I’m mostly sailing the high seas, using the tv as a giant monitor for the always-on laptop connected to it. I’m afraid of the 1984-esque “You must connect to the internet to continue using this TV” that might come after some time.
Yes.
Not only due to privacy concerns (my main concern), as the device will constantly ping home even when turned off. Other concern is it will download “updates”, that eventually may render your tv browsing experience laggish.
Some tv sets have not only mics incorporated, but cameras, so it may depend on your level of concern.
A smart TV is primarily a surveillance device that also happens to display video.
If I were you, I wouldn’t have let it have internet access in the first place. Try a factory reset and don’t let it online, and you’ll probably not even notice.
But think of all the wonderful ads you’re going to miss out on!
Yes.
This is why I’m holding on to my “dumb” TV for as long as I can. Being able to pick and choose what streaming device I use is great, and if I have to build my own someday, that’s just fine.
I’ve fixed a couple extras and have them stored. If you find a “dead” TV, shine a flashlight into the screen and see if you see the picture. If so, then there’s probably just a problem with the backlighting, which is why TVs get trashed most often. Order up a set of backlight strips, find a youtube vid on taking that model apart, and put new strips in. Takes about 30 minutes and baby, you got yourself a TV.
My next tv is probably going to be a dumb tv. You can search for commercial business tvs online and find dumb tvs for displays and digital signage. Same screen, just no smarts, plays a network stream, off a usb, or hdmi input. Nothing else.
I still have a 720p dumb TV and I’m not getting rid of it. But my eyesight is terrible so 720p, 1080p, 4k don’t really make much difference to me.
Unequivocally yes. The less surveillance, the better.
Um yeah, definitely. My TV has never had Internet connectivity, not should it.
Yes.
Get a dumb TV, I’ve had great luck with the Specter brand, and hook up a set top box for your smart functionality.
Smart TVs spyon you, report on you, eat bandwidth even when off, and become out dated quickly.
I also bought a Sceptre “dumb TV” within the last year or so and highly recommend it. I had been recommending it over and over, but recently I found that the model I bought was no longer offered. I hope Sceptre didn’t abandon them.
TVs don’t seem to be a core business for them, I get the impression that they are a monitor focused business. Of course it’s not hard to upgrade a monitor to a TV so why not?
They do list all their products on their website so maybe check there?
i like controlling the TV with the various IP methods, so i just blocked it from being able to reach WAN and vice versa
Yes.
Even better, get rid of it entirely and get a dumb TV.
Where? Ive been looking everywhere and its like they dont exist anymore
Qb series Samsung are commercial displays but no Netflix or smart features. However, they are about double the price of a standard tv. Will last forever though. I would rather buy a less expensive and not connect it to the network.
Fuckin a, you weren’t kidding.
This is from Amazon on the first two I saw in USD
I spent less than $500 for my 50” 4K Samsung but here is twice the price.
They don’t really as the “smart” subsidies the cost of the TV. Some commerical grade TVs and large monitors won’t be smart or need Internet connectivity.
I got a “signage display”, which is basically just a large monitor connected via HDMI.
The problem with those is that the picture quality is not the same as traditional TVs.
I guess. But it’s good enough for me and all my content is only in 1080p anyway, so I don’t think the display is limiting me too much.
Given that you’re using this for a laptop, you’re looking for a monitor. Not a TV.
Anything suitable for office work should be good here.
I mean… it depends on the type of TV you’re trying to replace. If you’re on a 65 inch OLED you’re not going to replace that with an office monitor.
There are really good “dumb” PC monitors for media watching in the 24-42 inch range, though. They’re just… often not cheap.
But even monitors are infected with ‘SmArT teeVEe’ bloat. My pc monitor is basically a TV, and is much worse because of it.
Is it? The monitors I’m currently using are fairly new and don’t seem to have any connected tools. There isn’t even an app to set them up (which I may actually find practical), it’s all OSD stuff.
I think even if there are connected monitors out there, it’s certainly easier to find “dumb” monitors, even with high end specs, than dumb TVs. The real hard breaks are size and feature set, in my experience.
I’ve resigned myself to large monitors for the ‘small TV’ and projectors for the ‘big TV’
Spectre makes a line of dumb TVs, but I don’t think any of them are 4k. I spent about $600 on a 75" 1080p model last year.
Yes. I connected mine, checked for updates, then factory reset it and did not enter any network login.
This only works on certain brands I’m afraid…
You should’ve never connected it in the first place. Never even set up any functions that a piece of hardware prompts you to. Most of those are enforced only because the company behind them gains something from you having them set up. Unless you actually need something that depends on that function, disable the function.
You could also do that “softly” with PiHole, if you intend to use some of the apps, but if you don’t, it’s only beneficial to disconnect it entirely from the internet.
My Samsung Frame tv tries to ping home twice every second.
Pihole says no.
I’m also
surprisedannoyed how often the FireTV stick and the Samsung TV are calling home, or at least how often they try.
Samnsung takes a screenshot every 500ms. LG is every 10ms. For crying out loud they can “stream” everything you watch.
For the next TV look at commercial and industrial panels. You can usually find the display you want with none of the smart tv junk.
Search for ‘commercial display + brand name’
should I unplug my smart _______ from the internet?
fill in the blank, it should always be yes.
Some brands (LG and Samsung iirc) have been confirmed to send periodic screenshots of your content, no matter if it’s through “smart apps” or HDMI.
I don’t see how they could, the laptop isn’t going to know what to do with them, they’d have to also get you to install something on the laptop which you’d obviously not do.
The TV takes screenshots of whatever is displayed on the TV screen, and sends the screenshots to TV HQ via the Internet connection of the TV
Signal goes the other way around. Laptop -> TV -> router -> somebody else’s computer
