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Comment by jmalkin | Hacker News Reader

I've gotten nothing out of my Smart TV that I couldn't have gotten from a Chromecast, or preferably, a laptop hooked up to a TV.

And I've lost a lot. My TV is slow. When I try to control the volume, sometimes I have to wait multiple seconds.

And things stop working all the time and require a reboot.

I hate the damn thing. It even comes with bloatware for some reason, games I'll never play that it insists on updating forever.

And with the privacy concerns on top of all that, I wish I had a dumb TV.

My shit cube TV from the 90s was better!

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I have resisted the urge to buy a new tv for 11 years. I own the same 48" non-smart Sony I've always had. I have always felt like the grass would be greener if I were to buy one of those 65" LG OLED tvs, but thank you for setting me straight.

This old TV is 5 inches thick, but it turns on in 2 seconds. I hooked an amazon fire tv into one HDMI port. I also have a sonos "connect" hooked up to the audio-out so that I can play my TV audio through my ceiling speakers when I want.

But it's just a display, so I can plug and play the capabilities I want. I can even tell alexa to open up plex while the TV is off and the fire TV must send a signal through the hdmi port because the tv turns on and it loads plex.

Just wanted to chime in since you specifically mentioned the "65" LG OLED", which is the same TV I have (specifically the OLED65B6P). When plugged into the internet it has all of the usual unfeatures (including ads displayed over hdmi input), however if you leave it unplugged from the internet it works great and boots up almost instantly to the last input selected without any fuss. Furthermore, the HDMI CEC commands work as expected (in both directions--control of the tv from the computer and control of the computer from the TV with all of the expected buttons on the remote being passed through). The set is also quite good about supporting legacy S/PDIF (optical) passthrough so I haven't needed to replace my receiver.

So far the only feature I have been unsatisfied is that for some reason the set does not auto-shutoff when the hdmi input is not active. For example, I had it hooked up to a computer which was set to turn the monitor off after 15 minutes and instead of the TV shutting off it displayed an 'input disconnected' screen. As a stopgap solution I set the computer to have a 'screensaver' that is all black instead of turning the monitor off--which works pretty OK since the OLED is completely 'off' when displaying a blank screen. The only downside is that the the electronics in the TV stay running, so the power consumption in this state is about 20w.

I have this problem as well (display staying on when there's no video signal) with an older PC monitor. I think it might be caused by the HDMI audio continuing to transmit while the video is blank. To test the hypothesis, try disabling your HDMI audio device driver temporarily and see if it fixes the problem (though then you don't have sound...). Of course, it could be something completely different...

I have the same experience with my LG. It's perfectly fine as a "dumb" screen. I have an Apple TV 4K and a surround receiver connected to it, and CEC works as intended: when I turn on or off the Apple TV, the LG and the receiver do the same.

I was very weary of buying a "smart" TV, but I wanted a 4K HDR one, and the public display market didn't seem interested in providing that.

Happily, the LG boots (or resumes, or whatever it does) very quickly and the only time I have to touch its remote control is if I've had the TV on for so long without using the remote that it thinks nobody's watching and turns itself off. I suppose there's a setting somewhere to change this, but it happens seldom enough that I haven't bothered.

Thanks for this post. I'd like to add that the Vizio PQ65 works the same way when using an Apple TV. I refuse to update the firmware for fear that Vizio will force a change that will require an internet connection.

If you never connect it to the net, there’s never a need for an update - and no way for them to sneak one in behind your back. It’s a sad world we’ve built, isn’t it?

(including ads displayed over hdmi input)

What the hell?

I managed to score a similar Sony TV on CraigsList a couple years ago. I plugged it into a DVD-1080p-upscaling Blu-ray player without WiFi. My local public library has a better catalog than Netflix, on disc, so I canceled Netflix. The TV chassis looks a little dated, but the picture and sound are great, and, on principle, I'm violated slightly less than before (by my own "tech" industry).

I have one of those LG OLED TVs and everything about it is just fine. It's perfectly fast; the OS is based on Palm webOS, so it's okay, but you still don't have to touch it. They are regularly for sale at less than half retail price if you wait six months.

The only ergonomic problem is devices fighting each other over HDMI CEC; if I turn it on to use the Switch, then the Bluray player likes to turn itself on, force the TV to switch to it, and then start autoplaying a disc!

Is that a setting? I think mine gives a popup to say it detected new input but does not switch automatically.

I _think_ so anyway because I almost never have 2 devices attached but seem to recall such a popup. Could be wrong :)

Panasonic, back in the plasma days, used to have a "professional" line. Those were plasma monitors (no built-in tuner, no sound processing at all), and it had modular inputs. There are 3 slots for I/O cards. Can still find the cards on ebay under the "Panasonic HDMI TV Boards" search results.

Sounds like a digital signage screen. I have a few Samsung digital signage displays from 10 years ago that still work perfectly. Amazing picture even by today's standards and very thin.

