A friend is looking for one and I don’t know what to recommend.
Assuming that the goal is to never connect it to the internet and plug in another device with HDMI.
A friend is looking for one and I don’t know what to recommend.
Assuming that the goal is to never connect it to the internet and plug in another device with HDMI.
Not a Vizio and not a Samsung.
Not Vizio because their customer support is terrible and the firmware updates they push render older televisions slow as dog shit and require customer service intervention to undo.
Not Samsung because their panels are so fucking blue that it scalds your eyes.
Probably not an LG because their webOS interface is dogshit.
So I guess a Sony Bravia because it can be used as a dumb TV or worst case like a TCL or something. I just use my cell phone Wi-Fi as its Wi-Fi setup and then change the Wi-Fi SSID so that it gets to talk once and then never again.
Slight counterpoint
I have 2 TVs in my house. A 70" Vizio as my main TV and a 40-ish inch Samsung fame in the bedroom
Haven’t used the TVs smart features in years, everything I watch is run through a game console or dedicated streaming device (currently a 4k Chromecast)
Their software is kind of dogshit, but I never interact with it except once in a blue moon after a power outage or something when it defaults back to that. I otherwise find it to be a perfectly fine TV for the price I paid for it.
However, as bad as the software is on the Vizio, the Samsung is 10x worse. And unfortunately as bad as it is, that’s what we use because it was hard enough trying to hide the box the TV came with (the way they get the frame TV’s so light and thin is by moving all of the electronics into a separate box, I installed a cabinet in the wall behind the TV to hide it) let alone trying to hide a separate streaming stick/box along with it. I also feel like using one of those may not play as well with the art mode as the built-in software, which is kind of the whole point.
I second LG. Probably even if I don’t connect it to the internet. OLED + webOS + magic remote. If it was super important to not require internet etc, still LG but JB it.