• Omgboom@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    Eventually they are going to require Internet on all TVs, it’s only a matter of time

      • Opisek@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 months ago

        I’m afraid reverse engineering proprietary internal connection is not an easy feat.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        You can possibly use a cheap chinese TV Media Box (about €35 for a decent one from Aliexpress) to stream Live TV over the Internet and then just connect it to the TV via HDMI.

        In my experience those things aren’t loaded with crap and have no Ads (for some, there are even things like libreElec if you want to get full control of it) plus it makes engineering sense to keep the smarts separate from the dumb TV (the actual dumb part of a TVs lasts a lot longer than the typical period between video streams moving to newer and better encoding methods - and decoding of those is done in hardware, not software - so if the smarts are in a separate cheap box, it’s a lot cheaper to get support for newer kinds of video streams a few years down the line and keep the TV than to replace the whole TV just to get the newer video stream decoders)

        Personally I use a Mini-PC with Linux and Kodi, but Mini-PCs are more expensive, require more expertise to set up and I do a lot more than just streaming live TV with it.

        • Hexarei@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Word of warning, loads of those are full of hidden malware that will attempt to infect the other devices on your network. Probably best to make your own every time.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            Apparently not loads, but some are. People can get the more expensive branded stuff if they’re worried or just overwrite the firmware with something like LibreELEC.

            Also for that reason I prefer my current solution with a Mini-PC, though at about €150 rather than €35 it’s a lot more expensive, which for me is fine as I use it for a lot more stuff than only as a media player, but since I’m a little wary of pitching something which requires quite a bit more technical expertise to use to people which might or not have that expertise, I only mentioned that option last and in passing.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      Serious question: what’s the mechanism of this? I can think of a few it might be but I honestly don’t know:

      • Is it that 99.9% of the market wants smart TVs and there’s not enough demand for dumb TVs to support a production run?
      • Is it that existing companies can somehow block smaller upstarts from entering the market, and then they decided as a cartel to end dumb TVs?
      • Is the NSA infiltrating TV companies to force this product line choice?
      • Is there a new law requiring that all TVs get smart?
      • Some mechanism I haven’t thought of?