I will never understand why a TV should have an Internet connection. It’s a goddamn TV. It’s a display. Let it be a display. If I want to stream content from the Internet to the display, I can use a dedicated device for that purpose.
I actually looked for a non-smart tv. We were looking for a mid range 40", there is nothing in the mid to high range that is not smart. The lower end has 32" (or was it 24" or something?) no name brands non-smart tvs. You do not want these.
The only other real option was a giant monitor, but a 32 to 40(?) inch monitor was at least double the price of our 40 inch smart tv. Once you have a smart tv it becomes incredibly easy to just use that instead of the computer connected to it that had been used for years.
Obviously, it shouldn’t; but TVs are infrequently purchased commodities, so the manufacturers push as much of this garbage as they can in a desperate attempt at differentiation. It’s the same reason 3D appeared and then (unlamentedly) disappeared. Expect more of this – lowest common denominator software jammed into the most unwelcome places.
ETA: too, if the amount of money that Vizio was making by selling this data was making a difference for them, the margins must be even worse than I’d assumed. And people wonder why Apple doesn’t make a TV!
The real tragedy of the TV market is that, if you want decent picture quality, you can spend $5k on an LG OLED or you can go pound sand. I am clutching onto my ancient Panasonic plasma and praying nightly that I win the lottery before it goes tits-up.
And I think you’re touching on something there that the manufacturers aren’t saying but underlies this behavior: they think software is cheap. Glass and LEDs and controllers and HDMI decoders all carry a per-unit cost. Software doesn’t. Once it’s written, the cost is sunk, and thus, doesn’t need to be factored into the shipped units.
The result is that “Smart” TVs universally have shittastic software. Because they don’t care about the software- they care about shipping TVs. This is also why most TV user interfaces seem to be leftovers from 1995.
But hey, “you can watch netflix on our TV” sounds better that, “you can watch netflix on our TV if you plug something into it,” I guess.
Especially with how cheap Chromecasts are, it’s really just putting inferior software in front of better software. Luckily, my friend was parting with his “dumb” 44" TV and I was able to get it for $80.
I will never understand why a TV should have an Internet connection.
Why to send video and audio of you to the government, of course!
It’s a goddamn TV. It’s a display.
Sure. It’s a display, but now it’s a tool for surveilling the masses too. It’s just too delicious an opportunity for the government to pass up. Or maybe it was the plan all along.
You can argue the same for just about any other IoT device - the TV should be dumb, so should the thermostat, and the toaster. But no. We’re heading in the direction of having everything automated and internet connected, and we’re heading in that direction at an incredibly fast rate. Soon the market will be run by a massive dynamic of IoT devices telling businesses what consumers are going to desire based on their habits.
I’m currently using 24" monitor connected to a Chromecast by a soundbar thanks to HDMI passthrough. The soundbar has a wireless subwoofer, two HDMI ports and a remote so I can easily turn everything on.
The monitor and the soundbar sits on a wheeled stand, so when I want to watch a movie I can place it closer. Even without moving it it is still bigger that a TV-set that was a main one in my family house
I will never understand why a TV should have an Internet connection. It’s a goddamn TV. It’s a display. Let it be a display. If I want to stream content from the Internet to the display, I can use a dedicated device for that purpose.
Trying to find a non-smart, disconnected TV is seriously hard these days. Makes me sad :-(
So just do what I did, don’t plug it in or connect it to wifi or just blackhole its traffic.
I actually looked for a non-smart tv. We were looking for a mid range 40", there is nothing in the mid to high range that is not smart. The lower end has 32" (or was it 24" or something?) no name brands non-smart tvs. You do not want these.
The only other real option was a giant monitor, but a 32 to 40(?) inch monitor was at least double the price of our 40 inch smart tv. Once you have a smart tv it becomes incredibly easy to just use that instead of the computer connected to it that had been used for years.
Obviously, it shouldn’t; but TVs are infrequently purchased commodities, so the manufacturers push as much of this garbage as they can in a desperate attempt at differentiation. It’s the same reason 3D appeared and then (unlamentedly) disappeared. Expect more of this – lowest common denominator software jammed into the most unwelcome places.
ETA: too, if the amount of money that Vizio was making by selling this data was making a difference for them, the margins must be even worse than I’d assumed. And people wonder why Apple doesn’t make a TV!
The real tragedy of the TV market is that, if you want decent picture quality, you can spend $5k on an LG OLED or you can go pound sand. I am clutching onto my ancient Panasonic plasma and praying nightly that I win the lottery before it goes tits-up.
And I think you’re touching on something there that the manufacturers aren’t saying but underlies this behavior: they think software is cheap. Glass and LEDs and controllers and HDMI decoders all carry a per-unit cost. Software doesn’t. Once it’s written, the cost is sunk, and thus, doesn’t need to be factored into the shipped units.
The result is that “Smart” TVs universally have shittastic software. Because they don’t care about the software- they care about shipping TVs. This is also why most TV user interfaces seem to be leftovers from 1995.
But hey, “you can watch netflix on our TV” sounds better that, “you can watch netflix on our TV if you plug something into it,” I guess.
“Boy, putting a good panel in this thing would cost us $700/unit, but ANDROID IS FREE!!!11”
ETA: I’ve worked on software for “Smart” TVs before, and it is uniformly worse than you can possibly imagine.
Especially with how cheap Chromecasts are, it’s really just putting inferior software in front of better software. Luckily, my friend was parting with his “dumb” 44" TV and I was able to get it for $80.
Why to send video and audio of you to the government, of course!
Sure. It’s a display, but now it’s a tool for surveilling the masses too. It’s just too delicious an opportunity for the government to pass up. Or maybe it was the plan all along.
You can argue the same for just about any other IoT device - the TV should be dumb, so should the thermostat, and the toaster. But no. We’re heading in the direction of having everything automated and internet connected, and we’re heading in that direction at an incredibly fast rate. Soon the market will be run by a massive dynamic of IoT devices telling businesses what consumers are going to desire based on their habits.
I’m currently using 24" monitor connected to a Chromecast by a soundbar thanks to HDMI passthrough. The soundbar has a wireless subwoofer, two HDMI ports and a remote so I can easily turn everything on.
The monitor and the soundbar sits on a wheeled stand, so when I want to watch a movie I can place it closer. Even without moving it it is still bigger that a TV-set that was a main one in my family house
Even during netflix and chill?