Up until recently I was using a 12 year old 46" Sony Bravia and upgraded to an LG OLED and I have to say, the difference in screen alone was well worth it.

Well, if you have Alexa in your home...what is the difference? Alexa and all these 'smart' gadgets call home. You have a microphone that is always ON. Recordings are stored and manually analyzed by subcontractors of Amazon. There is no fancy AI. Why shouldn't the $Agency use this channel as well?

In Europe, people have started purchasing so-called public displays instead of Smart TVs and just hook up a Chromecast/Pi/Fire TV Stick to it. This is especially common in countries where one can avoid public broadcasting fees by doing so.

Didn't now the concept but they're tv's without tuners?

Pretty much, yeah.

There's a good range to choose from as well these days: https://geizhals.eu/?cat=monplas

100 inches ranges from 10k to 111k €. I know what to buy if I win the lottery.

You mean projectors? Because that would explain why I rarely see youtube ads on chromecast hooked up to my projector. As soon as it plays on my tablet ads show up.

I'll do this for my next "TV", however I might never buy a new one really. Unless it dies I don't really feel the need to upgrade it.

What do you mean with "public displays"? I researched a little bit before buying my TV and couldn't find decent options in terms of cost, size and quality of the panel.

This category: https://geizhals.eu/?cat=monplas

I think I have heard these displays (no smart TV features) referred to as 'Digital Signage' in North America.

I also hate my Samsung smart tv. On a fresh “turn on”, before I can load any app I have to wait for the tv to “sign in”. This can take up to 20 seconds.

I have a Samsung smart TV and the best thing I ever did was not accept the EULA and never plugged it into the network

If anyone's made the mistake I did and did accept it, there is some factory reset type of thing in the menus. After that, don't accept anything and never give it access to the internet.

My interest in PKD was never based on his futurology, but I have to say he totally nailed the scene where Joe Chip argues with his apartment door. "Never accept anything your TV proposes" could be straight from Ubik!

Remember hi-fi separates? The true music audiophiles would have half a dozen boxes for their hifi. Kind of need the same where everything just does one job well. So the screen is a screen, not some screen with built in set top box. Ideally it doesn't even have speakers built in, again separates for that. It should also not have a remote but just wake up to a signal and play it.

Is this a monitor? Maybe. Monitors are not designed to show the football. You turn your computer on and they turn on. You can plug a Chromecast in and get whatever you want beamed to them.

There has to be a market for a generic display panel that doesn't do much apart from show the picture. But when a SoC costs little and might as well have the wifi then it isn't going to happen.

My Samsung from late 2017 works a charm. The apps and the interface in general are snappy. It comes with the classic remote and a new one with only a few buttons that's pretty amazing (and has a mic to help the CIA on getting the sound too lol).

I paid £750 for the 55" version. I would never buy something like a Toshiba because of the software and I'm keeping a very close eye to Samsung to see for how long I can keep using the integrated software to watch Netflix, Prime Video, NowTV, Disney, etc without a Chromecast or Fire stick or Apple TV (and with only one remote for everything, including my BT set and the Xbox!)

> I've gotten nothing out of my Smart TV that I couldn't have gotten from a Chromecast

But you wouldn't get the security service from the CIA. They should just do tests like they do for paternity.

Tests have concluded to certainty of 99,9% that jmalkin is no domestic terrorist.

Maybe they would even have a printable version you could pin on your walls.

The only smart feature that I love is the ability to play 4k HDR videos from a USB drive. With that said, I will never connect the thing to my network.

Personally a big fan of my Samsung smart TV. Although the Twitch app was recently removed which is a tad annoying.

Don't buy it.

(Older TVs of excellent quality can be found second hand for very cheap)

Older TVs also use more power (and put out more heat).

You'll eventually find your game consoles, Blu ray players etc no longer function with the TV as it doesn't support whatever the latest HDCP standard is.

There are LED 'dumb' TV's.

Where? Are they cost and quality competitive with "Smart" TV's?

They won't be quality competitive with newer cheap smart TVs, which are all very good - they support 4K/wide color and have dynamic backlighting good enough for HDR.

If you insist on a dumb TV and are in Silicon Valley I'll sell you my Panasonic 1080p TV from ~7 years ago. It's got an IPS panel!

My Samsung SyncMaster T27B300 is a good example. LED TV without "Smart" software.

Nvidia has an initiative to get manufacturers to make G-Sync capable large displays.

Some of these are non smart but large.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/products/big-format-gam...

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-43-ultra-hd-4k-multi-cl...

Yes, that's a computer screen. But it's 43". That's what you want. (I have it in my living room and you couldn't tell the difference).

I bought a LG smart TV because it was only 50 Euro more expensive than the non smart one and its display was much better. I never configured its WiFi so it's as dumb as any other TV set but I enjoy the screen.

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