Smarter than a Smart TV! (Raspberry Pi Inside)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Brought up in smart TV complaint threads as a real-world 'dumb display' alternative.
What it is
Jeff Geerling looks at a Sharp NEC commercial display with a slot for a Raspberry Pi Compute Module. It is a large screen without built-in smart TV features or tracking.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2022 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends ararar · 2023-01 · on “The Cost of Cheap TVs”
Just get a "display". See [this video] where Jeff Geerling talks about how great a TV his non-TV is. He has an NEC UHD Professional Display M551. He gets to control the software on the embedded Raspberry Pi. It's about $1700 but I think it's worth it. Product link [LINK]
Recommends modriano · 2023-03 · on “Streaming company Roku to lay off 6% workforce”
A recent Jeff Geerling video dug into this subject. [0]. Sharp NEC [1] makes and sells TVs without any "smart" junk (they're mainly aimed at being 24/7 monitors/displays in businesses). They're significantly more expensive than consumer TVs, but part of that is likely to accommodate 24/7 usage. [0] [this video] [1] [LINK]
Cites saxonww · 2022-08 · on “GM makes $1,500 subscription mandatory on GMC, Buick, Cadillac Models”
This comes up over and over again. There is a brand that sells through Wal Mart in the US (Sceptre) which tends to not have smart features. They are not high end sets. You can also get 'commercial' sets intended for signage that are apparently OK too. Jeff Geerling did a video on an interesting one from Sharp/NEC that takes a smart module, which can be a raspberry pi, here: [this video] . There are some caveats, but it's something to keep an eye on IMO. It seems to be true that there are no high end/aspirational sets that don't have smart features. I haven't personally seen any OLEDs, for example (although I am not an authority on this).
Cites jamesbfb · 2022-08 · on “The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool”
Jeff Geerling talks about this very TV in one of his videos a while back: [this video] If my partner wasn’t so hell bent in decor when choosing a TV, I would have loved one of these!
Cites antongribok · 2022-09 · on “Plasma Bigscreen”
The fact that it actually comes with a Raspberry Pi is incredibly cool to me. Oh, and of course there's a review of it from Jeff Geerling: [this video] Actually, this thing has some pretty decent specs... my initial reaction was that it was overpriced, but now I'm thinking this is a decent deal for what you get.
Cites gclawes · 2023-04 · on “Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me?”
It would be so cool if it supported something like an insertable Raspberry Pi like these NEC displays did, but with standard consumer TV display characteristics (4k, > 60hz, etc) [this video]