161–170 of 316 posts
It also is extremely hard to fix a smart TV once it gets infected with a virus. Just don't buy smart TVs. Buy a dumb TV, attach a RaspberryPi or an Intel NUC, install Kodi and enjoy.
Would love to. Who is currently making these dumb TVs? I’m in the market and can’t find anything.
In my opinion you should not use ANY of the smart features of a "smart" TV. Don't give it your wifi key and don't put it on your LAN. I have about 400% more trust of Microsoft and Sony than I do of random smart tv manufacturers. I also have a fairly high degree of confidence that the xbox one and PS4 software will remain up to date with security patches, and address critical issues quickly. I have no confidence for T…
> I have about 400% more trust of Microsoft and Sony than I do of random smart tv manufacturers. It should be noted Sony's TVs are different than their game consoles in what they collect and do. They run a relatively clean version of Android TV except for "Samba TV", which is yet another piece of show-recognizing (known as ACR) analytics. However, you can apparently decline its privacy policy on initial setup and eve…
Has anyone successfully hacked any of these TVs to disable the smart features? I would pay some money for this kind of firmware patch on a future purchase. It seems crazy that the software is so terrible and yet nobody has found a way to disable it.
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When i got my samsung smart tv 4 years ago i actually read the EULA and was so disgusted i refused to agree. It lives its life as a computer monitor, and a buggy one at that. I doubt there is a way to update the firmware without agreeing. Moral of the story: dont buy smart TVs.
If you want a TV, is there any alternative? We got a new TV last year and I (joe shmoe average user) didn't see any that weren't smart.
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Sadly, this will only push TV manufacturers harder to implement built-in always-on 5G connectivity that completely bypasses the end user.
That sounds amazing, a free 5g connection with every tv! cellular connection is still prohibitively expensive in many parts of the world.
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Or have a GPS and realize that it’s been 12 months since their last mandatory update and lock you out.
Why would you need a GPS for that?
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My hypothesis is that dumb TVs don’t need to be more expensive, and that the savings of not needing a beefy SoC and more DRAM and Flash offsets what would otherwise be coming in from advertising.
Yeah I also don’t know why that’s some sort of established truth but it’s been going around for years now. It especially took off a couple of years back when a manufacturer exec (Bravia? Can’t find link now) said as much. I assume the info they can sell must be worth quite a lot of money if they can throw $50 or $100 worth of stuff in it “for free”, where many of the TVs probably never even get an internet connection…
The Visio CTO has been open about it
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18172397/airplay-2-homekit...