You forgot the #1 reason why there are no 'dumb TVs'. It's because a dumb TV cannot collect and aggregate your information and watching habits and sell that data to the highest bidder. Years ago, this was called "subsidizing" - where, for example, the actual cost of a Roku box was subsidized by advertising, data selling and even selling the shortcut buttons. They all do it now. In addition, by selling you a "smart" TV, when something comes out, a new TV streamer or app, that requires more processing power than the TV has (which will be designed to take the cheapest chip possible for the content it's designed for) then you're hosed and have to buy a whole new TV instead of a new streaming box or stick. "Dumb TVs" are now basically "Computer monitors" - which was the old definition of a TV minus the over-the-air tuner.
Hisense has a streaming OS port on their projectors now and had a demo with it on a TV. There is hope, but it is unlikely without legislation banning the sale of collected data. Right now most of the data is illegally collected, but there is no enforcement mechanism to stop it.
Even if they weren't selling your data for the small price of some extra added cheap hardware they can sell advertisements and streaming services probably pay them to have their service on the TV by default. Since most users actually want a smart TV it's basically a win for everyone, at least until they start to get fed up with all the advertisements and possible data collection.
I do wish the big companies like LG, Samsung, Sony, etc. would make Cinephile TV's without apps, without sound, without artificial processing, and factory calibrated for perfect picture.
If they did that, then TVs wouldn’t continue to get cheaper. They add all those features because that’s what a lot of consumers want and because being able to collect all the data they can from people using their TVs is a second source of revenue.
I can understand the feeling but I have the TCL QM850 and QM851 running GoogleTV and they have an option in the settings to just switch to the last input whenever it’s powered on. I just reset the TV and don’t set up GTV, flip that option on, and it’s like GTV never existed. That’s a good enough compromise for me at least.
Business/commercial displays and larger PC monitors (see PCPartPicker and filter for monitors that are 40"+). Projectors are also an option as the ones worth buying ($700+) don't have any smart crap in them.
I disabled all the smart stuff on my 2019 Vizio because the apps have become excruciatingly slow and buggy. I reset the TV and dismissed all permissions making it dumb. Now I use my 4K firestick and will eventually get the Google streaming box(for better Atmos support). I also just purchased a new Pioneer 7.2 AV receiver and purposely avoided the overpriced ones with built-in apps and wifi to avoid the same problem. Strange how that seems to future proof it MORE.
Try explaining to you 83 year old Dad how to simply turn on the tv and just get it to the point where he can start watching tv and then hopefully the the soundbar is still connected and doesn't need to be unplugged and then plugged back in to get it to work.
Dumb tv's do not show you ads subsidizing the price of the TV. Consumers have repeatedly shown they would rather watch ads than spend 5 dollars to not watch ads.
LG makes a line of professional/business displays that have no smart/streaming features built into them. I don’t think they would work well for gaming situations, but I believe they would still be outstanding for light controlled rooms that want a home theater display. The bonus is, they are way overbuilt compared to normal home TVs. My work just put in 98” displays that are warrantied for 24/7 operation for 7 years! No home TV warranty would cover something like that.
@ they are more expensive than a comparably sized normal TV, but that is how they are able to keep the costs down of normal TVs these days. They get money from those streaming services, especially to have a button directly on the remote. Remove all smart TV functions, and the money TV manufacturers get from that subsidy, and they are going to charge you more regardless of the better warranty.
what you are reffering to are what are known as Commercial/ Digital Signage Displays, they are the closest thing we can get to Dumb TVs in 2025 but they have thier own Quirks and Downsides, another option could be to get a Big PC monitor and run everything through an AV Reciever
Clinging on to my Kuro not only because it's still a great TV but because it's dumb. Not an app in sight to go wrong, to grab my data, to throw ads at me, it's wonderful.
Cable TV used to crop every widescreen movie to fit the old tube tv 4:3 and now 16:9. Most movies on Prime Video or Netflix are shown in the original aspect ratio though.
This dates me, but I remember in the 90s when TNT brought back letterbox viewing for B-movies with tacky monsters. It was such a hit AMC started doing it.
The idea of a smart and dumb TV is a false comparison many people have. I have LCD tv's and plasma alike that have no apps aside from the operating system with a simple digital file viewer. That in itself is a smart feature. A true dumb TV is the old manual TV tuner sets of old. If a TV has an operating system, it is technically smart. That includes late model crt's. In my view, most all modern tv's with bloat apps are still nothing more than a glorified tablet without a touchscreen. There is nothing really smart about them. Even if I had no choice ,but to obtain a modern app bloated TV. I would still prefer to use a linux based PC for the media player, because media apps; although convenient, just suck in my view. I will take the fully powered web browser for the win.
I declined the "Terms & Conditions" prompt on my Vizio, and blocked it on my network. All of the Smart TV stuff is disabled, but I can still access settings and switch inputs. It's only complained once and asked me to review the T&C again... which I refused again, and it's been fine. About as dumb a TV as I can make it, and it works great.
Best way to do it. I just connect a laptop running Linux to my TV & totally do not sail the high seas for blue-ray level rips of content that massively outperforms the quality of streaming services.
Fot those that don't know TV manufacturers don't make a lot on TV's so they will want as much revenue as possible like from selling advertsing space on Smart TV's and collecting your data to sell to advertisers. The best option is what Caleb mentioned get the best TV can afford and if it's a Smart TV then so be it, and simply never use the smart features of your TV, don't even give it access to your WIFI and instead use another streaming device and/or set top box as your source of TV/Movies etc...
If that was true, how did they make a profit before the advent of these smart TVs? I am still using my 2010 52" Samsung Plasma. If it goes out, I would rather buy a large dumb monitor than buying one of these new TVs that spy on you and sell your data.
I am quite happy to report that I am physically incapable of shedding a tear for multi-million, probably law-breaking corporations. They brought an "innovation" (it's not an innovation) so they can sell data so that some line-item data-bro can make inoffensive content that isn't good. They can get bent. No one really wants that crap. Caleb is being an ivory tower, this-is-for-your-own-good, arrogant twit about this.
Fun fact regarding the movies and aspect ratio stuff: back in the 90s and 2000s, Pixar wanted to make sure everyone had a good viewing experience when watching their movies. So what they did was after the initial run of the movie in theaters, they would go back into their computers and re-rendered the entire movie in 4:3 and 16:9 for the home video and DVD release. Doing this allowed them to alter scenes so that nothing would be missed from cropping. In some cases they even reanimated and moved things around to fit the screen better!
Top Gun 2 was filmed with iMAX scenes that use a different aspect ratio then the scenes that are not in iMAX. Some movies and shows are filmed using the 1:85:1 ratio that fills a 16x9 tv where other movies are filmed using a 2:40:1 ratio that’s wider so you get black bars. The tv is displaying the ratios correctly if you see black bars. If you don’t see black bars and the image looks zoomed in then they cropped the image to fit the full scale of your tv screen. If you buy a movie and look on the back of the case it’ll tell you what ratio the movie is present in. I always recommend for movies to buy physical because there’s no cropping of the image it’s shown how it was filmed at least with Blu Rays that is. Tv shows all use the 1:85:1 ratio to fill the screen same with video games so you don’t have to worry there but movies might be cropped on streaming platforms so be aware.
Marvel movies on Disney+ offer the iMax Enhanced versions which means it's the ONLY way to see the full, unaltered aspect ratio. The discs are cropped to widescreen, which sucks.
I’m not sure how so many that gripe about “smart” tvs and how they won’t buy them are missing this. Don’t want the shitty apps they pack onto the tv? It’s super easy; don’t use them and don’t hook them up to WiFi. This isn’t rocket science.
