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The topic with the TVs is going to be a problem for me in a few years. My current TV is from 2013 - it may have some years to go, but at some point, it will fai

The topic with the TVs is going to be a problem for me in a few years. My current TV is from 2013 - it may have some years to go, but at some point, it will fail. I've had a short look at the market, and all the "good" brands (Samsung, LG, Sony) show horrific ads. It looks like the cheap brands simply sell your data. Then there are some local brands, which sell non-TV TV's (no tuner, there's a tax on that). They don't have any smarts at all, but the one I've seen had terrible picture quality

mavhc 5y ago
Just don't connect them to the internet, now you have a TV that's cheaper than it should be because they expect to show you ads, but they can't
- nanidin 5y ago
  This remains true for now, but expect the ubiquity of things like Amazon Sidewalk, Helium network, and embedded cellular modules in devices to make it hard to avoid a device that phones home.
- brewdad 5y ago
  My Sony would pop up a nag screen in the middle of a movie or show to remind me that it wasn't connected to the internet. Eventually, I caved and connected it.
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  Won’t be long before they have 5G chips in and that isn’t your choice anymore. Kindles have done that since 3G, cars have started doing that, Tesla trains AI on all owner driving data, VW new electric (ID3?) will be their first with a mandatory perma HQ connection, IIRC.
  - feanaro 5y ago
    > Won’t be long before they have 5G chips in and that isn’t your choice anymore. Kindles have done that since 3G How do these things work? Do they have a contract with a phone service operator in each country in the world for unlimited data, or what?
    - ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
      The device company usually has a bulk data contract with a large telecom. It isn't unusual for IoT device companies to end up as minor telecom providers themselves, buying bandwidth in bulk and reselling it to consumers.
  - mavhc 5y ago
    Kindle with 3G was great, free internet globally. Never once showed me an ad, and most Kindles didn't have it. When that day comes buy a monitor, or hack the firmware. You can always break off the aerial.
    - ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
      Cell phone connections don't need to use aerials anymore. The antennas in smartphones are often planar arrays or square-ish fractal antennas. From the outside they literally look like little boxes or squares. The casual mechanic might have a hard time distinguishing them from a chip.
  - novok 5y ago
    I don't think you can buy a kindle with a cellphone radio anymore, and the ones that had them cost extra.
- seized 5y ago
  This is an option until they require internet. Also the other side is that these cheap TVs are slow as hell. My Vizio has a 15 second startup time before it responds to commands, while it's "Smart"Cast stuff does what it does. This is before it responds to other commands, ex volume. And this is at each session, not cold boot only.
doctor_eval 5y ago
Dell sells a 55” conference room monitor at a decent price. That - or something like it - will be my next “TV”
14u2c 5y ago
What you are looking for are generally sold as "large format displays". Basically tvs for commercial purposes that do not have any of that crap. Most projector manufacturers, even the consumer ones, have also been good about avoiding "smart" features.
- novok 5y ago
  They cost inordinately more than what profit they are getting from ads & spying, and are often missing things like multiple HDMI inputs. It's not a real solution, but a bad workaround.
  - sli 5y ago
    And more of these displays are getting these kinds of smart features added, anyway. It's going to become increasingly difficult to get a dumb panel at all.
city41 5y ago
My TV is from 2012 and I'm not all that worried about it failing. Modern TVs don't draw much power, nothing inside them gets very hot, no moving parts, etc. I would be surprised if I don't get ten more years out of it.
gbrown 5y ago
Look into the cheap Sceptre displays. They make non-smart panels with decent resolution and performance, so long as you have external speakers and use the optical audio output instead of the output from their garbage DAC.
WWLink 5y ago
Best Buy still sells a dumb TV. Sadly the Insignia N10 only goes as far as 43" and 1080p. I bought a set of the 32" model for my brothers. Annoyingly, it STILL takes a few seconds to start up. My living room TV is a 39" Panasonic from 7 years ago. It's dumb as a brick.. but I almost never watch TV so this is fine! It'd be nice if you could buy a brand new 55" OLED or whatever and not have to deal with smart TV software. I guess there's the gigabyte, LG, and alienware monitors.

mavhc 5y ago

Just don't connect them to the internet, now you have a TV that's cheaper than it should be because they expect to show you ads, but they can't

nanidin 5y ago
This remains true for now, but expect the ubiquity of things like Amazon Sidewalk, Helium network, and embedded cellular modules in devices to make it hard to avoid a device that phones home.
brewdad 5y ago
My Sony would pop up a nag screen in the middle of a movie or show to remind me that it wasn't connected to the internet. Eventually, I caved and connected it.
jodrellblank 5y ago
Won’t be long before they have 5G chips in and that isn’t your choice anymore. Kindles have done that since 3G, cars have started doing that, Tesla trains AI on all owner driving data, VW new electric (ID3?) will be their first with a mandatory perma HQ connection, IIRC.
- feanaro 5y ago
  > Won’t be long before they have 5G chips in and that isn’t your choice anymore. Kindles have done that since 3G How do these things work? Do they have a contract with a phone service operator in each country in the world for unlimited data, or what?
  - ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
    The device company usually has a bulk data contract with a large telecom. It isn't unusual for IoT device companies to end up as minor telecom providers themselves, buying bandwidth in bulk and reselling it to consumers.
- mavhc 5y ago
  Kindle with 3G was great, free internet globally. Never once showed me an ad, and most Kindles didn't have it. When that day comes buy a monitor, or hack the firmware. You can always break off the aerial.
  - ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
    Cell phone connections don't need to use aerials anymore. The antennas in smartphones are often planar arrays or square-ish fractal antennas. From the outside they literally look like little boxes or squares. The casual mechanic might have a hard time distinguishing them from a chip.
- novok 5y ago
  I don't think you can buy a kindle with a cellphone radio anymore, and the ones that had them cost extra.
seized 5y ago
This is an option until they require internet. Also the other side is that these cheap TVs are slow as hell. My Vizio has a 15 second startup time before it responds to commands, while it's "Smart"Cast stuff does what it does. This is before it responds to other commands, ex volume. And this is at each session, not cold boot only.

doctor_eval 5y ago

Dell sells a 55” conference room monitor at a decent price. That - or something like it - will be my next “TV”

14u2c 5y ago

What you are looking for are generally sold as "large format displays". Basically tvs for commercial purposes that do not have any of that crap. Most projector manufacturers, even the consumer ones, have also been good about avoiding "smart" features.

novok 5y ago
They cost inordinately more than what profit they are getting from ads & spying, and are often missing things like multiple HDMI inputs. It's not a real solution, but a bad workaround.
- sli 5y ago
  And more of these displays are getting these kinds of smart features added, anyway. It's going to become increasingly difficult to get a dumb panel at all.

city41 5y ago

My TV is from 2012 and I'm not all that worried about it failing. Modern TVs don't draw much power, nothing inside them gets very hot, no moving parts, etc. I would be surprised if I don't get ten more years out of it.

gbrown 5y ago

Look into the cheap Sceptre displays. They make non-smart panels with decent resolution and performance, so long as you have external speakers and use the optical audio output instead of the output from their garbage DAC.

WWLink 5y ago

Best Buy still sells a dumb TV. Sadly the Insignia N10 only goes as far as 43" and 1080p. I bought a set of the 32" model for my brothers. Annoyingly, it STILL takes a few seconds to start up. My living room TV is a 39" Panasonic from 7 years ago. It's dumb as a brick.. but I almost never watch TV so this is fine! It'd be nice if you could buy a brand new 55" OLED or whatever and not have to deal with smart TV software. I guess there's the gigabyte, LG, and alienware monitors.