Ask HN: Non-Smart TV Recommendations?
8 behnamoh 10 8/22/2025, 12:21:12 AM
I don't want a trojan horse in my living room, I want a good ol' TV that's good at just being a screen. No "smart" features but great image quality.
PS: I'm also open to smart TVs that can be "jailbroken" or severely restricted to remove all their "smartness".
My use case: Watch shows streamed from my laptop via HDMI, play games, etc.
Smart TVs are actually cheaper --- which make no sense until you realize they are counting on recurring revenue from privacy invasion. They try to strong arm you into connecting the TV to the internet --- unless you run the TV in store demo mode.
Also, the picture quality on lower ends models differ from the more expensive ones primarily because their bightness, contrast and color saturation controls are artificially limited --- except when run in store demo mode.
So my solution is to buy a low end smart TV and run it in demo/store mode without connecting it to the internet. Whereupon, it it will act just like a dumb TV with the brightness and contrast jacked up to simulate the more expensive models.
Most TV's won't freak out if they lack an internet connection and are still fully functional (outside of services that require internet), and many can be updated via firmware on USB thumbdrive over sneakernet.
This is also more futurepoof - I have a relatively ancient (in TV timelines) Vizio that is so old that none of the apps were working with modern services (and even when they worked the were slow/laggy), so I just unplugged ethernet and drove it from other HDMI sources.
If you do want streaming apps, Bluetooth, wireless sharing, etc, you can buy a plugin box/dongle. E.g. a Chromecast, Google TV, or a full-blown AVR.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sceptre-50-Class-4K-UHD-LED-TV-U5...