Current Events > Smart TVs are the fucking worst

(+) Yeah! (+)

More like dumb tvs

Just grab a roku

This is why i have a dedicated media PC hooked up to my TV.

Or they just decide they don't want to connect to wifi anymore

Lonestar2000 posted...

This is why i have a dedicated media PC hooked up to my TV.

This is the way.

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How would that help your situation in a way that can't be implemented right now with a Smart TV? By that I mean, just ignore the "Smart" features and use it just as a TV and get the dedicated streaming box you would "need" in the instance if your TV wasn't Internet connected.

You can turn it into a dumb TV by disconnecting wifi.

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Yeah, I think you just have a bad or cheap TV, maybe.

What TV do you have?

Just grab a Raspberry Pi or a mini-PC and make a Kodi box*, or get a Google TV or Firestick. Now you can ignore all the smart features.

*yes, Kodi boxes are commonly associated with piracy, but it's perfectly possible to use them exclusively with legal media

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Correct; this is due to them using completely different technology, that's a liiiiiittle bit slower in response time but vastly superior in just about every other metric (and especially, image quality, power consumption, and device size / weight).

And the difference in response time is something that you're not going to detect without a lab... or at least, a slow-mo camera.

Yeah, I'm with you. I recently bought my first smart TV. It's by far the dumbest TV I've ever owned. I remember the time I had to crawl back behind my entertainment unit to unplug it, because the stupid thing froze and I couldn't even turn it off. And I also realized I don't even know where the on/off button on the actual TV is. It's not on the front where it has always been throughout the entire history of television sets. Gotta love the irony. The smarter a device gets, the more unreliable it becomes.

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Ah, so by "response time" you're in fact talking about how smoothly the TV's software runs, not the literal response time of the display.

Then yes, that is indeed a valid complaint, but only relates to navigating menus. Not relevant (except for the occasional few seconds while switching input sources - which you can also greatly reduce how much you need to do by making use of HDMI-CEC) if you aren't actually using the smart features.

Yeah smart TVs are shit, but you can literally ignore the smart features and use it as if it were a dumb TV. And if you can't on your particular model, well, don't get that model (and probably, not that entire brand) next time.

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Are you including the time you spend pressing the buttons to select the new input? Because I was.

Honestly I'm kinda starting to think you just got a shitty model.

(Also, let's assume you're completely right that it's a few seconds slower to do this. Now compare that to how much longer it took for the old CRTs to start up when turned on, how much time you'd have needed to spend inserting a VHS or DVD into your player when you want to watch a specific thing, etc. Those few seconds don't seem so bad now, do they?)

Maybe your grandson can come over and show you how to work your TV.

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Yeah, I'm gonna join the dogpile of "ok boomer" at this point.

I use a roku ultra for apps

Smart tv's use the cheapest parts for the smart part so its always going to be terrible

My biggest problem with my first ever smart TV is, it's an LG. It's 45" it does 4K though I don't think I ever used anything that got that high or I didn't notice it on my newer Roku device. I think it's great overall. Youtube works well (not their fault some channels don't minimize their mid roll ads).

It's the fact that it comes with these tiny feet. They couldn't spring maybe 5-10 dollars on a piece of plastic that actually feels like a stable stand. Sorry I wasn't interested in mounting this to a wall. But these feet for the TV must have cost less than 2 dollars to make.

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No, I'm defending it because there isn't actually any serious problem with it. The smart features suck, sure, but you can just completely ignore those and use it just like you'd use a dumb TV. Oh, except for having to maybe wait very slightly longer when you change inputs... such a travesty.

type of mf to think modern computer car dashboards were a good idea instead of turning a knob for yoru A/C

No, fuck those. Dashboard is fine for entertainment controls (that you're probably only going to be touching while parked anyway, if you're not an idiot) but not for things like AC (or worse, indicators / gears).

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I have literally never experienced any of these issues on any smart TV I've owned, and that includes at least one cheap-ass bargain brand.

Sony products suck.

I use a TCL and have never had any problems.

I had a Samsung JS8500 (2015) followed by a Q95A (2021) and haven't had these UI issues. Both are pretty responsive and haven't had issues while streaming. On top of that, it works insanely well with my home theatre setup thanks to E-ARC. My PC is connected to it for most thing, but if there's an app for it on the TV then that's usually superior.

My only genuine complaint is that the calibration out of the box was ass on both of them.

All I want is a dumb 4K TV. I bought my 4K TV, updated its firmware, then turned off its Wi-Fi and refused to let it have access to the internet.

Buy an Apple TV. Ideally the one with Ethernet.

Best streaming decision I ever made.

If you don't need the smarts of a smart TV and a monitor is not suitable, consider a "commercial panel display" (or similar language). They will be more expensive, because they are not subsidized by ads/spying, but it's the closest to a dumb TV you can get these days. I'm seriously looking at that for my next round of upgrades, possibly from a commercial/bank auction.

tankboy posted...

If you don't need the smarts of a smart TV and a monitor is not suitable, consider a "commercial panel display" (or similar language). They will be more expensive, because they are not subsidized by ads/spying, but it's the closest to a dumb TV you can get these days. I'm seriously looking at that for my next round of upgrades, possibly from a commercial/bank auction.

I would be careful with those TVs because their spec sheet is built for endurance and durability, not specifically high quality picture. They also have a ton of on-hours.

My 55 smart Vizio is the best TV Ive ever had.

On a side note... do you still want to be able to watch broadcast TV as well, or are you purely going to be using HDMI inputs?

Because maybe what you actually want here isn't a TV at all, maybe what you really want is a monitor.

I own 4 smart tvs, every single one a different brand and they all one thing in common. You have to unplug it and replug it in every now and then.

Never had to do that with a dumb tv.

The software on those things is terrible. I shouldn't have be concerned about the performance of a TV.

I use the built-in apps on my LG C1 for all my streaming services and they work great. Even better than my 4K firestick in most cases. I pretty much just use the fire stick for kodi.

I have my TV constantly jacked in to my laptop so that I can watch YouTube and Twitch on it.

I don't even use my laptop as a laptop.

Mine takes a literal second for every button press.

It might not sound like a big deal, but try searching for "Game Design With Michael" when you have to move a cursor on a virtual keyboard, and there's some other bullshit called "Game Design Wit" that always comes up as the only suggestion until you get to the H.

(I dunno why this never occurred to me until now, but maybe I should try watching the bullshit channel instead of just raging at it because my TV is bad; it sounds like it's about the same concept and obviously nore popular... Anyway, my TV still sucks)

I use the apps on my LG C3, can't say I care enough about their response to not use them. Tv is connected via Ethernet cord to my modem.

I only have 2-3 inputs that I rarely switch between, but I let my receiver do all that and just use one default EARC input on the tv.

Been using input switchers, soundbars, and receivers since the CRT days and this is some total old man yelling at cloud stuff. There are enough easy ways to work around your complaint to not have an issue.

BeefEaster posted...

I use the built-in apps on my LG C1 for all my streaming services and they work great. Even better than my 4K firestick in most cases. I pretty much just use the fire stick for kodi.

I got a Kodi box a while back and I considered a Firestick but eventually went with an RPi5, on account of that it looked like hooking up a USB drive to the Firestick was gonna be a pain in the ass.

Wanna guess how many times I've hooked up a USB drive to the Kodi box?

Zero.

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Yes, you can still use the TV tuner, the HDMI inputs, and play media off a USB drive.

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If the device connected to the HDMI is smart enough to integrate with Alexa, HDMI-CEC might be able to get you close enough to this.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4b5c731b.png

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We call them monitors, much lower latency for games and even higher refreshrates.