Are there even any dumb TVs anymore? The current lineup from CES 2025 is LG (OLED), Samsung (OLED), and TCL (MiniLED) which have great image quality options, but I’m fairly sure all are using a “smart” platform.
TCL doesn’t bother with software and uses Google TV. Samsung uses Tizen which is linux with another junk UI, though less painful than Google. LG uses webOS which I’ve heard UI side is better, but its still a junk UI on linux.
I remember reading that hotel TVs are an option. They also have an ad platform, but one intended for the hotel owner to send ads from, not some 3rd party. Not exactly dumb but also not as bad as regular TVs.
And of course a beamer or PC screen connected to some cheap small form factor PC is always an option, with Kodi or similar on it, i haven’t owned a TV in like 10 years, just using a small linux pc with beamer, and a tv tuner card in the past (nowadays my ISP offers all public channels on IPTV)
Are there even any dumb TVs anymore? The current lineup from CES 2025 is LG (OLED), Samsung (OLED), and TCL (MiniLED) which have great image quality options, but I’m fairly sure all are using a “smart” platform.
TCL doesn’t bother with software and uses Google TV. Samsung uses Tizen which is linux with another junk UI, though less painful than Google. LG uses webOS which I’ve heard UI side is better, but its still a junk UI on linux.
I remember reading that hotel TVs are an option. They also have an ad platform, but one intended for the hotel owner to send ads from, not some 3rd party. Not exactly dumb but also not as bad as regular TVs.
And of course a beamer or PC screen connected to some cheap small form factor PC is always an option, with Kodi or similar on it, i haven’t owned a TV in like 10 years, just using a small linux pc with beamer, and a tv tuner card in the past (nowadays my ISP offers all public channels on IPTV)