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Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

nytimes.com

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Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#231

Post by cfeduke »

bee_rider wrote: post #203
parker_mountain wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have an LGCX and if I hadn't connected it to the internet I would have missed out on some important software updates that significantly improved the display performance. Fwiw toggling the internet is an easy fix compared to the "dumb tv" way of updating firmware - putting a bin on a flash drive.

I’d tend to assume that any data collected would be uploaded opportunistically whenever an internet connection was available.

Most likely. I worked at a political company (eww) that used this data up to two years after it was generated. The historical data is more useful for political markets for advertising issues than near real time since campaign targeting usually needs to be performed or at least planned a few weeks in advance. Near real time is great for message tweaking but knowing whether there's a receptive demographic is historical.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#232

Post by jacobsenscott »

tonymet wrote: post #207

This is a big concern for the elderly. They have major challenges dealing with "smart" TVs and smart phones – due to complicated interfaces that are difficult to operate, hard to read, hard to interact with , slow to respond do. I see a huge business opportunity selling simplified consumer devices to the elderly. I'm surprised CES hasn't yet created a specific category or certification for elderly-friendly devices.

These products exist to some extent, but they don't seem very successful. The "elderly" today could be people who may have been using smartphones for 20 years, and wrote the foundational parts of all the software we use today. Soon enough you will be more likely to find someone who can debug a C program in a retirement community than an MIT classroom.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#234

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

Lammy wrote: post #148
Macha wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this appears to be a HN urban legend. It's always asked in these threads and the closest thing that anyone has been able to provide is one person asking one time on the samsung forums why there tv was connected to the neighbour's wifi (openly in the TV's own menu). So either there's a giant conspiracy which literally nobody else in the world has noticed or attempted to reproduce, or her kids/neighbour/whoever jus…

It's possible, and that's all that matters IMO

If “possible” is all that matters then you have to include stuff like “I’m on a special list where if I order a monitor from Amazon, they’ll send me a version with a secret chip on the inside of the case that broadcasts my secret TV viewing habits to the NSA.”

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#235

Post by gpanders »

lfkdev wrote: post #34
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #2

The approach I’ve taken is to just keep my TV off the internet (never join a WiFi network) and make it smart via an Apple TV, which I personally believe to have the strongest privacy protection of any smart TV device. Another bonus is my TV UI hasn’t changed despite changing and upgrading TV brands.

I think a Pi4 with Kodi etc. is still way better for privacy.

Probably true, but the Pi4 is not up to the task of transcoding 4k video.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#236

Post by jeffbee »

mgaunard wrote: post #191
elAhmo wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monitor is a different device compared to a TV. TV without smart features is simply called a TV.

That is incorrect. A TV is simply a low-quality monitor, possibly with some kind of tuner or extra superfluous low-quality peripherals.

"That is incorrect" wasn't much of a rebuttal. Computer displays usually look like shit for video content, because showing video content well is much more complicated than nerds seem to believe.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#237

Post by that_courtney »

The spyware and apps are revenue features for the manufacturer. They help subsidize the price of the set. So get a TV with all that bloat for best value, and just keep the device off the net.

If you do want to put it on the net, here's some help on disabling privacy-busting features: https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-t...

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#238

Post by all2 »

samtho wrote: post #192
tomcam wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that simple. The Faraday cage I got from Costco seems to phone home to a server in China. Obviously I returned it and used the money to buy a whole lot of tinfoil.

I’m… not sure if you are joking.

Quarter inch mesh is pretty cheap at the local hardware big box. It'd be good for attenuation up to 7ish Ghz.

I've seriously considered getting a roll and building a cage.

There's also emf paint that one could use.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#239

Post by iijj »

was_a_dev wrote: post #4
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #2

The approach I’ve taken is to just keep my TV off the internet (never join a WiFi network) and make it smart via an Apple TV, which I personally believe to have the strongest privacy protection of any smart TV device. Another bonus is my TV UI hasn’t changed despite changing and upgrading TV brands.

Hasn't some models (thinking Samsung) been shown to connect to any WiFi network they can? edit: Appears to be an urban legend, with not much substance to back it up!

I have a 3 month old Samsung TV with recent firmware. I am trying to use it as a dumb offline TV connected to an Apple TV (which is, of course, online). Short version is it does not automatically connect to networks without user input, but it prompts people all the time and inevitably ended up back on the network.

It won't forget network passwords without a full reset. So if you connect to download firmware then disable the connection, it is one click away from someone re-enabling it. If there's an unsecured network available, you're only 2-3 clicks away from joining that.

With other people in the house using it, the only way to reliably keep it off the internet is to connect it to a network, allow it to verify the connection works, then block it from making any more outgoing connections at the router level. It seems to be ok with this situation and doesn't complain too much.

My original plan was to setup HDMI CEC and lock away the Samsung Remote to prevent people from getting into trouble. But when the TV is turned on vi HDMI CEC, half the time it wants to immediately run the OLED refresh cycle, and will automatically shut off and start doing that unless you actively prevent it from doing so with the remote. This is annoying because they have a setting to run the OLED refresh at night when not in use. It's almost like they sabotaged this use case on purpose to force people to interact with the Samsung UI.

I should have bought a projector, assuming one can still get projectors that aren't similarly infected.

Re: Ask Wirecutter: Can you recommend a not-smart TV for me?

#240

Post by dogma1138 »

pupdogg wrote: post #133

I've designed and built many such TVs for the commercial/industrial vertical. I am currently working on developing such a TV for the consumer market and launching it under the name DUMBO.TV Let me know your thoughts. Reference pix of 70" industrial display using Samsung LCD panel and in-house LCD controller with physical OSD menu buttons along with IR/RS232 control capability: https://imgur.com/a/k6zrH3s

How will you be dealing with movie content? 24fps content is quite hard to display without proper processing especially on large screens when the telesync judder will be noticeable.

Also HDR support and DRM will be quite problematic.

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