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Yes, going to take care of that. Thanks for the heads up. I really looked that one over...didn't think too much of it as the domain was available. It's hard to do anything the easy way nowadays!
What about something a bit more...positive? PureTV?
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You may want to get yourself an SDR kit and check that for yourself. They typically broadcast on 43-33 cm band, (700-900mhz), and 2.4/5 ghz. You'd also be wrong about Apple's privacy protection.
Unfortunately SDR is a bit of a pandora's box... once you see how much data is covertly exfiltrated it's quite unnerving.
I've always found its better to know than not know, since you can only control what you know about.
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> Another bonus is my TV UI hasn’t changed despite changing and upgrading TV brands. One of the recent updates to my TV's software introduced bugs to a feature I use a lot. It is very infuriating, and it's one of the reasons I refuse to buy an expensive TV. Even if the hardware is good, I'm one software update away from a piece of garbage.
An "update" to my TV made it so if it's on an input channel with no detected input for 10 seconds it will automatically switch back to the "smart" TV channel. Now if for some reason an input source isn't working correctly and I'm trying to figure out why I have to keep switching back to the correct input channel. Which of course lags for like ten seconds whenever it switches. I'm never buying another "smart" TV.
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This is essentially what I've done. The TV has never been connected to the Internet and my Apple TV drives everything. I would still have payed 2x to support a good dumb TV project and would love to do so in the future.
But isn't a dumb TV + Apple TV pretty much the same as a smart TV? (I know, you avoid dealing with two "smarts," but still...)
With Apple TV, you can nip that in the bud. Yes, Apple TV has its own quirks but it’s nowhere near as hostile as built in “functionality” that these tvs try to provide.
And not say that streaming services have every incentive to keep the Apple TV apps improving compared to the tv app itself.
It’s just an overall better experience.
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
That said, I think there is a middle-ground here.
If its within your capacity, I'd consider allowing a USB connection. If I were able to attach a USB thumb-drive or an external hard-drive (powered though USB connection) and the TV provide a basic visual navigation system.
The nearest comparison is something like the current Roku USB app, or a more basic version of the Infuse App (https://firecore.com/), the library structure is a reflection of the file-system. I'll skip the details where a dedicated user can set the cover image for a given video by having a image filer with the same name as a companion to the MP4 etc...
I know that would be a huge jump, but I'd pay for it.
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I attempted to do this with a new TCL TV. And continue using Chromecast dongle. But the damn thing freezes. So I'm using the inbuilt Chromecast for now!
Why do you want a not-smart tv? I thought the point was to not have tracking, but you were using a Chromecast dongle and I would expect Google of all companies to keep track of what you watch at least? Is it the security risks that probably show up after the tv software stops updating?