Amazon and Best Buy Team Up To Sell Smart TVs (cnet.com)

Amazon and Best Buy want to sell you your next smart TV. From a report: The companies, which are two of the biggest electronics retailers in the US, on Wednesday revealed a new multiyear partnership to sell the next generation of TVs running Amazon's Fire TV operating system to customers in the US and Canada. Best Buy will be the exclusive seller for more than 10 4K and HD Fire TV Edition models made by Toshiba and Best Buy's Insignia brand starting this summer. Pricing on the sets has not yet been announced. These smart TVs will be available only in Best Buy stores, on BestBuy.com and, for the first time, from Best Buy as a seller on Amazon.com.

Comments

Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[aglider]

I won't ever punch a security hole in my privacy!

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[Patent Lover]

Man did you waste a First Post.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[AmiMoJo]

It's not even going to be a good smart TV. You would be much better off with Android TV, which supports everything rather than being locked in to Amazon's walled garden.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[sycodon]

The only smarts I want my TV to have is automagically figuring out what device is sending the picture to it.

Dumb TV > Smart TV

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[DontBeAMoran]

What the hell is a Fiberglass Panel Fiberglass Reinforced Fiberglass Reinforced?

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[Highdude702]

You're mistaken, the first set of afar stands for Fire Rated. So it's Fiberglass Panel Fire Rated Fiberglass Reinforced. Your welcome!

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[Highdude702]

That can be a pain in the ass even. I would rather have to select input because auto sensing crap will switch in the middle of what you put on because the DVD looped in the player your kid forgot to turn off.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[sycodon]

Ha!

Or the kids will see the DVD you left in it last night while watching with your wife!

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[AmiMoJo]

There are lots of other useful kinda-smart features. ARC is the obvious example, it allows a connected sound system to get the right audio as the TV switches source. It also allows for stuff like an external DVR to turn on the TV and tune to the right channel without a janky IR blaster.

CEC allows the remote control keys to be passed over HDMI too, so that a DVR or similar can use the main TV remote instead of needing a second one.

Built in media players that support USB are quite handy too. Sure, you can do better with Kodi or whatever, but the USB port is handy if your friend brings over something to watch.

What you don't want is network connectivity. As long as the other smart features like apps don't complain or get in the way, simply unplugging the ethernet cable and not connecting to wifi is adequate on most TVs.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[Applehu Akbar]

The only smarts I want my TV to have is automagically figuring out what device is sending the picture to it.

There is actually a standard for this, called CEC, which is implemented on some TV-connected devices. Unfortunately, TV receivers uniformly suck at implementing it. You won’t find a TV tech who even knows what CEC is.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[tlhIngan]

There is actually a standard for this, called CEC, which is implemented on some TV-connected devices. Unfortunately, TV receivers uniformly suck at implementing it. You wonâ(TM)t find a TV tech who even knows what CEC is.

CEC is implemented on a lot of things. Most TVs support it (usually under some branding, like LG's SimpLink, Sony BraviaSync, Samsung and others all have it as well). Most receivers do as well (the ones that don't generally are the boutique very high end ones - the ones you control with a Creston smart home system or other thing)

The problem is, it was never a fully fleshed out specification, so they all suck and interoperability is generally poor unless EVERYTHING is from the same manufacturer. If you get it to work, great! Enjoy it while it lasts, because it will break sooner or later.

The AVS Forums are full of people who say "CEC is the best thing ever!" followed by "CEC stopped working - why?!". Sometimes a full system reset works, other times it's broken for good. And this happens even if nothing changed. (And then you have people countering "CEC is unreliable" with "It works great for me!" in threads where well, CEC suddenly broke).

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[CastrTroy]

I just want a dumb TV.

I picked up a small form factor refurbished desktop for $150 recent. It truly does play everything. I tried an Android TV box, and despite getting lots of views on Amazon, I found it to be a piece of junk. A lot of basic apps I downloaded from the App store wouldn't even run properly. For a little more than the Android box cost, I got a full windows PC that can not only play any media I throw at it, but can also act as a PLEX server as well as run a few basic games. It could probably run more games, but the form factor and power supply limit which graphics cards you would be able to use with the system.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[Highdude702]

6 of one, half dozen of another.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[Jaime2]

Please don't ask for this. My typical horror story with CEC (the technology that does this): Watch something on AppleTV, TV switches over to the correct input... great. Switch back to cable box to watch something from my DVR. Four hours later, my TV spontaneously goes to static because the AppleTV went to sleep and the TV switched to it so that I could enjoy the new signal on HDMI2.

