ago> then blocked the device from my router. Hmm. Thanks.
- eikenberry 7y agoNo worries with sound. There are plenty of audio enthusiasts that will have nothing to do with a system like this and there will always be plenty of options because of them.
- pmiller2 7y agoI know this isn't your central point, but you should know that a speaker can be used as a microphone, and vice versa. Granted, a speaker won't be a very good microphone, but it is possible one could design an exploit that uses this capability to record audio and send the results off to who knows where.
- mirimir 7y agoI doubt that anyone can listen through my old JBLs. Totally analog, back to the preamp input.
- zamadatix 7y agoAssuming the chipset support jack restasking (most don't).
- milkey_mouse 7y agoIt's unlikely that a basic Bluetooth speaker would even have an ADC to switch to, not to mention speakers without Chromecast-like streaming capabilities probably only have some tiny real-time operating system.
- jacquesm 7y agoYou only need one bit of digital input and oversampling to make for a pretty good ADC.
- musicale 7y agoThe price of dumb TVs has also fallen dramatically.
- mark-r 7y agoCan you even get a dumb TV anymore? I found it surprisingly difficult when I replaced mine 2 years ago. So far I've been OK with simply not plugging it into the Internet.
- ghaff 7y agoThere are certainly dumb displays. You'd have to decide if they have the characteristics that you want.
- josho 7y agoYes. Sort of. You can buy a commercial display, the kind used for digital signs. But, those probably cost 10x more than a consumer TV.
- namibj 7y agoNot really, to be honest. I don't consider this 43" 5000:1 2160p 350cd/m^2 screen ( https://iiyama.com/gl_en/products/prolite-le4340uhs-b1/ https://iiyama.com/gl_en/products/prolite-le4340uhs-b1/ ) to have a bad price @ 580 EUR. Unfortunately it seems to be limited by 8bit sRGB when it comes to using that contrast. They do have HDR screens though.
- wincy 7y agoWow maybe this is a US to EU mismatch but I just got a 4K 65” HDR screen for $500 including tax? That seems very expensive by my standards, as $500 ~= €448 and €580 ~= $650
- shantly 7y agoCan confirm, low-end prices for HDR-capable non-OLED (so, worse blacks than higher-end screens but still much better than most of what was typical, say, 10 years ago) 4K screen @ 65" is like $500. Under $400 for 55" and same quality.
- SethTro 7y agoWait until these companies partner with Comcast to get default access to the ever present Xfinity public hotspot. Sure you might deny it privileged to your network but for a profit share I might let it access mine.
- uptown 7y agoI guess alternately you could grant it access to your wifi and block all its traffic.
- sigjuice 7y agoHow does one block the traffic?
- APock 7y agoMost routers allow some kind of traffic denial, even the home use ones. But I guess you could get a rpi and set it up as a firewall or something
- sigjuice 7y agoI wouldn’t put it past the TV makers to aggressively evade firewalls, latch on to public WiFi or include a secret cellular modem that they bury in the finest of fine print.
- edwhitesell 7y agoI doubt you'd get a profit share. When the idea of all of those 'CableWiFi' networks started, it was because the cable operators wanted a separate network. It usually runs on a separate circuit so it won't interfere with the customer's bandwidth.
- tehlike 7y agoThe point they were making was using this cablewifi, tv will be able to send data back without requiring your WiFi password.
- ChuckMcM 7y agoIf the trends from previous schemes follow, then soon someone will offer you a 'free' TV streamer which streams what ever you want for free while simultaneous streaming 3 or 4 other streams, using your behavior on your stream to mimic you on the other streams which capture revenue from advertising that is never actually viewed.
- scarface74 7y agoCompanies were giving away “free” $400 computers in exchange for signing up for dialup for two years back in 1999. I’m surprised that streaming service providers aren’t doing the same. I did get two “free” $179 AppleTV 4Ks for signing up for, DirecTVNOW for 3 months (signed up twice in the course of a year). A 40 inch TCl Roku tv is the same price.
- idunno246 7y agoRoku TVs are one of the higher rated smart tv platforms, so is there a difference between plugging in a roku device or just using a roku tv?
- timw4mail 7y agoNot really. The TVs tend to have more computing power than the lowest-end Rokus too.