Walmart sells a brand called Sceptre that I've been using for years now. Cheap dumb TV and use a Chromecast for all my streaming needs, works like a charm. And, I can always plug a real computer into it if I need it to be "smart"
Technology
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
I got a Vizio a few years ago because they don’t require you to connect it to the internet at all. I just use a separate set-top box with it.
Get one with a good panel and ignore the "Smart" part. Better use something like a Fire TV Stick.
Sony Bravia running Android TV (Google TV, whatever they're calling it these days). I refuse to buy any other kind of TV based on how clean, ad free, and easy to use I've found my Bravia to be. They have a variety of LED options and sizes
Are they still trash in terms of performance (I know that all smart tvs have weak hardware but my experience with Sony was even worse than average)?
Recently LinusTechTips posted a video vouching for Roku TVs. It seems they have a really snappy UI with no ads.
Roku does have ads but they are pretty minimal and not invasive. I've had roku since almost the start and have had a roku tv for several years and love it
Roku TV owner here: Yes, mostly.
The main screen does show one "banner ad" (which you can briefly see in the LTT video), usually for some show that is streaming on some platform.
But that's the only one, and I appreciate that it's microphone is built into the remote and only activated when pressing a button on said remote.
Otherwise it stays out of your way, and the app selection is quite good, if you need them - otherwise just a really solid, budget friendly TV.
My 5 year old Roku which I used to block it from internet a access as it is so chatting talking to Roku all the time, even when itin use suddenly would not work at all unless I gave it access to the internet. So be wary of Roku tvs if you plan to not let them use the internet. In fact is is the second most block domain on my network.
If I could figure out how to post an image I could show the almost 11k requests it blocked over the last 7 days. And I don’t use any of its smart features as I have an Apple TV connected to it that I use.
I've had a TCL Roku tv for a while and I love it. There's really only one ad and it's off to the side of the list of apps, so really non-intrusive.
You can actually block adds on roku through a secret menu in the settings
Can you elaborate on this secret method?
The Roku secret menu can be found on Roku devices only, and you can adjust what ads you see through it by clicking the home button 5 times, pressing up,right,down,left, and toggling different advertisement settings once the menu opens.Jun 22, 2023
Cool, gonna try this later!
We're looking to get our first TV in years, the current one is about 10-12 years old. We don't watch normal 'tv', everything is streamed through another device.
What kind of adverts can I expect in a modern current-gen TV?
Mine just pushed streaming services and shows I'm not interested in, and makes it waaaaay easier to accidentally get advertised at than to find the input select menu to get out of that.
The UI also lags hard while trying to stream video because the embedded computer is terrible
Yes just a NonSmart TV they are usually cheap or very expensive or old
Buy a projector instead. Most don't have any of the "smart" spyware that TVs do yet. Plus you get like a 4x bigger screen for for half the price