Finding a TV to buy is a fucking weird experience, because you'll find a TV for like, 200 bucks, and then you'll go online to see if it like, you know, displays images and won't fall apart immediately and the reviews are like"don't buy that TV, buy thi...
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Asta [AMP]replied to Perish the thot :sparkles_bi: last edited by
@[email protected] I've had numerous TVs stolen, destroyed, or just random failures and you know what, your strategy is by far the best.
I made the mistake this last round of trying to be "cost conscious" and getting the "best value for the dollar" so I spent a couple days a few weeks back looking shit up, and in the end all that 'research' gave me was that people are horrible little judgmental gremlins who don't understand that inexpensive electronics exist for a reason and despite whatever job allows them to buy $2000 TVs, they still have enough time to go online and shit on people with lower incomes and budgets.
It took me a couple weeks to stop being irritated at them lmao.
But like also, if you drop 800 dollars on a TV (assuming you can) and it has the same type of failure prone parts as the 200 dollar one, well. -
@[email protected] That's exactly what we ended up doing. You know what? It has one of the best panels we've ever seen because it's much newer than the ones that were destroyed/stolen/etc. People are ridiculous.
(they have no internet access, for the record).
I used to have an LG that I allowed to connect to the WiFi but specifically blocked all access in the router, because I've heard stories of TVs wifi hopping when they get the chance... and I noticed somehow the TV was still aware a new firmware existed (even though it couldn't download it). So this one gets nothing. -
@aud With stuff like that I tend to look for Amazon reviews. Yeah I know some reviews are paid, but if most reviews are 5 stars I'd assume it works just fine. Like, if it has reviews like "it spontaneously combusted after five days" or "I looked at it wrong and it stopped working" then it's not fine at all and I don't buy.
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@[email protected] right! That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I'm like, "given choice A or B, which one exploded into flames? I don't want that one" and instead people act like a choice that is 10x more expensive is somehow... a reasonable suggestion.
Especially when it comes to TVs, which have... let's say "reliability" problems. It's like, alright, so, it might fail on me, it WILL spy on me, why the fuck would I spend so much on... agh. -
@aud
Yeah, in store they are practically indistinguishable, and at home probably even harder since there’s no comparison.I was blocking my LG TV until I realized it had HomeKit support and now I’m such an idiot and keep it plugged in all the time just for that.
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@[email protected] I will say this one has some sort of Google OS on it, and I was a little surprised by A. how smooth the UI is, and B. the fact that it lets you set it up as an "offline" TV. Do I trust that it's not going to somehow do something? No, but I appreciate that it's not constantly nagging me to allow it to connect to the wifi.
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@aud Oh wow, if that’s real that’s amazing. It’s so so counter to how these companies make money that it feels like it must be fake.
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@[email protected] Yeah, I know. I'm still like, "... are you REALLY offline though?"
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@[email protected] Like part of me expects that if I ripped it open, I'd find some sort of hardware for an ad-hoc bluetooth or wifi network or a secret 3G modem in there connecting to a cell tower to beam out advertising data.
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@aud This was literally what most concerned me about Hisense. The “how nuts is the CCP anyway” question.
But I realized the risks and costs of secret wireless hardware for the marginal gain of getting the couple of people who give a shit were way too high for it to make sense.
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@[email protected] To be honest, perhaps I'm ignorant of the risks, but if a foreign government wants to spy on me, go for it. Compared to if a local company or government that actually has dominion over me wants to spy on me, they can actually use that information against me.
But a foreign company/government? What're they gonna find out, I'm gay? What're they even gonna do about it? I guess this is the part where my "threat model" comes into play: I have almost nothing to fear from a foreign government spying on me but a lot more from a domestic one doing it. -
just adriennereplied to Perish the thot :sparkles_bi: last edited by
@josh_clone @aud I have literally never purchased a TV; every single one i've had has been a hand-me-down of some kind. I recommend this as a strategy tbh.
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@[email protected] @[email protected] I think that's very wise. I did check around on a lot of the "free stuff" groups for a few weeks but nothing was coming up (and/or people wanted more for their 7 year old TVs than a new one, which).
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@aud @josh_clone Yeah, we've just had the same one since i moved in with my partner 8 years ago (it was his) and it's showing no signs of, like, failing to turn on yet.
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@[email protected] @[email protected] My partner and I have had very bad luck with TVs, to put it mildly we figured if we rolled the dice on a cheap TV that would be the one to last forever. Sooooo.