Can I, should I, use a Samsung business series display as a TV?

December 31, 2020 11:51 AM

I've found this Samsung business display, but I can't find reviews. The price/size balance is perfect for me.

TVs these days are so confusing.
I don't need any smart TV nonsense, as I'm quite fine running an HDMI cable from my desktop, or xbox, but Samsung sells these by promoting their ease of administration, instead of speaking to the display or specs. I plan on using it for streaming netlifx/hulu in a dark room with a great viewing angle, and that's about it, so I mostly care about color, contrast/local dimming, and movement (e.g. avoiding over-smoothing and jitter).

posted by Jack Karaoke to Technology (6 answers total)

It's been suggested previously on Ask that if you don't want "smart" nonsense (ie: data collection and monitoring), business-grade TVs are the way to go. However, since manufacturers make money off you if you buy a "smart" TV and they can sell data they collect about you / sell you ads, they have disincentives to make it easy for you.

I'd suspect this TV is probably in line with other similar Samsung TVs of similar size, I can't imagine they use a different panel. That means the viewing angles, color, etc, should be similar. The firmware and/or the control board itself may be different, though, which could impact motion smoothing settings. I'd expect a commercial screen to have less attention to things like motion smoothing, but I could also imagine a world in which the motion smoothing is forced on. Reviews on Amazon don't mention it one way or the other.

I've been thinking about a business-class TV for privacy/avoiding baked-in ads, and I might just take the plunge with this one..
posted by Alterscape at 12:54 PM on December 31, 2020

Amazon has reviews. They're mostly positive and the majority of the complaints are people that wanted apps built it.
posted by Candleman at 2:15 PM on December 31, 2020

I've been using a decommissionined business display as a home TV for more than 10 years.
posted by mikek at 3:09 PM on December 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

The equivalent "smart" tv is going to be cheaper, due to volume and price competition. Business tvs are low volume and don't benefit from sales promotions at consumer stores.

I'd focus on which smart features you can ignore/not use. If you are using an external device for content, you can just leave a smart tv set to that input and forget about it, after the initial setup.

( My new sony android tv smart features are far superior to my older external devices , hopefully with the android it won't age as poorly).
posted by TheAdamist at 3:21 PM on December 31, 2020

It's not obvious to me that a business display would typically support HDCP.
posted by kickingtheground at 5:52 PM on December 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

Does it have built-in speakers? I can’t tell from the product page.
posted by actionstations at 11:36 PM on December 31, 2020 [1 favorite]