Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.
The text in the image:
I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology
You must log in or register to comment.
Or: buy a computer, once
It’s not that hard, the original author is just lazy or ignorant or both.
My smart tv is a mid ranged i5 from 2012.
Electricity must be cheap where you are. If you have to use an x86 platform, please use a modern one that is both vastly more powerful and adept at decoding video while also needing a tiny fraction as much power and producing next to no heat and noise.
that and never connect the TV to the internet, it’ll nag you occasionally asking if you want to connect but that’s easily cancelled out.
My 2017 Shield pro is starting to die and I’m dreading getting another TV box. Anyone have good experience with LibreElec or a similar distro? I am thinking of getting some sub $100 USFF from eBay
Another Shield Pro?
What do you mean by starting to die? Have you tried factory resetting it?
My recommendation is still the 2019 Shield Pro, unless you’re all-in on the Apple ecosystem, in which case the Apple TV is pretty decent.
One issue with a PC is that you won’t be able to stream 4K content or even 1080p content from services like Netflix if you run Linux, as Linux only supports Widevine L3 which is limited to 720p. Widevine L1 is needed for 4K content, and it’s only available on more “locked down” OSes (Windows, MacOS, unrooted Android, etc). Of course, that’s not an issue if you’re using Plex or some other form of non-DRM-protected content.
Yes, I’m on CoreELEC with an Odroid N2+ but I only play content without DRM. If you’re streaming DRM protected content you will have an easier time using Android.
No HDR support kiils LibreElec right away for me.
An Android device like the Shield Pro really does seem to be the best choice. I think mine is the later model. The only thing it doesn’t seem to do is AV1 hardware decoding, and it does struggle a little with full 4K BR remuxes. Sometimes I have to reboot it before playing one.
Here is what I do: I use a firetv with Kodi, Plex, Smart tube Next (free YouTube), and various live TV apps. That’s it!
Unfortunately there is zero way to disable the home screen in order to run a custom desktop environment and there is zero way to replace the Netflix, primetv, DirecTV, etc. buttons on the remote.
Seems like every year it gets harder and harder to change settings on the TV and all the things I just mentioned not being able to do used to be things you could hack together.
It sucks!
I used a Fire TV for a while (because it was cheap and you could sideload almost any Android app), but at some point I got tired of the awful (and increasingly worse) UI and sluggishness of the device, so I splurged on a Shield TV Pro a few years ago. It’s night and day in terms of performance alone - and yes, you can change the function of any remote button with the Button Remapper app. Custom launchers are also possible, although I haven’t tried this in a while.
The main downside is that the device has much less reliable WiFi, for some reason. After some infuriating days of troubleshooting attempts, I solved that issue once and for all by relocating a meshnet satellite close to the device and running an Ethernet cable.
I just never connect my TV to the internet and never have any problems. My old Chromecast is showing its age though.
You can always get a new Chromecast (we were forced to as the ancient bullet proof one told us to “fuck off, I want to die”). The new one has a remote control and apps, which I always thought were missing from the minimalist Chromecast family of products. So look at us, now we have a shitty roku when all we wanted was a device that I could send things to from my phone. Needed and wanted nothing more, but I got it. My tone is muddled here, so I’ll make it clear that it’s worse than it used to be, and I’m annoyed I was forced to pay to downgrade.
Yeah, i don’t like that all the more recent devices all added remotes and explicit apps you have to install and launch. Also the “newest” 4k-capable chromecast is from 2020, so I would already be upgrading to old hw that’s a worse experience.
Same on the old Chromecast :(
I actually did connect my TV when I first set it up. One of the first things it did was download an update which bricked the wifi on the TV, so the problem kind of solved itself
Hah, I was going to say, I do check for updates at least once when I first get it, because I have run into TVs that shipped with HDR bugs in the stock firmware.
For the Chromecast, what happens with yours? Mine randomly restarts, or reconnects to wifi, or sometimes Plex has trouble buffering until I reboot it.
I recently bought a raspi5 to try out FCast, though currently afaik only Grayjay supports it.
For the Chromecast, what happens with yours? Mine randomly restarts, or reconnects to wifi, or sometimes Plex has trouble buffering until I reboot it.
Exactly that.
I’ve never heard of FCast, I’ll look into it
We have an older 2012 1080p Sony 55" TV. Super thin, still works great. It had a few “smart” things it could do, like local tv guide, weather. Very simple stuff, nothing like streaming apps. Those basic smart things haven’t functioned in a while. Support ended for them a long time ago. I’ve had a negative opinion for smart TVs since then. Having those functions sitting there broken drives me nuts.
