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by bleepblorp 2092 days ago
A large form factor monitor hooked up to a PC.

Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes. They're less likely to spew advertising than consumer Smart TVs, but are probably less likely to stay clean than a monitor with no Internet connectivity.

I use a Linux PC as a media decode device. It works, but I have no interest in 4K (hardware video decode is sketchy on Linux, which makes 4K difficult) or paid streaming services (if I wanted to watch sewage I'd take up urban exploration into wastewater facilities).
1 comments
JohnBooty 2092 days ago 

    Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market 
    are an alternative option to a large monitor, 
    especially at larger sizes
Do you have experience running one of these? I'm very curious about the pros and cons.

I've seen it mentioned that they tend to lack features like HDR and may not have remote controls. Any other downsides?

I would be fine with the lack of a remote, and probably even HDR. I would also be willing to pay a bit of a premium over consumer TVs.

However, information on these displays is pretty tough to come by. I browse home theater type forums/subreddits from time to time and don't see people really talking about using them in the home.

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ta8964586 2092 days ago
No experience running them, but looking at samsung digital signage, HDR looks to be a feature of their high end models and extremely expensive. ~$4,500 for a 55" 4K TV [0]. The more competitively priced displays[1] (~$1300 for 70" 4K) don't seem to offer it.

[0]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/pro-tv...

[1]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd...

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JohnBooty 2091 days ago
I think street prices might be quite a bit lower than what we're seeing on Samsung's site.

Amazon has a bunch of affordable models from Samsung. Haven't clicked through them all but here's a 65" with HDR for $600.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Business-Software-Speakers-LH...

However, it's probably not the sort of "dumb" TV we want:

    Setup your TV with custom content quickly 
    and easily using the Biz TV app - available 
    for Android and iOS
Seems like this is interfacing with some sort of app on the TV, so I suppose it's not a dumb display.
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Nextgrid 2092 days ago
They are extremely expensive (however they are built tougher and are designed to stay on 24/24 for years) and indeed lack a lot of consumer-grade features like HDR. They are also hard to actually find & buy, you need to get them shipped and that will add another ~100 bucks to the price.

I guess image quality and response time might be sub-par too compared to a top-of-the-line consumer-grade TV.

They often have serial ports behind them, that serves as the remote control. They may support HDMI CEC for it as well?

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