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I don’t want an OS on my next TV…
Pi hole FTW.
Not good enough. Any OTA updates your TV can get over the web will eventually be trying to circumvent your IP blacklists to shove in any ad-riddled garbage they can.
Literally just blacklist your TV’s MAC address, and use a dedicated set top box of some kind to avoid this shit. My current choice is my NVIDIA Shield Pro 2019, which I installed a 3rd party WOLF launcher (there’s also F-Launcher) and turned off auto-updates so I could avoid NVIDIA and Google doing the same.
At some point, I will probably need to switch to a NUC or other HTPC with some flavor of Linux on it, as eventually the Shield may succumb to this shit as well.
Good thing I don’t care about owning a tv I don’t already know how to jailbreak.
How bout no
I want a TV with NO OS.
Look into Sceptre. 4K with no OS, no ads, doesn’t ask for WiFi - just a TV.
I can find only computer monitors there.
The walmart link has some TVs, but apparently not the Amazon one, just monitors.
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It’s hard but not impossible, as even ‘retail displays’ run an OS in the background to control input switching, image settings etc.
Honestly the best thing to do is buy whatever TV you want (we have a couple of the LG OLEDs in our household), and don’t ever plug them into your network (or WiFi). Otherwise, with updates OS and apps become sluggish, with more ads crammed in.
Instead, use a seperate media player (e.g. Apple TV if you’re already on the iOS ecosystem, Nvidia Shield or similar for Android, HTPC if you’re so inclined etc.) - they’re more powerful, arguably more secure & private, and portable between displays if/when you upgrade.
Unfortunately EtherNet over HDMI exists so your your TV can still access the Internet if the Apple TV or Nvidia Shield has Internet access. To prevent that you have to make sure use older HDMI cable less then HDMI 1.4.
I didn’t think any devices even adopted Ethernet over HDMI
Never been implemented. It doesn’t exist.
Cables support it but zero devices made it to the consumer market and both devices would need to support it for it to work. It’s a dead standard from another era at this point. WiFi speeds have become so significant that there’s just no reason for the additional costs that would be involved.
I admit if half of the people out there who bought smart TVs started refusing to connect them to the internet and bought streaming boxes instead there might be an incentive for TV makers to try it but no incentive for streaming devices to help them do it and at that point it’s just easier for TV makers to require an internet connection or the TV doesn’t work.
Thank you for the clarification. I was not aware of this.
You’ll see these marketed as monitors sometimes, from what I’ve seen. Mostly it’s for businesses but if you want a dumb screen to connect things to, it might be called a “monitor” even if it has the form factor of a TV.
Solution: get a dumb tv
unfortunately,
on some markets they are gone.
“Smart” TVs have squeezed them out.You can find them. Look for digital signage. And then start crying at the cost.
If you manage to have access to AliExpress, you can have it shipped.
When that is not an option, a big computer screen and a tv card.
Aliexprees is great for low buget electronics,
but I’m skeptical about anything larger.
Plus with EU’s hike on tarifs and delivery services quality it’s like playing worst type of gambling.A TV card(and PC obviously) with screen could be for me,
but there is no way my parents would agree to such setup.Amazon ships the exact same fare of electronics. If it serves of any consolation…
If you have a laptop, there are small USB tv tunners available. If not, a smarphone can access a good deal of content. And depending on what country you are, you might have access to your national channels (open signal ones) over the net.
For the rest: Aaaaarrrr, me ladies! May the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster fill our sails and set our course for rich waters!
Is there a reason to go for a dumb TV as opposed to just not connecting your smart TV to wifi?
People smarter than me have already had that discussion in the thread and after some heated arguments the consensus is that smart TVs have been caught actively searching for same manufacturer hardware and open wi-fi networks to access the web and call home.
So…
So don’t connect anything from the same manufacturer to wifi and check if any of your neighbour has an open WiFi network, then? I’ve checked my neighborhood and hasn’t seen any open networks just yet, so I’m lucky.
Lucky of you, then. If not, what could you do? Go door to door asking your neighbours to close their wi-fi?
That might not actually be a bad idea. Telling them their open WiFi is easily connected to from outside might finally push them to put in some form of network security. Shouldn’t be too hard unless you have a bad relationship with them.
If that opportunity arises, please try and come back to tell us how it went.
LMAO, that would be an interesting story to tell. Unfortunately, for now, all of my neighbours are at least technologically proficient enough to put in a WiFi password, or at least not stupid enough to not let the ISP technician add it during installation.
Getting increasingly hard.
I finally learned why those 50" tvs are so cheap, like $200. Buy a dumb TV that’s the same size is easily 5x the price.
