I still have a smart TV so I don’t need to have a non smart tv. But I refuse to use smart features for several reasons:
The built in software is often laggy, ugly, and hard to navigate (mine is from like 2016 so all 3 of these are huge issues for my specific TV but my parents just bought a 2024 model oled and I find their gyro / touchpad / pointer remote to be excruciating to use)
I hate the idea of getting used to the Samsung apps / os and then feeling like I need to stick with Samsung
They never seem to support the software very long - my TV pre-dates Samsung’s current tv OS and no longer receives updates, so the Plex app available for it doesn’t even connect - so I couldn’t use it even if I wanted to
I mostly watch stuff downloaded to my Plex, so a PC running Plex htpc / desktop or any android box (Nvidia shield is pretty good) with the Plex or jellyfin app is all I need. I also like that I can easily watch YouTube through a browser with ad block and sponsorblock (I think smarttube does that for Android boxes like the shield)
I also game on the PC so I guess you could consider it a game console for the purposes of categorizing the use case.
A media center for watching TV (currently an Nvidia Shield with Kodi) and various games consoles are literally all I’ve used a TV for in the past 20 years.
I can’t believe people are out here raw dogging their TV’s operating system. To me it’s as strange as buying just a monitor for your desktop PC and wondering why your $80 computer injects ads everywhere and sells every scrap of data you give it. I haven’t owned a full sized TV in over a decade, and before that my dad always used an Apple TV and before that a dish network DVR so I always assumed it was the norm to buy some external input device, because I literally have not lived any other way.
Not who you asked but I hook up mine to a PC meant for streaming, there’s no need for it to be smart with either browser or applications that stream the content. Unless I’m missing something.
It’s not a need as much as a preference to not want every device need a connection if you have other means to handle the tasks. Also less bandwidth used since they don’t send back random data to headquarters, not that I imagine it’s a lot.
I’m curious about the need for non-smart TVs… Are you using it exclusively with a game console or is there some sort of other device you use with it?
I still have a smart TV so I don’t need to have a non smart tv. But I refuse to use smart features for several reasons:
I mostly watch stuff downloaded to my Plex, so a PC running Plex htpc / desktop or any android box (Nvidia shield is pretty good) with the Plex or jellyfin app is all I need. I also like that I can easily watch YouTube through a browser with ad block and sponsorblock (I think smarttube does that for Android boxes like the shield)
I also game on the PC so I guess you could consider it a game console for the purposes of categorizing the use case.
A media center for watching TV (currently an Nvidia Shield with Kodi) and various games consoles are literally all I’ve used a TV for in the past 20 years.
I can’t believe people are out here raw dogging their TV’s operating system. To me it’s as strange as buying just a monitor for your desktop PC and wondering why your $80 computer injects ads everywhere and sells every scrap of data you give it. I haven’t owned a full sized TV in over a decade, and before that my dad always used an Apple TV and before that a dish network DVR so I always assumed it was the norm to buy some external input device, because I literally have not lived any other way.
Not who you asked but I hook up mine to a PC meant for streaming, there’s no need for it to be smart with either browser or applications that stream the content. Unless I’m missing something.
It’s not a need as much as a preference to not want every device need a connection if you have other means to handle the tasks. Also less bandwidth used since they don’t send back random data to headquarters, not that I imagine it’s a lot.
On top of what everyone else said: they’ll inevitably stop being supported before long and it’s always easier to plug something new in the HDMI.