@@syscruncher The problem is, many people will still keep doing it - and then complain about the performance of the App; compared to a $50/streaming device.
@ the manufacturers are actually counting on that type of behavior. Those built-in apps as well at the tv software itself is little more than spyware designed to harvest data for the manufacturer to sell off to third parties. Anyone dumb enough to hook a smart tv up to their WiFi and leave it there deserves what they get.
@@syscruncherThat works... until TV manufacturers start forcing buyers to connect their TV to the internet and install updates and all that nonsense before you can even switch to the HDMI input.
And this is also why one should buy as big of a screen as possible. We rarely end up seeing the most of it when watching films. Games on the other hand, are pleasant because of this as they mostly use the 16:9 aspect ratio and are still following the creator's intent.
@@MadViking82 I actually play a lot of my games in 21:9 with black bars on a 16:9 screen. Assassin's Creed games and Red Dead Redemption 2 especially look pretty epic in 21:9. But that's why I got a 65" 8K display as my PC monitor
@@badpuppy3That’s pretty interesting and cool. Some games have cinematic sequences as well in different aspect ratios, but I can see how certain games may benefit from wider aspect ratio (with black bars) in gameplay as well.
Streaming services cropping and stretching movies, not to mention editing them, is one of the reasons I prefer to just own my discs so I can view them correctly.
I wonder if you can still buy a pro plasma monitor. We use to always use a Panasonic professional plasma in the color suites for post production. That would be amazing.
I set my Sony TV to open to the HDMI input, and leave it unplugged from my network because I don't like the smart features. I logged in to my Google account and it 1:: overrode my startup input preference, and 2: wouldn't let me log out. Had to do a factory reset to turn it dumb again.
I just bought a Samsung es8000 2014 model and I'm in love...still in the box I couldn't believe it!...and I could still play my analog content..ps2 ect.
Just upgraded both the main TVs in my home. Got a 77” LG G4 & a 55” Hisense U7N. Have Roku Ultras and cable boxes on both as well as blu-ray players. In my experience with many TV brands, a separate streaming device is always the way to go. I Love that Google TV has an option at set-up for a “dumb TV” mode that only has the apps on the dedicated remote buttons for marketing agreement purposes I’m sure. Although the “last input on start” option on the LG hasn’t failed me yet. Almost forgot the tv even had WebOS😂🙏🏼
Also, the apps running on streaming devices are much faster and have less lag compared to using the app on the Smart TV itself. I have an Apple TV 4K plug to my LG CX 55" TV and it works wonders for me.
Hey, Caleb. I hate to do this, but I need to point out that you should change the clips you used when talking about movies that are cropped/zoomed on streaming services. You used footage from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings". The footage in question was not zoomed/cropped but actually open matte, taken from the IMAX Enhanced versions of said films on Disney+.
One thing I found recently is that these TV's require you to create an account with the manufacturer to get full use of them. Oddly, this even applies to speakers, like Sony's Theater Quad, which is why I didn't buy it. I have far too many accounts, and I actively avoid creating any more than absolutely necessary. If I do get one, I'll have it default to my AVR's HDMI input, and not connect it to the internet unless it needs a firmware update to fix a problem I'm having.
@2:00 this would have a been a great time to cover what "4k" actually means (base 2 width.) Since tvs use UHD and are "3840x2160" and not "4096x2160" they have to resize and cut the content even if they keep the aspect ratio. They have redo lots of effects and re-render the film's special effects to not have weird artifacts. It would be nice if we had proper 2k and 4k screens/content, but I do not think I have seen one for consumers since Vizio tried it like 12 years ago. That one failed since upscaling from a cropped picture from 1920x800 to 2048x1080 looked really bad, and you cannot get native 2k footage as a consumer.
I have the 2016 Ghostbusters movie and one interesting thing about it, is that while it has black bars, when the girls fire the proton packs, the beams actually go into the black bars.
You were a lot kinder than I would have been to that aspect ratio question. It's painful how he was literally annoyed that he WASN'T missing part of the movie he was watching, and was actually arguing that he didn't want to see all of the content he was watching (ignorance is quite something, huh... He was more concerned about his TV "not being used to the fullest" than he was about the actual content he was watching. That's difficult for me to wrap my brain around. I frankly can't understand why some people don't put any effort at all into thinking about WHY black bars might be there. He embarrassed himself dramatically and I respect your restraint in avoiding pointing out that fact. People like him are how shows like Goof Troop get ruined for no reason.
That's honestly really weird that nobody upvoted or commented on this. Nobody has any complaints or anything? It's very unlikely that I'm the only one who feels a bit of pain hearing that aspect ratio question.
I bought the 55" 4K HiSense H9G four years ago and have never connected it to my home network. When I turn it on it defaults to my Roku and if I want to watch digital rabbit ear content, I press the input button and change over. Been a Roku user since 2013 and that's never going to change.
Having a Samsung TV makes you want a dumb TV. The sluggish menu is forced on you every time you connect a new input, and the two other ways of swapping input feel so slow too. I just want to press a single button, or press input then a number, but instead you press input, wait a second, then hope it doesn't lag when you slowly scroll to the input. That also means automations are out of the question, unless you use "smart things", which always breaks after a few days. This is a flagship miniLED TV from a year or two ago (QN95B), but it feels so slow and unresponsive. I also really wish modern TVs supported the monitor standard for sleep/wake instead of just CEC. Even with CEC devices, it never wants to auto power off with the device you're using. I really wonder how much brands are paid to have streaming services on their remotes instead of input buttons. Hell, half the buttons on my Samsung remotes aren't useful to me at all! I have to press a button combo on one of them just to get to the inputs, but I have a dedicated button for voice input, split screen, prime video, Disney+, etc that I never use. The channel select button won't even swap inputs, even if you have Samsung TV plus disabled. If I could have bought a "dumb" monitor with the same panel, I would have done it in a heartbeat, but now even Samsungs high end monitors have the crappy smart interface. So many users just want to connect a streaming box and a console, and quickly switch between those two inputs, but manufacturers seem to purposely prevent this to shove adverts down your throat when you switch inputs. I had to drive over to my grandmothers because she got a new LG TV and was lost trying to find the input on the menu screen she brought up by accident. I genuinely wonder if these devices get any actual user testing from the brands. If Sony made their x90 miniLEDs in 42", I would have paid genuinely $500+ extra just to escape the awful menus on the Samsung.
A number of manufacturers make large LCD and OLED monitors without any "smart" functionality. I'm looking at a 48" LG OLED monitor right now. It serves the function of a "dumb TV" quite well.
That case of film’s aspect ratio differs from film to film. Older films from like 2008-ish and before were mostly shot in widescreen. Films from the previous century were even more madness. Cinnescope, extreme wides, multiprojector-showings, I think even 3:1 existed one time 🤔 anyway most of them were cropped with the pan and scan method. That’s the method Caleb described. Most films from 2009 and onwards were highly probably shot in multiple ratios. But these films might be cropped to fit a widescreen viewing. Doesn’t make sense to me. Most Marvel films do that nowadays. Also please don’t start about Transformers 4 and 5 in IMAX. Michael Bay used every aspect ratio he could find and mixed them all together in the final cut. Nowadays. Most films that are available in IMAX should be watched in IMAX because that’s probably what the makers intended to show. And btw IMAX has multiple aspect ratios. Digital IMAX is indeed 1.9:1 but oldschool film IMAX is roughly 1.33:1 Basically if a film has black bars then it’s the entire frame you’re watching. But if the film is maxed out to 16:9 but it is also shown in other aspect ratios then you’re probably missing parts of the frame. And I hate them nowadays. Regular 2D, IMAX (has more screen real estate and equipped with DTS Audio), Dolby Cinema (has more vibrant colours and better sound but not more screen real estate) 🤦 I just want an IMAX viewing with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos projected by lasers. Basically I don’t think you can’t have the best of all worlds.