In other words, even that level of intelligence is often worse than nothing. Totally dumb TV for me. Besides, why do I want my TV manufacturer including $30 worth of functionality that I either already have or don't want.

Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me!

[pak9rabid]

Additionally, Raspberry Pi's and Kodi support CEC as well (works out of the box with Open/LibreElec). Gone are the days of having to setup your own IR/radio receiver and having to get lirc working.

Nope!

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear Amazon are a bunch of bad hombres from Dear Leader Trump. There is no way I'm buying one of these things! No thank you!

Do Not Want

[thebryce]

No smart tv's in my house, no echo or google home either.

Re: Do Not Want

[jddj]

+1.

Oh, and I turn off Google Assistant and pretend the phone isn't listening to me, too.

Re:Do Not Want

[datavirtue]

"Wiretap, do you have a recipe for pancakes?"

Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[guacamole]

All I want is a screen, with HDMI ports.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[mccalli]

Alone in the universe, I actually still quite fancy having a 3D one too. I missed out on that fad, still think it could have been good mostly for gaming rather than casual watching TV & films with friends and family.

Gran Turismo had a mode making use of 3D which actually showed different pictures to different polarisation. Meant you could do full screen two player, which each player seeing a different image. I suppose VR has taken this niche now, but VR is still damned expensive and seems to have wires everywhere.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[Kenja]

Yes, but they tend to cost more... they're used for things like restaurant menus these days.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[AmiMoJo]

The ethernet/wifi connections are not mandatory, you don't have to plug them in.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[k6mfw]

I'd settle for just B&W standard def tube type TV set for excellent content delivered by broadcasters...

Getting back to types of TVs, a recent issue of IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, https://bts.ieee.org/ mentioned the three-legged stool of equipment needed for delivering television programs, equipment needed to receive television programs, and ***the content*** of these television programs [remove any one of these legs, the stool falls down]. It has been written as technology improves (it really has, the pictures of flatscreens soooooo much better than those old CRTs) but content broadcasted? Lots of discussion about quality of that so if you don't have the latest tech TV you're probably not missing much.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[taustin]

Go by your nearest Walmart. They have a selection.

Re: Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[houghi]

That is called a monitor. Crazy but thing is that you often pay more for a monitor than for a tv. I just use a smart tv as a 55 inch monitor. Never conected it to anything. 500EUR 4 years ago. Now Icould get 4K for it, but no need for now.

Manytimes a tv is cheaper att the same screen resolution. Iam not a gamer nor a movie maker or photographer, so no need for high end stuff.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[muahtorski1]

It'd be great of they had a module for all the smart functionality that could be physically removed and throw in a drawer. I would still need to verify that the TV has been rendered dumb, but being able to do this would at least provide some satisfaction.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[Pascoea]

but I've heard that some tvs actually require an internet connection during the setup process... (Actually I believe it was another Slashdot thread on a similar topic - and unfortunately it seems entirely too plausible to discount...

I've said it before, and I know others have as well. Literally cannon configure the TV without hooking it to their app. Granted, once done you can delete the app, disconnect the wifi, etc.

I question, especially with the prevalence of Xfinity's "Xfinity-wifi" in my area and free MVNOs, if I'll even need to give future devices access to MY network for it to be phoning home on me.

https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10052705&cid=53566341#comments

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[CohibaVancouver]

All I want is a screen, with HDMI ports.

And all my wife wants is to press the "Netflix" button on the remote and start watching Grace and Frankie.

My seven-year-old son wants to toggle to the YouTube menu and start watching Minecraft videos.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[argStyopa]

https://www.newegg.com/Product...

Newegg, 55"+ 'monitors'

Curiously, since these are targeted at "business" uses like conference rooms and trade displays, they're more expensive than TV's in the same size/format/quality with a tuner, etc. aimed at the consumer.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[CohibaVancouver]

Why would I waste time building a "Myth TV" box when I can go for a bike ride with my kids? Life's too short to spend precious time fighting with technology when I can buy a TV with a "Netflix" button.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[antdude]

Computer monitors. ;)

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[datavirtue]

1080...why? It will probably be more expensive. 4K is amazing up close..especially when gaming. I have been using a 49" 4K Roku TV as a monitor. Eye strain gone.

