Raspberry pi with Kodi hooked up to a projector and a NAS serving files works well for me.
This is the way, although the pi is to slow for me at this point and I replaced it with shields.
Also why the are people connecting tvs to their networks...fuck that noise.
I'm waiting for the Raspberry Pi 5 to set up as a media PC behind my tv. There are really good, reliable, and high quality sites that let you stream any movie or TV show. No need to vpn or torrent. Firefox with ublock origin streaming anything I want in 1080 for free.
I should add I have a RP4 and it's not beefy enough to stream 1080p full screen from a browser to my 4k tv.
I use an RP4 and it's fine with streaming 1080p h.265 stuff off my NAS drive, though it did struggle a bit with serving up the Planet Earth videos. It claims to be able to decode 4k, but probably not very well.
I love rpis but damn did the 4s get sold out and then spike in price almost instantly. I'm not holding out much hope for the 5 to be much better.
We call it the pirate box and use it all the time. OSMC FTW!
Without any regard as to veracity:
https://koditips.com/install-hulu-kodi-addon/ https://howtomediacenter.com/... https://koditips.com/...
When I completely replaced my PC, I intended to use my old PC as a media box. But in reality, I've basically used my Chromecast for everything. One of these days I'll probably want to watch something that isn't on one of my streaming sites, but I've been surprisingly resistant to that so far.
Chromecast is the ideal smart device so far, for me. No ads or anything. I use my phone as a remote and basically every video app supports it easily. Open app, press cast, select what I want to play. Exactly what a smart TV should have been like.
What type of Chromecast do you use? I recently bought a Chromecast Ultra for a new TV after being happy with a secondhand one for years (3rd gen, I think). The difference in UI was such a disappointing step down. I don't want a home screen with apps and ads, I just want something I can stream to from my phone! And I can't say for certain, but it also feels like I get more ads on YouTube compared to using the older Chromecast.
No you bought a Chromecast with Google TV. A Chromecast ultra is just a 4k version of the original. I used my CCwGTV for 8 months then sold it and got a CC ultra instead. I hate the promoted content from networks and apps I would never use.
Aha, thank you for clarifying. It's easy to overlook the difference between "Chromecast" and "Chromecast with Google TV". Unfortunately, it looks like if you want 4k you are stuck with the Google TV interface. :/ [Edit: I was wrong, see below]
How are you crome casting I suppose it doesn't help that I only ever Chromecast when I'm at my parents and want to show them a yt video but I've found that sometimes my phone is able to make the connection and other days the option is either gone or my phone became blind
Can you Chromecast Jellyfin from a PC? I thought it only worked from the Jellyfin Android app right now.
My only beef with Chromecast is I feel like they are designed to die after 2 years. I've gone through three now; it always seems like right around the 2-year mark, it starts having issues staying connected to the network. But I keep buying them because, like you said, it's basically the ideal smart device.
Did you try getting the chrome cast ultra that has the ethernet port on the power adapter? I've had a lot less trouble with connectivity on that one vs the original wireless only.
Every 4 months or so it will lock up and require a power cycle. So I do still have some of the problems you describe.
I did not even know that was a thing. Maybe I'll get it when my current one shits the bed in 8 months or so.
I wouldn't be able to use the Ethernet though since the router is upstairs.
They are designed to die, almost everything is now a days. Why build a robust system that lasts forever when you can build a cheaper system that breaks every couple of years and charge as much as you would for the robust system? It's not like consumers can choose an alternative that doesn't use the obsolescence model.
this has been an absolute game changer for me. i run an HDMI thru OBS so if i'm watching sports, i can crop out the distracting awful score ticker / now permanent ad space. and an even bigger game changer, i got a USB foot switch that i set as the mute keystroke, so instead of scrambling to hit the right key or find the remote while i'm busy, i can just stomp on the pedal to mute. it's bliss.
That sounds wonderful especially the mute if you actually have a peddle connected just for that.
Careful though, some smart TVs actually list in the ToS where they'll take screen captures of what you're watching for "informational purposes", make sure you have all data collection turned off anyway even if you don't use it as such.
The ethernet cable goes to the computer, not the TV.
The Nvidia Shield is a very solid sub-pc option. This said, they do still shove ads in your face in the form of a scrolling banner with new shows on it.
It doesn't bother me too much, though, and you might be able to disable it. Every blue moon it's useful is the thing.
I'm gonna get a rPi for this purpose I think.
This is what I did for a long time, and I still have a PC permanently connected to the TV (it doubles as the home server).
But once I got a decent smart TV, a WebOS based LG that lets you disable or avoid ads, I’ve been happy to use the TV’s apps with the remote control’s voice or wiimote-like pointer.
I believe you can still get "dumb" flatscreens, but they're getting rare, and they cost at least hundreds more than their "smart" brethren. So of course those sell very slowly.
The older I get the more I miss the sheer freedom that was built into our daily lives back when technology was just a notch or two less advanced. Phones that stayed trapped on their wall, not in your pocket, tracking you. TVs that were made of dumb stuff that could still pull free content from the air. You had to be part of a special "Nielson family", fully set up with a little tracking box and all that, for the TV to tell anybody what you were watching.
People expected you to basically fall off the earth for 8 hours at work, and didn't expect to contact you for less than a housefire-level emergency, which meant you spent most of the day free, and not just while you were at work. Nobody blinked if you stepped out for the evening to go shopping and could not be contacted for hours. Now people end up in screaming arguments because they didn't answer that text fast enough. It's misery.
