I've not even accepted the terms and conditions that let them harvest all my data and sell it off, but still the logs are filled with blocked requests.
My OLED keeps tabs on what i watch and recommends shows and movies to me.
I swear it eavesdrops as well. Adverts show up on my mobile for things ive watched on it.
I recently did the same, buying a new Sony Bravia. During setup, I elected to forgo the “Google TV” portion of the OS and am getting along fine without its prying and control. I stream from my Apple TV just fine, ($175) which doubles as a HomeKit Hub.
All I want is a 60-65’’ 4k panel with 2+ display in, 2+ hdmi in, optical in, 120+hz, decent or better HDR, good black levels, and Not. A. Single. Application.
No camera, no mic, no wifi, ideally no Ethernet port—update via thumb drive or sd.
Some outs would be great, but it is not a deal breaker.
Check out hospitality TVs. They're usually bare bones and without the wifi and Bluetooth garbage. They're also more expensive, but that's because it's not turning you into revenue through ads.
I bought a particular Hisense because it's very well reviewed and was on sale during Christmas '23. After setting it up I immediately disconnected it from the internet and never looked back. Sporadically I'll Google the model number and latest firmware to see if it's worth an upgrade. Not so far!
TV makers like to put a *lot* of tracking code in their systems (hence the Adguard comment in OP), I much prefer using it as a "dumb" display and just plugging in the smart stuff manually
Family bought us a television with the strong suggestion that they would visit us more if we had a TV. A Sony unit. Contract of adherence: cannot use it until Google ToS agree, can't review ToS until network is configured.
I unplugged the WiFi card in it and "agreed"
The things you do for family.
You don’t have to connect your TV to the Internet. My LG isn’t connected to the Internet. I use a separate device without bloatware for apps and streaming.
More to the point: there is nothing unwise about getting firmware updates. If you don’t want them and it’s easier to keep your TV offline all the time than do the occasional update, that’s cool. But it’s not wiser than the people who do.
I have a Sony Bravia that runs Android. I disabled Internet access (WiFi) as I only want to use it as a monitor for my devices. It keeps randomly turning WiFi back on by itself. I noticed this because it said there was an update available. How else would it know?
So I turn WiFi off and again it comes back on. I despise devices that do this.
I let it connect to my router but I disabled Internet access (and access to the local network). Now I get random messages about no Internet and often when I turn it on it goes to Settings to remind me. 🤬
I got high speed internet and still connect to cable TV through a satellite company. My new wifi service won’t let it connect to servers in strange companies. So I feel pretty safe.
It's very funny to me how inappropriate it is when these things are installed in offices and they try to get everyone in a business meeting to buy and play games. Can't start the meeting until we click through all the banner ads on this device that we paid money for!
Some of these things broadcast their own wifi signal too. I worked at a company where one of these was broadcasting and also connected to the company network on a second connection. A perfect bridge for a hacker in the parking lot to get onto the network.
Some "smart" TVs saturate bluetooth as well, preventing reliable bluetooth connections in nearby devices even when no BT devices are connected. Amazon-branded TVs are notorious for this.
Are you people even serious? Card and TVs have had computers and software for decades. Do you think a car was purely a combustion engine and gears until they started to include touch screens?
Form factor is not irrelevant. Film and projectors are superior but there’s a reason that shit never caught on for homes. I live in an apartment. I couldn’t jam a 65 inch 4K CRT in here even if I wanted. If that’s not a massive advantage for modern TVs, I don’t know what is.
Near the end of the CRT era they did make some extremely expensive but more compact ones with, Iirc, only 10-12 inches of depth. Even if that was the hard limit on thinness, that’s doable in my tiny apartment.
But lcd is all we get now. Even plasma and it’s perfect black levels is gone.
Yes, we’ve been stripped of choices. I understand why the models they sell are most popular but if anything it feels like they’ve all landed on the same product with little innovation. Just more bloatware.
i really love companies shoving the cheapest android hardware they can find into a reasonably expensive TV then failing to support it properly so it crashes all the fucking time while also trying to mine me for as much data as they possibly can.
we really fucked up when we didn't make it normal to just have a small form factor ITX PC or something bolted to the back of the TV.
every smart TV will reach a point where the panel is fine but the shitty little android inside it wont be able to keep pace with the apps that are being shipped.
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Oh, it's got AI as well apparently 😐
I swear it eavesdrops as well. Adverts show up on my mobile for things ive watched on it.
When AI takes over, we are all properly f*cked.
Imagine if a tech guy scripted this into a LG update to auto click “ok” every time it shows up… so many emails would be sent..
No camera, no mic, no wifi, ideally no Ethernet port—update via thumb drive or sd.
Some outs would be great, but it is not a deal breaker.
Sadly, paying more to keep unaccountable CEOs from watching my living room is where we are.
The hard part will probably be finding latency and color correctness reviews for these.
I unplugged the WiFi card in it and "agreed"
The things you do for family.
They have fixed a ton of firmware issues around input switching and CEC stuff.
Then disconnect it again.
Even if you use a separate streaming box, you likely want these fixes.
Or you can live with things like only getting base Dolby Digital etc.
Repost but relevant.
I have a Sony Bravia that runs Android. I disabled Internet access (WiFi) as I only want to use it as a monitor for my devices. It keeps randomly turning WiFi back on by itself. I noticed this because it said there was an update available. How else would it know?
So I turn WiFi off and again it comes back on. I despise devices that do this.
I let it connect to my router but I disabled Internet access (and access to the local network). Now I get random messages about no Internet and often when I turn it on it goes to Settings to remind me. 🤬
They just weighed more. You think of CRT as inferior because there aren’t new ones, but they could make 4k & 8k CRTs.
Knobs are also objectively superior to touch controls when you can’t look, like car stereos.
Near the end of the CRT era they did make some extremely expensive but more compact ones with, Iirc, only 10-12 inches of depth. Even if that was the hard limit on thinness, that’s doable in my tiny apartment.
But lcd is all we get now. Even plasma and it’s perfect black levels is gone.
it really is the future.
twat.
every smart TV will reach a point where the panel is fine but the shitty little android inside it wont be able to keep pace with the apps that are being shipped.
there's no reason the computer in the TV shouldn't be a standard form factor and replaceable/upgradeable.