this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Privacy

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I'm considering buying a new TV. There's plenty of posts about trying to find dumb TVs, comments like 'just don't connect it to the internet/network'.

What surprises me is that there isn't a good overview of (popular) TVs or brands with basic information, answering for each TV:

  • Can you use it as a basic TV by choosing not to enable smart features during setup?
  • Can you opt out by just not accepting a bunch of agreements?
  • Does it have a camera and/or microphone? Where in the device are these? Is there a physical disable switch for microphone?
  • Does it nag when not connected to any network?
  • Does it have higher than normal power usage when not able to phone home?
  • Has it been discovered to connect to public WiFi networks? Does it have the (theoretical) ability to connect to 5G mobile networks?

And similar.

There are extensive lists with a lot of detail about VPN services but nothing like that for TVs. Am I ignorant of a good source, or does this just not exist (yet)?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Personally, I say F smart tv's. The smart bit is going to be old and useless in three years. The panel will last me over a decade.

Yes, you can ignore all the nagging and smart stuff and just set it to an hdmi input or something.

Then hooking up a 3rd party smart box is what I recommend.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And grammar nazis
you're right tho

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

Pretty sure it was fsck, but I could be wrong