[gkhartman]

If a display manufacturer produced a quality display and supported something like this, I wouldn't mind paying a good deal extra for it. I wouldn't even mind if it shipped with a proprietary OS and I had to do the installation myself. I'd love to see Framework or Purism make a Linux powered smart TV.

[da768]

NEC has commercial displays with builtin Pi CM4s.

https://www.sharpnecdisplays.us/products/displays/ma551-mpi4...

[antongribok]

The fact that it actually comes with a Raspberry Pi is incredibly cool to me.

Oh, and of course there's a review of it from Jeff Geerling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-epPf7D8oMk

Actually, this thing has some pretty decent specs... my initial reaction was that it was overpriced, but now I'm thinking this is a decent deal for what you get.

[capableweb]

Looking at the product page, quite prominently this is displayed:

> WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Styrene and Formaldehyde (gas), which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and Lead

I'm not sure the risks are worth the price, I've never seen such warning on any product, but I don't live in the US. Is that a common warning to see? How likely is that to happen? Is it a thing that happens in case the TV breaks in half, or is something that slowly slips out in the air around the TV?

The linked website says "Exposure to these chemicals may take place when products are acquired or used", am I supposed to believe that just buying this TV and bringing it home can make those chemicals to leak out into the air in my home?

The statement brings so many questions but so few answers...

[weberer]

Yeah, styrene and formaldehyde are very common everywhere, usually due to styrofoam packaging. Wood and textiles are often treated with formaldehyde, even in Europe. Lead based solder is less common these days, and pretty much banned in the EU due to the RoHS directive, but there are weird exceptions, like how its OK in servers or networking equipment.

[Leo_Verto]

California mandated these sort of warnings a while ago so manufacturers just started slapping them on all of their products, just in case. Great example of alarm fatigue [1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarm_fatigue

[squeaky-clean]

I'd be willing to pay that much if image quality was similar to (or slightly worse) consumer TVs of the same price.

I'm sure smart TVs make some money off data tracking, I know it's a part of Roku's business model. But I feel like most of the additional cost in this went to the "commercial grade" features. It can be left on at full brightness for months on end. It can probably withstand a kick from a teenager at the mall. The 3 year commercial warranty also probably has some actual urgency behind the support.

Do any non smart models exist that aren't targeting commercial usage? It's probably not practical, thr market for that is probably 0.01% of the total TV market.

[djbusby]

There are loads of non-smart large displays on Alibaba. Just a dumb display with two HDMI and and DP maybe.

[collegeburner]

theres a tonmore to panel quality than size and resolution and im guessing that alibaba stuff isn't so great there. or is at best hit or miss.

[gkhartman]

This looks really great. I know it's expensive for the image quality, but this TV will probably outlive most consumer TVs since it's made for 24/7 operation.

The cost to image quality ratio would probably scare most consumers away, but I might have found my next TV. Thanks for sharing.

[ThrowawayTestr]

A bargain at only $2200USD

[jstanley]

Your grandparent comment said:

> If a display manufacturer produced a quality display and supported something like this, I wouldn't mind paying a good deal extra for it.

[Lammy]

Relevant: "There's a simple reason your new smart TV was so affordable: It's collecting and selling your data, and serving you ads" (2019) https://www.businessinsider.com/smart-tv-data-collection-adv...

[Dylan16807]

The headline is not true.

> Without that revenue stream, Baxter said, consumers would be paying more up front. "We'd collect a little bit more margin at retail to offset it," he said.

A little bit.

The value of that tracking is worth a lot to a company making near-zero margins, but it's not a very big impact on the full price.

[kuschku]

TCL said they're now making more money with tracking than with sold TVs. Just as comparison.

[Dylan16807]

But still somewhere in the single digit percent, I think.

The march of technology is responsible for almost all of the cheapness of TVs, and niche commercial targeting is responsible for the non-cheapness of other TVs.

Hisense has a $430 TV comparable to that $2200 model but with better color. Tracking, I dunno, might be $50.

[buildbot]

For a true commercial grade product with an actual 10bit panel? It kinda is? Plus it won’t spy on you

[pandemicsyn]

Its not like it doesn't have cons:

- 60Hz refresh rate - 8,000:1 contrast ratio with local dimming on - 500 cd/m2 brightness and "HDR compatibilty" - 86% DCI coverage

[preisschild]

For that price you can get a 77in OLED tv from LG and a raspberry which you can use for Bigscreen. Might be better if your main use isn't prone to burn-in (e.g. by displaying the same UI elements over months).

[jstanley]

What does this get you over connecting up an old laptop to a TV screen and controlling it with a bluetooth keyboard?

[vineyardmike]

To add to this, if you use an over the top box (eg Apple TV, game consume, laptop), you don’t really need anything more than a display. All the smarts just add lag and add GUI items that can be buggy. My Samsung takes like 20 seconds between power and and display content simply because it tries to load the smart GUI, and times out on network connection (which doesn’t exist).

[gkhartman]

A much cleaner implementation that doesn't clutter the room with cables and an old laptop. Added bonus that I wouldn't have to explain how it works to each guest that tries to use it (assuming that the UX resembles other TVs people have used).

[jstanley]

But people have used computers before. It works exactly the same as a computer. I think it's much easier than using typical smart TV interfaces.

It has the added bonus (over typical smart TV interfaces) that typing text becomes much faster. You can use the web browser as a web browser. You can use uBlock origin. You can have several tabs open at a time and switch between them at a sensible speed. It's so much better than a smart TV.

You don't need the room cluttered with cables, you can put the laptop in a cabinet underneath the television.

[quickthrower2]

Even better, get a tiny computer and use cable ties to secure it to the TV mount (or velcro to the back of the TV). No wires will be seen.

[Entinel]

Most new TVs are smart TVs so even if you do this you are still running on like Samsung have been caught screen capturing your TV and phoning home for advertising.

[denkmoon]

Your TV can't phone home unless you give it internet. Haven't heard of them shipping with mobile network access yet.

[Liquix]

But when everyone keeps buying ""smart"" TVs and accepting the spyware, pretty soon they will start shipping with baked in 4G chips, and there will be no other option. Vote with your wallet by never buying a smart TV under any circumstance. They are cheaper than actual TVs because the data collected is so lucrative - buying one is implicitly supporting that slimy business model, even if you don't connect to WiFi.

[bogwog]

Don’t even need 4G chips, just a regular ol’ wifi/bluetooth module thanks to stuff like Amazon Sidewalk: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/introducing-amazon-...

[quickthrower2]

Love how the illustration shows houses directly on the road with no sidewalk.

[denkmoon]

There are no non-smart/"actual" TVs. Find a 55" OLED that doesn't have "smart" features.

I mean personally I don't care so long as I don't see ads, but the advice you're really giving is "don't buy a TV". Can't say I disagree though.

[kuschku]

And that's what the Amazon Sidewalk mesh is for

[nmstoker]

How would they phone home without your help? If you're going the route suggested above then it would make no sense to bother putting your Samsung TV on the WiFi

[oyashirochama]

Or just simply block their connection with a PiHole.

[pabs3]

If Software Freedom Conservancy win their lawsuit against Vizio for GPL violations in their TVs, you will probably be able to install open source Linux distros with KDE Plasma Bigscreen or Kodi on any Vizio TV and soon afterwards lots of other smart TV vendors will be similar. Allowing the vendor operating system to remain on the device after you purchase it basically means spyware these days.

https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html