this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Owning a smart TV is one of the stupidest things you can do.
I'm admittedly this type of stupid, but I also know how to blacklist all the domains my garbage ass Vizio tries to phone home to.
They make the devices cheap so that they can spy on you. It's the New Deal.
Edit: I see i'm not the only one who gave up on finding a reasonable TV and just opted to neuter a Smart TV instead. Now that I'm not in a position of "me want now, nothing in local store", I think Ill take a few moments to do some research for everyone, and myself, just to highlight that there actually are still options. Heres a few brands I found that still offer Dumb TVs. I know nothing else about these, and am not in any way promoting these brands or claiming they are good at all. IDK.
This is not endorsement
Sceptre, breaks "Smart TVs" out as separate "android TVs" group, From "4K UHD" and "LED" offerings: https://www.sceptre.com/
Supersonic, breaks out "smart TVs" from "4k " and "HD/FHD" TVs: https://www.supersonicinc.com/
Caixun, breaks out "Linux" and "Android" TVs, from "4k" and HD" TVs: https://www.caixun-global.com/
If anyone has relevant info about these brands, related to if they are good or suck... let me know.
Do modern TVs even come in non-smart variants anymore?
yeah I have 3 connected to this PC
Edit, i felt bad about being a smart ass, and edited my parent comment to be more.. helpful
But they're expensive.
A 50" TV is about $220. (smart TV)
A 50" monitor is $650.
Yep. Thus why i edited my comment in an attempt to back-wheel a little.
Monitors are more expensive because of:
Monitors generally higher refresh rates (images displayed per time interval) with Monitors being from 60-240Hz, and TVs generally only being 60-120Hz (Hz = number per second)
Monitors typically have calibrated/better color accuracy and white balance versus TVs
Monitors have ~141PPI, TVs ~86PPI (Pixels Per Inch: Measurement of pixel density). A 24" monitor is basically the same thing as a 40" TV where pixel density is concerned.
Monitors generally have much better response time (how fast a pixel can change colors) with Monitors being ~5 milliseconds, and TVs being ~16 milliseconds.
The additional hardware requirements to meet the higher specs necessarily drives up the cost of computer monitors, when compared to TVs. Sorry.
It doesn’t really matter, just don’t connect them to the internet. Our TV just has a 14 year old computer that plays media perfectly, and is completely cut off from the internet.
If they allow you to do that without any loss in functionality.
It takes some research if youve never done anything like it before, but you can drip feed it the internet via a pihole, and starve it specifically of ads and data collection. Keep the functionality, kill the leech.
Google smart tv pihole, theres a few guides, for anyone interested.
But why? It doesn’t need that for anything. Just plug an old computer in via HDMI and bookmark movie-web.app or download/stream stuff from anywhere. Much better quality, interface, and no jank.
Just depends on what you need it for, and what youre trying to plug into it.
For example, some people dont have spare computers to turn into a mini server, but do have $60 and the time to fiddle with a raspberry pi.
Mines a 14 year old gateway you could prolly get for free or under 100, much more powerful than a RPi. Using Windows 10 on it with zero issue.
I do have a couple Pis next to it but those don’t hook up to any screens, I just tunnel into em. One is a PiHole and one is a server. :3
Lol all that work to protect yourself and then you put win10 on it
It won’t take any distro of Linux I’ve tried :c
I have debloated and de-telemetried 10 though, it’s a very basic LTSC install with everything turned off. I don’t think that’s much of a security issue.
Not that theres anything wrong with your setup, but if Ive not got a spare pc or laptop, Id rather get the new pi than risk cheap older hardware that might fail sooner than later if all its gonna do is basically play as a pi.
Plus, like. Pi's are cool. All compact and efficient. Adorable little motherboards.
Oh totally! But this ancient machine plays better video than my pi 4b 4GB (which now is my headless server.) Surprisingly, it DESTROYS the performance of a Pi 4b even though my Pi runs off a solid state drive too.
This ancient PC was my Grampa’s originally. I recommended a much cheaper machine for what he did. He told me “this is the last computer I’ll ever buy.” I told him to not be silly. He bought the Phenom x4 machine w/ video card anyway.
He was correct. I was given his machine because we did computer stuff together.
It lives on, though. It’s got a SSD now and more RAM, but it plays 1440p perfectly and runs 24/7… and has been running 24/7 for years. It used to also torrent, but the HDD died and my server RPi is gonna torrent too eventually.
Curious, what functionality would I lose? All it needs to do is turn on and display video through an HDMI port.
Samsung historically has had a habit of poaching features from their Smart TVs as they age, eventually leaving you with a not so smart TV after a decade or so. Not sure if other manufacturers do the same
Aha! Yeah that’s okay with me, since we just disable their internet hook computers up, to use them as dumb monitors.
What a realistic approach! A thing getting dumber as it ages, what a great idea!
/s
no.
It's hard to buy a dumb TV now
its called a monitor
Edit, i felt bad about being a smart ass, and edited my parent comment to be more.. helpful
Above 35" monitors aren't that common, and the ones that exist are basically TVs with TV software.
Commercial displays are the only real alternative. Some of them even come with a slot for a Raspberry Pi compute module.
I heard Sceptre still sells them. Never bought one so can't vouch for quality
new Moto G phones come to mind lol
just got one and dear lord so much adware
Admittedly I haven’t been looking that hard, but I don’t think I’ve seen a TV for sale in the past 10 years that wasn’t a “smart” TV.
I've updated my comment with some info, Hope it helps next time you're in the market.