[capableweb]

> have to admit I don't fully get the "bling" thing for PCs

Me neither. Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs and similar thing is happening in the PC builders ecosystem. Built a new desktop computer recently, and had to spend more time searching for things that don't have RGB things in them, seems most components nowadays have some sort of RGB lights in them, even when it's completely not needed.

Back in my day, people used to buy strips of RGB lights to add to their setup, so us normal, non-RGB people could still buy the same components. Today, it's a lot harder to find stock CPU fans that don't ship with RGB lights...

[devmor]

My "smart TV" is a pile of junk. We wanted a large TV for home theatre, but couldn't find anything over 65" that wasn't "smart".

It takes 3-5 seconds to turn on, then another 10-20 seconds to react to input from the remote (at which time it will rapidly replay all input provided that it didn't react to in this time, sometimes turning itself back off for no reason).

All of the "apps" are barely responsive and crash regularly. Hulu, particularly will crash at the end of every episode.

I've tried factory resets, and was hopeful about an open source mod until I discovered my firmware version is "unpatchable" as of yet.

The Internet of Shit is alive and well.

[SulfurHexaFluri]

My samsung tv is like this. All I want to do is turn the tv on and switch to HDMI 1. Something that used to be fast and trivial now takes ages of waiting for laggy animations.

[Dansel]

It might interest you to look into the "digital signage" market. It is displays made for hotels and conferences and the like and they don't have those smart features (yet). Picture quality likely isn't going to be top of the line, though, so it depends on what you value.

[capableweb]

Those also tends to be a lot harder to find in stores, if not impossible, together with a lot more expensive.

[jrockway]

I am not a big fan of LEDs in computers as I do not look at my computer (I already have 8 million individually addressable lights connected to my computer), but it seems that RGB can't be avoided these days. It adds pretty much no BOM cost and people like it, so there's probably nothing that can be done.

But! You can use OpenRGB to turn off the lights, so this article still may be relevant for you :)

[fearface]

My LG CX turns on in less than 2s and shows the picture from the HDMI input. The TV can’t access the internet.

I use OpenRGB to disable all lights, or sometimes I’m in the Cyberpunk 2077 mood and make it yellow.

I’m curious that people want to pay more to get less.

[capableweb]

> I’m curious that people want to pay more to get less.

Actually a fairly old adage when it comes to lots of things, not just TVs. Sometimes it's for creativity (limiting yourself to only using specific set of hardware for music production) and sometimes for better user experience (like in industrial design, Dieter Rams' (Braun) simpler radios with less functionality is a famous example, ~1960). Dieter Ram also had a large influence on design in general, and states one of the principles for "Good design" is "Good design is minimal – Less is more. Simple as possible but not simpler. Good design elevates the essential functions of a product."

[SulfurHexaFluri]

The thing is the core idea of smart TVs is good. I _do_ want to be able to stream content to my tv. Its just that TV OEMs can't pull it off or support it for the lifetime of the TV so I would rather nothing than something that makes the tv worse.

[skazazes]

I would agree if the lighting settings were stored on device across the board. I went the route of not paying more for hardware without RGB and am regretting it 6 months later. Disabling the RGB on my GPU persists across OS re-installs as well as driver updates, but my RAM and motherboard's lights require their own program each constantly running in the background in order to NOT have a light show on at all times. Furthermore, when turning on the computer all of the lights are on in full rainbow until these programs launch and ultimately turn off the lights.

Because of the additional friction involved I do not agree with the just turn off rgb mentality many in the hobby push

[mikepurvis]

I'm a generation behind on PC hardware, so I haven't had to deal with this yet, but surely in most cases there'd be a way to physically disable it? I'd expect there to be a jumper you could open or maybe even a trace which could be carefully cut if you don't mind a destructive option.

Anyway, certainly the whole thing has gotten bit out of control. An optional RGB header on a motherboard is one thing, but on the sound card? Total madness: https://youtu.be/0NMlWg-7Crg?t=29

[airstrike]

> Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs

Why would you prefer non-smart TVs?

[ChuckNorris89]

Because the "smart" component in TVs is usually a potential minefield of spyware, ads and security vulnerabilities.

