cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51919648

Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.

The text in the image:

I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    3 months ago

    I’ve got a computer connected to mine, it boots to HDMI 1 where my computer is connected and when I want to watch something on a platform I use the shortcut on my remote, I never have to see the TV’s home page…

    LG C1

  • egrets@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 months ago

    My TV is ten years old and “smart” only in the dumbest sense. How well do modern smart TVs operate when airgapped and only using an external device for files and streaming services? Is it still painful?

    I realize the question is quite general!

    • fodderoh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Recently bought a new LG. I have not connected it to the network and have it set to automatically return to the last input on startup rather than go to the home screen. May as well just be a really big monitor at this point, which is perfect. I never see the LG interface and it never prompts me for anything.

  • Bosht@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    This is why I ended up upgrading to a Nvidia shield, specifically because I can boot into whatever loader I want. When Amazon started live adverts for sports, which I’ve literally never shown interest in my entire life, and I couldn’t disable or configure the apps it showed, yeah, I was done. My TV is next.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Pro tip: Sceptre still makes dumb TVs.

    (I’d love to list other brands so as not to give the appearance of shilling for a particular one… but I don’t know of any others.)

    Also, beware: not all of Sceptre’s TVs are dumb; they also have some that run Android TV. Avoid any TV with a model number starting with “A”.

  • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Are there non-smart TVs these days? Whenever I go through Costco, I only see smart TVs. I don’t own a TV so I haven’t looked into any this in quite a while.

    • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 months ago

      Came across a TV the other day, I think it was a TCL Roku? Couldn’t rename the HDMI input while offline. Smart TVs were a mistake.