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It came up in the last thread about dumb tv's - they exist. Wal-mart sells Sceptre tv's. 4K resolution, dumb tv's. And they're super cheap; they're actually che

It came up in the last thread about dumb tv's - they exist. Wal-mart sells Sceptre tv's. 4K resolution, dumb tv's. And they're super cheap; they're actually cheaper than smart tv's. I have no idea why people say they don't exist. They're just not popular. Outside of HN, people do want smart features, from what I can tell, and don't even consider that their TV is a privacy concern.

moojd 5y ago
Most of the non-technical people I know buy an Apple TV or Roku and get confused when they sit on the tv remote and accidentally bring up the smart tv netflix instead of the Roku netflix. Ignoring the privacy concern, the dumb TV is a better option for those who are going to buy an Apple TV, chromecast, or roku anyway. From the wal-mart website, it looks like the 55" Sceptre is dumb but the 65" is smart. When I bought my 65" tv earlier this year, I couldn't find a dumb tv that fit all of the specs I wanted so I compromised and got a vizio (simple, chromecast based smart tv) and just never connected it to wifi. It doesn't seem to nag me about the smart features or connecting it to the internet at all
- meowster 5y ago
  Sceptre dumb 4K TVs go up to 75". Whether or not they're available right now due to supplychain issues, no idea.
mrweasel 5y ago
Availability of “dumb TVs” seems to be extremely location specific. I tried finding one in Denmark and it’s pretty much impossible. Romania has a nice selection, as some one on HN showed me a while back. I don’t know anyone who uses the smart features in their TV, except my wifes parents who use the Netflix app in their Sony TV. Everyone else just use an AppleTV, ChromeCast or a box from their cabel/internet provider.
- rchaud 5y ago
  > I don’t know anyone who uses the smart features in their TV Because the current generation of TV buyers are used to the concept of purchasing separate hardware to deliver content. That is changing now. I had a similar realization about streaming v piracy. 15 years ago everybody my age was pirating music and TV. It led to a lot of viruses and malware for some, but everybody more or less knew where to go to for that stuff, even as P2P networks were being shut down left and right. Today, young people don't really do that. Spotify, YT and Netflix apparently fixed enough UX and content gap issues that torrents and stuff aren't considered necessary anymore. The same will happen with TVs.
WalterBright 5y ago
I have a large Sceptre TV. Very happy with it.

moojd 5y ago

Most of the non-technical people I know buy an Apple TV or Roku and get confused when they sit on the tv remote and accidentally bring up the smart tv netflix instead of the Roku netflix. Ignoring the privacy concern, the dumb TV is a better option for those who are going to buy an Apple TV, chromecast, or roku anyway. From the wal-mart website, it looks like the 55" Sceptre is dumb but the 65" is smart. When I bought my 65" tv earlier this year, I couldn't find a dumb tv that fit all of the specs I wanted so I compromised and got a vizio (simple, chromecast based smart tv) and just never connected it to wifi. It doesn't seem to nag me about the smart features or connecting it to the internet at all

meowster 5y ago
Sceptre dumb 4K TVs go up to 75". Whether or not they're available right now due to supplychain issues, no idea.

mrweasel 5y ago

Availability of “dumb TVs” seems to be extremely location specific. I tried finding one in Denmark and it’s pretty much impossible. Romania has a nice selection, as some one on HN showed me a while back. I don’t know anyone who uses the smart features in their TV, except my wifes parents who use the Netflix app in their Sony TV. Everyone else just use an AppleTV, ChromeCast or a box from their cabel/internet provider.

rchaud 5y ago
> I don’t know anyone who uses the smart features in their TV Because the current generation of TV buyers are used to the concept of purchasing separate hardware to deliver content. That is changing now. I had a similar realization about streaming v piracy. 15 years ago everybody my age was pirating music and TV. It led to a lot of viruses and malware for some, but everybody more or less knew where to go to for that stuff, even as P2P networks were being shut down left and right. Today, young people don't really do that. Spotify, YT and Netflix apparently fixed enough UX and content gap issues that torrents and stuff aren't considered necessary anymore. The same will happen with TVs.

WalterBright 5y ago

I have a large Sceptre TV. Very happy with it.