I had a shock the other day, watching some YouTube short featuring a young woman (an adult, not a minor) complaining humorously about her mother, who always knows where she is, and thus has all sorts of unwanted opinions on her location. Mother always knows because of an app called Life360, which is basically the kind of spying app that an abusive spouse would hide on your phone. But it's not hidden. You force your children to install it on their phones. It's a leash. So now this adult woman, who of course cannot quite afford to leave home, because economy, cannot simply delete this spying app from her phone without consequences and arguments, so she has no privacy in her movements, from anyone, never mind the government and such. Never mind what actual minors are now putting up with.
We have officially left the era where the adults pissed and grumbled about them damn kids wanting them damn phones they don't need, and we are now in the era where some kid has absolutely been beaten with a belt because he tried to leave his phone in the bedroom and slip out of the house in privacy.
Things like Life360 are normalized among children and parents, so other people will now expect to track you and treat a refusal of tracking as a violation of trust, and probably a sign that you are elderly, thus your rights are becoming debatable.
Again, 5 minutes ago this was evil shit that abusive spouses snuck onto people's phones, suddenly, it's normal, and people will just expect it.
I guess the ongoing shock is that we expected Big Brother to somehow slap a shackle on our necks that we can't take off, but this is all worse. This is putting the shackle on your neck, every morning. It doesn't even lock. You could, theoretically, throw it into the lake at will. Nobody would stop you. But you don't. All the chains are made of other people. The whips at your back are the opinions of children, and what they think is normal. The surveillance cameras do not loom from posts in the sky, no. They're in every pocket. They're much harder to hide from than a security camera ever would be.
I hope I'm just melodramatic, or something.
Nearly hucked my Vizio out last night as I discovered that between last football season and today they have hidden the broadcast channels I receive with my antenna, in their "Free+" offerings and no longer show the channel number when you rotate between them.
This also means that when you choose "Antenna" from the input menu, you get around 15 seconds of black screen while it loads an informative slide about the change and then demands you press the OK button to finish loading their program
Then, to change the channel you must open their fiddly "broadcast guide" and use it to choose the channel you want to watch (after 15 second loading delay for the guide and another 5 second delay once you've picked a channel.
To change the TV from the Nintendo game to Fox took me 10 minutes. Then I realized Fox was showing the Packers game and I needed CBS and it took me 5 more minutes to find the menu again and find CBS.
Just last February this exact same action took maybe 20 seconds? Turn TV on, change input to Antenna, flip channels manually.
Look into plex! They have a dvr option, and you just need some sort of old, but functional PC to run the server and a cheap add-on to connect your antenna to it. It's amazing if you get clear signals!
My support also goes to Jellyfin but I have both plex and Jellyfin running because occasionally Jellyfin will have a playback error that I’ve tried to but failed to diagnose. Have yet to have any playback errors on plex, but again my go to is Jellyfin because it’s local, the UI is more customizable and in my opinion the UI is just better.
I can't remember the last time I've had a playback error on Jellyfin that wasn't related to my power going out and my NAS not coming back up (thus Jellyfin not having an actual video to serve). Jellyfin has been incredibly stable for me.
Ooo, there's a name I haven't heard in a bit. I had Plex sometime a decade ago. I had a Boxee 2 Beta test device around the same time or maybe later. They were followed by an early Roku which I have neglected to replace and got stuck relying on the Vizio software for the antenna.
time to hook an old pc running linux up to that bad boy. while you're at it, maybe set up a NAS. they can't get to you on open source software!
HDMI?
Steam big picture?
I have a ~$100 tiny form factor dell computer attached to my TV. It was probably used in an office for 5 years before I got it from the dell outlet.
I installed Linux Mint and plugged it into my TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse. It was a painless experience and it works beautifully.
The most egregious action I've seen was from a Vizio smart TV I bought several years ago. It shipped with a simple remote control, and a tablet with a control app preinstalled. One day I turned the TV on and was notified that in order to use the updated UI I would need to reach out to support to order (and pay for!) a new remote that had additional buttons.
Just got a used Vizio and I have the same problem. 100% of the time I’m using my Apple TV on one input, but as soon as I turn it off it switches to smart cast. Except it can’t even find my wifi network, so all it does is give me a screen saying it can’t connect. Why can’t it just stay on the input I set it to??
Well you see if they did that then the shareholders would be sad. You wouldn’t want the shareholders to be sad now would you.
i had a vizio tv in high school, i remember that it quite literally took 10-15 seconds from the moment you turned it on to actually see live picture from an HDMI -- it spent at least 2/3 of this time displaying a black screen with a giant 'VIZIO' logo. most egregious thing i've ever seen.
this isn't a phone where you turn it off rarely! this is a television!
look! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVth6PP9t14 i timed it to TWENTY FIVE SECONDS
This is our current living room tv. It was perfectly fine until a random update made it take 10-15 seconds to turn on and then 15 seconds if you want to change inputs. It’s still our living room tv but I would not buy another Vizio.
I hope everyone reading this knows that you can just not connect a "Smart" TV to the internet. Leave it as a "dumb" TV.
Get a separate device like a Roku or AppleTV or Amazon Fire or whatever. The garbage hardware that TV manufacturers slap inside a TV so they can advertise its "smart" features will always be inferior to a purpose built external device.
To say nothing of the security implications of having an unpatched probably unsupported IoT device running on your network for years.
I thought new TVs basically refused to function until you connect them to the internet to go through all that?
My plasma TV is about 10 years old and I'm scared thinking about it dying.
Yes. This absolutely infuriates me. I use my Xbox or my laptop connected via HDMI to provide these applications that I want to use. I never set the TV to use WiFi or even connect to the internet at all. You couldn't pay me to use the UI that half those shitty brands have.
Tbf, of the big manufacturers, Samsung is the egregious offender. As long as you avoid them in particular, the UX on the other brands are okay. But ofc, using a streaming player is highly recommended.