Hey C! Any TV tests in terms of what they collected and sending and where to (cybersecurity)? Any traffic analysis, what servers, hidden mics on boards… you got the point…
Maybe people are buying larger tv's for this reason of aspect ratio abuse by the movie , and tv creators. It's pissing people off. It feels like they are doing it to spite you in some way. I feel cheated and abused when I see this on my large screen or even a friends smaller screen. 16x9 should be the standard now in America, and everywhere on the planet.
Your comments re: TV interfaces did not consider the type of consumer buying the TV. Savvy consumers can bypass the interface with another box, but try getting your elderly parents, who do not like ads, to opt for an extra box + remote + cable + perceived complexity, and it's another ball game. Based on your reviews, I opted to steer them to a LG C4 over the Panasonic equivalent, and I'm very glad I did because while webOS is depressingly clunky (but no worse than Samsung), they would not have accepted the Amazon adware on the Panasonic.
Hi Caleb, Are TCL and Hisense large TVs significantly cheaper because they skimp on quality internal components or is there hardly any difference in the quality of components used compared to Sony or LG?
I can wholeheartedly recommend Hisense ULED 4K TV! Mine is 4 years old, and picture and sound, once carefully adjusted, are top notch! ... I have a Hisense Washing Machine too! Joyeux Noël Et Bonne Année MMXXV
They should introduce a video format that saves the full video and the boxes for different aspect ratios that follow content between shots, or maybe something like SRT for title but for just the latter
It does look strange but, on the other hand, cropping the top and bottom of a 4:3 image to fit a 16:9 ratio cuts 25% of the original image. So I prefer keeping the black bars on the side even if it feels weird.
Black bars on the top and bottom shrink the size of the image. Black bars on the sides don't reduce the size of the image. I got a 21:9 ultra wide screen monitor, so I don't get black bars on the top and bottom. But I will have black bars on the sides when watching 16:9 or 4:3 TV shows. I can zoom in the image and stretch it a little bit, but the zoom to fill the whole screen option, will cut off peoples heads, as it crops too much of the image. Black bars on the top and bottom = small image. Black bars on the sides = full height image, with no cropping.
I’m fortunate to have one of the last plasma monitors, the Pioneer KRP-600m. Calibrated for isf night, it’s still great for 1080p SDR. I only use my Bravia 9 remote for settings and firmware updates. I’m sure there’s not enough of a market to produce monitor versions of today’s top TV’s. That’s the world we live in.
Most new TVs have picture settings that allow you to turn on or off the Auto format, why is this not mentioned by Caleb, I don't understand? You can zoom, fill, stretch, or auto, and as I understand it, auto does what the show/movie was filmed in, no?
What's frustrating for widescreen movies, like all the Marvel films, is that I watch on a 21:9 ultrawide monitor. So these films WOULD look amazing and fill up the screen...but they don't. Instead, they're a smaller rectangle in the center of the screen surrounded on all sides by black bars. Streaming devices don't support 21:9 (without horizontal stretching), and streaming services seemingly bake in the pillar and letter boxes. So it actually ends up using less of the screen (relatively) than a normal 16:9. Except when the IMAX scenes kick in, where the image increases and only the pillars are left. I wish the companies would just put a little extra effort in to support wider aspect ratios in screens, even if they're still a niche in the market. Or at least give us a setting to manually stretch the screen to fit.
I would like to add I have an old LG smart tv (10 years) my provider is Direct TV and the best picture I can get is 1080P. The television's that are 4K, oled, and LED do not make sense to me because my provider does not broadcast above 1080P unless you add a seperate channel which has minimal content. When will the content be upgraded to what they are selling in the marketplace? Who needs all these bells and whistles if its not standard to begin with??
CES Q: MediaTek Pentonic 800 Can you provide your impressions on the picture quality of 2025 TVs that have the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip? I know about the four HDMI 2.1 ports (not a gamer, so N/A for my setup). But the reputed greatly enhanced contrast features and the upscaling of low-res content. Any noticeable difference in picture quality with the new TV's that include the Pentonic 800 from Sony, Hisense, Panasonic and TCL (I believe all use MediaTek SoCs -- but go ahead and rebrand with some manufacturer AI this or AI that brand for "their" chip -- albeit with their own programming of it).
Caleb, really enjoy your reviews. I am in the market for a 65" tv for our sunroom. Want good if not great angle views, little glare (We do have blinds and can darken the room if need be). We presently have a Sony LED which we are giving to our son. Nice TV but want to step up. Don't want to pay more than $1500 if possible. We have an LG OLED in our family room and not opposed to having on in the sunroom. Like the Samsungs except for the fact that they don't have Dolby Vision. Was looking at Hisense U8 but did not like viewing angle problem. Could you give me best choices? Thanks
Also sometimes the mix of IMAX and anamorphic ratios in one movie is because back in the day IMAX cameras were very loud so they avoided using them in dialog scenes, especially if they don’t want to re-record the dialog, like Chris Nolan. They have gotten quieter which is why later Chris Nolan movies have more and more IMAX. ◡̈
I recently came across a video that made the claim that updates from certain manufacturers actually downgrade the capabilities of thier tvs over time that they refer to as nerfing. Namely Samsung. Is this a real thing and if so do other manufacturers do it as well. I am considering purchasing a new tv but would hate to lose the capabilities of the tv after I choose a tv based on reviews and research before investing in my choice. Thanks
The thing that most people have with smart tv is the fact that there is a software in between the user and the hardware that control the device in a manner in which we have no control over. Much like fully electric cars, when you press on the gaz pedal, it send a signal to the software of the on board computer, which then interact with the Escc (electronic speed controler circuitry ) While a dumb car or interface, the software will not intefere with the user and the hardware as much as with "smart" things. Big buisness prefer "smart" because they brick your hardware with a single firmware update.
Bought my mom a new TV for Christmas, it has Fire TV, it goes straight to the Fire TV interface when turned on, even if you had it on a different input when turned off. I HATE that. My 8 year old Samsung Smart TV always turns on using the last input I used. The Smart features of the TV sucks, but I Use my PS4 as my streaming device anyway. Smart TVs are fine, but the smart interface should only appear when I prompt it to.
black bars are your friend it can be shocking how bad the pan and scan jobs can be in star wars episode 4 (for example) on the original 4:3 fullscreen version, luke talks about a tusken raider who is completely cut off the simpsons have multiple gags that get cut off when viewed in 16:9 a conversation done in one take in indiana jones 3 with characters on each side of the screen becomes a bunch of cuts going back and forth in 4:3 its a mess. push streaming services to always use the original aspect ratio
Dumb TVs will always be preferable. Not only are "smart" TVs privacy nightmares, their underpowered processors are criminal. Use a monitor, feed it whatever program signal you like, from antenna to computer output, and enjoy.
Most tvs can be setup sans smarts by denying it a connection to the internet and setting it to start last input on power on. I use mine as a 'monitor' by running a windows pc as my entertainment box. It's faster, smarter and easier to make do things like plex.
Seriously everyone subscribe to the channel if you love CES and are as excited as I am. Caleb is more often than not the first to get sneak peeks And behind the scene footage of the latest and greatest.. Happy holidays everyone into all a good New Year..
I remember when Star Wars was first aired in the UK, when all TV's were 4X3. People who had seen it at the cinema thought a lot had been edited out. It was infact that they had lost a lot of the action that took place on the sides of the image that was lost due to the Pan & Scan. Give me the black bars any day. Also, when a scene has sub-titles, why not put them in the dead space (it has been done) and not on the screen when it is sometimes lost on light backgrounds.
