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Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#461

Post by BearOso »

Benjammer wrote: post #223
cronix wrote: post #173

All TV's are dumb tv's if you only use them as an external display/monitor and don't connect them to the net. I have a dedicated computer for a media center and just use HDMI1 input on the TV. Never enter menus. Never update the OS. Never agree to anything. Never let the TV "phone home." Never set up wifi. Never connect a CAT5 to it. Set the input using the remote and forget it. Treat it as a dumb monitor. Computer i…

I have seen stories of smart TVs doing active scans for any unsecured wifi network in range, then connecting and phoning home without ever informing the user or showing anything in the menus. Is that a real thing?

I doubt these stories. The number of people who get a smart TV and don’t connect it to the Internet are a minority. It’s just not worth the cost for any company to develop advanced features to spy on that limited subset.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#462

Post by rdtwo »

Scoundreller wrote: post #353
TheDudeMan wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some bombard you with "helpful reminders" to set up networking.

I think Gmail.com has asked me about 500 times to try their app and I’ve said “I am not interested” 500 times in a row. But they seem to have a good feeling about tomorrow.

One day you will misclick and then they have you

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#463

Post by jareklupinski »

duderific wrote: post #348
Volundr wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's sadly not really true. I have an LG that I (thought) I was using this way until one day in the middle of watching some TV I get a prompt about a OnePlus phone trying to control my TV, do I want to accept? Needless to say and didn't, but I was baffled by what happened. Turns out that the stupid TV is controllable via an app over bluetooth, and there is no way to turn bluetooth off. I'm just stuck with my TV con…

My LG tv started having an annoying popup message every few seconds, "Unknown device is disconnected", which was caused by a faulty WiFi module, documented here: https://www.theraffon.net/spookcentral/tcp/2019/07/10/lg-sma... Since I use a Roku stick for streaming, I have no need for the WiFi module in the TV. I was able to follow the instructions in that post, which involve removing the back of the TV and physically…

I'm wondering if there is a wiki somewhere detailing the different ways to easily disable wireless connections inside consumer TVs...

From the link: > I taped the loose ribbon cable to the inside of the TV with a note saying, "Wifi Module disconnected, so as to disable 'Unknown Device is Disconnected' message." That way if anyone ever looks in there in the future, it will be known what was done :-)

excellent :)

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#464

Post by tomc1985 »

yupper32 wrote: post #177
tomc1985 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says I'm using a Roku? My defanged smart TV has a computer (and a Shield that only runs Kodi) attached to it. Many of us still have large personal media libraries. Samrt TVs do nothing for that.

> Many of us still have large personal media libraries. You are a massively small minority if you're mostly using personal media libraries as your entertainment on your TV.

Most anyone in their mid-thirties or older who were computer literate 10-15 years ago cultivated some kind of media library. To say nothing of (ongoing) iTunes/Amazon/Beatport/Junodownload/Bandcamp/etc purchases delivered as mp3 or losslessly, or all the random bootlegs on Soundcloud or blogs, or piracy.

Minority, sure. But "massively"? Like, who is your demographic? Gen Z?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#465

Post by cat_plus_plus »

Dumb TVs would cost more because availability of smart functionality earns manufacturer subsidizes from various streaming services while the cost of extra hardware is really low (you can get streaming sticks for under $50). Just don't connect to network and enjoy getting a nicer TV for your money. Also on Android-based TVs you can disable any unwanted apps through ADB or install a privacy-enhancing firewall, so that's one middle option.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#466

Post by Scoundreller »

rdtwo wrote: post #462
Scoundreller wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Gmail.com has asked me about 500 times to try their app and I’ve said “I am not interested” 500 times in a row. But they seem to have a good feeling about tomorrow.

One day you will misclick and then they have you

I need to convince the next generation of judges that 1/500th consent is not full and complete consent!

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#467

Post by myrandomcomment »

behnamoh wrote: post #397
azinman2 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be aware that Roku is one of the worst offenders in selling your watching habits.

What are some better alternatives?

I use an AppleTV 4K on every TV. Media is on a NAS (TrueNAS Mini). I use a Kodi port called MrMC (~7USD in App store) to mount the NAS shares and play all the media (supports NFS and SMB). Run a container (on the NAS) with MySQL that MrMC talks to that syncs status between all instances. Works great. Watch in one room, pause and pick up where I left off in the next room.

https://mrmc.tv/

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#468

Post by myrandomcomment »

1121redblackgo wrote: post #269
FearlessNebula wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only this, but how long until they start including a cheap modem and paying for their own cellular connectivity?

My god damn CPAP machine does this. Insurance required the modem in order for them to pay for it.

There a number of guides on disabling this. That being said you still need to bring the SD card to doctor every 6 months for review. This is a good thing. The doctor is trying to help you. I know someone that died because they went on a trip and forgot their CPAP and just stopped breathing in the middle of the night and did not wake up. It happens. When you get a CPAP there is a reason. Take it seriously.

If you are having issues because of physically fixable issues there are surgeries that can help (I had 2 things fixed). Most of the time however its just being fat and physical. Loosing the weight helps and the effect can be tracked in the data the CPAP collects. The doctor can then use the data to adjust then pressure down.

I am speaking from experience. My pressure setting has dropped as I took off the beer gut. This time next year I will likely be able to be done with it.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?

#469

Post by myrandomcomment »

Avshalom wrote: post #411
10000truths wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t seem like a practical thing for manufacturers to implement. How common are such networks in actuality? Literally the only time I ever encountered unsecured Wi-Fi networks in the past several years were guest networks, and all of those were gated by a capture portal that would have blocked any sort of attempt at telemetry or ad serving.

Pretty common. https://finder.wifi.xfinity.com/

Xfinity requires login. It is not open.
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