This is the future that Stallman warned us about. They mocked him and said it didn't matter. It's not going to get better until everyone stops buying TVs with spyware built in.
Vote with your wallets or quit bitching. Self hosted is an option these days. But that means not being lazy. And people are really lazy.
We have the burdon of knowledge. We know too much. We were there when a TV turned on and you were presented with channels. Some fuzzy some clear. Sometimes your had to wiggle the antenna. The point is, there is a generation that has never known that. They have only seen a smart tv. They don't know the greener grass. TV makers are waiting for us to die and the next generation to just accept their shitty product as normal. I hate it. I hate it so much.
I'm not an advocate for smart TVs, but my experience has been different. I found a deal for an 86 inch LG, and it's been nothing but smooth for me. No advertising built into the os, always has the apps I use right on the bar. The air mouse onnthe remote is reminiscent of owning a wii.
My LG TV on the other hand is crammed full of ads. I've blocked as much of them as I can but it looks like some of them are impossible to get rid of.
The remote is really cool though, much better for typing.
Which model? The only thing my LG has is a small 'suggested app' or something in the home menu... But there's never any need to open the home menu anyway
I have a Nanocell. The ads in question are mostly on the Home screen but every once in a while I get a pop-up telling me to sign up to Paramount Plus or something like that.
Turning off every ad setting I could find has helped a lot.
My Smart TV is now blocked from the wifi, I use a Fire TV stick in the back of it now, it was just far too slow.
Also I can bearly use the TV remote because it takes ages to wake up and reconnect to the TV.
I was becoming frustrated with how slow my Vizio "Smart TV" had become. I went with a FireCube that was on sale. It was overkill but I don't want to deal with it slowing down again for awhile.
I'm looking at getting back into a PC hooked up to my TV with the fragmentation of the streaming services. It's becoming as bad as cable again.
Depending on what you use it for, I actually found the built in browser to be rather useable
I have a 10 year old LG whose smartness was left updated long ago and I love it.
Because the vast majority of times people complain about this stuff, they have no idea what they're talking about.
If you buy a nice TV and spend 2 seconds going thru the options you won't have a single issue OP is complaining about.
Edit:
Apparently OP banned me for saying their meme doesn't make sense...
The only thing that a "cheap" TV would do is slow down overtime, because it's cheap and has the absolute bare minimum processing speed.
You need that processing speed to properly up sample to 4k from streaming.
If you want a cheap one, buy a decent 1080p so it doesn't have to upsample.
Rtings.com is a good resource.
But it should be common sense that buying a cheap product will give you poorer results.
Why should you have to buy a nice TV for this issue to not be an issue? Why should shitty TVs have built-in advertising and glacially slow "smart" functions? Either don't include that as TV software or fix it.
Capitalism baby!
They want to make the same profit no matter the product you're buying. On nice TVs they make it by making more profits on the sale, on cheap TVs they make it by selling ads.
The reason the cheap TV is cheap is also because it's using (even) older hardware so it's no wonder they're slow...
The price of the TV is subsidized by the ads, promoted apps, and usage tracking. But usually poor hardware to keep the cost even lower. That’s why the models with Fire TV OS and similar ones are usually the cheapest.
I don't buy it. Before "smart" TVs, you could get TVs just as cheap.
Apparently OP banned me for saying their meme doesn’t make sense…
I don't think OP can ban you, just block you. And considering in this comment you implied they are stupid, while in your other comment you implied they are straight up lying, it wouldn't surprise me.
OP is a moderator. (Not the person being replied to, but the actual OP.)
Interesting, not sure where to see that though. I checked the modlog, this person was not banned (from here).
I know plenty of people who could afford a high end model but love a "bargain" and feeling like they got one over on the manufactures not realising they're playing right into the plan.
Partially, yes they do.
It's been years since the black Friday secret about TVs have been spread on the internet, yet people will still but them. A cheap TV with our without ads will suck because you get what you pay for.
Also the meme is obviously overexaggerating because it's being memey. Most TVs don't restart on their own for example, or get slowed down by updates. If you have any specific examples please share and shame the models.
The expensive TVs run the same software. Occasionally faster but equally ad filled.
LG doesn't really have any ads
The top 2/3 of the Home Screen is ads. A big Sponsored tile plus a row of “Top picks for you” which includes sponsored content.
They also store your watch data.
My grandparents have a cheap 2014 1080p LG LCD webOS TV that they never connected to the internet but it is and always was very slow, and the LED backlight became dull blue in places. Our dumb CCFL-backlit 2007 768p Sony Bravia has <100 ms response time in menus as opposed to 1~5 s, and is awesome with a Linux HTPC (which frankly should get an upgrade to an SSD but no big deal – I can still start streaming any major movie in <3 minutes).
Andriod tv's take a long time to boot because they literally have to boot an operating system when they fire up, there's no way around that in any settings.
That said, I don't have any of the other issues because my tv has never had net access and I have a pc with wireless keyboard/mouse hooked to it, and typing this while sitting on my couch.
I tried to find the article, but of course it is lost to the anals of the internet. (Yes, I know what I said). I saw an article a couple of years ago about how there was a push in China that would use the built-in cameras in smart TVs to watch how many eyes were looking at the screen during rented features and charge extra if there were more than some small threshold of people watching it. I think 3 people were allowed for a single rental price and it would be charged again if more than that watched.
This is likely coming for us. Also... Yo ho ho.
It's now patched in newer firmwares, but there was an amazing root for LG TVs last year: https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io
I feel like I saw some universal mod kit somewhere that replaces TV electronics except for the screen driver/backlight. Maybe just in my dreams. Or maybe I'm confusing the universal CRT rehab kit that was detailed by various retro tech educators recently.