I'm still using a 20+ year old "Dumb" Insignia 65 inch 1080p Plasma TV. I'm Leary of the new smart TV's with all the bloatware and data mining. Unfortunately they seem to be the only option now. I don't watch a lot of TV or movies any more so I'm fine with my Antique TV for now. I may replace it with a commercial grade monitor if it eventually dies.
Half truth big part is matting some services crop the movie some do not. The same was true with theatre's they did and the same with 35mm films. Look on the back of a DVD some movies that are "Fullscreen Version" will say if it was Pan and Scan or Matted to fit your screen. They are not the same. Matted means it was shot on a larger frame film format and then cropped or matted to fit the screen that it is being show on. Some films are hard matted and distributed that way some leave it to the projectionists discretion. Services like STARZ show films all the time new and old that are unmatted. 35mm is mostly 4:3 format and the lens or matting is what makes it the size you see on the screen by choice of the supplier or director.
I love my Plasma dumb TV from Panasonic, I don't need to upgrade but the idea of new tech is always cool. Just don't want a smart TV spying on me, especially since that even if you don't connect it to WiFi, Amazon TV's with FireOS will connect to your neighbours devices to broadcast your data through the Amazon Sidewalk mesh network. I'm sure Google has their own version of that or will have their own version coming out eventually. Also governments have hacked Samsung TV's in the past & used the speaker as a microphone to essentially bug peoples homes & spy on them.
I only want a large screen tv for watching TV, DVDs and BLU-RAYS. Not a smart one, they're a nightmare to navigate and keep showing all the aps when you switch the thing on.
These companies can keep the same interface just without the apps and data collecting. Let’s be real. If the resources of the processor can be relieved by it not running apps or connecting to the Internet at all, lots of consumers would be happy imo
I wish manufacturers would sell stripped-down TVs without speakers, amps, 'smart' controls, and all that nonsense. Just give me a dedicated TV. I mean, if someone is dropping 5k on a TV, why would they ever use the built-in speakers or apps?
That's pretty much what computer monitors are now. The only disadvantages of one compared to a TV now are the lack of inputs (usually only having one or two HDMI inputs) and size (You can find bigger monitors but they tend to be smaller than TVs in general).
re: smart vs dumb TV. As long as there's HDMI, then you don't HAVE to use the 'smart' functions. Just plug in any service you want. I thought I wasn't going to use my LG TV features - and stick with my 4k Google stick instead. However, the LG interface with the standard apps is acceptable, so use it day-to-day. re: aspect ratios. better to have the biggest screen you can get - so 2:1, 16:9, 4:3 with black bars is good. If anything, I'd like to have the choice for vintage TV to be 4:3 but to make it smaller on the big screen - as the old lack of detail shows up!!!
If they can provide so many audio channels, then they can provide a channel for dialogue and let us decide how loud or quiet the dialogue should be compared to everything else. This practice of making dialogue so quiet that you need to turn it up to 60 just to hear it, then get your ears blown off by the action sound has got to go. And damn whoever made that decision.
i don't want a smart tv that tells me that even after I paid for the device, I can't use it unless I agree to a EULA with a report back to home privacy breaking scheme and tied to features I care not about (built in streaming services and metrics). I just need a great quality dumb tv to hook my existing (pc / console) to and let the agreed content flow from them to a picture box. It's bad enough when a game on the console refuses to play if it thinks the internet is down (on my solo game with no other participants but it's a game with that component of treating my game as a server). I hate that, and any tv that tells me what to do to keep it illuminated.
Hmm, I maybe in the minority here, but I use my computers a lot to watch content on my TV's. Usually go to the providers website, the picture is good enough for me, though the site still may collect info on what I'm watching, it seems somewhat less intrusive, not sure if it is.
I'm glad that someone asked about the black bars in this video. I hate black bars when viewing content since it's distracting like seeing a notch on a display. When it comes to youtube videos I always select zoom to fill the screen so there will be no black bars. I even watch 4k youtube videos on 1080p and 1440p displays. I rather have no front facing camera on a phones display than have a notch or front facing camera since I barely use it. I rather buy a usb c dongle as a replacement for using the front facing camera and attach the usb c camera to the usb c port of the device and have a 100% screen to body ratio display. The red magic 10 gaming phone has a 95% screen to body ratio and has an under the display camera on the phone. The black bars cut out portions of content when viewing content whether you are watching youtube videos or not but when watching movies whether they are dvd, 4k and blu ray movie discs. It sucks that the content has wasted space that is not being used due to the black bars. I don't pay for streaming since I watch the movies that I already paid for.
I for one hate smart TVs. I have three of them in my home and none of them are connected to the Internet whatsoever. And when I initially powered them up, I skipped all of the GOOGLE/LG nonsense and set the TV's up almost like a standalone display. I connected a Apple TV, Roku, and one of them a Mac Mini M4. No nag, no interruptions. This setup reminds me of the Panasonic Plasma, but that was a couple days ago.
My comment was censored by RUclips or this channel's moderator. All I can say is this then, ACR (Automatic Content Recognition). Works across all HDMI sources. You. Should. Be. Concerned. I wonder if this will pass?
I wish I could just buy a large OLED display with no smartness, and could even do without sound if it supports HDMI eARC. I have a stereo, and an Apple TV . I don't want the extra cost for features I don't need
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
You forgot the #1 reason why there are no 'dumb TVs'. It's because a dumb TV cannot collect and aggregate your information and watching habits and sell that data to the highest bidder. Years ago, this was called "subsidizing" - where, for example, the actual cost of a Roku box was subsidized by advertising, data selling and even selling the shortcut buttons. They all do it now. In addition, by selling you a "smart" TV, when something comes out, a new TV streamer or app, that requires more processing power than the TV has (which will be designed to take the cheapest chip possible for the content it's designed for) then you're hosed and have to buy a whole new TV instead of a new streaming box or stick.
"Dumb TVs" are now basically "Computer monitors" - which was the old definition of a TV minus the over-the-air tuner.
Hisense has a streaming OS port on their projectors now and had a demo with it on a TV. There is hope, but it is unlikely without legislation banning the sale of collected data. Right now most of the data is illegally collected, but there is no enforcement mechanism to stop it.
Just depressing
Even if they weren't selling your data for the small price of some extra added cheap hardware they can sell advertisements and streaming services probably pay them to have their service on the TV by default. Since most users actually want a smart TV it's basically a win for everyone, at least until they start to get fed up with all the advertisements and possible data collection.
Hate that I have to have "smart" features I have no intention of using since they don't keep the TVs updated and I would much rather use an Apple TV.
I do wish the big companies like LG, Samsung, Sony, etc. would make Cinephile TV's without apps, without sound, without artificial processing, and factory calibrated for perfect picture.
100%, I wish they just stopped putting speakers in TVs
@@mikolv21get a projector
If they did that, then TVs wouldn’t continue to get cheaper. They add all those features because that’s what a lot of consumers want and because being able to collect all the data they can from people using their TVs is a second source of revenue.
I can understand the feeling but I have the TCL QM850 and QM851 running GoogleTV and they have an option in the settings to just switch to the last input whenever it’s powered on.
I just reset the TV and don’t set up GTV, flip that option on, and it’s like GTV never existed. That’s a good enough compromise for me at least.
They are called profesional video monitors...very expensive
Dumb TVs should make a comeback.
They make money selling your viewing habit data, built-in ads, and pre-installed apps.. I doubt they would ever stop that...
It will never, too much capitalism is on the line
@@middleagebrotips3454 it's not capitalism... it's shareholder greed..
