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> Their lifespan is unchanged. You can continue to use them as "dumb" screens using HDMI input and plug in an external device. You can also buy a smart TV and n
by jchw 5y ago
> Their lifespan is unchanged. You can continue to use them as "dumb" screens using HDMI input and plug in an external device. You can also buy a smart TV and never connect it to the internet.
That does not mean that the smart features will not work tirelessly against your attempt to use the device as a dumb display. Menus you don’t want, EULA prompts that cover almost the entire UI, and weird spottiness in the CEC support that one can only assume is designed to fuck with you. And it’s buggy! It’s really buggy. On one of my TVs, I have to hold the power button down to entirely reboot it frequently for it to see the HDMI signal on one of my outputs. Otherwise.. it just sits on a gray screen. Sometimes I also get a loading spinner (!?) or, despite it having been set up for about a year, a “detecting device, please wait” message. I have manually set the type of device to PC on both of the TWO HDMI ports (yes, two, hope you have your own HDMI switch.)
Of course, there’s no convenient way to hook up speakers to these modern marvels of technology. At least not the speakers you already own. If you want to stick to what the manufacturer wants, you need an HDMI ARC port and a soundbar: a worse speaker that sounds like shit and costs more and sometimes might only fully work with some TVs. It eats an entire HDMI port, though some of them provide it back to you less conveniently.
I see your optimism, and I raise my burning inferno of rage towards smart TVs.
- kstenerud 5y agoI once bought a TV that tried to work against me (Samsung). I returned it after a few days and bought one that didn't (Sharp). This one's great! It has all the IO ports, starts quickly, and reopens the last input you selected (my Android TV box). I can even control the whole shebang from just my old Amazon Fire TV controller (it's a mix of bluetooth and IR). Take the time to test your devices, and return them if they don't meet your needs. I've also had CRTs in the past that disappointed and I had to return. Fortunately, these modern TVs are light enough for one person to move.
- jchw 5y agoNo CRT has tried to work against me; they just, at worst, suck. I do have a trinitron in my basement that has Zero of these problems, of course! Now of course I can return my Samsung TVs, but I do test my devices somewhat, and Samsung seems to have the best overall TVs, looking at aspects like value, panel quality, latency in game mode, etc. Other models I’ve tried (Vizeo, whatever the hell Best Buy sells generically) have been very disappointing. Sony screens are probably much better, but cost an absolute FORTUNE.
- kstenerud 5y agoYou're comparing a Trinitron (must have cost a pretty penny) to a low end Vizio and a Samsung (who have a long history of consumer hostility in their products). You get what you pay for.
- jchw 5y agoI am only comparing it to the Samsung. And for what it’s worth, I have not been buying cheap Samsung TVs. Also yes. You get what you pay for. But also, I have other reasons to not pay the Sony premium. I can actually mildly tolerate Android TV and its stupid home screen ads, for some reason, but having it shipped with my TV seems like a step too far, and that’s exactly what Bravia TVs do. My only real option is to have a monitor and use that as a TV. But aside from a lot of other downsides, like no TV remote and a UX not designed to handle TV use cases, and builtin speakers that are just embarrassing, large monitors are also horridly expensive and the most likely to have extremely bad problems (like the horrible backlight bleed on some of the larger screen options from ViewSonic.)
- kstenerud 5y agoA big reason I bought the Sharp TV is because it has Android TV built in. When it's disconnected from the internet (I haven't connected it to the internet except once to update the firmware), it behaves just like a monitor. Turn it on, it fast-boots in 3 seconds and displays HDMI1 (the last input I selected).
- jchw 5y agoI can give you at least one reason why I do not own a Sharp TV: I haven’t actually seen one for sale. The most obvious place to buy one locally is Best Buy, and my Best Buy has legitimately zero. I could, of course, buy one online, but for TVs I generally haven’t done this in the past. There’s obviously pros and cons to this. This is all getting very silly though. We went from a market where you got what you paid for to well,… this. You can get what you paid for… kind of, if you don’t care about certain things and do fairly thorough research. And sure. I can try to dilligently pick an option that works best for me. The average consumer is getting completely fucked, however, and they are the ones driving all of the demand.