You see all of those HN posts asking where one can buy a “dumb” non-smart TV? That’s the future of software.
the financial aspect might not be worth your time if theres not enough of an audience. one risk is that the added price might deter your customers, who might just buy a smart tv and not use the smart part, which is what i already do.
His deal was you pay him, he'd then walk across the street to FutureShop, buy the PS2, and do the hack.
So he bought the chips, had them in stock, but didn't invest capital in the rest.
You could easily do the chip hack yourself, but you risked bricking the beast, due to lack of experience.
So the $50 was worth it, chip included.
I'm sure you could do the same with TV hacks, so upfront capital costs are minimal, with reduced risk.
The difference with smart TVs that might kill the value proposition is that the smart aspect doesnt actually impeed the user. You can just ignore it and hook up cable or your laptop to the tv. So would people pay to remove it on philosophical grounds. IDK