@@FJB2020 Shareholders' greed is part of capitalism
Business/commercial displays and larger PC monitors (see PCPartPicker and filter for monitors that are 40"+). Projectors are also an option as the ones worth buying ($700+) don't have any smart crap in them.
I disabled all the smart stuff on my 2019 Vizio because the apps have become excruciatingly slow and buggy. I reset the TV and dismissed all permissions making it dumb. Now I use my 4K firestick and will eventually get the Google streaming box(for better Atmos support). I also just purchased a new Pioneer 7.2 AV receiver and purposely avoided the overpriced ones with built-in apps and wifi to avoid the same problem. Strange how that seems to future proof it MORE.
U is big brain
I hate it when streaming services alter the aspect ratio. They should provide user control.
Try explaining to you 83 year old Dad how to simply turn on the tv and just get it to the point where he can start watching tv and then hopefully the the soundbar is still connected and doesn't need to be unplugged and then plugged back in to get it to work.
YES, 100%!!!!
Dumb tv's do not show you ads subsidizing the price of the TV. Consumers have repeatedly shown they would rather watch ads than spend 5 dollars to not watch ads.
LG makes a line of professional/business displays that have no smart/streaming features built into them. I don’t think they would work well for gaming situations, but I believe they would still be outstanding for light controlled rooms that want a home theater display. The bonus is, they are way overbuilt compared to normal home TVs. My work just put in 98” displays that are warrantied for 24/7 operation for 7 years! No home TV warranty would cover something like that.
Nice, but I'm sure they're expensive as...😁
@ they are more expensive than a comparably sized normal TV, but that is how they are able to keep the costs down of normal TVs these days. They get money from those streaming services, especially to have a button directly on the remote. Remove all smart TV functions, and the money TV manufacturers get from that subsidy, and they are going to charge you more regardless of the better warranty.
what you are reffering to are what are known as Commercial/ Digital Signage Displays, they are the closest thing we can get to Dumb TVs in 2025 but they have thier own Quirks and Downsides, another option could be to get a Big PC monitor and run everything through an AV Reciever
Clinging on to my Kuro not only because it's still a great TV but because it's dumb. Not an app in sight to go wrong, to grab my data, to throw ads at me, it's wonderful.
Cable TV used to crop every widescreen movie to fit the old tube tv 4:3 and now 16:9. Most movies on Prime Video or Netflix are shown in the original aspect ratio though.
This dates me, but I remember in the 90s when TNT brought back letterbox viewing for B-movies with tacky monsters. It was such a hit AMC started doing it.
The idea of a smart and dumb TV is a false comparison many people have. I have LCD tv's and plasma alike that have no apps aside from the operating system with a simple digital file viewer. That in itself is a smart feature. A true dumb TV is the old manual TV tuner sets of old. If a TV has an operating system, it is technically smart. That includes late model crt's. In my view, most all modern tv's with bloat apps are still nothing more than a glorified tablet without a touchscreen. There is nothing really smart about them. Even if I had no choice ,but to obtain a modern app bloated TV. I would still prefer to use a linux based PC for the media player, because media apps; although convenient, just suck in my view. I will take the fully powered web browser for the win.
I declined the "Terms & Conditions" prompt on my Vizio, and blocked it on my network. All of the Smart TV stuff is disabled, but I can still access settings and switch inputs. It's only complained once and asked me to review the T&C again... which I refused again, and it's been fine. About as dumb a TV as I can make it, and it works great.
I have a smart TV, but I don't watch Commercial Television. I watch Blu-ray for two reasons: higher bit rate and lack of degenerate commercials.
Best way to do it.
I just connect a laptop running Linux to my TV & totally do not sail the high seas for blue-ray level rips of content that massively outperforms the quality of streaming services.
@@virtualpilgrim8645 some of my Blu rays have ads older Disney movies do it all the time
Fot those that don't know TV manufacturers don't make a lot on TV's so they will want as much revenue as possible like from selling advertsing space on Smart TV's and collecting your data to sell to advertisers. The best option is what Caleb mentioned get the best TV can afford and if it's a Smart TV then so be it, and simply never use the smart features of your TV, don't even give it access to your WIFI and instead use another streaming device and/or set top box as your source of TV/Movies etc...
If that was true, how did they make a profit before the advent of these smart TVs? I am still using my 2010 52" Samsung Plasma. If it goes out, I would rather buy a large dumb monitor than buying one of these new TVs that spy on you and sell your data.
I am quite happy to report that I am physically incapable of shedding a tear for multi-million, probably law-breaking corporations.
They brought an "innovation" (it's not an innovation) so they can sell data so that some line-item data-bro can make inoffensive content that isn't good.
They can get bent. No one really wants that crap. Caleb is being an ivory tower, this-is-for-your-own-good, arrogant twit about this.
Fun fact regarding the movies and aspect ratio stuff: back in the 90s and 2000s, Pixar wanted to make sure everyone had a good viewing experience when watching their movies. So what they did was after the initial run of the movie in theaters, they would go back into their computers and re-rendered the entire movie in 4:3 and 16:9 for the home video and DVD release. Doing this allowed them to alter scenes so that nothing would be missed from cropping. In some cases they even reanimated and moved things around to fit the screen better!
Top Gun 2 was filmed with iMAX scenes that use a different aspect ratio then the scenes that are not in iMAX. Some movies and shows are filmed using the 1:85:1 ratio that fills a 16x9 tv where other movies are filmed using a 2:40:1 ratio that’s wider so you get black bars. The tv is displaying the ratios correctly if you see black bars. If you don’t see black bars and the image looks zoomed in then they cropped the image to fit the full scale of your tv screen. If you buy a movie and look on the back of the case it’ll tell you what ratio the movie is present in. I always recommend for movies to buy physical because there’s no cropping of the image it’s shown how it was filmed at least with Blu Rays that is. Tv shows all use the 1:85:1 ratio to fill the screen same with video games so you don’t have to worry there but movies might be cropped on streaming platforms so be aware.
Marvel movies on Disney+ offer the iMax Enhanced versions which means it's the ONLY way to see the full, unaltered aspect ratio. The discs are cropped to widescreen, which sucks.
the best way to make a tv dumb is to turn off the wifi and use the input button like an old tv
Exactly! Plus it's harder fpr the TV to spy on you!
I’m not sure how so many that gripe about “smart” tvs and how they won’t buy them are missing this.
Don’t want the shitty apps they pack onto the tv? It’s super easy; don’t use them and don’t hook them up to WiFi. This isn’t rocket science.
@@syscruncher The problem is, many people will still keep doing it - and then complain about the performance of the App; compared to a $50/streaming device.
@ the manufacturers are actually counting on that type of behavior. Those built-in apps as well at the tv software itself is little more than spyware designed to harvest data for the manufacturer to sell off to third parties.
Anyone dumb enough to hook a smart tv up to their WiFi and leave it there deserves what they get.
@@syscruncherThat works... until TV manufacturers start forcing buyers to connect their TV to the internet and install updates and all that nonsense before you can even switch to the HDMI input.
Only getting the imax scenes on Disney plus is such a dick move
I'll take letter block all day vs. cropped. Film makers are artists and I prefer to see a movie the way the artist that made it intended.
And this is also why one should buy as big of a screen as possible. We rarely end up seeing the most of it when watching films. Games on the other hand, are pleasant because of this as they mostly use the 16:9 aspect ratio and are still following the creator's intent.
@ Excellent point! I dabble in photography and 16:9 is my go to ratio. To me it’s just the most pleasant to the eye.
@@MadViking82 I actually play a lot of my games in 21:9 with black bars on a 16:9 screen. Assassin's Creed games and Red Dead Redemption 2 especially look pretty epic in 21:9. But that's why I got a 65" 8K display as my PC monitor
@@badpuppy3That’s pretty interesting and cool.
