cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51919648
Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.
The text in the image:
I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology
My TV is ten years old and "smart" only in the dumbest sense. How well do modern smart TVs operate when airgapped and only using an external device for files and streaming services? Is it still painful?
I realize the question is quite general!
I have an LG OLED with a lot of "smart" bullshit. It has no WiFi connection. Everything goes through my Google Streamer (far from optimal, I know) which keeps the enshittification somewhat in check.
I also have an lg oled that is connected to the internet but it I have changed the dns server to one I manage through my own server that runs AdGuard and also blocks all lg related services. Runs pretty well as a result but still a bit laggy. No updates and it’s rooted with a lot of homebrew stuff which helps
I also have a cheap tcl/roku tv which doesn’t allow this, you are not allowed to customize wifi or Ethernet connections. Sucks if you need a custom dns or proxy config. You can only connect via dhcp. Changing it at the router level also makes the roku os go haywire, if it can’t load ads it goes nuts and none of the apps load correctly. Hostile bullshit and I’ll never buy another tcl or roku product again.
How does the TV behave? Does it complain about not being able to update or connect, take a long time to do things, display default factory promoted content, or otherwise act hostile to you as the user?
I have almost the same setup. I just turned off the TVs menu on startup and now I don't have to deal with any LG bullshit.
Not at all. It just works.
My LG C2 figured out it didn't have internet contention despite being on wifi, and so would frequently and regularly ask me to agree to the T&C in order to use voice recognition. I got fed up and fucking connected it back. I'm gonna try this other cat's DNS server thing.
Recently bought a new LG. I have not connected it to the network and have it set to automatically return to the last input on startup rather than go to the home screen. May as well just be a really big monitor at this point, which is perfect. I never see the LG interface and it never prompts me for anything.
Even if it was connected to the Internet you could skip to your last input, that's what mine does
In a general sense, airgapping with TVs is pretty effective. Just know that more modern TVs can still be a total pain in the ass with TOS popups and shit.