Things to Look for in a New TV, Beyond the Usual Ones

At some point I'll have to upgrade my TV. My current one is "non-smart", and works fine but is getting old. Since you can't practically get a dump TV any more, I'll have to accept that will come with the package.

Other than the usual specs like screen size, resolution, refresh rate, colour reproduction, there are a few things I want to look at when buying any new TV:

• Turn on time from cold start. The time it takes some TVs to turn on these days is really annoying.
• Channel change time. Likewise, changing channels for some reason can take a ridiculous length of time.
• Input lag. Good to know in case the TV is ever used for gaming.
• What firmware is the "smart" bit based on? Is it an open source or community supported firmware, so that when the manufacturer gets bored of supporting that model you can still get updates? If I don't want to agree to the T&Cs of an update, will it stop playing any specific media formats? Can I be held hostage to the manufacturer in order to play content?
• 4K refresh rate. Does the 4K refresh rate match the advertised rate, or it that a sneaky "only at lower resolutions" thing?
• HDCP. Given I run my own HTPC, this is a really important one. Will the TV's HDCP implementation work via the HDMI connection on a laptop? Will it work with a desktop GPU connection? I'll take a laptop when looking at TVs to test this.

Internode Ping Spikes While Playing CS:GO

This is a typical ping log just now while playing CS:GO. I'm using ADSL2 and relatively close to the exchange (<500m). I've used an Asus RT-AC68U and a TP-Link Archer D9 and I get similar responsiveness with both:

64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=242 ttl=59 time=1119 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=243 ttl=59 time=1233 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=244 ttl=59 time=1249 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=245 ttl=59 time=644 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=246 ttl=59 time=91.9 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=247 ttl=59 time=712 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=248 ttl=59 time=1076 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=249 ttl=59 time=1222 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=250 ttl=59 time=1254 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=251 ttl=59 time=1291 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=252 ttl=59 time=1304 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=253 ttl=59 time=1274 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=254 ttl=59 time=520 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=255 ttl=59 time=24.4 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=256 ttl=59 time=24.2 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=257 ttl=59 time=25.2 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=258 ttl=59 time=114 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=259 ttl=59 time=451 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=260 ttl=59 time=898 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=261 ttl=59 time=1234 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=262 ttl=59 time=1296 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=263 ttl=59 time=1272 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=264 ttl=59 time=1285 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=265 ttl=59 time=1281 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=266 ttl=59 time=1437 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=267 ttl=59 time=1481 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=268 ttl=59 time=1235 ms
64 bytes from pubweb.internode.on.net (150.101.140.197): icmp_seq=269 ttl=59 time=564 ms

All I can say is...gg.