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Comment by wrsh07 | Hacker News Reader

If you want a high end tv you don't have much choice.

But also, why do you not expect your Roku / apple tv / etc to be watching you?

Well, if it turns out your <CommodityVideoStreamerA> is spying on you, you can throw it in the trash and get a <CommodityVideoStreamerB> instead. That gets a bit trickier when it's hardwired into your $1000+ display panel's control board.

You could buy a high end Digital Signage display. Usually these are "dumb" and also have no TV tuner or consumer type settings. But are high quality, designed to be powered on 24 hours a day and have great picture quality. Because of the lack of additional image processing, they often have some of the lowest input lag as well.

http://www.samsung.com/us/business/displays/digital-signage/

Prices are much higher though.

"Prices are much higher though."

Not that much higher ... maybe double ?

Remember, the digital signage displays are often used in arrays of 12 or 18 or 24 displays, so they have to be somewhat cost-competitive - otherwise an airport or hotel lobby or mall couldn't stitch 24 of them together.

I always chime in on these discussions to urge folks to buy a digital signage / commercial display (probably from NEC). Not only are they as dumb as dumb gets, but they are also very, very high performance displays.

WTF is wrong with that site. I enabled the scripts so that I could use the filters, waited while it refreshed several times, and it just covers the screen with a pop up that just re-opens when you close it. That was one of the worst I've visited.

It's probably because of the ad blockers but still a site should be a little functional without all the scripts and ads.

> If you want a high end tv you don't have much choice.

Don't connect it to the Internet? Barring the manufacturer sneaking a backup cellular modem in there, seems like it's an easy fix.

They can nag you about retrieving updates.

root it then! Any kid that knows how to point the libstagefright and DirtyCOW MetaSploit modules at the browser can root their "smart" TV...

Better option: Buy a different TV that requires less effort to make acceptable, unless there's a huge price incentive to buy the more troublesome TV and "fix" it.

But you are also supporting the invasive practices by giving the manufacturers your money.

You can still find OLED or 4K off-brand "dumb" TVs, like from Hisense and Selki, but you run the risk of terrible support.

PERSONAL OPINION: warranties are hard to enforce de facto.

Would you be so kind to provide links to these products? I am interested in a high-quality display without smart features.

Yeah, I tried to go down that route about 10 years ago when the Internet was younger and dumber and I wound up not being able to find anything. Here's a recent (UK) story about the idea that could provide some vectors, though:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/sep/08/c...

Don't those often use B-grade panels from other manufacturers? I know Hisense has the reputation for punching above its weight, but I wouldn't expect them to produce "high end" TVs.

Not for Hisense televisions, but I don't know for Seiki. The former is basically a high quality panel with crappy speakers.

Hisense is also now selling under the Sharp brand name.

Somebody other than LG sells an OLED TV? Where?

I have a "smart" LG TV - it's slow and a few years old. I manage to avoid LG's tracking of me by not having the Ethernet cable plugged in...

I suppose you could just buy a new smart TV and not inform it of its WiFi details.

From what I've read, some smart TVs actually require you to connect them to the internet for them to work at all.

That's funny in really tragic way. So what happens if your internet goes down or if for instance you are just moving in and you don't have internet for a week or so?

Does like everything stop working without internet now? ...sigh

Honestly, I'm 100% more fine with Apple spying on me than pretty much anyone else. I'm less perturbed with the entire concept of spying than I am with who is doing it.

I don't agree with this. Why do you feel that way?

You do expect the box to keep track of what content it's showing you. You don't expect the tv to keep track of all content, regardless of where it's coming from.

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