Home Theater Geek 435 Transcript

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00:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks I answer a listener question about dumb TVs. Do they even still exist? Stay tuned Podcasts you love From people you trust. This is Twit. Hey there, scott Wilkinson. Here, the home theater geek. In this episode I answer a question from TR Weaver, who writes I have a cousin who lives in extremely rural Ohio.

00:43
He has electricity and phone but no cable or internet. He needs a new TV, what I would call an analog model. Are there still such simple electronics available? He mostly watches DVDs. Well, tr, there are no analog TVs anymore.

01:05
They were phased out long ago and most TVs are smart, that is, they have streaming apps and other features that require a connection to the Internet, which obviously your cousin doesn't have. What he needs is sometimes called a dumb TV. Now, of course, you can always buy a smart TV and just not connect it to the Internet, which you can't do anyway, but that means that it won't automatically update its firmware. That's the one thing that's useful with an internet-connected TV. Now there are some lower-R-E has many models. I looked on their website and I was amazed at how many there are from that company that don't have smart apps. Most of them don't seem to. They do have some fire TVs, I think TVs, I think and most of them seem to be 4K or UHD, more properly, with direct LED backlighting. I didn't see anything about falled full array local dimming, so I would tend to doubt it. These are very low cost TVs, so I would doubt that they have fall fault. But most of them seem to have 120 hertz refresh rate, which is really quite good, and frame interpolation which, depending on your point of view, could be good or could be evil. So you know you can turn that off, I'm sure. And many of them have NTSC and ATSC tuners, not ATSC 3.0, but the first generation of digital television.

03:15
But some don't, and their model numbers and pricing are somewhat confusing. Well, let me give you a couple of examples. There's the U438CV UMC. It's a 43-incher for $240, which is, you know, that's quite good, depending on the size your cousin needs. There's the U508CV UMC, which is a 49-inch. Model number would imply that it's 50, but it's 49, for $360. Okay, that's pretty good too. Then there's the U558CV UMC, which is a 55-incher, back in line with its model number, for $360. So there's an example of some confusion there A 49-incher and a 55-incher, both for $360.

04:14
There aren't a lot of differences that I could discern between them. They have many other models, all the way up to 86 inches. In fact, there are three different models of 86 inch TVs with slightly different model numbers, and they're all 2,500 bucks. The differences are very, very minor. Two of them have 60 Hertz refresh rates and one of them has 120. So that's probably the biggest difference there is.

04:45
Now I have to say I don't generally recommend these lower tier brands because their performance simply isn't very good. In fact, I've read some reviews of Scepter TVs and monitors and very often the word that jumps out at me is mediocre, and more than one says poor picture quality. And very often the word that jumps out at me is mediocre and more than one says poor picture quality. So as a home theater geek I can't really recommend them. But if your cousin really doesn't care about picture quality too much, then the Scepters might be a good choice because they are dumb TVs and they're low price. They're very low price, so they might work.

05:39
Another solution is what's commonly called a business or commercial TV. These are intended for use in retail stores and other business locations and they typically don't have smart features, though they do have other business-related features like remote display management and content protection, so that might be a layer of complexity that your cousin might not want to deal with. Many current models are 4K or UHD, with HDR and NTSC and ATSC tuners, though some of them are only full HD or 1080p. They're not UHD and they don't have HDR. The ones that are 1080p they're not UHD and they don't have HDR. The ones that are 1080p Samsung, lg, sharp and Panasonic all offer these commercial TVs, and Samsung and LG also offer what are called hospitality TVs for hotel rooms and such.

06:54
However, these TVs are often more expensive than their consumer counterparts. For example, take the Samsung NT670U. It's a hospitality TV, a 43-inch model for $470 or $560 for the 50-incher has UHD resolution, supports HDR10 and HDR10+, has a direct LED backlight, but probably not falled. The Samsung QB43C is a 43-inch commercial TV that costs $750 at Best Buy. For a 43-inch TV. That's quite a lot. Best Buy website is confused, unfortunately, saying in the title that it's 4K UHD, but saying somewhere else in the specs that it's full HD, which means 1080p. So I'm not sure what it is there. Now, by contrast, let's take a look at the Hisense 55U8, which is a consumer TV smart TV. It's $700 for a 55-inch, less expensive than that Samsung I just talked about and quite a bit bigger in screen size and undoubtedly has much better performance. The 55-inch U7K from Hisense is quite a bit less, at $480. And it still has mini-LED. Both these models from Hisense have mini-LED backlights with FALD, full-array local dimming.

08:34
Now another option is to get a computer monitor, which they don't have smarts typically, but they also might not have an HDMI input. Many do, but if they do, it's probably only one. Now, if your cousin only plays DVDs from a DVD player and has no other sources, then that shouldn't be a problem. But they are more limited and the big ones the size of a TV are generally pretty expensive. Bottom line is I do recommend getting a consumer TV that has smarts It'll be a smart TV and just not plug it into the internet. I would recommend the top tier brands Samsung, sony, lg, panasonic, sharp because the picture quality is going to be better, processing is going to be better, processing is going to be better and all in all, the performance is going to be better. Now, if picture quality really doesn't matter to your cousin, then the Scepters might be worth a look, because they have what you need. They don't have what you don't need and they're very inexpensive.

09:52
So those are a few thoughts I have on the subject of dumb TVs and I hope it helped. If you have a question for me, please send it along to htg at twittv. I love answering these questions on the show and I will do so as often as I can and, as always, we thank you for your support of the TWIT Network with your membership in Club TWIT. Now, of course, if you're listening to the show audio only you get that for free. But if you want to watch the video and perhaps even come into the Discord channel watch us make the show live, then you need to join Club Twit, which gives you video access to all of Twit's shows, and we do hope you will consider it. Until next time, geek out, thank you.