No you are right they does exist on amazon.
Got a link? I don’t even know what to search for but I’m curious.
Why the hell would I connect my TV to the internet? It's a display device.
You will take my Display Port/HDMI/RCA input and like it.
Yeah mine was vlaned off from everything else and ethernet connected. I factory reset it and took it off the internet completely, but the problem still pops up every couple of months. Unplugging it and letting the capacitors discharge (like 15-20 minutes) seems resolve it for a few weeks but it just happens again.
Glad you got a good one, but the issue is something that apparently plagues their TVs. Just looking around on forums for "LG out of memory" and you'll find people with a ton of different models and firmware versions complaining about the same issue. LGs fix for it also hilarious cause they're like, "Have you tried deleting all your apps?" Which really is just admitting they have no clue why it keeps happpening.
Yep, it is an LG. However, after doing a factory reset and plugging a roku soundbar into it, I’ve had no problems with it since. I did the same with our other tv, a Samsung—sans the reset because I never bothered setting it up with Wi-Fi access in the first place.
I too saw all the complaints from others, which led me to the soundbar because I figured that if they’re going to suggest deleting all the apps as a solution, I may as well make sure and make it permanent.
Sounds like a memory leak. Because your not diging thru menus, your using HDMI, either its doing some background task or its the hardware excelerated video decoding. either way, the company using their own product would find bugs like that as fast as you did.
What do you mean the robots are turning on people?! Mine has always been a good boy. He always lets me get easy access to his off switch. You must be dumb! Its almost like you need to spend 100 hours with one to fix the "killing people" thing.
Not every model has such generous user respectful features. Just because your TV doesn't have issues, doesn't mean it isn't an issue that plagues smart TVs. There are blogs dedicated to document which models allow telemetry disabling, user update control, performance, etc. There are numerous consumer reports, data privacy analysis from different firms, and they all point that there are issues with smart TVs. Some even point that even those with options to disable tracking, ads, and privacy options, still collect quite a lot of data they sent back to their corporate home. So it's not that users are lazy, dumb or any other negative thing you want to imply about others, you're not a special boy, this are legitimate issues.
But it is important that the problem does not lie in the fact you have 'a smart tv', it lies in the fact people buy 'shitty smart tv's'. Those of use with good working smart tv's (mine's 5yo LGC8) read these posts of people saying "never buy a smart tv, always buy another device for it" and roll our eyes.
You have internet. Just so some research and include in your criteria that the new tv mustn't be shitty. Don't reward the marketbros by buying shitty tv's.
You have the same TV I do. That thing has been nothing but shit for me. I currently have it internet disconnected after doing a factory reset and it still goes out of memory and starts chain resetting after it's been plugged in for a couple of months.
Before the factory reset I had it vlanned off and opted out of telemetry tracking, uninstalled all the bloatware apps, and spent a good while waching idle traffic to make sure nothing was sending data... None of that mattered for me. You're attributing something to skill that is 100% luck.
Link to the original toot
thank you. i needed the original source because i am suffering the urge to go and give that toot a like. damn, it describes dystopian technologies so well pffft haha
Who knew my anti-consumption / general frugalness would lead to me having a better TV experience than people who buy the high end gadgets
I never add "smart" TVs to the network and I block unknown mac addresses at the router. All apps are loaded either on a gaming console or a Roku (the lawyer units with more power). If you keep your TV off the network (and uninstall the apps), you'll never have performance issues.
Roku lawyer unit??
Honestly, after my first smart TV I never bought another one ever again. I just buy computer monitors that are very TV like and slam an android box of some kind on there. Oftentimes it's cheaper than the TV with a better picture cause it doesn't come with crap speakers depending on the model. Most even have ARC now which makes it crazy easy. I'd never suggest this solution for anyone not tech savvy but with even the slightest tech knowledge it's super easy.
But computer monitors that are the size of the gable end of my house are too expensive!!!!
Sure, but this will only work for so long. Eventually they'll just come with in-built cellular antennae. I can't imagine how that won't be more profitable to the manufacturers. Then all those performance issues will be even worse if you don't connect them to your home network because the tv will be loading all those ads over cellular networks instead.
Depends on the TV, unfortunately. The Samsung(?) TV we had used to have ads pop-up on boot. It would show a black screen for the duration of the ads if you disconnected it from the internet, so you were stuck waiting.
My current LG TV has its stupid ad-filled menu pop-up whenever I turn it on and it takes a while to disappear too, regardless of if it's connected to the internet or not.
Some years ago around the advent of smart home devices I bought a huge fullhd Hisense tv for cheap. It has zero smart capabilities, and essentially acts as a big second screen for my computer, and I couldn’t be happier with it.
I am scared once it is time to replace it for something more modern I won’t be able to find one without all the smart crap I don’t use and don’t want.
PC monitors have been steadily growing in size and business-focused displays for conferencing or digital signage also don't seem to be burdened with any of that nonsense. Also a good option if you want a big, matte display!
Using a computer monitor is a great suggestion. The biggest problem is that monitors are a lot more expensive than TVs. Probably still worth it though if it lasts long enough
PC monitors are mostly awful. You pay way more more for worse picture quality. You're better off buying a smart TV and just not connecting it to the internet.
I'm considering wiring my PC up to my TV just to avoid that as well. The only things I'd need would be a long HDMI cable, a DP to HDMI adapter and a bluetooth dongle for my PC to use bluetooth headphones.
KDE connect is miles better than google's crappy phone remote thing anyways, so it would make up for having to use the desktop UI instead of TV apps.
By the way: SmarttubeTV is youtube without ads and with a great UI. It's the only reason why I haven't connected the PC to my TV yet.
