Vizio makes ATSC tuner-free 4KTVs, but doesn't call them 'TVs'

[mvcg66b3r]

Vizio is rolling out a new line of smart 4KTVs that aren’t. The Southern California set maker announced a new line of television sets with the works—Ultra HD resolution, high dynamic range, integrated Google Cast streaming technology and a 6-inch, 1080p Android tablet remote… but no ATSC over-the-air tuners. Without tuners, Vizio’s new line legally can’t be referred to as “TVs.”

The 1962 All Channel Receiver Act “authorized the commission to require that all television receivers shipped in interstate commerce, or imported into the United States, for sale or resale to the public be capable of receiving all channels allocated to television broadcasting.” The Federal Communications Commission further amended its TV reception rules for the digital transition, requiring all new TV receivers shipped into and within the United States to have ATSC tuners as of May 1, 2007.

In fact, Vizio itself does not refer directly to its new TVs as “TVs” or “televisions.” The terms appear only in the boilerplate of Vizio’s press release announcing its new “Vizio SmartCast P-Series Ultra HD HDR Home Theater Display collection.” However, the P-Series falls under the category of “TV Series” on the Vizio website.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0002/vizio-make-atsc-tunerfree-4ktvs/278312

 

[KeithE4]

It's a video/computer monitor. No biggie.

 

[landtuna]

Remember the tuner-free VCR's? Same-o same-o.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Weren't there HD monitors with no tuners in the early years of (current) HDTV?

 

[mvcg66b3r]

Weren't there HD monitors with no tuners in the early years of (current) HDTV?

Look at the article:

Some manufacturers produced similar sets during the DTV transition when tuners were expensive, but they flopped with consumers.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Since there's no possibility of 4K content being broadcast for years to come, I guess this makes some sense - to make full use of the set's ability, you need something other than a broadcast or cable tuner.

 

[landtuna]

If the majority of TV sets are connected to cable, sat or fiber set-top boxes through an HDMI plug then the TV "tuner" is not being used. Does that mean that appliance is not a TV?

Is a car without a radio still a car?

I have a PC monitor which also can receive OTA TV signals. What do I call it? I am SO confused!

Confirms my long held opinion that the two dumbest professions in all the land are lawyers and their week-kneed cousins, the politicians.

 

[KeithE4]

If the majority of TV sets are connected to cable, sat or fiber set-top boxes through an HDMI plug then the TV "tuner" is not being used. Does that mean that appliance is not a TV?

Your smartphone is a phone, FM radio (in the rare case the chip is enabled), music player, text messenger, Facebook reader, GPS, etc. etc. etc., depending on how it's being used at any particular time. Same goes for video monitors, with or without a TV tuner built in. It's a TV when used with its own tuner, cable/satellite box, DVD player, or Roku/Apple TV box. It is a computer monitor when connected to a PC. It could be a TV then, too, if you're watching Netflix, Hulu, or one of the network websites through it.

And what is it you mean by "set-top box?" Nobody has been able to put anything on top of a TV since they stopped building them into nice wood cabinets in the 1970s. Does anyone have an old TV like that anymore?

BTW, my first "set-top box" was a working portable TV that I put on top of my dead console set, aka "redneck TV stand," in the late '70s.

 

[JayR]

It's a video/computer monitor. No biggie.

Ditto.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Your smartphone is a phone, FM radio (in the rare case the chip is enabled), music player, text messenger, Facebook reader, GPS, etc. etc. etc., depending on how it's being used at any particular time. Same goes for video monitors, with or without a TV tuner built in. It's a TV when used with its own tuner, cable/satellite box, DVD player, or Roku/Apple TV box. It is a computer monitor when connected to a PC. It could be a TV then, too, if you're watching Netflix, Hulu, or one of the network websites through it.

And what is it you mean by "set-top box?" Nobody has been able to put anything on top of a TV since they stopped building them into nice wood cabinets in the 1970s. Does anyone have an old TV like that anymore?

BTW, my first "set-top box" was a working portable TV that I put on top of my dead console set, aka "redneck TV stand," in the late '70s.

they made wood cabinet console TVs into the 90s, Zenith made them until 2001

 

[anotherguyTN]

Look at the article:

Some manufacturers produced similar sets during the DTV transition when tuners were expensive, but they flopped with consumers.

I should have looked sooner but I was on my work PC at the time and couldn't get to the article, but I did read it later. Thanks.

 

[LKellerIII]

Your smartphone is a phone, FM radio (in the rare case the chip is enabled), music player, text messenger, Facebook reader, GPS, etc. etc. etc., depending on how it's being used at any particular time. Same goes for video monitors, with or without a TV tuner built in. It's a TV when used with its own tuner, cable/satellite box, DVD player, or Roku/Apple TV box. It is a computer monitor when connected to a PC. It could be a TV then, too, if you're watching Netflix, Hulu, or one of the network websites through it.

And what is it you mean by "set-top box?" Nobody has been able to put anything on top of a TV since they stopped building them into nice wood cabinets in the 1970s. Does anyone have an old TV like that anymore?

D

Hate to quibble - but...NO. The cable entity in the SF Bay Area that became Comcast (Viacom, TCI, and AT&T prior), required a tuner-box. While you didn't have to put it on top of your TV - you certainly could, and it didn't require one of those big wooden TV things you speak of - you could just as easily put it on top of a 19" or 21" analog console TV. That would have been the case until the introduction of HDTV just a few years ago.

 

[vchimpanzee]

And what is it you mean by "set-top box?" Nobody has been able to put anything on top of a TV since they stopped building them into nice wood cabinets in the 1970s. Does anyone have an old TV like that anymore?

I bought several TVs new, with VCRs included, during the years 2000 through 2008 (I forget the exact year, but obviously no more of these could be sold after February 17, 2009), plus one more that was used at a repair shop, since closed, sometime after they quit selling these in the regular stores.

Two of them have converter boxes and antennas on top of them, though both are a little on the unstable side. On one the converter box is useless now since I hooked up a TiVo and made that behave like the converter box.