Some games have cinematic sequences as well in different aspect ratios, but I can see how certain games may benefit from wider aspect ratio (with black bars) in gameplay as well.
Streaming services cropping and stretching movies, not to mention editing them, is one of the reasons I prefer to just own my discs so I can view them correctly.
NAS Life is the best life
I wonder if you can still buy a pro plasma monitor. We use to always use a Panasonic professional plasma in the color suites for post production. That would be amazing.
"I want my dumb TV...." *cue Dire Straits guitar riff*
I set my Sony TV to open to the HDMI input, and leave it unplugged from my network because I don't like the smart features. I logged in to my Google account and it 1:: overrode my startup input preference, and 2: wouldn't let me log out. Had to do a factory reset to turn it dumb again.
I just bought a Samsung es8000 2014 model and I'm in love...still in the box I couldn't believe it!...and I could still play my analog content..ps2 ect.
Just upgraded both the main TVs in my home. Got a 77” LG G4 & a 55” Hisense U7N. Have Roku Ultras and cable boxes on both as well as blu-ray players. In my experience with many TV brands, a separate streaming device is always the way to go. I Love that Google TV has an option at set-up for a “dumb TV” mode that only has the apps on the dedicated remote buttons for marketing agreement purposes I’m sure. Although the “last input on start” option on the LG hasn’t failed me yet. Almost forgot the tv even had WebOS😂🙏🏼
Also, the apps running on streaming devices are much faster and have less lag compared to using the app on the Smart TV itself. I have an Apple TV 4K plug to my LG CX 55" TV and it works wonders for me.
I prefer the original aspect ratio the creator used. Not altered. Good topic!
I don't even notice the changes.
thanks a lot Caleb, that was very good 👍👍
Hey, Caleb. I hate to do this, but I need to point out that you should change the clips you used when talking about movies that are cropped/zoomed on streaming services. You used footage from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings". The footage in question was not zoomed/cropped but actually open matte, taken from the IMAX Enhanced versions of said films on Disney+.
One thing I found recently is that these TV's require you to create an account with the manufacturer to get full use of them. Oddly, this even applies to speakers, like Sony's Theater Quad, which is why I didn't buy it. I have far too many accounts, and I actively avoid creating any more than absolutely necessary. If I do get one, I'll have it default to my AVR's HDMI input, and not connect it to the internet unless it needs a firmware update to fix a problem I'm having.
@2:00 this would have a been a great time to cover what "4k" actually means (base 2 width.) Since tvs use UHD and are "3840x2160" and not "4096x2160" they have to resize and cut the content even if they keep the aspect ratio. They have redo lots of effects and re-render the film's special effects to not have weird artifacts. It would be nice if we had proper 2k and 4k screens/content, but I do not think I have seen one for consumers since Vizio tried it like 12 years ago. That one failed since upscaling from a cropped picture from 1920x800 to 2048x1080 looked really bad, and you cannot get native 2k footage as a consumer.
I have the 2016 Ghostbusters movie and one interesting thing about it, is that while it has black bars, when the girls fire the proton packs, the beams actually go into the black bars.
You were a lot kinder than I would have been to that aspect ratio question. It's painful how he was literally annoyed that he WASN'T missing part of the movie he was watching, and was actually arguing that he didn't want to see all of the content he was watching (ignorance is quite something, huh... He was more concerned about his TV "not being used to the fullest" than he was about the actual content he was watching. That's difficult for me to wrap my brain around. I frankly can't understand why some people don't put any effort at all into thinking about WHY black bars might be there. He embarrassed himself dramatically and I respect your restraint in avoiding pointing out that fact. People like him are how shows like Goof Troop get ruined for no reason.
That's honestly really weird that nobody upvoted or commented on this. Nobody has any complaints or anything? It's very unlikely that I'm the only one who feels a bit of pain hearing that aspect ratio question.
I bought the 55" 4K HiSense H9G four years ago and have never connected it to my home network. When I turn it on it defaults to my Roku and if I want to watch digital rabbit ear content, I press the input button and change over. Been a Roku user since 2013 and that's never going to change.
Having a Samsung TV makes you want a dumb TV.
The sluggish menu is forced on you every time you connect a new input, and the two other ways of swapping input feel so slow too. I just want to press a single button, or press input then a number, but instead you press input, wait a second, then hope it doesn't lag when you slowly scroll to the input. That also means automations are out of the question, unless you use "smart things", which always breaks after a few days. This is a flagship miniLED TV from a year or two ago (QN95B), but it feels so slow and unresponsive. I also really wish modern TVs supported the monitor standard for sleep/wake instead of just CEC. Even with CEC devices, it never wants to auto power off with the device you're using.
I really wonder how much brands are paid to have streaming services on their remotes instead of input buttons. Hell, half the buttons on my Samsung remotes aren't useful to me at all! I have to press a button combo on one of them just to get to the inputs, but I have a dedicated button for voice input, split screen, prime video, Disney+, etc that I never use. The channel select button won't even swap inputs, even if you have Samsung TV plus disabled.
If I could have bought a "dumb" monitor with the same panel, I would have done it in a heartbeat, but now even Samsungs high end monitors have the crappy smart interface.
So many users just want to connect a streaming box and a console, and quickly switch between those two inputs, but manufacturers seem to purposely prevent this to shove adverts down your throat when you switch inputs.
I had to drive over to my grandmothers because she got a new LG TV and was lost trying to find the input on the menu screen she brought up by accident. I genuinely wonder if these devices get any actual user testing from the brands.
If Sony made their x90 miniLEDs in 42", I would have paid genuinely $500+ extra just to escape the awful menus on the Samsung.
A number of manufacturers make large LCD and OLED monitors without any "smart" functionality. I'm looking at a 48" LG OLED monitor right now. It serves the function of a "dumb TV" quite well.
That case of film’s aspect ratio differs from film to film. Older films from like 2008-ish and before were mostly shot in widescreen. Films from the previous century were even more madness. Cinnescope, extreme wides, multiprojector-showings, I think even 3:1 existed one time 🤔 anyway most of them were cropped with the pan and scan method. That’s the method Caleb described.
Most films from 2009 and onwards were highly probably shot in multiple ratios. But these films might be cropped to fit a widescreen viewing. Doesn’t make sense to me. Most Marvel films do that nowadays. Also please don’t start about Transformers 4 and 5 in IMAX. Michael Bay used every aspect ratio he could find and mixed them all together in the final cut.
Nowadays. Most films that are available in IMAX should be watched in IMAX because that’s probably what the makers intended to show.
And btw IMAX has multiple aspect ratios. Digital IMAX is indeed 1.9:1 but oldschool film IMAX is roughly 1.33:1
Basically if a film has black bars then it’s the entire frame you’re watching. But if the film is maxed out to 16:9 but it is also shown in other aspect ratios then you’re probably missing parts of the frame. And I hate them nowadays. Regular 2D, IMAX (has more screen real estate and equipped with DTS Audio), Dolby Cinema (has more vibrant colours and better sound but not more screen real estate) 🤦 I just want an IMAX viewing with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos projected by lasers. Basically I don’t think you can’t have the best of all worlds.
Great video , you have been massive inspiration to us smaller creators 👌👌👌
Hey C! Any TV tests in terms of what they collected and sending and where to (cybersecurity)? Any traffic analysis, what servers, hidden mics on boards… you got the point…
Maybe people are buying larger tv's for this reason of aspect ratio abuse by the movie , and tv creators. It's pissing people off. It feels like they are doing it to spite you in some way. I feel cheated and abused when I see this on my large screen or even a friends smaller screen. 16x9 should be the standard now in America, and everywhere on the planet.
