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Comment by nisse72 | Hacker News Reader

Since when does a television become "obsolete" after a year? Or even after 5 years? Just because it doesn't have built-in support for Netflix or whatever the latest thing is? This is the sort of idea that lures people into overspending in the first place.

For the record, mine is close to 18 years old and continues to work just fine for watching broadcast television. Yes it's fatter than those newfangled flat things, but it doesn't watch me watching it, it doesn't record my conversations, and it doesn't report my viewing habits back to the mother ship. One day it will fail and I'll be forced to get a new one.

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> Yes it's fatter than those newfangled flat things, but it doesn't watch me watching it, it doesn't record my conversations, and it doesn't report my viewing habits back to the mother ship. One day it will fail and I'll be forced to get a new one.

It's actually getting pretty difficult to buy a new "dumb" TV these days. The last TV I bought was in November 2014, it's a normal 50" Plasma screen TV with zero connected features. Some of my relatives liked the TV and asked me to find them one like it and I can't. Apparently TV makers have decided that making good TVs isn't important and packing them with smart features I don't want or need is the way to go.

Recently purchased an older model LG oled, and it has all sorts of "smart" features. Simply not connecting it to the internet and not agreeing to the terms of service has turned it back into a dumb tv.

> For the record, mine is close to 18 years old and continues to work just fine for watching broadcast television.

That's the key point. Your TV is fine because it's old. New ones are built with planned and unplanned obsolescence (unplanned is when your "smart" TV loses half of its functionality because some service goes off-line or even changes their URL or something).

There still isn't a TV on the market (that I know of) that is obsolete after a year, not even five years. As long as the inputs (hdmi, dvi, RCA) work then the TV is not obsolete. It may not have the newest features (4k, "smart" connectivity) but it is every bit as usable (and many of the smart features can be added with a ROKU, Apple TV or the like).

Video and Films are my business and my TV is a nearly 5 year old LG plasma that still performs great. And I only bought it because my ex kept the Panasonic plasma after the break-up or I'd probably be using an 8 year old TV.

Are there any reports of smart TVs not working completely (inputs stop working) because the "smart" connected features stop working?

While I agree that TVs don't go obsolete after one year, obsolete doesn't mean "broken" or "no longer works", it just means that the item is outdated or outmoded and generally no longer used. Ball mice, for example, are obsolete but would still work if plugged into a computer.

Losing one function or even several doesn't automatically make something obsolete (outdated, outmoded and generally no longer used) if it's still functional for it's main purpose. Ball mice are obsolete mainly because no one is making mice that aren't optical/laser (AFAIK). A TV losing a smart function doesn't make that TV obsolete unless the person using the TV was relying heavily on the smart functions. And even then I wouldn't necessarily say that the TV was obsolete mainly because the smart functions on TV are used by a small percentage of consumers, typically less than 15%.

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