Tue, Jan 15th 2019 12:04pm —If you've shopped for a TV recently, you may have noticed that it's largely impossible to just buy a 'dumb' TV set without all of the 'smart' internals. More specifically, most TV vendors don't want to sell you a bare-bones set because they want you to use their streaming services. Even more specifically, they want you to buy their sets with their specific streaming functionality because they want to spy on you. Poorly.That's always been fairly obvious to most folks, but it was nice to see Vizio CTO Bill Baxter acknowledge that the reason you pay a discount is because your viewing habits are:' Q. One sort of Verge-nerd meme that I hear in our comments or on Twitter is “I just want a dumb TV. I just want a panel with no smarts and I’ll figure it out on my own.” But it sounds like that lifetime monetization problem would prevent you from just making a dumb panel that you can sell to somebody.A. Well, it wouldn’t prevent us, to be honest with you.
Our church intends to buy 2 or 3 of model vizio e550ib2 tv. We want to wirelessly mirror the screen of our laptop or tablet to the TV's. I have heard that WIDI may be required.
What it would do is, we’d collect a little bit more margin at retail to offset it. Again, it may be an aspirational goal to not have high margins on our TV business because I can make it up downstream. On the other hand, I’m actually aggregating that monetization across a large number of users, some of which opt out.It’s a blended revenue model where, in the end, Vizio succeeds, but you know, it’s not wholly dependent on things like data collection.The problem is that this trade off isn't really providing value to the end user, in large part thanks to the TV sector's terrible security and privacy practices. For one, navigating the TV sector's historically terrible GUIs to actually find and opt out of this data collection is often a nightmare. Usually opting out is first intentionally named something nebulous, then buried deep in a sea of terribly-designed menus. And even then, opting out can often result in you.
That's only a good deal if you enjoy annoyance.Then there's the fact that the TV sector routinely does an absolutely terrible job at the security and privacy practices needed to protect this data. We've seen vendors like Samsung get busted living room conversations, then shoveling this data off to a nebulous assortment of third-party clients. Numerous set vendors have similarly been busted collecting this data then transmitting it to the cloud. Vizio itself just struck a for secretly tracking and selling the usage habits of around sixteen million Vizio owners for around three years.So yes you're maybe paying a bit less up front for a cheaper set, but you're paying for the deal out the other side of the equation in a way that's not even entirely calculable. Even then, higher-end TV set vendors do this same thing, kind of deflating the claim that this is only being done by necessity among lower-end vendors trapped by tight margins. In reality, the same disregard for privacy and security that has infected the is on proud display in the TV business, resulting in hardware that's by everyone from run of the mill hackers to. Is that a bargain, really?With so many streaming hardware platforms to choose from (game consoles, your phone, home-built PCs, Roku, Apple TV, etc.), many users just want a dumb TV with ample HDMI ports that simply does one job, really well.
Instead, like so many sectors (telecom ) the priority appears to be focused on treating user data like a harvestable resource, with security, privacy, and transparency a very distant afterthought.Filed Under:,Companies. They're likely farming a lot of that out to others (I'll bet the Netflix support is entirely funded by Netflix for example), using programmers from countries with lower living standards than your own, and using a bunch of open-source components. Much of the work will be reusable across product lines, and it does get relatively cheap when you can amortize across millions of units. Plus, enough people do want some of these 'smart' features, like Airplay and Netflix (not everyone knows how to set up add-on boxes)—releasing a TV with no software will reduce their market. First, even though it's already been done, that doesn't contradict the fact that it's very expensive to do.It kind of does. Whether or not it was smart of them to develop it, Vizio already has the smart-TV software.
So what would Vizio gain by developing a dumb TV? They'd save the costs of updates and patches, but, as someone else wrote, they're evidently not doing much of that anyway. And as the CTO said, they'd have to sell it for more than their standard TV. Who's the target market?
Techies already know how to quarantine the spy software, and will find the opt-out option if it's there.If such a TV comes out, it will come from a company that didn't already develop software. A majority of the tool-chains for developing the software is open source, especially considering many smart TV's run Android.If they are not running Android they are most likely running one of the plethora of available media-centric OS's available, look hereThe cost isn't that high, time spent on 'developing' smart TV software is mostly look and feel customization since someone else already has developed the software.FYI, I'm both a SW and HW developer and I've worked in the broadcast industry so I do know what the cost is - it's the cheapest the manufacturer can get away with. Ever wonder why your TV's GUI is sluggish? It's running on the cheapest bare minimum HW needed.In other words, I'm afraid the cost isn't as high as you believe.
I suspect he's suggesting, as Gary does downthread, that you can get smart TV features by hooking your TV up to a computer, thereby getting the benefits of streaming TV but also maintaining a greater degree of control about disclosing what you're watching (of course you'll still be sending your viewing habits to Netflix or Amazon or whoever, but not to your TV manufacturer).However, as a couple of posters have noted, just because you didn't connect your TV to your wifi doesn't mean it's not phoning home. Can you be sure it's not hopping onto open wifi networks, or broadcasting data via RF?. However, as a couple of posters have noted, just because you didn't connect your TV to your wifi doesn't mean it's not phoning home. Can you be sure it's not hopping onto open wifi networks, or broadcasting data via RF?I am not sure how 'broadcasting data via RF' is different from using WiFI? Perhaps you really do mean 'broadcasting', but that would require a nearby receiver and would be a privacy nightmare.As for open WiFi, that is a possible concern, depending on where you live. Near my house, there are no truly open WiFi networks. A more likely possibility could be that the TV manufacturer purchases the right to use Xfinity or other ISP's hotspots and configures a default login to the TV.I believe that any TV manufacturer that automatically connected to a WiFi network without being configuring by the owner is actively trying to destroy its reputation.
