"Smart" TVs are shit *RANT*

How I hate this. Everything has to be smart nowadays. With smart being a buzzword synonym for "stupid computer with closed source locked software you have no control over".

Looking for a new TV. Every TV is smart. There is none without that crap. Salesperson: "You don't have to use it." Yeah, but I have to pay it if I need a new TV. So many people have been telling me things like these about their smart TVs:
  • YouTube app crashes
  • Netflix doesn't work (anymore)
  • No updates
  • Slow
  • Internet browser is shit
And so on.
Salesperson: "You are the only person on the whole wide world not wanting a smart TV. Customers nowadays want this"
Customer nowadays, and at every time before, just buy what is there and what they get told is "the new thing".

It is a huge waste that you should throw away a huge TV after a few years because the internal apps stopped working (and there are no updates). Why not put the "smart" stuff into a tiny easily replaceable box (hardly larger than a thumb drive)?

The TV has one job: Be the biggest screen in the house with the best image for movies and video games. Why not give people the *option* to simply buy a minimalist device doing this job?

I didn't even mention the lack of analoge inputs. WTF. No composite. No (RGB) Scart. No component. Nothing. The young man today in the Media Markt didn't even understand me as I asked him: "How do I connect my old analoge devices?"
Salesman "What do you mean??"
Sinchen "Non HDMI devices."
Salesman: "Scart?"
Sinchen: "Yes, Scart, Composite. Component. I need to connect my (S)NES, PlayStation 1, VHS recorder, Wii and so on "
Salesmen: (relieved) "We have an adapter."
Sinchen "Does it introduce lag?"
Salesman: "What!?"
Sinchen: "Does it introduce lag? You know: If I play NES games requiring pixel perfect jumps and this introduces some milliseconds delay, the game is unplayable."
Salesman: "I'm not a gamer. No idea what you mean. It is not a passive adapter. It is an active converter. Probably not instantaneously. But that doesn't matter." (No shit, Sherlock! Analoge signals have to be converted to HDMI)"
Sinchen: "It doesn't matter for watching VHS, but for gaming."
Saleman: *TILT* "I'm not a gamer."
Sinchen: "Even my year 2012 plasma TV has a game mode. For that reason." (And it is impossible to play on this TV without game mode!!)
Salesman: "Yeah. All our TVs have a game mode!"
Sinchen: "See. Because of not introducing lag the TVs have to disable their stupid picture improvements."

I am not the only one on the whole wide world wanting just a huge monitor. A monitor that starts up in two seconds and just does the one job: Show video signals.
I don't want to have a bunch of "You don't have to use it" (but you will press it anyway accidentally nonstop) buttons for Netflix, Disney, YouTube, Amazon…

Go to hell, TV makers. I want a TV, not a Televisor! You want people to connect their devices to the internet. There will be privacy problems (the guy told me there was not a single model without microphone left). The industry wants this. Not "all the customers" - at least not actively or consciously.


No, I will not buy a digital signage monitor 10 times as expensive as a consumer TV. That is no alternative.
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KleinesSinchen
DragonMals said:
I would love to know why most modern TVs get rid of composite/AV Cables. I recently bought two and they didn't have them on it! (An adapter would be nice, but I don't know which one to get)
Click to expand...
Money. As always. Consumer electronics are – for the most – mass produced things, often garbage grade, with the goal of minimizing costs in order to compete with other companies doing the same.
Longevity (hardware durability and nowadays software support) is no concern. A finished and shipped product is an outdated product (and the consumer shall be ready to buy the successor tomorrow). If you are considered to change you TV like your underpants, why shouldn't this be the case for peripherals? My plasma TV is from 2012. That is considered to be a very old TV (where I always though something big like this should last 20+ years).

Looking at most analog devices: They are really broken or at least in need of maintenance. VHS recorders are a prime example for being in bad condition nowadays. The often need professional cleaning, adjustments and grease by now. Rarely are people able to do so themselves (or willing to pay a professional)… just to enjoy 20+ year old deteriorating tapes recorded with a bad VHS adding up to the low picture quality. All in all: Many people got rid of their analog video players long ago. The masses are happy with their streaming-:shit: (and will start crying once their all-on-one super smart TV is out of support). I've seen DVD players fail for no reason on the electronic side (not the mechanical or the laser parts). For average people analog devices are gone which brings us back to the beginning: Cutting costs. Few people asking for such inputs → gone to save money.