Your comments re: TV interfaces did not consider the type of consumer buying the TV. Savvy consumers can bypass the interface with another box, but try getting your elderly parents, who do not like ads, to opt for an extra box + remote + cable + perceived complexity, and it's another ball game. Based on your reviews, I opted to steer them to a LG C4 over the Panasonic equivalent, and I'm very glad I did because while webOS is depressingly clunky (but no worse than Samsung), they would not have accepted the Amazon adware on the Panasonic.
Hi Caleb, Are TCL and Hisense large TVs significantly cheaper because they skimp on quality internal components or is there hardly any difference in the quality of components used compared to Sony or LG?
I can wholeheartedly recommend Hisense ULED 4K TV! Mine is 4 years old, and picture and sound, once carefully adjusted, are top notch! ... I have a Hisense Washing Machine too!
Joyeux Noël Et Bonne Année MMXXV
They should introduce a video format that saves the full video and the boxes for different aspect ratios that follow content between shots, or maybe something like SRT for title but for just the latter
I don't mind black bars on the top and bottom. But I hate in on the sides.
Or worse, get all 4 bars when watching on an ultra wide monitor, that would actually fill up perfectly if the services supported them at all.
It does look strange but, on the other hand, cropping the top and bottom of a 4:3 image to fit a 16:9 ratio cuts 25% of the original image. So I prefer keeping the black bars on the side even if it feels weird.
Black bars on the top and bottom shrink the size of the image. Black bars on the sides don't reduce the size of the image.
I got a 21:9 ultra wide screen monitor, so I don't get black bars on the top and bottom. But I will have black bars on the sides when watching 16:9 or 4:3 TV shows.
I can zoom in the image and stretch it a little bit, but the zoom to fill the whole screen option, will cut off peoples heads, as it crops too much of the image.
Black bars on the top and bottom = small image.
Black bars on the sides = full height image, with no cropping.
I’m fortunate to have one of the last plasma monitors, the Pioneer KRP-600m. Calibrated for isf night, it’s still great for 1080p SDR. I only use my Bravia 9 remote for settings and firmware updates. I’m sure there’s not enough of a market to produce monitor versions of today’s top TV’s. That’s the world we live in.
My plasma TV died a few months ago. I still don't know what to replace it with
Most new TVs have picture settings that allow you to turn on or off the Auto format, why is this not mentioned by Caleb, I don't understand? You can zoom, fill, stretch, or auto, and as I understand it, auto does what the show/movie was filmed in, no?
What's frustrating for widescreen movies, like all the Marvel films, is that I watch on a 21:9 ultrawide monitor. So these films WOULD look amazing and fill up the screen...but they don't. Instead, they're a smaller rectangle in the center of the screen surrounded on all sides by black bars. Streaming devices don't support 21:9 (without horizontal stretching), and streaming services seemingly bake in the pillar and letter boxes.
So it actually ends up using less of the screen (relatively) than a normal 16:9. Except when the IMAX scenes kick in, where the image increases and only the pillars are left.
I wish the companies would just put a little extra effort in to support wider aspect ratios in screens, even if they're still a niche in the market. Or at least give us a setting to manually stretch the screen to fit.
What are your thoughts on the new Tesla smart TV.
Rear channels are not supposed to be as loud ad front speakers.
I would like to add I have an old LG smart tv (10 years) my provider is Direct TV and the best picture I can get is 1080P. The television's that are 4K, oled, and LED do not make sense to me because my provider does not broadcast above 1080P unless you add a seperate channel which has minimal content. When will the content be upgraded to what they are selling in the marketplace? Who needs all these bells and whistles if its not standard to begin with??
Can a TV with advertising in the UI be considered premium?
I'm not sure it can.
CES Q: MediaTek Pentonic 800
Can you provide your impressions on the picture quality of 2025 TVs that have the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip? I know about the four HDMI 2.1 ports (not a gamer, so N/A for my setup). But the reputed greatly enhanced contrast features and the upscaling of low-res content. Any noticeable difference in picture quality with the new TV's that include the Pentonic 800 from Sony, Hisense, Panasonic and TCL (I believe all use MediaTek SoCs -- but go ahead and rebrand with some manufacturer AI this or AI that brand for "their" chip -- albeit with their own programming of it).
Caleb, really enjoy your reviews. I am in the market for a 65" tv for our sunroom. Want good if not great angle views, little glare (We do have blinds and can darken the room if need be). We presently have a Sony LED which we are giving to our son. Nice TV but want to step up. Don't want to pay more than $1500 if possible. We have an LG OLED in our family room and not opposed to having on in the sunroom. Like the Samsungs except for the fact that they don't have Dolby Vision. Was looking at Hisense U8 but did not like viewing angle problem. Could you give me best choices?
Thanks
All new Sony TVs do not allow you to change the aspect ratio just in case that's a deal breaker
It's a shame they still make tv's with smart features, I will never use them I prefer a streaming device i can control to some extent.
"They take out the spicy bits," lol
"Enough is enough, I have had it with these monkey fighting snakes on this monday to friday plane"
Also sometimes the mix of IMAX and anamorphic ratios in one movie is because back in the day IMAX cameras were very loud so they avoided using them in dialog scenes, especially if they don’t want to re-record the dialog, like Chris Nolan. They have gotten quieter which is why later Chris Nolan movies have more and more IMAX. ◡̈
Can smart tv's do 24p playback from 24 fps Blu-ray/Ultra HD source?
High end TVs can
@@estusflask982Which ones?
@@beorcya LG, Sony, and Samsung TVs above $1000.
Top gun had some scenes shot in imax, that why the aspect ratio changed
I recently came across a video that made the claim that updates from certain manufacturers actually downgrade the capabilities of thier tvs over time that they refer to as nerfing. Namely Samsung. Is this a real thing and if so do other manufacturers do it as well. I am considering purchasing a new tv but would hate to lose the capabilities of the tv after I choose a tv based on reviews and research before investing in my choice.
Thanks
how about reviweing the free tv from Telly? with the two screens?
Why did a klipsch flexus review never happen?
The thing that most people have with smart tv is the fact that there is a software in between the user and the hardware that control the device in a manner in which we have no control over.
Much like fully electric cars, when you press on the gaz pedal, it send a signal to the software of the on board computer, which then interact with the Escc (electronic speed controler circuitry )
While a dumb car or interface, the software will not intefere with the user and the hardware as much as with "smart" things.
Big buisness prefer "smart" because they brick your hardware with a single firmware update.
Bought my mom a new TV for Christmas, it has Fire TV, it goes straight to the Fire TV interface when turned on, even if you had it on a different input when turned off. I HATE that. My 8 year old Samsung Smart TV always turns on using the last input I used. The Smart features of the TV sucks, but I Use my PS4 as my streaming device anyway.
Smart TVs are fine, but the smart interface should only appear when I prompt it to.
and watching further into the video, he says he has a video about bypassing that..off to watch it
black bars are your friend
it can be shocking how bad the pan and scan jobs can be
in star wars episode 4 (for example) on the original 4:3 fullscreen version, luke talks about a tusken raider who is completely cut off
the simpsons have multiple gags that get cut off when viewed in 16:9
a conversation done in one take in indiana jones 3 with characters on each side of the screen becomes a bunch of cuts going back and forth in 4:3
its a mess. push streaming services to always use the original aspect ratio
Dumb TVs will always be preferable. Not only are "smart" TVs privacy nightmares, their underpowered processors are criminal. Use a monitor, feed it whatever program signal you like, from antenna to computer output, and enjoy.
Most tvs can be setup sans smarts by denying it a connection to the internet and setting it to start last input on power on.
