buying a ‘dumb’ tv is getting harder and harder to do…
how long until you are forced to hook a new ‘smart’ one up to the internet, just to “set it up”–even if you have no plans on ever using the ‘smart’ features or embedded apps?
You can choose not to connect a Roku TV to the Internet during the initial setup, and you just get access to live TV and the HDMI inputs with (obviously) no streaming channels or updates. It works fine as a dumb TV.
And the credit card thing? That’s after you create your account on their website, you can just close the browser window. Or click the button saying “skip” or “later” or whatever it is.
Agreed. You can buy the displays that are marketed to businesses and usually come without all of the invasive smart features.
They definitely cost more on average, but they’re also built to run more often or constantly, and hold up far better. They’re even a lot more customizable.
You can buy some that come with slots where you put in a raspberry pi or another computer of your choice, instead of whatever OS that comes with smart tvs.
At this point, I’m starting to regularly check if there are “for business customers” options available when I need something, because the options for regular consumers are getting so bad with all this data hoarding and ad pushing.
I’ve tried getting a way too cheap, really bad projector running Android to work once. From Wish or something, I guess. It was a truly unpleasant experience. Fortunately, it wasn’t mine!
Also, I had a good ol’ dumb Epson projector 10-15 years ago, but it had a very noisy fan, meaning you had to always turn up your HiFi to try and camouflage the fan noise in louder sound than you else would’ve had. Are low-end consumer projectors still that noisy?
I have a Ben-Q and sit under it without noticing fan noise at all. It’s 1080p and the lights don’t need to be dimmed. The projector screen is mounted to the ceiling so I just roll it up when I’m done.
That’s good to know! Mine was only 720p “HD ready”, though I remember the image quality as being decent. I just had a white wall, though it actually looked fine on e.g. a blue wall too. I still have it somewhere, but the lamp is broken. Thought of fixing it last time I found it, since a replacement lamp isn’t too expensive, but decided it wasn’t worth it because of the fan noise…
buying a ‘dumb’ tv is getting harder and harder to do…
how long until you are forced to hook a new ‘smart’ one up to the internet, just to “set it up”–even if you have no plans on ever using the ‘smart’ features or embedded apps?
Roku tvs already do that, you even need to put in a credit card number for it to work.
You can choose not to connect a Roku TV to the Internet during the initial setup, and you just get access to live TV and the HDMI inputs with (obviously) no streaming channels or updates. It works fine as a dumb TV.
And the credit card thing? That’s after you create your account on their website, you can just close the browser window. Or click the button saying “skip” or “later” or whatever it is.
Was helping family with setting it up, I guess I didn’t see that
They don’t make it obvious at all, in fact they do their best to seem like you can’t
does this link to make an account without a payment method not work anymore?
https://my.roku.com/signup/nocc
Looking forward to the 1 yr free trial of my new TV, before I have to subsribe to Samsung+ for just 15.99 per month to turn it on.
I cannot stand how believable this scenario is.
Unlock additional HDMI ports for only $5.99 a month!
Agreed. You can buy the displays that are marketed to businesses and usually come without all of the invasive smart features.
They definitely cost more on average, but they’re also built to run more often or constantly, and hold up far better. They’re even a lot more customizable.
You can buy some that come with slots where you put in a raspberry pi or another computer of your choice, instead of whatever OS that comes with smart tvs.
At this point, I’m starting to regularly check if there are “for business customers” options available when I need something, because the options for regular consumers are getting so bad with all this data hoarding and ad pushing.
Just don’t connect it to the internet.
That’s the point they are making. Currently that’s possible. But what is stopping the producers to force you to hook it up to the internet?
O… damn.
Not buying the tv might work… at mass. Like everyone. Please people, vote with your wallet/privacy.
Not gonna happen. People are fine with that.
I can’t figure out why the cheap TCL I bought 5 years ago isn’t packed with ads. Maybe because it’s Roku-based?
Get a projector and a screen. They’re all dumb.
I’ve tried getting a way too cheap, really bad projector running Android to work once. From Wish or something, I guess. It was a truly unpleasant experience. Fortunately, it wasn’t mine!
Also, I had a good ol’ dumb Epson projector 10-15 years ago, but it had a very noisy fan, meaning you had to always turn up your HiFi to try and camouflage the fan noise in louder sound than you else would’ve had. Are low-end consumer projectors still that noisy?
I have a Ben-Q and sit under it without noticing fan noise at all. It’s 1080p and the lights don’t need to be dimmed. The projector screen is mounted to the ceiling so I just roll it up when I’m done.
That’s good to know! Mine was only 720p “HD ready”, though I remember the image quality as being decent. I just had a white wall, though it actually looked fine on e.g. a blue wall too. I still have it somewhere, but the lamp is broken. Thought of fixing it last time I found it, since a replacement lamp isn’t too expensive, but decided it wasn’t worth it because of the fan noise…
Been awhile but boy I really feel like my LG setup was pretty darn close to this sort of experience.