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Comment by bkm | Hacker News Reader

Just get a modern Sony TV and be done with it. They perfected Motionflow to the point where you no longer think about framerate (choppiness nor soap opera). It's clearly a priority, probably because they are the only manufacturer with their own studios (Columbia/Sony pictures). There is a reason people pay the $800+ Sony tax over any TV that has the same panel.

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The Sony tax is because ads on Sony TVs can all be turned off. Plenty of TVs have their price subsidized by ads, where as when going through initial setup, I've had Sony TVs with ads disabled by default and questions asking if you want to turn them on.

Sadly disabling "recommended content" on the Google TV launcher also disabled voice search from the remote, but I am pretty sure that is a Google problem and not something Sony chose.

(Also my Sony TV cannot stay connected to my WiFi network for more than half an hour before I have to toggle WiFi on and off again...)

That behavior follows, given that Google is an ad company.

All TVs can have ads disabled: unplug the Ethernet.

Given that 100% of my TV usage falls into these categories:

1. Controlling Spotify 2. YouTube videos 3. Photo Albums from Google Photos

No network connectivity would render my TV completely useless.

Though I think I could show photo from a thumb drive, so I'd have that going for me I guess.

Chromecast, Apple TV, Fire Sticks, Rokus, etc. could all help out here too. I connect a few of those but never my TV.

Fire Stick and Roku are worse for ads than what Sony ships.

To clarify, my TV shows a list of apps, and that is it, aside from a single "suggested channel" at top I cannot get rid of.

No content previews, no "watch now!" no special promos, just a list of apps.

To explain a bit more what I said up above, Sony TVs cost more than other TVs with identical specs, ~$200-$300 USD more, but compared to a mid-range LG or Samsung, Sony opts you out of advertising by default (the initial setup is hilarious, for the most part you'd have to manually select a bunch of checkboxes to opt into tracking!).

This is all good to know because I am in the market for a new TV. I am not a fan of anything LG has ever made. I always jokingly repeat the joke that LG stands for "Low Grade." I have had good success with LG monitors, but laptops, phones, and other electronics in the past were nightmares.

So, my choices are really between Sony and Samsung, and I think I might just bite the bullet on the Sony and pay the extra amount.

Thank you.

To get the list of just apps UI you need to enable an option in settings that will disable all content recommendations, if you want to go that far. It also turns off all the "continue watching" UI elements. I forget what the setting is called, but I do remember it is setting for the Google TV launcher.

> Sadly disabling "recommended content" on the Google TV launcher also disabled voice search from the remote

WTF.

It took me several tries to find it but the Projectivy launcher ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.pro... ) is a great replacement for the Android/Google TV launcher like it used to be, with no "suggestions" -- just your content.

But definitely use the "override current launcher" setting. The description implies this is a "only if you're having problems" option, but I find it makes a variety of subtle things work the way they should.

That doesn't make sense. Are you saying these TV's still butcher the original artistic intent of the creators for the sake of arbitrary petty consumer desires to have their expensive TV purchase be justified?

But they just do it better than the other manufacturers do?

C'mon, that's a reddit-level wilful misinterpretation of what he actually said. I mean, look:

Are you saying the original artistic intent of the creators to insert unskippable ads at the beginning of the disc is more important than the consumer's right to control the playback of the content they bought? Plus I heard it might kill babies.

See? It's just silly.

It's a sort of truth. Creators' intension isn't so special for consumers.

Not sure exactly what display I have, but it's a recent OLED Bravia. Motion smoothing is still awful.

Is it just that easy? Do you have any specific model recs?

I have an A80J and it’s possibly the best panel I’ve owned/seen in any house that didn’t have something similar. My dad who is a big movie buff with an Atmos HiFi actually got one like a month later after being a big LG fan.

It's easy, but expensive. ;) Search for Digital Trends on youtube, they have a lot of videos about this. Their current "budget" pick seems to be the Sony Bravia X90L.

Are they changing their interpolation settings based on source material? Some TVs will disable motion interpolation when they detect 24 frame rate content.

Yes, Sony TVs try to detect the original fps and display it accurately.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bravia/comments/7ztuwv/what_is_moti...

I own one, and can say that Motionflow produces uneven results. In certain scenes it kicks in, while completely ignoring others. Still has a way to go.

Bit the don’t tax almost three years ago on an A80J. Honestly the best panel I’ve had. Probably going to buy another Sony panel to replace a circa 2012 4K Samsung.

But then what framerate is it?

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