Best dumb TV in 2022? 42 - 50"

[Zaxan]

Is there even one?

 

I'm looking in Switzerland and it's really hard to find any. I can find smaller sizes but nothing suitable for our living room.

 

It must have wireless, but otherwise I'm going to connect a Shield TV Pro to it. I do not want it to have any smart features at all because even on my 10 year old Bravia W805A, which I otherwise love, that smart stuff is annoying as shit.

[Needfuldoer]

Unfortunately, just about every TV coming out now except for the really low end of the market is going to be "smart". You probably won't find anything with a decent panel that isn't at least Roku-enabled.

 

I'd pick based on all the other features of the TV, and just not connect it to a network and set the "smart" interface up as little as absolutely necessary. Then the "smart" interface just becomes glorified setup menus. That's what I had to do with my TCL, and it's been fine.

[Zaxan]

Nowadays Smart TVs will bug you if not connected to the internet. Plus I'd need the wireless functionality and then it will connect to the internet anyway.

[tikker]

8 hours ago, Zaxan said:

that smart stuff is annoying as shit.

What smart aspects turn you off? Finding a dumb TV is chasing pavements at this point (and has been for some years really). Your best shot will be selecting on the features you want and then, if it really matters, looking at and/or trying out the UIs of the various brands.

 

I think the interfaces have improved though. Ten years is an eternity for tech. I can tell my old Samsung's UI is lesser compared to my newer LG, but still not hugely annoying. My LG C9 isn't annoying at all in my opinion. The only pop-ups it gives are when there's a firmware update or when the TV is about to turn off. Since my Nvidia Shield Pro does all the media consumption and what not I also never really have to interact with the menu at all, except for switching to game mode perhaps.

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

6 hours ago, Zaxan said:

Nowadays Smart TVs will bug you if not connected to the internet.

You know that for certain? About all smart TVs?

 

Anecdotal evidence is merely evidence of an anecdote, but my Roku-enabled TCL doesn't care that I've never connected it to the Internet.

 

6 hours ago, Zaxan said:

Plus I'd need the wireless functionality and then it will connect to the internet anyway.

You said you're hooking a Shield Pro up to whichever TV you buy. Isn't that going to do all the "smart" connectivity functions?

 

 

[Colty]

LG's "WebOS" is completely unobtrusive. At worst, it updates the TV's firmware. At best, the built in apps are actually quite good, though I still use my Chromecast for 99% of things. 

[Zaxan]

Maybe I should ask for the least annoying Smart TV then. LG?

[Colty]

1 hour ago, Zaxan said:

Maybe I should ask for the least annoying Smart TV then. LG?

Seems like LG and Sony are the go-to options for this sort of thinking. I can only comment on LG's interface since I haven't tried a newer Sony TV.

I know that Samsung likes to show ads on startup/when switching inputs, and will pester you if you're offline. Of course, this all starts months after the TV is first turned on so you can't return it. Between the benchmark cheating and the scummy move with ads, I don't think I'll give Samsung another dollar. 

[Blue4130]

On 5/16/2022 at 7:37 PM, Zaxan said:

Is there even one?

 

I'm looking in Switzerland and it's really hard to find any. I can find smaller sizes but nothing suitable for our living room.

 

It must have wireless, but otherwise I'm going to connect a Shield TV Pro to it. I do not want it to have any smart features at all because even on my 10 year old Bravia W805A, which I otherwise love, that smart stuff is annoying as shit.

How can you have wireless without smarts?

[Zaxan]

So It seems since I last had to buy a TV, value for money has gone through the roof.

 

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/lg-43nano759pr-4k-lcd-2021-43-tv-16579779?supplier=406802

 

This is reviewed well but is insanely cheap. My monitors cost more.

 

Where's the catch? It's 4K, HDR (I'm guessing not great HDR?), doesn't have Android.. Seems perfect?

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, Zaxan said:

So It seems since I last had to buy a TV, value for money has gone through the roof.

 

https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/lg-43nano759pr-4k-lcd-2021-43-tv-16579779?supplier=406802

 

This is reviewed well but is insanely cheap. My monitors cost more.

 

Where's the catch? It's 4K, HDR (I'm guessing not great HDR?), doesn't have Android.. Seems perfect?

It says right in the description "smartTV", this is not a dumb tv. Guessing it runs WebOS which is just a reskinned lite version of linux.

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

It says right in the description "smartTV", this is not a dumb tv. Guessing it runs WebOS which is just a reskinned lite version of linux.

Isn't virtually every version of Linux just a reskin? After all, the heart of Linux is very minimal; Ubuntu and other distributions are slapping interfaces on top of that core platform. And it's a bit dismissive to act as if the interface doesn't matter — the whole point of LG's webOS is to take some of the pain out of smart TV experiences.

[Blue4130]

16 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Isn't virtually every version of Linux just a reskin? After all, the heart of Linux is very minimal; Ubuntu and other distributions are slapping interfaces on top of that core platform. And it's a bit dismissive to act as if the interface doesn't matter — the whole point of LG's webOS is to take some of the pain out of smart TV experiences.

Its not dismissive. He's asking for a dumb tv. A TV with any sort of os is by nature not dumb, regardless of how easy to use it is. 

 

To get a true dumb tv, you need to looks at brands like sceptre. 

[Zaxan]

As I said a few comments down, finding a dumb TV is impossible, so I'm looking for the least intrusive and basic, as it has a Shield Pro going into it anyway.