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Comment by CydeWeys | Hacker News Reader

Time to get a new TV then. It's been time for awhile but this is gonna be the inciting incident. And definitely not getting a Roku TV as my new one.

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Unless you're taking some ideological stance against Roku, no need to replace your existing hardware, it will continue to work with Youtube:

We are, however, giving Roku the ability to continue distributing both YouTube and YouTube TV apps to all existing users to make sure they are not impacted.

I think this is saying your existing YouTube app will work but as a new user you won’t be able to find the app

There's no need to get a new TV, unless your Roku TV lacks HDMI ports. Mine has plenty.

I've been thinking of moving away from Roku anyway though, because they seem underpowered. Most of the apps on mine are a bit laggy, whereas my AppleTV is smooth. I've even noticed jittery playback on high-quality 4k content, even though my tv is ostensibly a 4k tv.

It might depend on which model you have. The Roku Ultra is super quick and has been preferred in our house over our Apple TV.

This is exactly why its better to buy a dumb TV and install a $50 HDMI stick (or two)

Turn wifi off for the existing TV (smart or not matters little if you don't connect it) and stick the same $50 HDMI stick and avoid throwing out the fully functional display?

At this point, ads displayed to the users who use it as a smart TV probably subsidize those of us who use such TVs without connecting them to anything. My latest TV is enormous and 4K and under a few hundred dollars. The quality is fine, even if occasionally I accidentally get it to switch to the input that involves agreeing to terms and conditions.

Of course it should be super illegal to ask you to agree to terms and conditions after spending over a hundred dollars, shipping something, installing it over hours, after you finally power it on... but at least I can be one of those rare smart TV customers that never agreed to them and can prove it!

Hmm, avoiding the terms and conditions for a TV isn't exactly selling me on this idea, but yeah if you already have a smart TV obviously it's good to stretch its usefulness as far as possible.

But when shopping for a new TV, just buy a dumb one or a projector.

That's what I'm saying, it seems like a smart TV is cheaper even if you use it as a dumb TV.

I think that they are selling them at reduced margins or even as a loss leader in order to get you to pay them for the smart features.

Don't think it means you need a new tv. Just got an Apple TV box, or a Google one, or whichever you prefer since it seems your not stuck on using roku tv's service.

Just as the monopolistic Google hopes you'd do. Would you be interested in a Google product instead?

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