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[datavirtue]

1080 looks like shit at 32" up close

Re:Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[datavirtue]

Geek returns TV (computer) because it gets on the internet...WTF is going on around here? Is it vanilla pudding day at the nursing home?

Re: Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV?

[datavirtue]

A basic 49" 4K smart TV goes for $400 now. My TCL operates at 60Hz and is the best monitor I have ever had in my life.

Why do we need "smart" TV's?

[XxtraLarGe]

It's nearly impossible anymore to find a regular TV. When I went to Best Buy last year, they had exactly one 32" TV model (Westinghouse) that wasn't "smart". That's the one I bought. Most people these days have a console, or can get a Chrome Cast, Roku or Fire Stick for cheap enough to make their TV smart if they want. A "smart" TV is just one more point of failure for your TV, especially for the off brands. Does anyone really think Netflix, Hulu, etc. are going to be pushing updates for the HiSense you bought 3 years from now?

Re:Why do we need "smart" TV's?

[fred6666]

It's nearly impossible anymore to find a regular TV.

Just buy any TV and do not connect it to the Internet.

the real question here.

[nimbius]

and the question we're not supposed to ask is, does this thing run Kodi? because if it doesnt, I'll just stick to buying a used 4k TV and a Raspberry pi. https://kodi.wiki/view/FireTV_...

Re:the real question here.

[JackieBrown]

How well does the Raspberry pi do with 1080 (at least) h265 content? I have an android box that I got because it technically could do this and run Netflix and other apps. Unfortunately, Netflix only allows the TV version of their app on certain devices so it's almost useless (no scrolling on TV shows so I can't select any episode after 10 or 11.)

I have a qnap file server which runs great except that it's able to use hardware transcoding for 265 so I have to access it directly (via Emby).

I have a stronger computer that I think I broke the power supply (hoping that's all it is) but I have not had a chance to work on it yet. It's running windows 10 with a top of the line NVidia card and was more responsive weith almost everything but kept locking up using Kodi. I need to get around to troubleshooting it as well as installing Linux on it.

smart TVs are too bundly

[FudRucker]

i dont want an arm processor computer with android bundled in to my TV, like the other poster said, sell dumb TVs with 2 or 3 or 4 HDMI ports, maybe those rca jacks for audio & video too, i can always hook up various arm or x86 computers to my TV if i want to do that, and besides, what if the computer inside my TV gets a little old, what then? throw out the whole TV because the computer in it is obsolete???

Re:smart TVs are too bundly

[tomhath]

The TV is not the product; you are the product. The "smart" features are there to ensure you see all the advertisements.

In other news

[Plumpaquatsch]

Eric Schmidt: Google TV on 'majority' of new TVs by summer 2012 - I bet Apple would like successes like that for change instead of failures like Home Pod.

What about dumb displays?

[DontBeAMoran]

What I want is a big dumb display, like a computer monitor. I don't want anything smart, I don't even want a tuner. Give me something simple with lots of inputs such as composite, S-video, components, DVI and multiple HDMI. I don't even want a remote.

Is that too much to ask?

Re:What about dumb displays?

[Highdude702]

I agree with all but the lack of remote.. Some tv's and monitors are s pain in the ass to change input on without a remote. I have a small ASUS monitor with one of those touch sense button panels on the bottom. If carbon paper, even receipts gets near it it senses input and fucks off.. Remote please with all those inputs. And don't for get DP, it is the future of connections just needs time like HDMI.

Re:What about dumb displays?

[Anonymous Coward]

Won't buy unless:

1) Matt screen. No glossy screen. No exceptions
2) At least one HDMI input. More maybe but not necessary.
3) Must not require connection to network for anything at any time.
4) No camera
5) No microphone
6) No Tuner
7) No Sound

This means I will probably be stuck with my current 80" Sharp for the quite a long time ...

Re:What about dumb displays?

[DontBeAMoran]

Ah yes of course. Let's just ask for proper buttons instead of touch panels (problem solved, no remote needed and buttons should cost less than a touch panel) and multiple DisplayPort instead of HDMI. Well, maybe one HDMI or two.

