Comment 1HR Re: Dumb TV

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Watching a Smart TV? It's watching you, too.

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Dumb TV (Score: 2, Interesting)

by alioth@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 09:03 (#1H3)

When I went shopping for a new TV at the start of the year, I deliberately only considered 'dumb' TVs. The plan was to add the 'smartness' by using a spare computer I had. The computer does much more, and all the smart TV user interfaces have either had truly awful user interfaces or not supported something I wanted (meaning the computer would be needed anyway). The other issue is that it's likely that in a few years time a smart TV will be pretty out of date in what it supports - you'll have a perfectly good display but with this useless lump of 'smart' (complete with terrible user interface and security vulnerabilities). The computer however can stay up to date much more easily.

Re: Dumb TV (Score: 1)

by vanderhoth@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 12:25 (#1H4)

I have to mostly agree with you on this. I have a Samsung Smart TV in my recroom, I love it, it's great with Netflix built in along with plex and other media server functionality built in. The thing that sucks the most about it though is when you're searching for something, you can't just type in what you want. You have to use the crappy remote to pick letters to spell things, which takes forever and is pron to errors. I've also had issues with my smart tv crashing and having to be unplugged to restart it.

On the other hand I have an older flat screen TV in my bedroom with an Ubuntu laptop in the closet and HDMI cable running through the wall to the TV and a wireless keyboard and mouse on my night stand. It pretty much does just as much as my Smart TV, with the added convenience of being able to play video games and use the keyboard for typing. My wife's laptop is coming up for renewal in the next year so my next TV will likely be a "dumb" TV and I'll setup her old laptop as the media center for the recroom TV. Now if I only had money for a large enough "dumb" TV. The largest disadvantage to this setup, maybe a bonus, is between my wife and I, I'm the only one who seems capable of controlling a laptop driven TV.

Re: Dumb TV (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-12 22:12 (#1HR)

Total bonus. Always choose the tech solution that locks out other family members - makes you more "fun" to have around, ha ha ha.

Junk Status

Marked as [Not Junk] by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-01-04 03:08