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this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
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Well, my next tv won’t have a Roku in it. I was just about to buy one, and if anyone here has any advice on a dumb TV with no built-in smart features, I would really appreciate some suggestions. They’re surprisingly difficult to find nowadays. I’m looking for some thing 43 inches or smaller, 4K or 1080, and nothing special. Preferably very cheap.(I’m poor)
Maybe just buy a monitor, particularly if you only need streaming.
I use my "smart" tv as a monitor to stream. It has never connected to the internet and it does not pester me.
This is the real answer. If you don't have any benefit from connecting it to the Internet, don't. Use a separate device for streaming, if you have to. I guess Apple TV or NVIDIA Shield, or Chromecast? I need to look into the benefits, but I don't want to support Roku anymore...
This may be the best advice, esp since I only need small and dumb.
Smart TVs are usually sold at a loss because they expect to make the money back through ads, so if you never connect one to the internet in the first place, you get a cheap decent TV and you cost these cockroaches money
I have heard that you can't just choose to not connect it, you actually have to route it to a dead end like a pihole. Supposedly some of these smart TVs will make you think you were allowed to bypass completely but have just connected to the nearest unsecured network.
Not an issue for people who have no neighbors, but people who live in a suburb or city?
I'm not sure about generally, but on Roku specifically, the first step is to kick it off your network. I Mac address banned mine because it was connected to wireless. Then I could use the menus. I used them to factory reset the TV. During the reset process you hit "do this later" on anything that is trying to get you to connect to the Internet. Afterwards, you've got a plain dumb TV.
Thank you so much for this walk through.
I've heard that too. I've also verified that the only unsecured network in range is my own mobile hotspot, and never once seen my TV (or anyone else's in my apartment building) connect to it. We really need to stop saying that this is a thing that's happening when the only evidence for it is "someone somewhere said it once"
Well, if its that simple I won't have to worry when I upgrade next year.
Definitely not at a loss. Just with a smaller margin.
My setup is a Samsung that doesn’t have WiFi setup. It supports HDMI CEC, as does my game console and streaming box, so I basically never touch the TV remote. It’s effectively a dumb monitor.
I mostly stream via my Xbox and AppleTV since they’re performant systems.
I may be old-fashioned but that's the only thing a TV is supposed to be. You choose how to use it by its periphery.
I know smart TVs get a lot of shit here, but I get the desire to have one remote, no need to configure a universal remote, and no need to manage inputs.
Personally, I think HDMI CEC is the best way to simplify remotes and input management, but I can understand why my folks would not even want to think about external devices and would want to buy one rectangle that has all the things in it already, including an app for their cable channels.
It’s an appealing user experience proposition, but it’s often executed poorly, and creates more e-waste.
Most LGs can be set up without internet at all.
My fucking Samsung Refrigerator refused to cool until I paired it to a mobile app. It wasn't even one of those fancy tablet screen ones. It beeped at me for hours until I had the time to figure out wtf was wrong with it.
That's insane. I know it's a ball ache to move them but I'd have taken that thing right back and gotten a refund.
Yeah, I would have to if I had chosen it, but it was probably the cheapest stainless steel they carried in that size. Landlord replacement when the last fridge crapped out
He can pair it to the phone app or whatever on his device then; his fridge, his problem.
Scepter seems to be the well recommended budget option
How are they with longevity? Like, if they only last 2-3 years, is there a reliable date I can know they’ll die on? That’s good to know.
Like, a lot of TCLs have a hard 3-year life. It’s good to know what you’re buying.
I have a Sceptre tv. I use it as a TV and computer monitor. I don't remember exactly when I bought it, but it has been at least several years-maybe a decade, and it works great.
The only issue is I think I damaged the screen slightly a year or two ago while cleaning. Most of the time the damage isn't visible and is very small, so I don't worry about it. Well...and I had to replace the remote once as some buttons stopped working properly. Otherwise I have been using it without problem.
Best Budget TV’s
Wonder what their top dumb TV is besides their top budget models:
Hmm, even their monitor TVs seem to all be smart whether $300 or $1000.
Any TV is dumb, if you don’t connect it to the net
Unfortunately I've seen a few recent TVs that constantly pester you to connect it to the internet. TV makers are trying to crush that.
Commercial display TVs. They are dumb TVs with modern displays.
I tried to find one without Smart TV features and they do exist, just not at the mid tier and above and not from any mainline brands. Good news is, at the low tier you might have some luck. I'm personally getting an LG, but I heard WebOS is easy to root so I won't have those Roku problems.