Telly I The biggest thing to happen to TV since color.
www.telly.com
The biggest thing to happen to TV since color.

Edit: I guess this post is free advertising for these shitters, so I will describe what I previously linked.

There is this TV you can get for free but it has a ads on screen constantly and it has a camera pointed at you to record your reactions to ads and to ensure you don’t cover up the ad portion of the screen.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      3 months ago

      Exactly, what’s the use of a smart TV when I have a game console capable of streaming everything a “Smart TV” can AND playing games/browsing the Web?
      9/10 times people use a fire stick or cable box to watch TV anyway, all I need is volume, input selection, and power.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        5·
        3 months ago

        You need that “smart” stuff to make smaller resolutions look good on a 4k TV.

        Upscaling takes processing power, so adding in the smart functions doesn’t really need anything else.

        Without the upscaling, it’s often a waste to buy a 4k TV because very few sources are in 4k. You’d be getting the same picture quality as 1080

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldMEnglish
            3·
            3 months ago

            What does wifi have to do with anything?

            And if it upscaled well, it’s already got the processing power to have all the apps installed. So, cool it doesn’t have that, but it’s kind of a waste you don’t… And seems a lot more likely you’re overestimating it.

            But I have a feeling if you look up your TV on rtings you’ll be surprised, or find out you bought a weird Black Friday model that’s been feature stripped to be as cheap and low quality as possible while marking a couple highlights to advertise on the box.

              • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldMEnglish
                2·
                3 months ago

                I think people don’t understand that the processing abilities upscaling needs means adding smart functionality is basically free.

                That’s why I mentioned looking up the model number, I’m confident what that person said their TV was isn’t what it is.

                No “dumb” TV is going to be good at upscaling because of that. OP might think it is, but they’re probably mistaken about something

                • Chainweasel@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  14·
                  3 months ago

                  Smart TV defines the extra functionality, not the processing hardware. If a smart TV has the Wi-Fi and streaming services disabled it is by definition NOT a smart TV.

            • Aceticon@lemmy.world
              1·
              3 months ago

              Everything nowdays includes microcontrollers or microprocessors, and often even in-silico (i.e. as hardware not software) implementations of things like decoders.

              However it’s a huge range of those things and the vast majority doesn’t have the processing power and/or hardware petipherals to support “Smart TV” functionality.

              For example that upscalling functionality can just be implemented in-silico in a separate chip or as part of the die of a SoC microcontroller for pennies, whilst the actual programmable part doesn’t have anywhere the power or memory needed for the code implementing a fancy UI (such as that for a VOD provider such as Netflix) because that would cost tens or hundreds of dollars more (just go check the price of a standalone TV box).

              The economics of the thing nowadays do make it worth it for a TV manufacturer to add the extra hardware needed to make the thing a Smart TV (the kinda crap one only costs maybe $10 - $20 or so more) especially if they can use it to shove adverts in front of people to recoup it or sell “Smart TV” as a premium functionality, but that’s not at all the same as the HW for stuff like hardcoded algorithms such as upscalling being capable of running the software implementing Smart TV functionality.

              Your “argument” is built on top of a serious misunderstanding of modern digital systems.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          11·
          2 months ago

          you dont need to shove “smart” features into them to have upscaling

          any dumb computer monitor has it

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldMEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            any dumb computer monitor has it

            ?

            I googled, and found one high-end monitor with any kind of native upscaling…

            And saying something that is on the most expensive monitors has to be on the cheapest TVs doesn’t make a lot of sense…

            And that’s not even getting into what kind of upscaling or how a bigger screen size makes upscaling more important.

            Like a 22 inch it doesn’t matter, but an 80 it’s really important

            • Aceticon@lemmy.world
              2·
              3 months ago

              Hardware upscalling isn’t needed in a monitor (unless maybe in really really special situations) because it’s almost invariably connected via a digital connection that supports multiple resolutions to a device (such as a computer) with more than enough processing power to do the upscalling itself.

              The only situation I can think of were upscalling would be useful in a monitor is one with a VGA connection (mainly to use with really old computers) since that protocol is analog so pretty much any random resolution can come down the pipe quite independently of the monitor’s native resolution so the digital side of the monitor is forced to adjust it (and a proper upscalling algorithm is a lot nicer than something like double sampling the analog signal)

              The previous poster was wrong about upscalling being common in computer monitors nowadays (I vaguelly remember it in the early LCD monitor days because of that VGA problem), but that doesn’t mean you’re right about upscalling support being present in a device beimg the same as there being everything in there necessary for full Smart TV functionality - I’m pretty sure upscalling comes as an hardware implementation of an algorithm, so it’s not a generic computing unit with e the right peripherals, computing power and memory to run an Android system or equivalent that just so happens to be running software upscalling.

