211–220 of 448 posts
We are recent "cord-cutters" with a brand new Sony 4K, Android-enabled TV. On our other TVs, we have a Roku and an Amazon Firestick. We use the builtin Sony apps because they were (essentially) free and are the only way we currently have to get 4K content. I noticed the Samba nonsense when I set up the TV and have declined to participate -- but guess what? The TV still regularly connects to the domain flingo.tv, whic…
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Try it. I did. I couldn't find a non-smart TV. They are everywhere. If you want the 4k, then you have a smart TV. The best alternatives were super large monitors (way over the price of a TV, and with no decent sound built in), or corporate display panels (for advertising, signage, etc) whose prices are also way above a TV and include no sound system at all.
Is it dangerous to open a modern TV? Might be worth finding the network chips and disconnecting or breaking them off.
From various places online, you can buy "scaler" boards that take HDMI/VGA/etc. to whatever interface the panel uses (LVDS is common), i.e. they comprise essentially all the electronics inside a standard non-smart monitor. They are intended for laptop display conversions but can drive much bigger displays too, as long as the interface is the same. That might be an alternative to buying a much more expensive "dumb TV", i.e. buy a smart TV and "dumb it down" yourself!
For example, this particular one is configured for an iPad's display but the sellers usually have other configurations available:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4K-eDP-HDMI-LVDS-Controller-...
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And, which make/model is it?
It's a technicolor tc5580-uhd. Not expensive at all. It's the same company as curtis and rca.
I would like to see a TV with the following attributes: 1. 8 Inputs, with at least four HDMI and one HDMI accessible from the front panel. The remaining inputs would have at least two composite inputs. There would be no cable input since most cable companies, around here anyway, require a set-top box anyway. 2. An optical audio output, for those who wish to hook up a proper audio system. Those who don’t would get ok-…
I wish it was possible to jailbreak TVs and make smart TVs dumb, but I don't think that is a feasible option.
I'm the author and linking to my tweets is a bad idea because they auto-delete after 14 days. For future HN context, as the author I'm reproducing them here in full: My @Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app from https://samba.tv and boy oh boy... this is worse than recent @facebook stuff. From their own privacy policy: https://samba.tv/legal/privacy-policy/ … they track what you w…
HN replying to myself with some context outside of the tweets. I actually trust stock Android over Samsung, Sony, etc Android. Hence my "if we're going to have Android TV perhaps Google could supply it without the forced add-ons". I see this similar to installing Windows yourself rather than having "Windows with added vendor crap"... like if you know you want Windows, a stock one is better and same with Android. I'm…
> Ideally you run a TV on a different VLAN.
Why don't you go with a pi instead of a shield ?
We are recent "cord-cutters" with a brand new Sony 4K, Android-enabled TV. On our other TVs, we have a Roku and an Amazon Firestick. We use the builtin Sony apps because they were (essentially) free and are the only way we currently have to get 4K content. I noticed the Samba nonsense when I set up the TV and have declined to participate -- but guess what? The TV still regularly connects to the domain flingo.tv, whic…
Get a 4K Apple TV and disable internet on your tv.
We are recent "cord-cutters" with a brand new Sony 4K, Android-enabled TV. On our other TVs, we have a Roku and an Amazon Firestick. We use the builtin Sony apps because they were (essentially) free and are the only way we currently have to get 4K content. I noticed the Samba nonsense when I set up the TV and have declined to participate -- but guess what? The TV still regularly connects to the domain flingo.tv, whic…
If you could provide some packet captures from the TV, analysis is pretty straightforward...
If I decide to go "deep techie" on this, I'd probably pursue an alternative DNS approach. "Pi-hole" looks very interesting in this regard. I wish I hadn't just gotten rid of my old laptop. (smile)
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Is there any concern with a smart TV that isn't connected to the Internet (using a chromecast to connect to netflix)?
Depends how disconnected it really is. If it's doing some kind of "always scan WiFi in the background" shenanigans then it's still a computer slowly going out of date without security updates and occasionally exposing itself to the local area. I wish I could take a "smart" TV and flip a switch and have it gracefully fall back to "dumb" TV where the Android device is physically disabled.
Edit: mainly cause they'd stopped working years ago...
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Get a 4K Apple TV and disable internet on your tv.
Yes, but that's just trading one "surveillance capitalist" for another.
This could of course just be propaganda, but my friends who work at Apple seem to believe it too.
On a similar note, Samsung updated a bunch of apps on my dad's s7 and pushed a bunch of notifications to him, trying to get him to join some Samsung rewards club and suspended use of his phone until he clicked next. He's 67 guys. The madness needs to stop.