I got a super nice Hisense with Google TV built in last year. I like streaming right on it but you can also use the inputs on the back if you don't want the smart stuff. good for pc gaming 😏
Bloatware, adware and over reliance on software/complex electronics has ruined a lot of the experience with consumer electronics. Almost everything is festooned with half assed processing units for relatively pointless non-sense. Some of its useful, much of it over or under built. I think we have a big market correction on the horizon, it's currently over saturated with marginally useful junk and a definite market exists for upgraded simple electronics.
Between that and the shit apps that you use to watch the various streaming services, it's getting to the point where I'm about to buy a super-cheap laptop to put into the HDMI port, so I can watch through a web browser & block or sidestep some of that shit.
Piracy is the only way ☠
I've had a Vizio "smart" TV for about 3 years. It is my first experience with a smart TV and it has been a massive pile of shit since day one. Most recently it has decided to show a black screen every time I turn on the Nintendo Switch. In this state it does not allow me to do anything but turn it off. So I have to turn it off, turn it back on, go into settings and restart the TV. It will then work for a single play session, but as soon as I shut the Switch off I will undoubtedly have to go through this same process the next time I want to play.
This is only the most recent issue I've had with Vizio's garbage ass software. To those saying to just unplug it from the internet, trust me when I say the solution is not that simple. It was even worse before any updates, but with each update they break something else. There is no "good" software version to leave it at.
This is why my TV is not connected to any kind of network. It is a TV, and it should behave as one and just take any video input I give it
They also spy on you and know what you watch, even if it's not played from their apps and is just a raw display input. https://www.consumerreports.org/...
The whole point of Internet of Things (aka CONNECT EVERYTHING TO THE INTERNET) was to make customers' life miserable in the medium-long run. Anyone who couldn't figure that out was massively deluded by the propaganda
I have a 55" IPS TV with absolutely zero smart functions, and we use it as a dummy monitor, Audio is not even connected, all is hooked up to a Linux computer that serves all the content. Zero bullshit, Zero advertising and we have full control of everything, and it was dirt cheap.
In my country you are charged a license fee for the privilege of owning a tv. That's why I always only had a PC attached to a monitor instead.
Nowadays that is replaced with a dirt cheap orange pi running libreelec (Kodi) which also runs pi-hole in the background for all of the other devices on the network.
The setup is a bit of a hassle but it's a vast improvement on the interface and functionality of friends "Smart TV" experiences in my opinion. I even set it up to work with an old TV remote as the pi has IR built in, although there are phone apps to do remote control also.
It's in South Africa. You can't legally buy a TV without showing your TV license here.
Luckily this does not apply to computer monitors although there are some in our government who want it to be an obligatory national tax instead - due to widespread non-compliance. The fees support a bloated and corrupt nationalised public broadcaster.
I don't know much about it, but I've heard of the infamous NHK tv guys in Japan. They apparently go around knocking doors asking for the tv fee.
Here's me about to fill out that form.
I love the way my TV turns itself on in the middle of the night on a random channel at full volume.
As an aside, isn’t the whole point of the Fediverse that we should be able to move content around? It’s sad that the only way to upvote a Mastodon post on Lemmy is through a screenshot or a link. Why can’t it just be a post that we can upvote?
Technically, it could. You can access Lemmy posts from Mastodon, and see that it's basically a comment boosted by the community at Lemmy.
Just one of the 1001+ features possible, but still missing on Lemmy.
Firstly here is the original for you! https://aus.social/@burgerdrome/111045551054809770
Secondly, yes I agree, sort of. Images are a common format to take posts from multiple microblog sources for this community, so tumblr posts and Mastodon toots and tweets from X all come in a consistent format. This also makes it easy to share onwards too.
Someone else mentioned kbin, and someone else mentioned posting to Lemmy from Mastodon, which is possible... but images are just easiest right now.
TVs have gotten stupid cheap lately because the TV isn't the product. YOU are the product. People buy tvs because of the screen, size, and if it has built in Netflix/prime/Hulu. Everything else is a blank check for them.
Welcome to hell.
Oh wow...
It's the fucking Idiocracy TV. They made it real.
literally 1984
Does his TV also lack HDMI inputs...? I have Smart TV's, and they've never once been connected to my network.
When I buy things like this, I try to buy hardware that supported by open source projects. Like routers that can run OpenWRT or Android phones that are supported by LineageOS.
It's amazing that sometimes free projects that are made for people are better than commercial one.
No Vizio or Samsung.
I got a Sony and I'm glad I did. It seems to do what a smart TV should do. The apps I use are first, the shows I'm watching are suggested. It works seamlessly over HDMI with all my other hardware (sound bar, Blu-ray, consoles). They took the beautiful LG OLED display and made it look even better. It has a super minimalistic style, the android OS is unobtrusive, and the remote feels nice in the hand.
Getting a dumb TV with an Apple TV box has been amazing.
No ads, just turn on, and play.
Of course you'd think "ew Apple". I did but the Apple TV box is simply the best streaming device available right now. The only thing it can't do easily is sideloading and VPNs, for those the Shield is still king.
I've got a TCL smart TV from like 5 years ago. It's absolutely great. Never had any issues with overbearing ads or anything.
Thank fuck.
I buy TVs with Android TV built in because the freedom is great. I love I can install APKs, and generally they have every app that Android has. Whereas Roku doesn't even have an official Twitch app.
Despite that, my fucking GOD they're slow. Both my $2000 and $650 Android TVs are such a fucking lag fest. Even trying to pause a YouTube video is such shit.
They both run Android TV 9, despite Android TV 12 being out, and 14 in beta.
My CCwGTV is a lot better, but I only use that on my non smart TV because I hate juggling remotes.
