when i was growing up we had a thirty year old television that worked fine
Nobody is saying the TV won’t work just because updates stop. Although I really haven’t seen an LED or LCD look to good after 10 years, either.
I’d rather not have software updates and just have a tv that accepts hdmi, displayport, and AV
No thank you.
FTS. I’m still using a Visio that’s a good 10 years old with an Apple TV.
Will they reprice it for a 7 year lifespan?
Okay cool. But can they be user serviceable, repairable and/ or dumb, as in not connected to WiFi. I’d much rather just connect my Xbox, Kodi box, jellyfin or PC to my TV and use those to access my media, rather than do it on the TV. Can we bring back pretty, dumb, repairable TVs? Please and Thank you.
I’d love standarized modules to unscrew and separate the “smart” part just like a desktop pc can. If they want to shove in that shit, then at least make me able to pull them out.
just tried disconnecting the “smart” part of my desktop pc. Now all I have is an expensive space heater.
Gonna keep it real with you chief. TVs should have never needed updates.
I’m going to agree with you 100% but offer an anecdote, my lg tv has an hdmi 2.0 port but didn’t support Dolby vision at 120 hz out of the box. After an update, it now supports it. Should LG have had that ready to go by the time of manufacture ? Maybe. With design and manufacturing timelines maybe the spec wasn’t ready to implement by the time needed. Is Samsung going to use this to enshitify the tv? Maybe. But the time from design, to manufacture, to retail is such a long process there are cases where a feature update can be justified
A baby step in the right direction.
Why should a TV ever need updates? Does anyone still make good “dumb” TVs that don’t want/need an internet connection?
I believe the search term you seek may be “commercial signage display”
I do purchasing for a company that installs digital signage, yeah this is what you want.
Look at the CDE series by Viewsonic or similar, we mostly order Viewsonics so they’re who I’ve seen.
I wanted a dumb tv. I was so sick of looking, I just got a 27" gaming monitor with 2k resolution for $150.
You can also get a 32" 4K monitor for like $500 but I didn’t really need that.
Askin’ the real questions here… average answer i’ve seen is Buy a monitor instead.
I’ve had updates fix issues with HDR and what not, but I do agree, and think dumb TVs so be more available
Does anyone still make good “dumb” TVs that don’t want/need an internet connection?
No. Ad revenue offsets the cost of TVs. That’s why they’ve become so cheap. Very few people would pay the extra cash for TVs without it so they don’t manufacture them.
Easy solution: buy an external whatever and never connect it to the internet. HDMI-CEC means it will turn on and auto switch the input to whatever device turned on.
I bought a 50" TCL 5 Series a few years ago on-sale and never connected it to internet. It does fine for my needs and doesn’t bother me about connection or apps at all.
If 7 years of updates aren’t coupled with 7 years of an extended warranty on LED TV’s which notoriously burn out after 2 or 3, it doesn’t matter
Will it shut down after the seven years, telling you that the software running on the TV is “no longer supported”?
All in the name of your security of course :)
Maybe I’m just jaded, but I feel like they are doing this to maximize how long they have to inject ads and unnecessary features that track our data into our lives. My TV is not connected to the internet.
I am doing this for your own good, boy
Sure daddy 🤡
They could offer 20 years of updates, and I still wouldn’t give it internet access.
I have connected my TV to the Internet a few times just to update the firmware. Then I turned it right back off again. Not sure if this was actually a great call or not, but I couldn’t help myself. Probably should’ve checked to see if I could do it with a USB drive at least lol.
Genuinely curious, what new features did that updated firmware have that were valuable to you?
At least on my TV, I’ve had firmware updates enable things like variable refresh rate, enable 4K/120Hz, improve the dynamic contrast performance, and fix a couple of weird bugs it had shipped with.
last firmware update I performed for my TV removed features, including the ability to see what resolution and framerate the set was currently displaying.
What they’re saying: “we promise to support your device for seven years! Isn’t that great!”
What they mean: “We promise to keep our spying/data gathering/ad serving updated to the latest spying/gathering/ad tech to extract as much data and money as we can.”
(I 100% didn’t read this article and am 100% taking the piss on these shitty companies spying on us and manipulating us)
I actually do trust this bro tbh
Haha, look how proudly she is gesturing towards the ads :D