I use mine as a 'monitor' by running a windows pc as my entertainment box. It's faster, smarter and easier to make do things like plex.
Seriously everyone subscribe to the channel if you love CES and are as excited as I am. Caleb is more often than not the first to get sneak peeks And behind the scene footage of the latest and greatest.. Happy holidays everyone into all a good New Year..
I've been looking for a TV that's not smart... But still in 4K but somehow they aren't available and the ones that are, are freaking expensive.
I remember when Star Wars was first aired in the UK, when all TV's were 4X3. People who had seen it at the cinema thought a lot had been edited out. It was infact that they had lost a lot of the action that took place on the sides of the image that was lost due to the Pan & Scan. Give me the black bars any day.
Also, when a scene has sub-titles, why not put them in the dead space (it has been done) and not on the screen when it is sometimes lost on light backgrounds.
you can get good dumb tvs still. They call them Hospitality TV, and they are used for motels and bnb's where connectivity isnt needed.
personally i hate the roku tv interface as it wont just do just tv with the roku stuff being separate.
I'm still using a 20+ year old "Dumb" Insignia 65 inch 1080p Plasma TV. I'm Leary of the new smart TV's with all the bloatware and data mining. Unfortunately they seem to be the only option now.
I don't watch a lot of TV or movies any more so I'm fine with my Antique TV for now. I may replace it with a commercial grade monitor if it eventually dies.
Half truth big part is matting some services crop the movie some do not. The same was true with theatre's they did and the same with 35mm films. Look on the back of a DVD some movies that are "Fullscreen Version" will say if it was Pan and Scan or Matted to fit your screen. They are not the same. Matted means it was shot on a larger frame film format and then cropped or matted to fit the screen that it is being show on. Some films are hard matted and distributed that way some leave it to the projectionists discretion. Services like STARZ show films all the time new and old that are unmatted. 35mm is mostly 4:3 format and the lens or matting is what makes it the size you see on the screen by choice of the supplier or director.
I thought virtual mode meant a 2-channel soundbar with virtual mode engaged would simulate the non-existent surround speakers.
Why don't the TVs just use the common theater ratio for the screens?
I love my Plasma dumb TV from Panasonic, I don't need to upgrade but the idea of new tech is always cool. Just don't want a smart TV spying on me, especially since that even if you don't connect it to WiFi, Amazon TV's with FireOS will connect to your neighbours devices to broadcast your data through the Amazon Sidewalk mesh network. I'm sure Google has their own version of that or will have their own version coming out eventually.
Also governments have hacked Samsung TV's in the past & used the speaker as a microphone to essentially bug peoples homes & spy on them.
What if you manually remove the wi-fi and Sidewalk spy modules?
a dumb tv is just a computer monitor now.
I don't mind black bars. I like to see films and TV shows in the correct aspect ratio.
Joyeux Noël Et Bonne Année MMXXV 📺
I only want a large screen tv for watching TV, DVDs and BLU-RAYS. Not a smart one, they're a nightmare to navigate and keep showing all the aps when you switch the thing on.
Good information
TV manufacturers can't serve ads on a dumb TV
Streaming services make too many compromises??
These companies can keep the same interface just without the apps and data collecting. Let’s be real. If the resources of the processor can be relieved by it not running apps or connecting to the Internet at all, lots of consumers would be happy imo
Hey Caleb. Thanks for the detailed response. And no, you did not butcher my name😊
I wish that they would offer giant media screens without tuners, OS, speakers and we could just connect tuners, streamers, speakers etc
I wish manufacturers would sell stripped-down TVs without speakers, amps, 'smart' controls, and all that nonsense. Just give me a dedicated TV. I mean, if someone is dropping 5k on a TV, why would they ever use the built-in speakers or apps?
That's pretty much what computer monitors are now. The only disadvantages of one compared to a TV now are the lack of inputs (usually only having one or two HDMI inputs) and size (You can find bigger monitors but they tend to be smaller than TVs in general).
These TVs are impossible for dementia suffering people to use.
I still have my 1986 Samgsung tv monitor. It works great. Old movies/TV shows look best on an analog tv. 😊😊😊😊
re: smart vs dumb TV. As long as there's HDMI, then you don't HAVE to use the 'smart' functions. Just plug in any service you want.
I thought I wasn't going to use my LG TV features - and stick with my 4k Google stick instead.
However, the LG interface with the standard apps is acceptable, so use it day-to-day.
re: aspect ratios.
better to have the biggest screen you can get - so 2:1, 16:9, 4:3 with black bars is good.
If anything, I'd like to have the choice for vintage TV to be 4:3 but to make it smaller on the big screen - as the old lack of detail shows up!!!
If they can provide so many audio channels, then they can provide a channel for dialogue and let us decide how loud or quiet the dialogue should be compared to everything else.
This practice of making dialogue so quiet that you need to turn it up to 60 just to hear it, then get your ears blown off by the action sound has got to go. And damn whoever made that decision.
i don't want a smart tv that tells me that even after I paid for the device, I can't use it unless I agree to a EULA with a report back to home privacy breaking scheme and tied to features I care not about (built in streaming services and metrics). I just need a great quality dumb tv to hook my existing (pc / console) to and let the agreed content flow from them to a picture box.
It's bad enough when a game on the console refuses to play if it thinks the internet is down (on my solo game with no other participants but it's a game with that component of treating my game as a server). I hate that, and any tv that tells me what to do to keep it illuminated.
Hmm, I maybe in the minority here, but I use my computers a lot to watch content on my TV's. Usually go to the providers website, the picture is good enough for me, though the site still may collect info on what I'm watching, it seems somewhat less intrusive, not sure if it is.
I have never used the smart features of my tv’s. I prefer using an Apple TV box because it just works with my phone, AirPods Max and tablet.
I'm glad that someone asked about the black bars in this video. I hate black bars when viewing content since it's distracting like seeing a notch on a display. When it comes to youtube videos I always select zoom to fill the screen so there will be no black bars. I even watch 4k youtube videos on 1080p and 1440p displays. I rather have no front facing camera on a phones display than have a notch or front facing camera since I barely use it. I rather buy a usb c dongle as a replacement for using the front facing camera and attach the usb c camera to the usb c port of the device and have a 100% screen to body ratio display. The red magic 10 gaming phone has a 95% screen to body ratio and has an under the display camera on the phone. The black bars cut out portions of content when viewing content whether you are watching youtube videos or not but when watching movies whether they are dvd, 4k and blu ray movie discs. It sucks that the content has wasted space that is not being used due to the black bars. I don't pay for streaming since I watch the movies that I already paid for.
And why would you use two different images for aspect ratio? This is bad business dude!
I for one hate smart TVs. I have three of them in my home and none of them are connected to the Internet whatsoever. And when I initially powered them up, I skipped all of the GOOGLE/LG nonsense and set the TV's up almost like a standalone display. I connected a Apple TV, Roku, and one of them a Mac Mini M4. No nag, no interruptions. This setup reminds me of the Panasonic Plasma, but that was a couple days ago.
It seems like nowadays, the only way to get a dumb TV (non-spy TV) with a great panel is to get a reference monitor
My comment was censored by RUclips or this channel's moderator.
All I can say is this then, ACR (Automatic Content Recognition). Works across all HDMI sources. You. Should. Be. Concerned.
I wonder if this will pass?
Entire screenshots are taken and digests sent to content search servers. Entire. Screens. Have a nice day.
What are going to be the benefits of HDMI 2.2? Will the 2025 TV's be equipped with HDMI 2,2?
I wish I could just buy a large OLED display with no smartness, and could even do without sound if it supports HDMI eARC. I have a stereo, and an Apple TV . I don't want the extra cost for features I don't need