Hi, does anyone own a non smart tv which is 4k and around 48"? I’m currently own a Samsung TV but to use any of the apple TV or game consoles you have to go through their painfully unresponsive smart menus and its driving me up the wall. ive looked online but it’s hard to avoid smart TVs, they seem to be everywhere and a lot of options I came across are US only. the budget is upto £400, thanks in advance

  • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    The approach I’m taking is to just not connect it to the internet. Obviously the menus might still get slow over the years, but that could happen on and TV and I do most of my button-pressing through an external device (whether that’s a Chromecast, raspberry pi, console, full PC, or whatever).

    I’m also looking into setting up a pihole to block everything except specific sites I actually want it to access, but that’s a bigger undertaking!

  • jagermo@feddit.org
    0·
    5 days ago

    Go the other way. Get the one you want, but all content comes from an external media player, the TV never gets directly connected to a network.

    I use a nvidia shield but an apple TV can be locked down as well. Stay away from roku and cheap Chinese boxes. More info

    My approach is to muddle the waters as much as possible, using different providers and throwing in a pi hole to the network to block DNS requests.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
      0·
      5 days ago

      This is the way to do it. Consumer TVs are subsidized by the data harvesting they do, the equivalent commercial models are much more expensive

    • jagermo@feddit.org
      0·
      5 days ago

      Oh, also check if CEC is enabled. I control the whole Tv via the shield remote, it switches input automatically.

      Samsung calls the feature anynet

  • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
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    5 days ago

    I’m not sure if it will help since you’re in the UK, but search for commercial displays. There should be some televisions available that are meant for hotel lobbies and the like. Not sure if they’d be 4k and 48", but they should exist despite being in the UK.

    • roawn@feddit.ukOPEnglish
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      5 days ago

      I did look into it, the prices are insane, I end up paying for features that are overkill for a tv, refresh rate etc, thank you though

      • Aux@feddit.ukEnglish
        0·
        5 days ago

        Monitors tend to have much better picture quality than TVs.

  • Diddlydee@feddit.ukEnglish
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    5 days ago

    I’ve never used apple TV (because fuck apple) but I have a Philips Ambilight, and there’s no issue with games consoles. Plug in an hdmi and select the source. Not sure why you’d be having so much trouble, as any smart TV I’ve used is the same. It’s one button.

    • KryptonBlur@slrpnk.netEnglish
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      4 days ago

      Yeah I have a Philips and was very happy that during the set-up process it let me say that I didn’t want to use smart features or connect it to the internet, so I just have it connected to a console. Definitely can recommend Phillips.

    • roawn@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      0·
      5 days ago

      perhaps its just Samsung TVs that cause me the trouble then. if I turn on the tv, just selecting the source menu involves going through their horrible menus. I find their remote to be very unresponsive too. I’ll look into some Phillips ones though. thank you

    • HejMedDig@feddit.dk
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      5 days ago

      Yeah, my LG is set to automatically turn on and switch to whichever input that provides a signal.