Still wont stop buying Android TVs, though. Roku is so empty, those TVs with their own built in OS have even less apps. My sisters $5500 OLED TV only has Plex, no Emby. Which is insane. I think her TVs app store has a total of like 20 apps?
Twitch updated in January with a shitty UI that lags. I just disabled updates and installed an older version of the app via APK. That's the benefit of Android TV.
EDIT: also can we please get some people on the Android TV custom ROM scene? It's weird to me that NO TVs have any sort of custom ROM or rooting. You'd think they would?
My 2013 Highest End Samsung was pretty much E-Waste three years later. 80% of the Apps broken, no new Apps for new services.
I plugged in a FireTV 4k which was on Sale for €25. Perfectly supported since many years. TONS of software, channels and so on. Best buy ever.
When I had to buy a new TV for my bed room I bought a "dump" monitor and plugged a FireTV in.
I have two TVs. Both are max 1080p. I am absolutely fine with that. One is not a "smart" TV. The other I only turn on when I'm using Airflow, which the TV boots directly into with its built-in Chromecast, skipping the "smart" bullshit. I will use these TVs until they break or there is some major change where they become totally obsolete like CRT TVs.
This is why I have a dumb TV hooked up to a Linus htpc
Image Transcription:
Comment by user timb @burgerdrome@aus.social reading:
"I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it's trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it's downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it's being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology."
[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]
I have one of the first gen smart TVs from Samsung and it's absolute cheeks now. Changing the volume, no joke, can take multiple minutes to register from the remote. When I click the volume up button, you can see the red light on the ir sensor of the TV flash, registering that it got the signal, but for it to actually change the volume, that can take multiple minutes to do. Just buy a regular tv and get an nvida shield or something similar.
This is why I buy second hand old TVs.
My neither of my smart tv’s has never been given the WiFi password. After a week or so they quit asking and defaulted back to being of with on/off, volume change, input source change as the only actions it’s ever asked to do
My engineer had me buy 43" TVs instead of monitors for the lab. I bought Samsungs and they're just annoying. With only one thing plugged into them and no internet connection at all, they still require you to select "PC" to see anything.
I mean, yeah, they were less than half the price of 43" Dells, but still.
Nope, HDMI.
What's even more fun is I'm 1300 miles from the office working on a site. I forgot to ship the remote. So every day I plug in the laptop, rouse it from sleep, and then have a fun little adventure getting the TV to act as a second monitor using the single hidden little button under the logo.
This TV definitely qualifies for /c/assholedesign.
Yo, the Shield has that video DLSS they do? I have an older smart TV and the backlights are starting to dim in some zones; might be time to buy a Shield so I don’t have to worry about networking my next TV…
Well, DLSS is slightly misleading. The 2019 version of the shield comes with video quality upscaling for 30/60 fps content. It doesnt touch framerates on games or anything. (However it can upscale streamed games)
Any one of ‘em in the “Commercial Monitors” section of your preferred electronics vendor. I have a Samsung BE43T-H from B&H. Has smart features but I never gave it my wifi password or connected it to an Ethernet jack (I was amused when I saw it had one), and it has never once nagged me. Have had a Chromecast, Apple TV, U-Verse box, and PC connected to it without issue. HDR works. External soundbar works. I don’t have to worry about the interface slowing down or shoving ads in my face, it displays the content I ask it to and that’s it.
Literally no brand. A monitor plugged into a computer running whatever you want like Plex. DRM generally won’t work so… get over streaming services. An Apple TV is kinda OK but they advertise themselves.
I mean, this is an answer to an entirely different question. It doesn't answer their question at all.
It very well could be a good answer to some question, but not this one.
And to answer their question, any TV is generally ok as long as you don't connect it to the internet.
And come on, a monitor? Some of us like large screens. Sometimes your solution isn't the best for someone else.
Probably a lot more expensive too. I have an LG TV larger than that and simply use it as a monitor.
A Smart TV without an Internet connection is just a monitor.
You can get a 50" monitor for under a thousand from some brands. I doubt that's very possible for the largest monitors.
You can buy a non-tv of any size. They are often called commercial displays but it’s just a big monitor (dumb firmware).
If you want no ads it means your own software. That is a truthful answer.
If you want no ads it means your own software.
Or simply a smart TV with no internet. Like the real obvious answer without overengineering it. You're too narrow minded. Hell, even with Internet if you wanna get into overengineering, it's simple enough to block on your own network. Many TVs have image processing which can make crappy look good and can even make a cheap computer setup look better if you can't afford the graphics cards.
Honestly, it's like you found one answer and just assumed it's the only one. No one is saying your solution doesn't work for some people. Just that it wasn't what the person asked.
we must destroy DRM
A monitor plugged into a computer running whatever you want like Plex. DRM generally won’t work so… get over streaming services
Bruh, that's like saying streaming services don't have websites...
I find it really hard to believe
I recently bought a 75" Samsung PRO commercial tv, non smart. Plugged a firestick in, it's miles better than our TV with built in Roku that always restarts, freezes and is slow. I told the wife this tv will only be replaced when it breaks.
I bought a little antenna DVR box and it's absolutely delightful. it has the interface of a 2000s VCR, doesn't connect to the internet, doesn't have little ads and promo screens anywhere, has a simple plug and play DVR that records drm free mp4s to any USB device I plug in, and just stays on doing what it's doing, no shitty little we noticed you haven't hit a button in 2 hours! screen. i feel like I'm in a nursing home. it's beautiful
Probably a controversial thing to say but I think a TV could be pretty good by connecting to Internet and run a Internet browser ideally Firefox but no that would hurt the ad revenue on a product I payed full price for it's like buying a car and finding mc Donald's ad in the glove compartment and that's putting it quite lightly
Is it one of those devices that gives you like a little tv guide for the antenna channels and allows recording stuff from them? I've kinda thought about getting one of those, but then I remember I don't watch that much regular tv anymore. 😅
I'm going to be in the market for a new tv in a few months.
