I don't think it's that hard at all. Most TVs will return to the input you used last. So if you have satellite or cable on HDMI 1, it just stays on there unless you want to use the smart TV or another input. If you use a DVD player regularly as well, you might have to take a few minutes one time to delete the smart TV options so you only see HDMI 1 and HDMI 2.They do make it difficult to NOT use the smart TV features!
Don't worry about buying a dumb TV. Just buy whatever you want and ignore the built-in smart functions. I don't know anybody that uses it. Streaming boxes are faster, cheap to buy, and the software is updated continuously.
We have a Fire TV Cube that's plugged into our AVR, which has a single HDMI out to the TV. That's the only input we ever use. We don't even have the TVs hooked up to the network so the "smart" functions are disabled. In this setup, our TV is just a monitor.
I recently bought my daughter a new Vizio 43" TV and it took me a while to figure out how to just watch TV. TV's are obviously geared toward streaming services these days. Watching over-the-air TV from an external antenna was almost an after thought. I never did find a menu selection for TV channels, I had to use the input button on the remote to switch.
I wouldn't mind all the streaming options if there was a way to pick and choose which icons I wanted on the screen. For instance, one for TV, one for Netflix, one for an HDMI input. Unfortunately, the TV's we have only allow you to change the order of services. You can't remove services you're not interested in, or don't have access to.
I guess simplicity is no longer a thing...
I recently bought my daughter a new Vizio 43" TV and it took me a while to figure out how to just watch TV. TV's are obviously geared toward streaming services these days. Watching over-the-air TV from an external antenna was almost an after thought. I never did find a menu selection for TV channels, I had to use the input button on the remote to switch.
I wouldn't mind all the streaming options if there was a way to pick and choose which icons I wanted on the screen. For instance, one for TV, one for Netflix, one for an HDMI input. Unfortunately, the TV's we have only allow you to change the order of services. You can't remove services you're not interested in, or don't have access to.
I guess simplicity is no longer a thing...
The Visio I have came with a very basic remote control (power on and input selection). If you want to do anything else, you need to agree to be spied upon, install their app, and only then can you actually get to the controls for the TVs settings.I don't think it's that hard at all. Most TVs will return to the input you used last. So if you have satellite or cable on HDMI 1, it just stays on there unless you want to use the smart TV or another input. If you use a DVD player regularly as well, you might have to take a few minutes one time to delete the smart TV options so you only see HDMI 1 and HDMI 2.
And right now, I use my fire stick rather than the built-in smart function. It always goes to the HDMI input I use for the fire stick. I never see the smart TV functions.