Old Nintendo consoles have seen TVs come and go. The NES is approaching the age of 40. For entertainment electronics that is ancient… and it just works. Nobody expected them to work like this – not even Nintendo. On the Zelda cartridges for NES there is a note saying the backup battery for the SRAM will work for 5 years (I've checked a few months ago: The 1987 battery is still working).

I'm not blind to the facts: Analoge stuff is so outdated and becoming rare that supporting all different kinds of inputs becomes a hassle (Composite, Scart – inlcuding RGB, S-Video and Component). What is not a hard fact for me is "Everybody wants a smart TV". That is not true. There are a lot of people with privacy concerns who would be happy to not have that stuff. The average consumer will just buy what they are offered and not fight for getting something fitted to their needs. The way huge TVs become obsolete nowadays is a crime on the environment. Artificial obsolescence (not planned obsolescence like in planned hardware breakdown). Working things get thrown away:
tech3475 said:
They're currently on their second Smart TV because the first was ridiculously slow.
Click to expand...
 
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tech3475
KleinesSinchen said:
Old Nintendo consoles have seen TVs come and go. The NES is approaching the age of 40. For entertainment electronics that is ancient… and it just works. Nobody expected them to work like this – not even Nintendo. On the Zelda cartridges for NES there is a note saying the backup battery for the SRAM will work for 5 years (I've checked a few months ago: The 1987 battery is still working).
Click to expand...

Actually old consoles have their issues as well.

The NES for example, the 'ZIF' connector used for cartridges is a known failure point. Old consoles/computers can require maintenance just as much as other old devices, it can be a real pain when ICs fail.

KleinesSinchen said:
The way huge TVs become obsolete nowadays is a crime on the environment. Artificial obsolescence (not planned obsolescence like in planned hardware breakdown). Working things get thrown away:
Click to expand...

My biggest problem is when people are unwilling to augment their TVs when something becomes unsupported, etc. For example, buying a cheap Fire Stick over a new TV.

Just because something is a 'Smart TV', doesn't mean it can't be used as a normal TV.
 
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KleinesSinchen
tech3475 said:
The NES for example, the 'ZIF' connector used for cartridges is a known failure point.
Click to expand...
Correct. But the NES is really old by now. Should we really complain when things >30 years start getting problems? Both NES here still perfect. They got a good cleaning for the connector once.
Unsurprisingly old consoles get problems with capacitors as well.

tech3475 said:
it can be a real pain when ICs fail.
Click to expand...
Often the deathblow. I must say I'm impressed by how good old consoles fared up to now. I've had so many other devices – often used less than my consoles – completely fail after few years.

tech3475 said:
Just because something is a 'Smart TV', doesn't mean it can't be used as a normal TV.
Click to expand...
I would still prefer not having (and paying) it in the first place. Rather a TV that starts in few seconds and uses external sources.
 
tech3475
KleinesSinchen said:
Correct. But the NES is really old by now. Should we really complain when things >30 years start getting problems? Both NES here still perfect. They got a good cleaning for the connector once.
Unsurprisingly old consoles get problems with capacitors as well.


Often the deathblow. I must say I'm impressed by how good old consoles fared up to now. I've had so many other devices – often used less than my consoles – completely fail after few years.
Click to expand...

YMMV.

My Dad went through 2 C64s back in the 80s (suspect faulty ICs in hindsight).

My first NES had the ZIF issue back in the 90s.

My brother's Amiga 1200 had an FDD failure back in the 90s.

A friend had a PS1 with a faulty ODD back in the 90s (had to do the 'upside down' trick).

My first two Mega Drives and Saturn had IC issues back in the 00s.

This happened all as part of regular usage, although I suspect the Saturn was faulty from when I bought it second hand, but I couldn't tell at the time.

KleinesSinchen said:
I would still prefer not having (and paying) it in the first place.
Click to expand...

Understandable, but looking at the cost of some TVs, I suspect the cost of 'smart' functionality is rather minimal though, especially with how highly consolidated things have become internally.

Looking at one retailer here in the UK, Argos, their cheapest sets are 'smart' but at around the same price as previous 'non smart' sets.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 'smart' functionality is actually being used to offset the reduced prices of TVs e.g. advertisements, app stores, rental stores, 'shortcut' buttons, etc.

I won't be surprised though if eventually someone does release a 'non-smart' TV, but charges a premium for it.

KleinesSinchen said:
Rather a TV that starts in few seconds and uses external sources.
Click to expand...

That sounds like my disconnected Smart TVs, unless we're talking cold boot. That said, bar one or two exceptions, most connected Smart TVs I've used aren't that bad to turn on and change input, it's only when dealing with the apps side that they really start to struggle.
 

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