Professionally, I have worked in the home electronics / automation industry for over 25 years. I haven't sold or installed a new TV in over five years. I am dreading the selection of a new TV. I was just thinking about this last night - I'm going to have to go to a store and have a sales person show me all the features I don't want on the TV to make a decision.
My understanding is that you can simply not connect the TV to the internet and this may prevent any issues. I strictly use an Apple TV so, if this is the case, are there any TVs that this is sure to be avoided? Are there some that prevent you from using it without a network connection?
The fact that I have to have this consideration over the purchase of a television is absolutely bonkers to me.
Business TVs exist, but theyre way more expensive, have less features you want (colors, refresh rate, etc) and are hard to find and sort based on quality. I looked up TVs on rtings and grabbed the cheapest one that fit my feature needs. It has never been connected to the internet, and i even found a setting to skip the home screen entirely and open up the last used input instead. Most of the time my last input is a tiny linux box i got from vero.
It's absolutely possible. I have a 2021 Sony TV, a 2016 TCL and a 2021 TCL all hooked up to Apple TVs. I basically never see the actual TV interface on either one and none of them are connected to the Internet.
Are there any dumb TVs with good panels and HDMI CEC for sale? That would be perfect to use with an Nvidia shield or apple TV or equivalent..
Honestly I never watch TV aside from anime and I live alone so a simple PC monitor works fine even if I'm just playing console games ultimately the only time I see myself needing a monitor the size of a TV is when I'm sharing a screen with 4 or more people otherwise PC monitors are high definition and don't have any of this bloatware and even if you don't play videogames a simple laptop that can run a Internet browser can get you everything you want to watch and have addblock on top of that quite frankly I'm sure if someone started selling something that can make your phone output a HDMI output will instantly kill the smart TV market
That's the longest run in sentence I've seen in awhile. Now reformatted with punctuation and discrete sentences!
Honestly, I never watch TV aside from anime and I live alone so a simple PC monitor works fine, even if I'm just playing console games. Ultimately, the only time I see myself needing a monitor the size of a TV is when I'm sharing a screen with 4 or more people; otherwise, PC monitors are high definition and don't have any of this bloatware. Even if you don't play videogames, a simple laptop that can run an Internet browser can get you everything you want to watch and have adblock on top of that. Quite frankly, I'm sure if someone started selling something that can make your phone output an HDMI output, it will instantly kill the smart TV market.
Anyhow, HDMI output from phones has existed for years and it's not an uncommon feature. I can connect my Samsung S22 to my TV both wired and wirelessly.
Watch out you're about to kill the smart tv market with that thing
I actually have no problems using my Samsung Q90 or the Samsung I had prior in conjunction with my Apple TV. Not sure if it’s a brand thing or I’ve gotten lucky but I’ve never had any issues like described in this thread pretending it’sa dumb tv and using it that way.
I’d still prefer a true dumb tv though.
I just purchased a new Samsung TV. it required an Internet connection when I first set it up, but once I got through that initial data dump / update, I reset the network configuration and turned it back into a dumb(er) TV.
I use a piholed Roku 4k for my main streaming device. I will admit it is also trying its damnedest to track what I consume and serve ads to me too, but what am I going to do? Read a book?
https://labzilla.io/blog/force-dns-pihole
I've been meaning to do this for a while as I noticed that the TVs in our house are slyly avoiding PiHole for DNS
Someone should start a brand like Nothing Phone / other niche phone manufacturers, but for TVs. Many of us have an attachment to iOS that makes the phone space really difficult, but I'd jump on a beefed up nerdy niche smart TV in a heartbeat.
Modern day poetry
I bought the last plasma LG ever made which has no smart features. Best purchase ever.
I will never in my life need a tv connected to the internet.
If this thing dies on me am i screwed? It's been a long time since I tooked at the tv market.
I just spent an hour trying to figure out why my smart tv is not routing audio to my external speakers, why there's an audio lag on ALL videos and apps, why the fire cube tv is non-responsive, when all I had to do was unplug and plug the TV back in.
Modern TVs are great, but please just make this a more polished product FFS
The "Smart devices" on my Blu Ray player had me give up on sitting down to directly watch a DVD. My stupid player constantly needed to update or download the latest commercials before it could play anything. It drove me to throwing it out and getting a PC hooked up to my TV which was great for years there. I then went with Smart TVs and a FireCube but I'm back to wanting to connect a PC to my TV again.
I have my TV offline, connected to my Xbox, with HDMI-CEC enabled.
When I turn on the Xbox, it automatically turns the TV on, which goes to my last used input (the Xbox). From there I can launch whatever streaming apps I want.
I know I have to deal with Microsoft's nonsense too, but at least the performance is good and it shows the most recent app at the top of my home page.
The webOS on my LG isn’t bad per se, but it’s worse than using the Apple TV hooked up to it. I’ve personally found that a box of some sort plugged into the TV well slays offer a better experience.
I just occasionally plug my TV into Ethernet overnight to slow it to pull updates. No WiFi.
Yeah, I had a webOS TV for four or so years and it was fine, the apps could all be moved around so the most commonly used were at the start of the menu, it didn't slow down after updates, there wasn't that much advertising on the UI. Have a Samsung one now and it's much the same.
I have a Chromecast in my LG and it gets used 2 times a year. I can just sling streams to the tv itself 99% of time but normally just use the remote
I have a smart TV.
It's hooked up to my computer, remote operated with the Unified Remote app.
