Yep, lets talk about the main demographic for big box TVs.
- Used to being advertised to constantly so it's not really more of an intrusion.
- Typically don't realize they can or have little desire to impose their will on technology.
- Usually very price discriminating so shaving a few extra dollars off with ad revenue does translate into more sales.
- Have demonstrated their value as someone with disposable income.
- "Smart features" are a novelty value-add that's really cheap to include and has basically no user expectation of working.
Match made in heaven honestly. If you really want a dumb TV you pretty much have to find somewhere that sells commercial models but you're going to pay a huge premium. They're on the way out too since businesses just opt for just buying the cheper consumer models.
Your realistic options:
- Find a Smart TV that can pass as a dumb TV and just never network the thing. Sony is pretty not terrible.
- Buy a projector.
- Buy a TV with a built-in Chromecast or wait for Android TV to happen which might be a not terrible enough experience to actually use.
I'm confused by dismisal of smart tvs as "novelty value add[s]", while simultaneously saying "buy a tv with a built in chromecast". That's pretty much what smart televisions are.
Mine has multiple streaming clients built in that work perfectly fine. It's literally running Android. The biggest problem with it is that it uses some private LG app store. If it didn't, I wouldn't own a Apple TV, but as it is, the built in tv apps are where I spend 90% of my time. They work. They're updated frequently. The experience is just better.
Smart TVs where the software is managed by the hardware vendor are IMO garbage. I'm saying if you can find a TV where the smart features are provided and managed by company whose device you were going to plug in the back anyway (Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, etc.) then it's not too bad.
Isn't LG running webOS? Didn't think they had any Android based non "Android TV" models.
Honestly, it's pretty good, with the caveat that outside of the major streaming providers, the apps aren't very interesting. But it's not like we're talking a infotainment system from a car manufacturer, those things are 100% shit every time.
I love my Android TV, but I had to uninstall "Google play movies and TV" from it a few nights ago. It was playing movie trailers in the background of the home screen. I don't need to watch the trailer for skyscraper on continuous loop.
Auto-starting trailers for adult movies like Predator is a horrible experience if you have kids in the house. Who thought that's a good idea should never be allowed to make decisions.
Wow. We are really moving into a sad future where we will be watched and advertised to all the time. I guess self driving cars will also have an ad screen you probably can turn off for a premium.
- Used to being advertised to constantly so it's not really more of an intrusion.
- Typically don't realize they can or have little desire to impose their will on technology.
- Usually very price discriminating so shaving a few extra dollars off with ad revenue does translate into more sales.
- Have demonstrated their value as someone with disposable income.
- "Smart features" are a novelty value-add that's really cheap to include and has basically no user expectation of working.
Match made in heaven honestly. If you really want a dumb TV you pretty much have to find somewhere that sells commercial models but you're going to pay a huge premium. They're on the way out too since businesses just opt for just buying the cheper consumer models.
Your realistic options:
- Find a Smart TV that can pass as a dumb TV and just never network the thing. Sony is pretty not terrible.
- Buy a projector.
- Buy a TV with a built-in Chromecast or wait for Android TV to happen which might be a not terrible enough experience to actually use.