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https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/14/its-still-stupidly-ridiculously-difficult-to-buy-a-dumb-tv/
Historically, "smart" TVs aren't always particularly smart. They've routinely been shown to have lax security and privacy standards. They also routinely feature embedded OS systems that don't age well, aren't always well designed, don't perform particularly well over time, are slathered with ads, and are usually worse than most third-party game streaming devices or video game consoles.
Yet when if you go shopping for "dumb" televisions — as in just a high quality display with a bunch of HDMI ports and not much else, you're usually going to be out of luck. There are options, but guides on this front will usually shovel you toward computer monitors (too pricey at large sizes), or business-class displays (ditto).
[...] Of course it's challenging because TV manufacturers now make more money collecting and monetizing your personal data than they do selling the actual hardware. Last year Vizio noted it made $38.4 million in one quarter just from tracking and monetizing consumer viewing and usage data. It made $48.2 million on hardware (which also includes soundbars, and other products) in that same period.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday April 17 2022, @09:39PM
Yeah, I don't know what to say about our (US) legal system. Is "capricious" a good description? (you're the writer, not me!)
Thanks for that link. 40" CRT? Yikes!! I wasn't aware there was such a thing. I had a broken 36" Mitsubishi. Turned out the CRT had lost vacuum, so I never bothered to try to fix it. The 36" weighed 260 lbs. I know, it had to be weighed where I got rid of it (local recycler).
Degausser would be very easy repair. It just needed a PTC thermistor- was a moderately common repair in those days. $2 part.
Also, you can buy a manual / handheld degausser. There are some on ebay, amazon, etc., for $16 or so. Not sure how good they are. I have one of the older bigger loop ones. More $, not sure if they're better or not. Probably will never know nor care.
Thanks again for the info. And generally you don't need to do a full format on FLASH media. It takes time, and a little bit unnecessary wear on the cells. A quick format is good. And you can run various tests if you're worried about the media. If it's a USB stick there are some simple free utilities. I have one called simply "Flash Drive Tester". SSD manufacturer will have utilities you can download and run, as well as built-in SMART tests and stats.