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Comment by mmsimanga | Hacker News Reader

As someone who works in software I have been advising all my friends and anyone who cares to listen NOT to buy a smart tv but rather buy a Fire TV Stick or any another Android TV box or stick. Apart from smart TVs being ridiculously overpriced, my reasoning has been you can always upgrade your TV box for less than you upgrade your Smart TV once software on smart TV no longer being updated.

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I think you have it backwards--the 'dumb TVs' are the ones that are expensive now. Presumably smart TVs are subsidized by the manufacturer selling the data they collect on you.

For now, I've settled for buying a smart TV and not connecting it to the Internet. Until they come up with a way to phone home without my Wi-Fi, I think I should be safe from spying and vulnerabilities..

> Presumably smart TVs are subsidized by the manufacturer selling the data they collect on you.

There's no presumption, this is known.

https://www.businessinsider.com/smart-tv-data-collection-adv...

> Until they come up with a way to phone home without my Wi-Fi

I've seen several reports that some TVs will find and connect to an open Wi-Fi if you don't set them up, and then phone home that way.

Probably better to connect it to your Wi-Fi, but block its access to WAN. Or open the TV and remove the module entirely.

Perhaps pricing is location based. In South Africa only a small population have broadband to full utilize the "smart" features. IMHO for many it is more of a status symbol having a smart TV but that's just my opinion. Smart TVs definitely cost more.

Dumb TVs are only offered as budget models, so they're not really that expensive. I wish there were high end dumb TVs offered.

I'd also argue that the built-in apps on "smart" TVs increase the manufacturer's profit margins rather than reduce costs for consumers. Sure there are some brands/models that compete on affordability, but others don't need to. After all, did the price of the iPhone go down as Apple scaled up and reduced the cost of manufacturing? No. They just started making more money off of it.

All the Smart TVs I've bought have been like, ~$300 for 50"-55" on Black Friday sales. How are they overpriced?

Even without considering price, I am pretty sure smart features are standard in almost every TV now. I started looking for a new TV last week, and I can count the amount of non-smart TVs I saw on one hand.

Dumb TVs simply do not exist anymore for all practical purposes. The common advice is to get a commercial or hospitality panel but that advice is outdated, those all have smart features now, too.

At the same time, folks all over the internet like to mention finding dumb TVs but never provide links, model names, or even just brand names. Why? I've looked pretty hard and can't find any actual verified dumb TVs that are actually for sale anywhere. The top comment in this post at the time of this writing directly mentions finding a buying a smart TV, but provides no further details.

I've heard the "buy commercial dumb panels", but also have never seen links.

For the one smart tv I do have, I just don't have it connected to the internet. Even then, I have no way of knowing if it's connecting to any open wifi networks near me.

Just search for "commercial displays" and they should show up.

https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/ under "4K UHD Displays"

https://pro.sony/ue_US/products/professional-displays

Vizio still sells dumb TVs at 30 inches and smaller, and not 4k

I am in South Africa. Smart TVs cost by my calculations at least 10 percent to as much as 30 percent more for same size screen and resolution. Perhaps it's the in thing right now to get a smart tv hence the difference in price.

Can you share some links to these cheap "dumb TVs" available to you in South Africa? Which brand/model?

The best I can do is send you link our biggest online shopping site called Takealot[0].

[0]https://www.takealot.com/tv-audio-video/tv_

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