    • padge@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      What’s stopping me from buying a smart TV and never taking it online?

      • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Been doing it with mine for 3 years mostly. Jack-in just long enough to update firmware and software then disconnect

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
    English
    54·
    3 months ago

    Isn’t it time to stop being polite and start relentlessly mocking anyone who voluntarily buys this shit?

    • SomeGuy69@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 months ago

      People encourage this as “I got the device for cheaper, so it’s you who’s wrong.” you can’t stop morons with logic or mockery, you need laws restricting companies. It’s something the US has big trouble with and that’s not supposed to be bashing.

      • Adderbox76@lemmy.caEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        Up until a few years ago, I honestly thought that the best thing we could do with stupid people (conspiracy theorists, flat earthers, fundies, etc…) was to bring back public shaming. Make them so damn embarassed to believe what they that do that they just shut the fuck up about it for fear of mockery. As a result, at least their children might see them as being the backwards ones and we nip that shit in the bud in a generation or two instead of each new generation seemingly witnessing their parent’s idiotic beliefs being seemingly validated in public by being treated with any validity at all.

        But then MAGA arrived, and I realized that many of these people simply have no shame, so ruthlessly mocking them won’t work.

  • Endmaker@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    3 months ago

    I wouldn’t have known about it if not for this post.

    Now this post feels like an ad.

  • Muscar@discuss.online
    10·
    2 months ago

    In their reservation terms of service:

    “Telly takes the privacy of its users very seriously. For the current Telly Product Privacy Policy please visit [INSERT LINK TO UPDATED TELLY PRODUCT PRIVACY POLICY].”

    I laughed so much at that, it’s just perfect.

  • vrek@programming.devEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    There were several isps that did this years ago… A banner at bottom is of your screen showing ads, free internet. They all went bankrupt I think.

  • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
    5·
    3 months ago

    It’s “free” which means you’re paying for it a different way than money. If you don’t want the ads then don’t get the “free” TV.

    • r00ty@kbin.life
      17·
      3 months ago

      Yeah. I’m completely behind the complaints people have with a lot of modern world problems in this regard.

      • Ads on TVs you paid for
      • Ads on streaming services you paid for
      • Actually, ads on cable/satellite TV with a subscription in general. What a ridiculous concept of paying twice!
      • Subscriptions for hardware features already installed (although I am fine with a one-off payment to activate them. I can see the argument for a single SKU with all features installed and deactivated for making the production line simpler)

      But in this case, they’re very clear. They are making hardware available at no monetary cost. Therefore, you MUST know they’re monetizing you somehow, and this is the somehow.

      Having said that, yes, the description does seem like the dystopian tellyscreens in nineteen-eighty-four. But they were mandatory for everyone, which is the main difference.

      • r00ty@kbin.life
        5·
        3 months ago

        Actually looking through the site. I don’t really see how they’re going to make enough money on this.

        I cannot see anywhere on their site that suggests the camera will be watching you (and there’s probably laws against that, even in the USA!) and the FAQ specifically says the camera has a cover and only an app using the camera will make that open, and you have to accept the permission.

        Also, it seems they play the ads on a separate screen. Which suggests there won’t be sound either. So they don’t even expect you to be paying attention to the ads, because it seems they won’t block content for them.

        I expect there might be an initial interest in advertisers. But if they don’t see a decent conversion rate, I cannot imagine they will keep paying enough to cover the TV for ads.

        Also, what happens when one of these breaks, they replace it for free? I’d imagine they would need to because otherwise the hardware they paid for is no longer generating revenue.

        This sounds like a late April fool. :P

      • aleph@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        Having said that, yes, the description does seem like the dystopian tellyscreens in nineteen-eighty-four. But they were mandatory for everyone, which is the main difference.

        This is actually closer to Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the former, citizens voluntarily buy huge TVs to adorn their living room walls because their whole society is built around pleasure-seeking and entertainment. These displays are then used by the powers that be to distract and pacify the population, prevent critical thinking and reduce political unrest.