You should not be paying to buy (most) CRTs. People should be paying you to take them, because the dump probably won't take them for free, they're (as you say) a pain in the ass to move, and free e-waste disposal days are rare and inconveniently located. High-quality Trinitron monitors for PCs are an exception; people still pay for those (see the thread on Hardforum).LCDs are easier to test. You may need several adapters, like microHDMI-to-HDMI and HDMI-to-DVI, but you can get phones to output signals to them. Run through solid red/green/blue images to check for dead/stuck pixels.
Where would you even find an NTSC signal these days?. 4K itself is generally useless in TVs, yes, considering that most people's vision isn't good enough to tell the different between 1920x1080 and 3840x2160 at standard TV sizes and viewing distances. However, a typical 4K TV now comes with HDR, which does make a significant difference in picture quality - provided you can access content that actually supports it.(4K resolutions may make more sense for computers, where you're sitting closer to the screen - though getting accelerated graphics to run at decent framerates at 3840x2160 requires a pretty expensive graphics card. Or two.). The interview reads like a hypothetical such as with the statementit may be an aspirational goal to not have high margins on our TV business because I can make it up downstreamfrom the Vizio CTO. Is there any confirmation that the article reflects modern pricing practices or an aspirational future pricing practice?Additionally, I have an extreme degree of difficulty believing opt-outs actually opt-out of collection after so many years of various organizations claiming their opt-out only stops ad-targeting from the information they will keep collecting about you.Even if opt-out did prevent data collection, I am concerned about the bootstrapping problem where vendors will collect thorough information about the consumer upon powering on and connecting the T.V. Prior to any actual opt-outs.
I simply do not have any trust in vendors to be honest when it comes to this kind of market practice. Televisions are generally used within the home. Within the home will also be a more powerful computer also at that fixed location. The performance is better with greater end-user control using the tv as a dumb box with smart features handled by the computer.This differed with the smart phone case. There was value added to the user in the form of a portable connected device for occasions a computer is inconvenient or not available.
Good for quickly retrieving information at a glance.That value added does not exist in the television market. You wind up with features that burden the customer. The only way to move that crappier product is to remove choice from the market. I'd look into collusion across the tv set manufacturers, agreeing to remove dumb sets as an option in order to screw the consumer.
My 'Smart' TV is hooked up to a computer that I built. It isn't on my wifi or the gigabit network.' Is a multipath worldwide distribution system which allows digital televisions to automatically receive firmware upgrades and software patches sent out via terrestrial broadcast, digital cable networks, and the Internet. The network and technology has been under development by UpdateLogic since 2004, was completed in 2006, first shipped in TV sets in 2008 by Sony Electronics, and is now shipped in TVs from Sanyo and others.In the terrestrial case, the UpdateTV solution. Will be datacast by National Datacast on PBS TV stations across the United States. Major cable operators are required by contract to transmit the data such that the software upgrades are also passed to their customers.'
I have a Vizio 'smart' TV. In fact, i'm looking at its screen right now. I knew when I bought it that it was full of crap that spies on me, but I never intended to attach it to the 'net either. It's my (very low quality piece of junk with latency so bad it smears when it scrolls) PC monitor.The solution here I think is to put a sticker over the ethernet port, or a warning in the wireless setup, that you're a freakin idiot if you use the built-ins that steal your data and you the consumer bought it without thinking, so it's not Vizio's problem.
If you love watching live streams every now and then, Mobdro is best suited application for you. Mobdro is an Android application whichs streams live movies, videos, TV shows, News and even live sports 24X7.Now we have already published the step by step guide to take, based system, and even and, apart from getting it on itself.But what if you want to take it to big screen for getting the full view experience? May be Smart TV or Amazon FireTV?If you are thinking about same, and don’t know how to get it, you are at the very right place. While there are not straightaway method to get Mobdro on your Smart TV, but here is how you can get it Getting Mobdro on Smart TVFor getting Mobdro on Smart TV follow the steps listed below. Go to your Smart TV’s settings and enable the option of Unknown Sources from Security and Restrictions. Once enabled, go to App store of your respective Smart TV and search for ES File Manager. Once found, Install the same.
Open ES File manager and locate “Add” on top menu bar. Click on same, which will open up a pop-up box asking for Path and File Name. Now go ahead and. Now add the path of added APK, or you can directly add path of APK file stored on cloud and name them whatever you want. Click on Add. Navigate to Bookmarks and find Mobdro (or which ever name you have given in previous step).
You will get option to “Download for Android”, select that and follow the on screen Instruction guide to Install the same. Voila!
Now go to homescreen of your Smart TV and locate Mobdro and open it to enjoy live streaming.The very same procedure can be followed for any Smart TV including FireTV of Amazon.So, if you are planning for weekend entertainment, take Mobdro to big screen and convert your Live Streaming to watchful event for your friends and colleagues too.