I don't understand why someone just doesn't hook up their TV with their computer via HDMI or DP. Is switching sources too complicated for people?

Even the shittiest Dell boxes these days have 2 video outputs, I believe, so you can run 1 monitor + TV. Most laptops have an extra video out port too.

That way you can actually type on your keyboard when you search youtube, unlike typing with god forbid, a remote or an xbone controller (like a console peasant)

By using a $5 cable, pretty much anyone can make a TV 'Smart', and not just smart, but smarter than the ones that are marketed as such.

Because a full desktop UI is vastly inferior to a simple remote interface if you don't have a full mouse/kbb available, and having to have a mouse/kbb to, I don't know, pick a movie is very lame from a couch user perspective.

Because you can get 4K/HDR with regularly updated high quality third party apps like Netflix from Roku for $80 with hardware that can handle it/

But a Media PC running Windows would require you to spend several multiples of 80$ to achieve 4k/HDR with a good remote.

More work, more setup, more money, more configuration, and frankly the end result isn't better.

Easier to use your PC as a media server, then use Roku to read from the server using a remote on your couch.

Install Kodi, use the wireless gamepad as the remote control.

Problem solved, no money spent, best of both worlds.

>Problem solved, no money spent, best of both worlds.

Many new problems:

* Gamepad costs roughly 70% the cost of any entire 4k/HDR Roku setup. A first party game pad costs $50-65 dollars, while a HD Roku costs $80.

* A gamepad is VASTLY INFERIOR to a remote. This one is very easy. Gamepads are crappy, crappy remotes. The back triggers (L2 R2) are stupidly mapped to seeking causing endless fastfoward/rewind triggering by mistake. The buttons are unintelligble (what does a Square do to my movie? What does Y do to my TV show?) and are only usable by basically the 1 geek who set it up and is unusable by all other users who have to learn custom button mappings per application

* Kodi is vastly inferior to Roku for average use, like Netflix. Users must use unsupported, buggy third party non-Netflix based Netflix add-ons which are inferior in every way to an officially distributed Netflix app. At this point, the best solution is the PAID "PlayOn" subscription service, meaning the user must pay monthly just to access basic apps like Netflix which are free monthly on Roku (outside of the actual subscription, which both methods require)

I'm sorry but Kodi is pretty crap as a home media solution, have you ever relied on it for your full library and media consumption and watched it be used by the less tech-focused people in your home? Regular users, children, elderly people?

Roku is easy for my grandfather to use. Kodi + a Xbox1 controller? Not so much

Well, I already had all the hardware, and the hard disks already have most of the content.

I kind of disagree about gamepads being bad remotes. The default mappings are bad and I do agree about the triggers. We don't need more than half the control to do forward and rewind. I had remapped mine, particularly to add changing subtitles and audio streams.

But: the gamepad is the control I can use without having to look at it, because it is not a matrix of similar rectangular buttons, and after a while everything is just second nature. For me, nothing is faster or more intuitive now. And the buttons are REAL solid buttons, not crappy pieces of rubber. I get frustrated when I have to use a regular remote control now.

I don't use Netflix because I'm not in the USA and in South America it honestly sucks. And they hunt and shutdown VPNs now.

However, nothing beats the price of your Roku for a new setup. That one I concede. Your setup is much cheaper. But you can't play Batman Arkham games on it :D

Cluttering up my living room by running a cable across it isn't very attractive, nor is the general experience of using a non-stationary laptop with a giant cable hanging out of it. I much prefer using a Chromecast, or using my Xbox with a wireless keyboard (which I have stashed under the coffee table, within reach whenever I need it).

It's going to get more and more difficult to find a "dumb" TV. Almost all medium and high quality TVs are "smart" TVs now. It costs TV manufacturers very little to add "smart" functionality and it brings in a lot of customers.

I think it's more pragmatic to look for a TV that suits your needs, including any tracking, advertising, etc. Some platforms let you turn it off and others don't -- e.g. Samsung's smart TVs show ads in the menus that you can't disable. I would never buy a TV like that. I just bought a Vizio recently, but I knew about their tracking software so I knew how to disable it during initial setup. Far from ideal, but I wanted a quality 4k display so I was pretty much stuck with "smart" TVs.

Also, for what it's worth, Vizio changed their "smart" platform to just be a built-in Chromecast which isn't as terrible as most smart TV platforms. I have an HTPC hooked up to my TV but 4k content is mostly limited to "approved platforms", meaning I have to use some kind of device to stream it.

Harder but certainly not impossible.

IMO you and others choosing to patronize overpriced and pointless smart systems is why it is becoming harder to find.

If even the people who care don't care, then sure, they'll surcharge $100+ on every model happily.

For what it's worth, my dumb Vizio was found in a stack of 20+ at a local Target during Black Friday. They were literally stacked at the entrance to the store. I couldn't miss it. It wasn't that hard to find.

That doesn't make much sense -- if I'm unable to find a product to meet my needs with a particular attribute, I'm going to buy one that meets my needs despite not having the attribute. In fact, the TV I got is the closest I could get to a dumb TV. It just has a Chromecast built into it.

Is your dumb Vizio a 4k TV? From my research, there was not a single 4k TV from a reputable brand that did not have some "smart" features.