There is a solution. If you want one with all the bells and whistles you have to learn how to ring the bells and blow the whistles. Otherwise you are wasting your money.
"When I bought one of these small, cheap, old-fashioned cathode-ray TV sets on sale to watch while on my exercise machine, I had no idea how high-tech and computerized even these obsolete sets had become. "
Sometimes you simply don't have a choice when it comes to the "bells and whistles." Have you gone shopping for a cell phone lately? I'm still using a 4 year old cell phone because I don't want all the nifty new stuff available. In fact, when it died, even though I was eligible for a new phone on my plan, I opted to use my "cell phone insurance" to get an exact replacement phone, once I was able to locate one at a Verizon store. No web access. No GPS, Text messages shut off. And as a bonus, all of my old accessories, like extra, high capacity batteries worked: I didn't have to buy new ones, saving me about $100.
Mark
Many times you can't get something without the bells and whistles.
BTW, you can blame the marketing department for that - They're the ones who came up with the product spec; the engineering department just implemented it.