As for the performance: TV manufacturers have used terrible SoCs ever since the first chip hit TVs. That’s why you shouldn’t buy TVs online without evaluating them in a store. I have a TV where all of the smart crap died of years ago and it was sluggish our of the factory. But it’s not just that; even devices like Chromecast slow down over time as more features get added, higher bitrates are being decoded, and more advanced video formats start to get used.
Set up your TV in basic TV mode, don’t buy bottom of the barrel TVs expecting a premium experience, and use some kind of replaceable, external device if you want smooth media playback. TVs and TV hardware are ridiculously cheap these days (just check the inflation correction on a VHS back in the day, VHS players and DVDs went for what equates to about 2000 dollars today!).
You get what you pay for. And if you’re using ad driven stuff, you’re getting a discount, so don’t expect anything to get cheaper by kicking out all the data collection software.
The “You get what you pay for” excuse doesn’t hold up. My 77-inch LG OLED cost over $3k USD. It’s still full of ads and spies on me unless i neuter it.
$3k for a 77 inch OLED seems pretty cheap to me. You can go cheaper with Samsung TVs, but if you thought WebOS was full of ads, you haven’t seen what Samsung is capable of. I can’t imagine these companies making any profit on the hardware for that price.
If you want a TV without the spyware, look for digital signage displays. LG’s listed price for their OLED displays is “contact us”, but you can find their 77" IPS displays for about $3600 and 55" 1080p displays for about $6k. Other OLED digital signage displays can be had for cheaper, but not for 77"-OLED-for-$3k cheap.
The drive to “biggest, brightest TVs for the least amount of money” has truly ruined the consumer TV market. Even the luxury brands have realised that consumers would rather have ads shoved down their throats than pay a couple hundred dollars extra and it shows.
I don’t know what brand the author got, but Google’s own software has a setting to get rid of the Google stuff: https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10408998?hl=en
As for the performance: TV manufacturers have used terrible SoCs ever since the first chip hit TVs. That’s why you shouldn’t buy TVs online without evaluating them in a store. I have a TV where all of the smart crap died of years ago and it was sluggish our of the factory. But it’s not just that; even devices like Chromecast slow down over time as more features get added, higher bitrates are being decoded, and more advanced video formats start to get used.
Set up your TV in basic TV mode, don’t buy bottom of the barrel TVs expecting a premium experience, and use some kind of replaceable, external device if you want smooth media playback. TVs and TV hardware are ridiculously cheap these days (just check the inflation correction on a VHS back in the day, VHS players and DVDs went for what equates to about 2000 dollars today!).
You get what you pay for. And if you’re using ad driven stuff, you’re getting a discount, so don’t expect anything to get cheaper by kicking out all the data collection software.
The “You get what you pay for” excuse doesn’t hold up. My 77-inch LG OLED cost over $3k USD. It’s still full of ads and spies on me unless i neuter it.
$3k for a 77 inch OLED seems pretty cheap to me. You can go cheaper with Samsung TVs, but if you thought WebOS was full of ads, you haven’t seen what Samsung is capable of. I can’t imagine these companies making any profit on the hardware for that price.
If you want a TV without the spyware, look for digital signage displays. LG’s listed price for their OLED displays is “contact us”, but you can find their 77" IPS displays for about $3600 and 55" 1080p displays for about $6k. Other OLED digital signage displays can be had for cheaper, but not for 77"-OLED-for-$3k cheap.
The drive to “biggest, brightest TVs for the least amount of money” has truly ruined the consumer TV market. Even the luxury brands have realised that consumers would rather have ads shoved down their throats than pay a couple hundred dollars extra and it shows.
I have a 4 year old chromecast 2 that is still going strong 🤷♂️