4 ms·

For me it's a few things. First, most/all new Smart TVs are doing automated content recognition, collecting and sharing details about what you watch with the m

For me it's a few things. First, most/all new Smart TVs are doing automated content recognition, collecting and sharing details about what you watch with the manufacturer, which they sell and/or use to show you ads. My understanding is that most new Smart TVs are showing you ads regardless. I'm opposed to this on principle. Second, at least the Smart TVs I've personally used (a couple of Vizio sets, a late-00s FHD Samsung, a mid-10s 4k LG) all have really slow and unpleasant UIs. The Vizio in particular was glacial, and I couldn't understand why the set owner even bought it (they were only streaming through built-in apps). I'm guessing newer and higher-end sets are fast, but I haven't used one myself. And finally, I don't want an integrated device like this anyway, I would prefer to pair a really nice panel with a separate smart device (roku, apple tv, linux, whatever) so I can upgrade those independently. If I am buying a Smart TV with no intention of using the smarts, I feel like I'm either paying too much, or not getting as nice a panel as I otherwise could.

imp0cat 2y ago
Sony let's you either opt-out of content recognition (yeah, it's hidden in the menu) or you can disable the smart features altogether and just use it as a dumb tv.
goosedragons 2y ago
Just don't connect it to the network and that solves most of the problems. Really the only one left is slow and unpleasant UI and most of that evaporates when all you're ever doing is swapping inputs. At this point the ads and other crap are subsidizing the panels.
timrichard 2y ago
I quite like the Sony Bravia UI. I did intend to just use a connected Raspberry Pi 4B running LibreElec to play my own content, but I ended up using the Kodi app from the Google Play store, which was superior at the time (h264 and h265 hardware decoding, plus working HDR. The Pi4 firmware was lagging behind). I have used my Pihole for DNS to stop calls to tracking services like Samba. A fairly recent firmware update meant I could attach a cheap gigabit Ethernet adapter to the USB3.0 port, so happy camper here.

imp0cat 2y ago

Sony let's you either opt-out of content recognition (yeah, it's hidden in the menu) or you can disable the smart features altogether and just use it as a dumb tv.

goosedragons 2y ago

Just don't connect it to the network and that solves most of the problems. Really the only one left is slow and unpleasant UI and most of that evaporates when all you're ever doing is swapping inputs. At this point the ads and other crap are subsidizing the panels.

timrichard 2y ago

I quite like the Sony Bravia UI. I did intend to just use a connected Raspberry Pi 4B running LibreElec to play my own content, but I ended up using the Kodi app from the Google Play store, which was superior at the time (h264 and h265 hardware decoding, plus working HDR. The Pi4 firmware was lagging behind). I have used my Pihole for DNS to stop calls to tracking services like Samba. A fairly recent firmware update meant I could attach a cheap gigabit Ethernet adapter to the USB3.0 port, so happy camper here.