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Comment by ocdtrekkie | Hacker News Reader

I think if TVs had a replaceable compute board, I'd be really on board with it. Sort of like plugging a Roku directly into the TV so it acted as the control card for the TV hardware as well, but was still user-replaceable/upgradeable.

It's amazing how the right/wrong task can cause your smart TV to slog around like it's a Windows 98 machine on dialup.

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I would say that plugging in a roku/apple tv is essentially doing just that. I never got why TV even come with their smart TV software.

One less thing to worry about. Also, it can ruin the “clean” look some people want.

This mounting solution worked well to maintain the clean look for me:

https://innovelis.com/

I'd like live TV from the channel selection fully integrated, not have to jump remotes, etc. I also think a single connection point should be able to not just display video and control the device, but power it too.

Perhaps at least higher output USB specs on TVs might eventually escape a separate power plug to the wall, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

This is something I am so, so confused about and something that's desperately needed in this indsutry. I know they want "built-in obsolescence" but doing it through underpowered compute is insane to me in 2021. All that does is force me to buy an external box for no reason, the TV isn't getting replaced until I want a better screen.

Sony would do well to allow a replaceable compute module - they could even charge a premium for it.

Intel had the right idea with its Compute Card [0], but decided to sunset it a couple of years ago. It's clear that the way we're manufacturing these devices now is not the way forward. We're putting computers in televisions and refrigerators that can barely keep up with today's requirements, yet the general population expects these devices to have a lifespan of >10 years. With global warming as it is this is starting to border on criminal negligence.

[0] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-compute-card-bad-ide...

When I heard about it, I thought the Compute Card was fantastic. ...Unfortunately the first time I heard about it was the announcement it was being retired.

Samsung tried that for one or two years but then they priced the upgrade at $500 IIRC.

I don't think it was that expensive, but it was definitely more expensive than it should have been and was barely marketed by Samsung. No real surprise that it flopped.

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