• ubermeisters@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Owning a smart TV is one of the stupidest things you can do.

    I’m admittedly this type of stupid, but I also know how to blacklist all the domains my garbage ass Vizio tries to phone home to.

    They make the devices cheap so that they can spy on you. It’s the New Deal.


    Edit: I see i’m not the only one who gave up on finding a reasonable TV and just opted to neuter a Smart TV instead. Now that I’m not in a position of “me want now, nothing in local store”, I think Ill take a few moments to do some research for everyone, and myself, just to highlight that there actually are still options. Heres a few brands I found that still offer Dumb TVs. I know nothing else about these, and am not in any way promoting these brands or claiming they are good at all. IDK.

    This is not endorsement

    If anyone has relevant info about these brands, related to if they are good or suck… let me know.

      • ubermeisters@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        yeah I have 3 connected to this PC

        Edit, i felt bad about being a smart ass, and edited my parent comment to be more… helpful

          • ubermeisters@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yep. Thus why i edited my comment in an attempt to back-wheel a little.

            Monitors are more expensive because of:

            • Monitors generally higher refresh rates (images displayed per time interval) with Monitors being from 60-240Hz, and TVs generally only being 60-120Hz (Hz = number per second)

            • Monitors typically have calibrated/better color accuracy and white balance versus TVs

            • Monitors have ~141PPI, TVs ~86PPI (Pixels Per Inch: Measurement of pixel density). A 24" monitor is basically the same thing as a 40" TV where pixel density is concerned.

            • Monitors generally have much better response time (how fast a pixel can change colors) with Monitors being ~5 milliseconds, and TVs being ~16 milliseconds.

            The additional hardware requirements to meet the higher specs necessarily drives up the cost of computer monitors, when compared to TVs. Sorry.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        It doesn’t really matter, just don’t connect them to the internet. Our TV just has a 14 year old computer that plays media perfectly, and is completely cut off from the internet.

          • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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            1 year ago

            It takes some research if youve never done anything like it before, but you can drip feed it the internet via a pihole, and starve it specifically of ads and data collection. Keep the functionality, kill the leech.

            Google smart tv pihole, theres a few guides, for anyone interested.

            • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              But why? It doesn’t need that for anything. Just plug an old computer in via HDMI and bookmark movie-web.app or download/stream stuff from anywhere. Much better quality, interface, and no jank.

              • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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                1 year ago

                Just depends on what you need it for, and what youre trying to plug into it.

                For example, some people dont have spare computers to turn into a mini server, but do have $60 and the time to fiddle with a raspberry pi.

                • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  Mines a 14 year old gateway you could prolly get for free or under 100, much more powerful than a RPi. Using Windows 10 on it with zero issue.

                  I do have a couple Pis next to it but those don’t hook up to any screens, I just tunnel into em. One is a PiHole and one is a server. :3

                  • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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                    1 year ago

                    Not that theres anything wrong with your setup, but if Ive not got a spare pc or laptop, Id rather get the new pi than risk cheap older hardware that might fail sooner than later if all its gonna do is basically play as a pi.

                    Plus, like. Pi’s are cool. All compact and efficient. Adorable little motherboards.

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            Curious, what functionality would I lose? All it needs to do is turn on and display video through an HDMI port.

            • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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              1 year ago

              Samsung historically has had a habit of poaching features from their Smart TVs as they age, eventually leaving you with a not so smart TV after a decade or so. Not sure if other manufacturers do the same

              • asudox@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                What a realistic approach! A thing getting dumber as it ages, what a great idea!

                /s

              • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 year ago

                Aha! Yeah that’s okay with me, since we just disable their internet hook computers up, to use them as dumb monitors.

      • ubermeisters@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        its called a monitor

        Edit, i felt bad about being a smart ass, and edited my parent comment to be more… helpful

        • space@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Above 35" monitors aren’t that common, and the ones that exist are basically TVs with TV software.

          Commercial displays are the only real alternative. Some of them even come with a slot for a Raspberry Pi compute module.

      • omni@lemdro.id
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        1 year ago

        I heard Sceptre still sells them. Never bought one so can’t vouch for quality

    • jvisick@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Admittedly I haven’t been looking that hard, but I don’t think I’ve seen a TV for sale in the past 10 years that wasn’t a “smart” TV.