As a rule of thumb, don't trust any software developed by white goods manufacturers and connect it to the internet since it has most likely been developed in a rush and on a tight budget (HW margins are razor thin and good devs with security know-how are expensive) and is most likely a house of cards of outdated kernels, libs and services that are full of CVEs which might never get updated.

[m463]

...and they are worse products because of it.

[gregmac]

Useful life of a TV is at least 10 years. Useful life of a internet media device is generally significantly less than that, but also relatively cheap to replace/upgrade every couple years. (Aside: my 5 year old Nvidia Shield still gets updates and works perfectly, but that's an exception compared to all the other media devices I've owned).

The one smart tv I own is crazy annoying. I used Plex, Netflix and YouTube on it, and about once a week either the core software or one of them would get updated, constantly nagging me with "update available, install now?" prompt, and then blocking usage for several minutes when I finally relented and said yes. That TV now has a Chromecast and all built in network connections disabled.

I won't even get into the adware/malware nonsense others have already talked about.

[gavin_gee]

Yes. Id pay significantly more to have a good panel that is dumb. no apps, no privacy concerns, fast boot. Pioneer years ago used to make the elite panels that were exactly this.

[FooHentai]

Have a look at commercial-grade tv lines from your preferred manufacturer. Often lacking the smart features but otherwise match or exceed consumer specs. There is a price premium, and you may have to go through more niche retailers that typically supply businesses.

[SulfurHexaFluri]

Every time someone links one there is no way to just buy it. You have to contact some sales person and order at least 10.

[Alupis]

I've had my TV for nearly 10 years... and in that time I've "upgraded" my Roku 3 times to get more features, and then to get more performance.

Having the "smart" features decoupled from the screen itself has allowed me to keep my perfectly fine (to me) 1080p screen for all these years while still enjoying the latest-and-greatest "smart" features.

[capableweb]

Their UIs are faster and slimmer than their smart TV counter-part. Since I only use my TV to connect to either a laptop, my mini-desktop that sits under it or a gaming console, I have around 0 use cases that gets solved by having "smart" functionalities which ends up bloating the rest of the experience.

[adolph]

Display technology has historically improved/changed at a slower rate than signal generation technology. Additionally display technology was significantly higher and slower to decrease cost than most signal generators such as VCRs/DVRs/game consoles/etc. Thus beyond minor commodity signal generation such as a TV receiver it makes sense to separate the two at a component level.

This user behavior has been guided by two past trends: A. in the transition from analog to digital TV signals many display makers separated the TV receiver function; B. by the time makers integrated VCRs the world had moved on to DVD which made the integrated VCR a waste product that could not be disposed of without refreshing the display.

Are the signal generation components of "Smart TVs" similar to the analog TV tuner, slow to change and nearly always needed, or are they like the VCR which was integrated right at a signal generator change?

On the other hand, I suspect that displays are adding more general computing for the purpose of scaling, color representations, decryption, etc even without the components that provide "smart" functions. As a result scaling them to include smart functions as software functions is low hanging fruit. I wonder if display computation architecture is common enough to support a user/hobbyist controlled OS.

http://linuxgizmos.com/linux-continues-advance-in-smart-tv-m...

[briffle]

yes! I much prefer my Roku, and its super simple remote. I also appreciate how I can just block one domain in my home DNS for roku, and stop telemetry. Also, My Roku is regularly updated, unlike most smart TV's, and I have heard horror stories of TV's no longer working with things like netflix, because they can't be updated anymore.

[Swizec]

I have a Roku TV and while it suffers from a bunch of smartness issues it’s pretty good. A bit slow to boot, a bit slow to shut down, the apps are shite, and the “Oh no that’s our competitor so you can’t do this obvious thing (like use hbomax)” experience is terrible.

But overall it’s okay. The remote is simple, the main apps are fine and the overall ecosystem integration is okay

[tyingq]

I'm in this camp also. I upgraded my Roku to one that can control the volume and mute the TV, so now I don't ever need the TV remote. Any "smartness" in my TV is wasted effort on me. A dumb monitor with an HDMI connection and audio out is all I need.

[pugworthy]

Have had a Roku of one kind or another since launch. Love it, fun to play with dev interface, and I'll not get anything but one.