We always used some type of streaming box. Started out with some Roku’s for a long time that worked okay until they updated them enough to run like shit. Ads were never egregious but you could tell where the trend was going. A friend let me have an older Nvidia Shield TV. It was FILLED with ads for shit we didn’t care about. Google Play store shit, Nvidia shit, advertisement shit, AHHHHHHH. It too eventually was updated enough to where everything runs like shit. I looked into a lot of self contained media systems from no names on Amazon, but I just didn’t trust them. I could set up a PC to do it all and I’d be fine with it but my wife wants something easy to use.
Sooo I ended up going with an Apple TV. So far it’s been really nice. Zero ads on the home screen. It lists the previous content we were watching and then our streaming apps below it, that’s it. When you move the cursor over the Netflix or other apps it lists what you previously watched and some recommendations for other shows but it’s not in your face or moving anything around to do it. There are some apps you can’t remove, but I just made a folder and threw them all in there. It’s nice but it’s costly at around $140. So far for me, I’d say it’s worth it. We only use Netflix, Hulu and Plex on it, but all of them work great. It also supports the Steam Link app. I use it some, but I’ve started to use Moonlight that is installed on my Steam Link device instead, since the picture and stream quality is a lot better.
I also have an Apple TV and like it a lot. It’s the only Apple device I use regularly, I’m definitely not an Apple fanboy, just heard that run well and there was a specific app they support that I wanted so I went with that. Only thing I dislike is the remote. God that touch pad thing is awful. My wife says she thinks it’s because my hands are big, but idk. But other than that, great experiences with it overall.
There is a brand that makes dumb TVs.
https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.html
Good to know about, thanks a lot!
Keep in mind that these are low-end TVs with, according to reviewers, generally subpar picture and sound quality, with quality issues that make them worse to look at than even old TVs. If you just need “a TV” and your only concerns are that the device is flat, the image in color and some sort of noise is escaping the speaker holes, they’ll do, but don’t expect anything more than that. To me at least, it makes more sense to not connect a smart TV to the network and use a separate streaming device attached to it.
I would even buy a slightly older used dumb TV from a reputable manufacturer over one of these sketchy things, since it’s not like LCD TVs are finicky technology - they tend to last for an incredibly long time in my experience, easily 15 years or more. On my parents’ 2008ish Toshiba (1080p and every analog and digital input in the known universe, which, in combination with an excellent analog upscaler, makes it awesome for old games consoles - but it’s of course no looker in terms of colors by modern standards), the only thing that has broken so far is the spring of the power button, so I bent a wire press it in and a switch at the plug to be able to turn it off completely.
This is getting a bit off-topic, but a relative of mine replaced her flatscreen TV from 2002 (!) just two years ago - and it was still working fine, but since it only had an analog tuner and SD resolution, she was looking for an upgrade. I got her a small 4K OLED from Samsung (since discontinued) and she’s very happy with it (even the “smart” features are quite inoffensive), although I did have to get her a soundbar as well, because if there’s one thing that has regressed on TVs, it’s sound quality, in part due to how ever thinner and lighter designs have reduced speakers to little more than phone speakers on some devices.
deleted by creator
Good luck finding them though, we’ve never found a place either offline or online that sells them.
deleted by creator
That assumes we are in the US, whomp.
deleted by creator
I don’t know why you’re being so argumentative. They mentioned that they’re hard to get. You countered with one store in one country that has them. They then pointed out that actually, no, it’s still not easy to get. It’s a pretty damn common interaction between Americans assuming everyone has the same experience as them, and the rest of the world whose experience is very different.
I will remove comments, sorry for offending you.
Not really, apologies we came off that way.
We just haven’t seen them where we live, online or offline, though we would really like to.
Thank you, hope you have a great week!
Hey no worries fellow human, context and tone are hard on internet text chat. I probably came off as a snarky bastard. Enjoy your month! ;)
None of us are a guy, thank you though. We appreciate it!
At only double the price of an equivalently priced smart one! Bargain /s
The smart ones are sold at cost or at a loss, and your privacy is then sold to subsidize the profits. A dumb tv costs more money up front (since it’s not subsidized by your privacy), but it costs far less in overall value. It’s a tradeoff that the consumer needs to make. The lovely thing, is that (for now, at least) it is still a choice we can make.
Which is an entirely fair compromise for people who use Lemmy, but means precisely nothing to the majority.
Well that’s not true. They have been in business for 40 years. They sell TVs for people who don’t want anything except video in. Mainly commercial places like offices, stadiums, etc.
Yes because the majority own/buy TV’s commercial places like offices and stadiums.