Re: What about dumb displays?

[jddj]

Carbon paper? WTF?!?

Did you for that post on an Olivetti and fax it in?

Re: What about dumb displays?

[Highdude702]

You apparently don't actually use your desk to you know.. Do desk things.

Re:What about dumb displays?

[Highdude702]

I agree, but something has to make them "different" from the rest. And always need HDMI ports. Too much stuff has only HDMI and converting cables and adapters normally suck and sometimes older devices will refuse to use them.

Re: What about dumb displays?

[jddj]

Nah, just haven't laid eyes on carbon paper in like, a decade. Probably stored in the back of the supply cabinet with the mimeo fluid and the tape for the ASR-33.

Re: What about dumb displays?

[Highdude702]

You may not knowingly have. But heat transfer receipts press transfer paper all the shit like that has a bit of carbon in it. Not the jet black sheets of yesteryear.

Re: What about dumb displays?

[jddj]

Naw, dude, that's not carbon. Thought you were talking the real-deal here.

Re:What about dumb displays?

[Jaime2]

I actually want less. One HDMI input is plenty. Life is better if you run all your sources through an AV receiver and real speakers. Even better, an up-converting receiver so the picture never flickers when changing sources.

Re:What about dumb displays?

[Walter White]

A touch panel can be implemented by sticking a couple pieces of foil on the plastic. It's probably going to be less expensive than mechanical switches.

Re:Needs to be stopped

[Trailer Trash]

The type of vertical integration being pushed on us by Amazon needs to be stopped.

Time to break up Amazon.

I know! I wish we had the option to just not buy one of these.

Create a meme for the average person

[jenningsthecat]

It's time to start seriously promoting the truth among the non-tech-savvy that 'smart TV's are a dumb idea'. Folks still have the Facebook debacle in the backs of their minds - maybe it's time to bring it back into the foreground and make clear the relationship between Facebook spying on people via their computers, and TV makers / sellers spying on them via their TV sets.

I have lots of hope, (but very little optimism), that it's possible to wake Joe and Jane average from their shiny-induced stupor.

Re:Create a meme for the average person

[ausekilis]

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I've started seeing a lot of Google Assistant ads on Hulu lately that advertise letting Google "lock that" or "watch this" or "turn on the lights". How about NO to all of the above.

What happened to the massive backlash pointed at Microsoft over the Kinect being an always-on camera and microphone? Are we really so quick to forget about having something always listening and watching in our homes?

Re:Create a meme for the average person

[datavirtue]

Why is everyone "going all Battlestar Galactica?" Smart TVs are a way to get away from the cable TV assholes of yesteryear. Your campaign to banish "smart TVs" is doomed from the beginning. Outside of this thread we are all talking about how we ditched cable years ago.

Re:Create a meme for the average person

[datavirtue]

Google sunsetted and shut down so many things over the years I can't look at them seriously for anything any more.

best buy signed its suicide letter

[Anonymous Coward]

there is only one way this "deal" can end up...

Re:best buy signed its suicide letter

[datavirtue]

Yep....and so has Khols. They know it's over. Three years tops...

Perfect for a den of spies (Bestbuy Geeksquad)

[Burz]

...to sell devices that are just waiting to be abused as 'telescreens'.

https://www.usatoday.com/story...

Surviving Amazon

[Mad-Bassist]

I find it interesting that a company as big as Best Buy decided to use Amazon as a source of revenue. I've heard of small businesses and entrepreneurs being sellers, the wisdom being that it doesn't have to be their only income stream.

I think Trump has it wrong: the future is adapting, and right now it looks like running a business through Amazon isn't a bad idea, despite Amazon profiting from it without much effort (unless one spends a bit more to take advantage of their ability to store, handle, and ship merchandise!)

Smart TV Oxymoron

[Blue Stone]

Yay! let's all buy Amazon's security risk with built in obsolescence!

The OS will stop getting patches in a few years so you'll have to either disconnect it from the network - losing the smart TV functionality you're buying - and/or buy another one if you want that wonderful 'smart tv experience'!

Isn't that just grand.

Plain old screen with ports (HDMI/USB) + smart box (android/pi/whatever) is the only sensible way. Anything else is Dumb TV.