Main reason I want the steam machine to be a hit is just getting regular Linux boxes under people’s TVs and that getting developer interest. KDE Plasma Big Screen too. Good TV interfaces for media software. Respond well to remotes and gamepads. Popular service apps like Netflix and Crunchyroll. It’s jarring when I use other people’s TVs and the default page screen is just a wall of advertisements. At least Android based TVs I can install projectivity launcher to get a clean interface
Excellent News ! Finally, an easy way to disable every smart feature !
Joke’s on them, I don’t want any of the smart features
This is why i don’t like “smart” tv.
Its been so long since ive had or bought a tv, what are the brands that are the least shitty now? I used to always be a samsung everything kinda guy but fuck them now. I wish they never started fucking around with software and stuck to just hardware. Their products from strictly the hardware side are still excellent. My zfold7 is amazing the older gens started rickety but each version i got (so the 3, the 5 and the 7) has been a respectible improvement but the 7 really stepped up the quality. The last samsung tv i got was like 65" curved screen amazing picture but the fucking interface was pure cancer and i will not buy another. My samsung 4k monitors, non-smart normal fridge, and my equally as dumb oven are great and dont have any stupid shit so Ill buy more dumb samsung products lol.
By any brand which lets you use HDMI devices without connecting to Wi-Fi. TCLs have better specs than most for the price and they have a Basic TV mode which doesn’t need internet.
However, their Google TV mode is still good as it lets you disable the ads on the home screen with apps-only mode and it supports sideloading of SmartTube (an ad free YouTube app) and free movie apps.
Does this work with Chromecast?
Yes it does.
Thanks and this me being lazy at this point, do you have some docs to refer to?
You just have to connect your phone to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV, then press the cast button in an app and select the TV from the list.
Because Chromecast is a Google service, you must log into a Google account on the TV for it to work, however apps only mode hides the home screen ads and myactivity.google.com lets you disable the tracking.
TCL is samsung
Nope, but the TCL’s are manufactured with the CCP’s and PLA’s finest data gathering components.
I finally got fed up with it last year and blocked the internet access of my TV on the router level becuase upon contacting support I learned that there was no way to turn off the microphone setting. For real. They just didn’t add that feature in to my model. I still can’t believe that.
It is a little incovneient that I have to turn on my PC before I can watch anything but man the freedom of knowing that TV won’t be spying on me 24/7 is freeing.
Next time I buy I will be looking for commercial displays with HDMI and DisplayPort if its even possible by then.
Damn shame, Vizio’s are designed in California.
Buy commercial displays, not TVs
I just use my PC through my TV.
Also don’t buy tvs with voice activation.
That means they have mics on 24/7.
Does that mean it disables all Tue smart shit about f you don’t connect an account? Nice.
Yeah I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out the downside.
It would not surprise me if the tv it’s self will not work until you run through a setup process, and during this process you are required to create an account.
Sounds like a feature
Roku is every bit as bad. They bricked all customer’s previously purchased TVs by implementing a new user agreement through their UI without warning. It couuld not be bypassed. Opting out required first opting in, agreeing to those new terms and then mailing a letter within a very short window with explicit, detailed requirements.
My next TV won’t be connected to the Internet and definitely won’t be a Roku or Visio product.
Does the TV work as a screen if you factory reset it then never reconnect it to the internet?
It does. I wound up buying two new TVs because of the thing OP is talking about here. You could actually get around agreeing and then opting out by removing the TV from the network and then restoring it to factory and never reconnecting it.
Haven’t tried that yet. For now I’ve blocked most of Roku’s BS with Adguard Home.
The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.
– George Orwell
And if I don’t want to use their smart features?
this seems like it might be a win
I have a Vizio TV I bought in the mid-teens that only lets you change the source and turn the volume/channel up and down with the remote. Everything else…the display/audio settings, naming the inputs, setting the channel names…requires the Vizio app on your phone. Literally no other way to access them. If I’d have known at the time I would have returned it immediately, but unfortunately I didn’t discover this for a couple weeks as it was on sale and I was leaving for vacation, so I bought it, dropped it at home, and didn’t actually touch it until it was past the point where I’d have been charged restocking fees so I kept it.
I guess my point is…I wouldn’t necessarily bank on that. They can easily just make the TV not fucking work without the account, just like some of the other brands I’ve interacted with that will not even let you bypass the initial screen when you power it on for the first time without entering an email address or else it gets locked in it’s demo mode.
Even if 50% of them get returned they’ll likely still be making money.
Yeah, if they could keep you out of it, that would be different. Wonder what happens if you don’t have internet.
TVs are screens or privacy nightmares. You get to choose as the consumer.
This is fine IMO, because you shouldn’t use the smart features in the first place. Just get a 3rd party streaming box. The ONN one is like $25. (Or if you’re a giant nerd hook your computer to your TV.)
I do this, run a regular linux desktop right on my TV, idles at like 10 watts. Only do it though if you plan to go full pirate.
TIL my senior parents are giant nerds.