I’m not understanding what the point is that you’re trying to make? I’m sorry.
I said that the privacy concerns being worth the cost of a “smart”-free TV means nothing to the majority of people.
You said that this isn’t true, and that their main customer is commercial places.
I suggested, in response to this, that the majority of people don’t own such commercial places.
What part are you not understanding?
deleted by creator
Or you could just block the Spyware TV from accessing the internet.
Not all tvs allow you to do that. Some require you to be online. Some took it a step further and are equipped with 4/5G modems to bypass your network restrictions.
A set of torx screwdrivers and an exacto knife will take care of that. Pretty hard for a cellular modem to transmit data when the traces to the antenna are cut.
Some require you to be online.
I’d take it back to the store as broken. Never heard of that though.
Some took it a step further and are equipped with 4/5G modems to bypass your network restrictions.
Never heard of this either and it would raise a massive stink in the EU. Can you share an example?
Both of these were in the USA. The first was with a friend’s purchase, the latter was an article he sent me. It’s been a little while, but I know one was Samsung, but can’t remember the other brand or which was which.
I wouldn’t put it past Samsung to try and force you to have internet access enabled so they can spy on you.
However having additional hardware to directly access the internet via cellular is a bit much. That might have been an Aprils fools article by some IT site.
When Sony tried to install root kits on PCs of folks just trying to watch a movie on a legit purchased DVD there was a quite large shitstorm.
Last I looked, we could still buy commercial displays. They’re dumb TVs. They cost more, of course.
We have a Samsung “smart” TV, hooked up to an AppleTV box. The TV’s original remote is in a drawer somewhere, forever unused.
I have the apps that I need, the tiny Siri Remote turns on the TV and handles volume, and, apart from the aggressively, insanely, mind-blowingly horrible on-screen “keyboard” / text input (we don’t have Apple phones we can use to mitigate this, sadly. Also, what the fucking fuck, Apple?!) we’re happy. For now. I trust Apple to make the experience incrementally worse as a fact of life.
Not perfect, but leagues better than dealing with Samsung’s interface.
Can you give a recommendation? I too looked for big displays and found commercial ones to be used as digital billboards but the specs weren’t all that good (no oled, no hdr).
I can’t, unfortunately. I still have an old Smart TV that isn’t too offensive and doesn’t show me ads. If it starts showing me ads sometime, then it’s gone. But I’m not really a videophile and I’ll watch shows on anything so I haven’t really looked at what’s better, only at what’s cheapest. I do hear it can be tricky because the commercial displays are meant to be brighter than TVs and maybe it can be hard to get them dialed in the way you want.
OK, but it’s edge-lit and extremely tiny. You can get much better Smart TVs for less money, and then just never connect it to the internet
Thanks!
For me the icing on the cake on that image is the “Translate” link which makes me wonder how you might translate this into say Klingon or CEO talk or ELI 5.
Other than that, it’s a sad state of affairs that we’ve allowed this to happen unchecked and wholesale across the planet.
It’s for people that are confused because there’s no /s at the end.
I’m actually quite happy with mine I don’t think it’s shown me a single ad, the only nuisance is it doesn’t stay connected to my WiFi and only joins when I launch an app or something.
Its a Toshiba with Vidaa Os I think, not saying it’s perfect it has all the UK channel apps but not Stremio which I would like it to have.
That said it hasn’t done a single thing ad wise to annoy me unlike my firetv cube.
deleted by creator
Generally it’s not too hard to disable the smart TV part of it and just use HDMI for TVs running Android. But on Roku TVs for whatever reason you need to connect them to the internet and a Roku account at least once to unlock the picture settings. Hardware features of a TV like brightness adjustment have no business relying on some random server.
And it won’t stay on the selected input. No signal? Gotta go back to the screen with ads.
Which brand is this? So I never have to go near it…
I have a Samsung TV from a few years ago, never connected it to the TV, so when I turn it on it just goes to the last used input (HDMI1 in my case). The bootup isn’t even that slow , maybe 5 seconds or so. Not great, but not terrible…
Same here, Samsung from 2019.
Vizio.
Have a difficult time relating to people who still tolerate this from leisure technology. A screen one can liberate can be found pretty readily at hand for any range of prices in the rust belt but maybe it is different where you are.
Any suggestions? When I moved out I looked everywhere for a dumb TV. The only catch is I’m not willing to downgrade to standard definition.
I never understood why people hated smart TVs until one day mine decided to install an update that presents me with advertisements and a hub screen when I turn it on. If I don’t select something in time, the screen disappears, which locks all of the controls, and I can only reset it by turning it off and on again. Why??? Just why?!?!
You know why.
