3 ms·

> Notice how "smart TVs" don't do most of these things. You buy the TV once and it keeps operating indefinitely. I haven't yet seen a TV company remotely brick

> Notice how "smart TVs" don't do most of these things. You buy the TV once and it keeps operating indefinitely. I haven't yet seen a TV company remotely brick their devices, or start demanding microtransactions for basic features but people are still paying for their TVs over and over and over again. You can't "buy the TV once" and be done, you're forced to give up your personal data and that never goes away and will be used against you. The company has a continuous revenue stream using and selling your data and it never ends. Every day you use the product you're paying. > The spyware is already optional. Plenty of popular TVs work fine if you connect your own input to the HDMI port and never connect the TV to the internet. Some TVs do allow you to keep them offline. Others will do everything they can to get online no matter what you do including actively scanning for open wifi networks and connecting to any it finds automatically. Connecting input to the HDMI port isn't enough to save US though because TVs are pushing ads over that video too. If your TV overlays ads when the volume changes no matter what you're viewing it won't matter if you're playing a game or a DVD or streaming video from another device. As non-smart TVs get harder to find and ad pushing and data collection become more aggressive I hope someone does step forward to offer a real alternative that doesn't do those things. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I do though.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
> You can't "buy the TV once" and be done, you're forced to give up your personal data and that never goes away and will be used against you. How is it forcing you to do this if you never connect it to the internet? > Some TVs do allow you to keep them offline. Others will do everything they can to get online no matter what you do including actively scanning for open wifi networks and connecting to any it finds automatically. The obvious solution would be to buy the first kind, but even for the second, you can snip the antenna or use it somewhere there aren't any open Wi-Fi networks it can use. > If your TV overlays ads when the volume changes no matter what you're viewing it won't matter if you're playing a game or a DVD or streaming video from another device. How is it going to get any ads to show you without an internet connection? > As non-smart TVs get harder to find and ad pushing and data collection become more aggressive I hope someone does step forward to offer a real alternative that doesn't do those things. The device you're looking for is marketed as a "monitor" instead of a "TV" even though it's exactly the same thing.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago

> You can't "buy the TV once" and be done, you're forced to give up your personal data and that never goes away and will be used against you. How is it forcing you to do this if you never connect it to the internet? > Some TVs do allow you to keep them offline. Others will do everything they can to get online no matter what you do including actively scanning for open wifi networks and connecting to any it finds automatically. The obvious solution would be to buy the first kind, but even for the second, you can snip the antenna or use it somewhere there aren't any open Wi-Fi networks it can use. > If your TV overlays ads when the volume changes no matter what you're viewing it won't matter if you're playing a game or a DVD or streaming video from another device. How is it going to get any ads to show you without an internet connection? > As non-smart TVs get harder to find and ad pushing and data collection become more aggressive I hope someone does step forward to offer a real alternative that doesn't do those things. The device you're looking for is marketed as a "monitor" instead of a "TV" even though it's exactly the same thing.