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Comment by csa | Hacker News Reader

For a tech periodical, this seems to be a stretch for content.

Thirty seconds poking around the interwebs led me to this Samsung 65” 4K “digital signage” for $1125:

https://www.samsung.com/us/business/displays/4k-uhd/qb-serie...

43, 50, 55, 75, and 85 also available.

I assume that these are as good as or better than most people have in their homes (esp. with Vizio), but probably not as good as what home theater enthusiasts might want.

Am I missing something?

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That TV is still smart by my standards. It runs Tizen, features something called "Samsung Workplace" (which "supports wireless cloud service access"), and has WiFi (whether or not this WiFi connection can be used by Samsung to update the OS is not specified, but I would think it is likely).

This probably means it tries to do the “device detection” when you switch inputs or plug in a new device. Tbh this is the worst feature for me, it’s exceptionally hard to get rid of even with access to the factory menu. I can blackhole my TV all day on the network, but this problem is persistent.

Also as a note, it’s become increasingly difficult to root TVs. Even getting firmware can be a chore, and forget getting anything other than a bootlog over RS232.

And firmwares, especially from Samsung since around 2010, come with all sorts of encryption, protection, DRM and stuff. (

I think the digital signage ones are overkill for what a consumer needs because they’re meant to be left on for long periods of time. Maybe that makes them more expensive?

Agreed. My TV went out 3 days before the Super Bowl. Within an hour of it going out I jumped on Amazon and easily ordered a dumb TV that was delivered before the Super Bowl.

Amazon had many options with varying levels of dumbness. I ordered a Sceptre.

It appears you made no attempt to understand the problem.

People want a decent TV. They want the alphabet soup 4K UHD OLED QLED etc. They want to be able to pick the size of the TV. And they don't want their TV to spy on them or show them additional advertisements.

My experience with digital sign TVs is they are much more expensive than the equivalent TV. They add on small business tools to display advertisements and in some cases still come with "smart" features. You generally can't get them in a big box store either.

When I bought my "dumb" TV I couldn't get all the features I wanted and I couldn't get one larger than 45".

The jist is that adding and cheap computer to the TV subsidizes it by allowing unlimited data mining and advertising opportunities for the manufacturer. There is little incentive for any company to cater to the crowd that doesn't appreciate this trade-off.

> It appears you made no attempt to understand the problem.

Did I?

The article says it’s “stupidly difficult” to find a dumb TV. I think I showed that it’s not.

Regarding all the other stuff you said:

- It seems like you want the TV makers to cater to you your needs and wants in terms of feature set and distribution channel for your dumb TV. Why would they choose to make it easy to buy a dumb tv when there is more money in selling you a smart tv?

- Regarding your dumb tv purchase, I don’t know where you’re located, but these limits for a dumb TV simply aren’t true in the US unless you want something very niche.

- Do you think your needs are representative of the market while also being equally or more profitable than what is currently available? At this point, most people who want a dumb tv are going to have to make a few compromises that, for most people, are minor. I think that’s a fair trade —- sad that it needs to work that way, but fair.

Let's agree to disagree that you proved the OP wrong. I think it is clear from my comment that I understand I am not representative of the market. I am still frustrated with the trade-offs that exist.

I am US based, and I wrote about my personal experience buying a "dumb" TV in the US.

I don’t know the answer but wonder if “digital signage” means it is more often viewed at a distance, and thus has lower quality control around say, dead pixels. Just a guess, but it seems like that could be true.

No, it means exactly the opposite - they're supposed to be sitting in a commercial setting and take more abuse; displaying the same content 24/7 in an unfriendly environment (hotter/colder than your usual living room). They also have features like RS232 connectivity for remote control of a whole fleet of TVs from a single point.

They don't operate as TVs - no tuners - they are displays for content that is downloaded or streamed.

Yep, but if you want a tuner, you get a tuner. Most cable/satellite boxes handle everything for you. If you want a "dumb TV" digital signage is the way to go.

A TV tuner can be plugged in, if it's even needed - the same channels will be available via e.g. in the UK case, the Sky box (cable tv) or BBC app (running on Chromecast or similar).

You are supposed to connect a dvb-t tuner to it, or maybe a chromecast if you want online content.

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