[1] https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/wikis/Supported...
Me neither. Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs and similar thing is happening in the PC builders ecosystem. Built a new desktop computer recently, and had to spend more time searching for things that don't have RGB things in them, seems most components nowadays have some sort of RGB lights in them, even when it's completely not needed.
Back in my day, people used to buy strips of RGB lights to add to their setup, so us normal, non-RGB people could still buy the same components. Today, it's a lot harder to find stock CPU fans that don't ship with RGB lights...
Why would you prefer non-smart TVs?
As a rule of thumb, don't trust any software developed by white goods manufacturers and connect it to the internet since it has most likely been developed in a rush and on a tight budget (HW margins are razor thin and good devs with security know-how are expensive) and is most likely a house of cards of outdated kernels, libs and services that are full of CVEs which might never get updated.
But overall it’s okay. The remote is simple, the main apps are fine and the overall ecosystem integration is okay
This user behavior has been guided by two past trends: A. in the transition from analog to digital TV signals many display makers separated the TV receiver function; B. by the time makers integrated VCRs the world had moved on to DVD which made the integrated VCR a waste product that could not be disposed of without refreshing the display.
Are the signal generation components of "Smart TVs" similar to the analog TV tuner, slow to change and nearly always needed, or are they like the VCR which was integrated right at a signal generator change?
On the other hand, I suspect that displays are adding more general computing for the purpose of scaling, color representations, decryption, etc even without the components that provide "smart" functions. As a result scaling them to include smart functions as software functions is low hanging fruit. I wonder if display computation architecture is common enough to support a user/hobbyist controlled OS.
http://linuxgizmos.com/linux-continues-advance-in-smart-tv-m...
The one smart tv I own is crazy annoying. I used Plex, Netflix and YouTube on it, and about once a week either the core software or one of them would get updated, constantly nagging me with "update available, install now?" prompt, and then blocking usage for several minutes when I finally relented and said yes. That TV now has a Chromecast and all built in network connections disabled.
I won't even get into the adware/malware nonsense others have already talked about.
Having the "smart" features decoupled from the screen itself has allowed me to keep my perfectly fine (to me) 1080p screen for all these years while still enjoying the latest-and-greatest "smart" features.
I use OpenRGB to disable all lights, or sometimes I’m in the Cyberpunk 2077 mood and make it yellow.
I’m curious that people want to pay more to get less.
Actually a fairly old adage when it comes to lots of things, not just TVs. Sometimes it's for creativity (limiting yourself to only using specific set of hardware for music production) and sometimes for better user experience (like in industrial design, Dieter Rams' (Braun) simpler radios with less functionality is a famous example, ~1960). Dieter Ram also had a large influence on design in general, and states one of the principles for "Good design" is "Good design is minimal – Less is more. Simple as possible but not simpler. Good design elevates the essential functions of a product."
Because of the additional friction involved I do not agree with the just turn off rgb mentality many in the hobby push
Anyway, certainly the whole thing has gotten bit out of control. An optional RGB header on a motherboard is one thing, but on the sound card? Total madness: https://youtu.be/0NMlWg-7Crg?t=29
It takes 3-5 seconds to turn on, then another 10-20 seconds to react to input from the remote (at which time it will rapidly replay all input provided that it didn't react to in this time, sometimes turning itself back off for no reason).
All of the "apps" are barely responsive and crash regularly. Hulu, particularly will crash at the end of every episode.
I've tried factory resets, and was hopeful about an open source mod until I discovered my firmware version is "unpatchable" as of yet.
The Internet of Shit is alive and well.
But! You can use OpenRGB to turn off the lights, so this article still may be relevant for you :)
If it makes people happy, I'm all for it. I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to actually turn the lights in the CPU-fan off though (they are on by default), so there is a very colourful and pointless light show going on within my completely black and opaque computer case.
I might try to embrace it to look nice, but I will probably just end up turning them all off, despite having a window on the case.