You must log in or register to comment.
And yet people will keep buying that shit.
Hello again, enshitification
The only smart TVs anyone should be getting are ones running Google TV that can have the default launcher replaced with an ad-free option such as Projectify Launcher.
If Google locks down Android APK installations further, even Google TV might no longer be viable, but for now it is the only option with a user-friendly TV interface (versus using a Linux device) with an app library not limited to the degree that Roku and Apple TV devices are.
That’s why I got a Hisense TV a few years ago because it had the stock Google TV on it. I immediately installed Flauncher on it. No issues since.
This is why I never connect a TV to the Internet. I usually get an Android TV box that I can mod to my heart’s content to run my apps on. If that ever stops being an option, I’ll connect the TV to my router, but with the router set to block Internet access to everything except what’s needed to cast to it with pi-hole or similar playing the enforcer role.
If every CEO who made the decision to implement enshittification suddenly dropped dead (of natural causes, surely) shortly thereafter, maybe it would stop happening.
Really hurts to see…
I remember Hisense popping up ~20 years ago and being an amazing value.
They absolutely dominated the late 1080p source era for dirt cheap screens that held their own again the main brands. Absolutely zero upscaling or features, just decent screens at great prices.
I’m assuming at some point venture capitalist bought them out and that’s why they’re trying to squeeze ever penny out of customers.
I must have gotten one after the enshitification. I bought a HiSense TV during the pandemic and the unit I got was trouble from nearly day 1. A line of pixels went dead all the way across the screen. I tried to work with their warranty department and they asked for a picture of the problem.
Ok, easy enough. Take the picture and send. They reply, “can you take a picture with better lighting of the bezel?” Ok, no problem. Gerry better lighting, snap picture, send off. They reply, “can you get better lighting on the bezel?” Seriously? Fine, get the TV under really good lighting, take picture, send. “Can you get better lighting on the bezel?” WTF? Ok, I’ll admit I don’t have 50,000 candle power spot lights on it, but this is just obvious stalling. Each round of pictures and request for more is taking weeks.
During this time, the TV OS sees several updates and the underpowered nature of the system is starting to slow. The menus aren’t just sluggish, they are downright unusable. The home screen is now half ads. I finally decided, “fuck it” took the TV to the dump and bought something else.
Thankfully, the TV was only around $500. Not cheap, but the cost of the education in not buying crap didn’t hurt too much.
tl;dr: Fuck HiSense
