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That works fine with a TV. I bought one knowing that the "smart" features weren't all that great. I tried connecting it to the internet, and it felt more sluggi
by vladvasiliu 3y ago
That works fine with a TV. I bought one knowing that the "smart" features weren't all that great. I tried connecting it to the internet, and it felt more sluggish, although it's a brand new 2023 model. I was able to reset it to factory defaults and it's working well enough for what I bought it for (the image is very good, at least for my needs). For reference, it's a TCL with Google TV.
But the Fire TV TFA talks about... well, the whole point of the thing is to stream internet content. So not connecting it to the internet kinda defeats 90% of the thing's purpose.
- EricE 3y agoyou can still stream stuff - just use something else and just leverage it as a cheap display. Unless it won't work if not connected to the internet (wouldn't put it past them). I bought my Xbox mainly because it was the best/cheapest option for a 4K bluray player. I think I've loaded a game on it a handful of times at best, but watched lots of movies and other content with it. Thanks gamers for subsidizing a great BR player!
- bombcar 3y agoThe key is to verify that the TV will return to just showing "HDMI 1" or whatever after power off. Because the smart TVs have a history of returning to whatever ads they want to show after power on.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoMy particular TV, if it's never been connected to the internet, will not show any ads. It will show a notification that it isn't connected to the internet when you turn it on, but it will work fine otherwise. It'll even switch to the correct video input if you power it on through that port, say through a firetv stick. Otherwise, there's a setting for power on behaviour: 1. go to home screen 2. Go to last used input.
- buildbot 3y agoEven better, if you can avoid accepting the ToS for the apps, they don't even start. My Samsung TV is so snappy now because I reset it and ignore the accept ToS button :)
- vladvasiliu 3y agoThe FireTV is not an actual television set. It's the "something else" that you use to stream content to a screen with no internet connection.
- ArchOversight 3y agoNo, in this case it is actually a full size TV that has the same OS as the FireTV stick.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoMy bad, I only quickly skimmed TFA, didn't think these were actual TVs since they're not available where I live last time I checked.
- Retric 3y agoThe fire stick is the pure streaming dongle, a Fire TV is an actual TV which includes that dongle built in and sold at a discount. So, buying a cheap Amazon fire TV and not connecting it to the internet is a reasonable choice for a cheap ‘dumb’ TV.
- squeaky-clean 3y agoThere's also the "Fire TV" which is a streaming box and not a stick, sold from 2015 to 2022, which doesn't help the confusion in the naming.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]