Mmmm, I love that my tv's remote constantly listens to my conversations and sends recordings back to the maker all under the guise of "improving voice control".
Now that I think about it, advertisers go against themselves when they both push useless shit and collect usage data.
Like, if I keep accidentally clicking on an ad app, and the telemetry shows that I keep clicking on it, then the conclusion might be that I love that particular app?
Well, and the separate app telemetry shows that it always runs for 3 seconds before being closed, so the conclusion is that it needs to be pushed and advertised more?
thats why i got a regular flat screen that was on sale. sound system isnt too great, but it looks good! and its fucking enormous
My experience has been different. So far, been really enjoying Google TV on my Sony.
This. Google TV on my Bravia allowed me to not spend another $$ on a Firestick, unlike with LG and Samsung.
Interesting. I have a Sony Google TV and my experience mirrors OPs. It doesn't take that long to load, but I constantly have to go into additional Apps to find one of the three apps I regularly load. Pisses me off I can't customize.
No clue what you're on about, apart from not being able to Turn off ambient mode, it's BY FAR one of the cleanest, smoothest experiences i've had (google tv)
Apple TV ftw
I feel like most of you just buy shitty TVs. My c1 works just fine even though I don't use most of it.
Guys, I think this is missing a "/s" . Not sure though...
I bought a signage TV to avoid all the smart TV garbage. Mostly I hated that they take so long to hit and are laggy af. Mine boots up quick (no OS) and does not lag because it is hooked up to a Chromecast. My only complaint is that there are only two inputs.
I've only had stuttering issues with my 7 y/o Samsung. The $150 Roku TV I bought a year ago has no issues.
I saw in the discussion on this toot that you can buy "commercial" televisions which are typically used for like menus signs for business etc that aren't smart TVs and actually are probably slightly more durable. I'm generally planning to try and go that route on my next TV
Stop buying Samsung or those cheap Chinese brands.
Samsung Smart TizenOS has ads in some regions, but not all.
I have some ads, they're very easily ignorable, and at least usually revelent like an ad for a new game as it knows I use it to play the Xbox a lot. Not much of an inconvenience, people make out like it's internet pop up adds appearing while you try and watch something.
I have a Samsung smart TV that can't get any updates because the internal memory is full with apps, that I don't use and can't uninstall. Oh and I can't install any other apps except when I plug in an external USB flash drive.
Except from that and it being sluggish sometimes it's a breeze to use.
Screw TVs, digital signage is the way. With every new smart TV I am more convinced that I'm just going to buy this display from this Jeff Geerling video
No you don't downloading, obscure torrents have almost no seeders.
Private tracker are overrated!
Amen, brotha.
I'm glad that I stopped watching television so many years ago (excluding watching the thing at a friend's place (and muting it when the commercials start rolling)).
Watched only movies in the end. But the ads were too much.
PC & Adblock 💗
Took a while but I found a decent dumb tv to buy. It’s working well for me but some folks have said the lifespan isn’t super long since it’s an off brand with a four star build quality. But the damn thing turns on in under five seconds and the picture quality is great.
It's not that hard to find some https://www.makeuseof.com/best-dumb-tvs/
I did the same thing a couple of years ago. Both of my older dumb TV's bought the big one within weeks of each other. So I searched and found 2 new dumb TV's.
We rarely use them for anything other than casting from the unofficial streaming sites. When my inlaws visit they watch broadcast TV on them.
My teens use their phones or computers.
Do you know electronic, and how to use digital analyzer to capture digital signals?, i don't know what interface current gen TV screen panel uses but in laptops they use LVDS or eDP and in smartphones and tablets they use mipi dsi. You have to reverse engineer the interface to know what each pins does and then buy or make a custom board to control the display panel and don't forget you also have to write firmware and if you are making a custom board you have to use a FPGA to convert digital signal from HDMI to what that panel support and also you have to program that FPGA, for that you have to learn digital electronic and verilog/VHDL language. It's a quite a lot of work and direct resource(like this project) on internet are low, but it still will be a fun project
I was just going to try and put it together like lego and hope for the best, like buy a cheap 4k monitor and buy the repair parts for just a screen of the same resolution and see what happens if I plug them together
If you really need a smart TV in 2025, go get a dumb one, and then hook it up to a used nettop or a single-board computer like Raspberry Pi. You can use a cheap USB infrared receiver to control it via regular remote.
Install something like Plasma Bigscreen, and you'll be golden.
The fuck kind of knock-off TV are you lot buying?
I would honestly love to try switching to an alternative than continue using Fire OS on my Insignia TV, but I don't know of any good alternatives. Maybe I just haven't dug deep enough, but most "3rd party" (not Amazon or Google) Android implementations seem to only support phones, not TVs.
Fortunately, Fire TV can still install apps from outside their app store (like SmartTubeNext), but that can only do so much.
The slide is metal.
The slide is metal, as is the barrel. These are the parts of the gun that would be pressed up against the temple if someone intended to shoot you.
If someone was just rubbing your face with the body of a glock you would have a point, but that not exactly how the aphorism "a gun to my head" goes.
What kind of shitty brand are people buying that have this issue?
None of what he's complaining about has ever happened to me. And the few things that are real, are options that you can disable in two seconds.
It reminds me of when someone posted an article about how Sony has an "ad bar" at the bottom of the screen...
To get the screenshot the author had pressed the input button so that all the installed apps showed up on the bottom, and they acted like it was always there and couldn't be removed
My Samsung TV started showing ads in the app/source select menu. No way to disable it. I had to pi-hole my network to get rid of that crap. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the commenters here saying that they never have a problem have a pi-hole or similar network blocking installed.
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Have a regular PC hooked up to the TV. That's my smart machine. I control every aspect of it. Fuck Smart TVs.
save