Then again, nobody needs a TV and I only bought one during the pandemic, then connected it to my pi hole.
Good luck with that
So stupid! Everyone knows if you want people to see your company’s logo, you gotta put it on the back of the cereal box, at the bottom of the cereal bowl or on the front and back of the poon! The spoon is literally observed by every single human on every bite…here come the rice crispiest!..jeep! I gotta get me a jeep! Look! It’s on my spoon!
For fuck’s sake.
The biggest ad giant in the world already controls my TV’s OS
Don’t ever connect them to the internet. Period.
If it’s required, buy a different tv. It’s not difficult to look that up beforehand.
I suspect in the near future it will be impossible to buy a TV without spyware/adware. The only option will be to not connect it to the internet and run your own Raspberry PI/SBC based solution.
Monitors aren’t being pumped full of this stuff and so won’t the premium televisions.
The super budget/sold at a loss TVs will absolutely be gutted for spyware.
Monitors aren’t being pumped full of this stuff and so won’t the premium televisions.
I have a feeling premium TVs won’t escape adware/spyware either. They can get their margin on the hardware and earn some more money on spyware; I don’t see what incentive they have to not do both. I hope I am wrong though.
You’re not wrong, there are a number of videos from Louis Rossman (right to repair advocate) on YouTube lambasting LG for doing this very thing on their high-end G-series OLED TVs; including defaulting to opt-in to marketing and providing PIR data after an automatic update.
Premium televisions are already pumped full of this stuff
Yup. I don’t know if it’s all of them, but Louis Rossmann had a video where he ranted about this BS in his high end TV.
Looks at the top of the line Samsung Odessey 49"/54" ultrawide monitor. Looks at specs. Reread this comment.
Uhuh
Monitors aren’t being pumped full of this stuff
I hope this is just marketing then…
If I worked for the manufacturer I’d just piggy back on other TVs networks to communicate. Wouldn’t work if you live in the country but for everyone else I’d just need a similar brand within wifi range.
Checking before buy buying will be possible for computer and privacy « educated » people only, that leaves almost everyone helpless in the real world, in a store facing TVs all playing the demo video. Maybe some will read Amazon reviews or do actual research… hope.
My current TV is clawing my firewall like squirrel with rabies. I’m sure the next one will too.
I just give smartTVs no network at all
Please enable internet access to setup your new TV, otherwise no TV for you.
Then you turn around and return it. Don’t encourage that behavior by just letting it happen.
If your retailer has a generous enough policy to let you return an opened TV because simply because you don’t like it. I spent $1,200 on a Sony TV with backlight bleed issues that were so bad that half the screen was tinted blue. I tried to return it or get a replacement but was told by both the retailer and Sony support that half the screen being blue was “normal for LED TVs and within acceptable parameters” and to go fuck myself.
In my Country, you can Return within 1 month if you are not satisfied.
Oh no I live in the U.S. we don’t really do consumer protections.
Yea but here in the United States we have the Freedom™ to be ripped off with no recourse.
That’s what chargebacks are for. You don’t have to rely on shitty retailers return policy.
You’re not going to win a chargeback determination in this case either.
You will be, as I was, shit out of luck.
If your credit card doesn’t let you do a chargeback for defective equipment then you need to get a better card provider.
TVs not working after purchase would qualify as defective in my opinion.
Than I only watch my drm free stuff 🤷🏻
What’s with the clickbait title?
This is not news, it has been happening since Smart TVs started being a thing.
One of the most common TV OSs is AndroidTV / GoogleTV. Google is the biggest ad company in the world.
An ad giant already owns and controls my current TV’s OS
Ehm, it is already like that. Most of smart TVs use Android which is under Google control, a big (if not the biggest) ad company.
I have an old 60 inch 1080p TV from the early days of smart tvs. It has a built in app for plex and youtube, a remote that works as a pointer, it’s insanely slow but it has zero ads and I’m never ever getting a newer model.
Same here, one of our “smart” TVs needs Ethernet for networking, the other needs a Wi-Fi dongle. Rest aren’t even smart. All 1080p.
Up until that TV dies.
I’ll find one on the used market or do whatever it takes to fix it
That’s my plan too
Yup. My 58" 4k LG TV has a bunch of apps (we only need Netflix and Jellyfin), and the only ads I’ve seen are in their apps, which don’t need to be opened. It’s a little slow and apparently can’t even handle Jellyfin over HTTPS, but it works well.
My SO wants a bigger TV, and I’m dreading looking through the current market to find a decent replacement. I’d really like OLED and for it to be a few inches bigger, but it seems everything has ads and spyware out of the box. Screw that…
