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It's why Walmart purchased Vizio for $2.3 billion. https://www.axios.com/2024/02/26/why-walmart-bought-vizio https://www.axios.com/2024/02/26/why-walmart-bough
by lazycouchpotato 2y ago
It's why Walmart purchased Vizio for $2.3 billion.
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/26/why-walmart-bought-vizio https://www.axios.com/2024/02/26/why-walmart-bought-vizio
- bombcar 2y agoAmusingly enough, if you buy a Visio, reject the agreement during setup - it turns into a dumb TV.
- freedomben 2y agoCan anyone confirm this? If this is true, this is huge news and highly consequential
- lilhenry 2y agoIt’s the same with Hisense tvs
- Loughla 2y agoCan confirm. If you don't give vizio Wi-Fi access it functions as a dumb tv. This is why I purchase Vizio instead of other brands. I don't need my television loaded with a ton of apps I'll never use.
- monksy 2y agoLater firmwares will still try to push you to the smart tv display if there is no signal for 5 seconds to get you to setup the wifi.
- echelon 2y agoThey'll probably install cellular connectivity or brick the devices if they can't connect.
- tmcdos 2y agoThen we simply won't buy TVs and will only watch computer.
- rendaw 2y agoThat's different than what GP said though - that you need to reject the agreement to get it to be a dumb TV. Which is it?
- Loughla 2y agoIs the same thing. The agreement is giving it Wi-Fi access. If you say no, you deny Wi-Fi.
- soared 2y agoTCL is the same, as are likely every brand of TV. The smart tv hate is overhyped. All my TVs are dumb because they were smart but never got WiFi access.
- cjaackie 2y agoI think this is the way, just don’t give it wifi access! Fun story, my sony has android tv and can play MKV files off a flash drive (eg. a non-streaming tv show), but the built in player is horrible (drops frames?). Turns out I was able to find the right version of VLC player and adb the apk over the Ethernet port! Really worked a treat. This avoided connecting it to wifi, but I still got what I wanted out of it.
- jqpabc123 2y agoTCL is the same, as are likely every brand of TV. They are not all the same --- even within the same manufacturer. A lot of newer firmwares will launch into setup every time you power up if access is not configured. The TV configuration data is most likely being saved/retrieved from their cloud. This serves as their connectivity test. Without wifi setup, my new Hisense 4k "budget" model does this *unless* you run it in "store" mode. Dealing with setup on every power up is possible --- but obviously highly annoying over time --- and this is by design. The manufacturers desperately want the data collection $. It's the only way some of them make money.
- mixdup 2y agoyou can also just not connect it to a network
- Scoundreller 2y agoJust a matter of time before they start taking data updates and ads over an ATSC or FM subchannel.
- notyourwork 2y agoOr 5g with a SIM card.
- sigio 2y agoFine with that, free data on my modem
- M95D 2y agoYou won't be able to remove it. It will be an eSIM.
- GauntletWizard 2y agoAlready happened with cars. That's what OnStar was/is.
- kelnos 2y agoThat's highly speculative, but even if that did end up happening, the smart TVs sold today wouldn't magically gain that capability, especially if you keep it off the network and never update it.
- acdha 2y agoMy money’s on a joint venture with Comcast, Cox, Verizon, et al. to use the Wi-Fi access points their routers operate – even if you use your own router and block them, your neighbors almost certainly don’t. Most them already have business ties and would love to have better ad targeting data.
- kotaKat 2y agoTCL’s agreements say you’re not allowed to do that. https://www.tcl.com/us/en/roku-tv/eula https://www.tcl.com/us/en/roku-tv/eula “If you do not agree to this EULA, you do not have the right to use the Television or the Software. If you are within the allowable time period for returns under the applicable return policy, you may return the Television to your seller for a refund, subject to the terms of such return policy. You should perform a factory reset before you return it to erase data that may be stored on the Television.”
- reginald78 2y agoThe more nefarious play would be to have the TV stop functioning if the EULA is rejected but only after the return period has passed.
- EMIRELADERO 2y agoThat rubbish is probably unenforceable anyway. That being said, this is the first time I've ever seen an EULA be this brazen and predatory. Claiming that I'm not allowed to use the entire device because I don't agree to some post-sale contract? In writing? Are you sure you want to do that TCL?!?!?
- jqpabc123 2y agoThat rubbish is probably unenforceable anyway. It may depend on your jurisdiction but here in the USA, I'm pretty sure it's legal because they offer a full refund if you chose not to accept. There are alternative ways to coerce users into playing along. For example, simply store/retrieve TV configuration in the cloud. Without connectivity configured, the TV starts over from scratch in device setup on every power up. And connectivity obviously opens the possibility for other uses.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- EMIRELADERO 2y agoThe reason why it's unenforceable is probably unconscionability. There is no value that the contract provides that wouldn't exist if there was no contract. You have a right to use hardware you own and the software that comes with it, just because you bought the device. It's not the EULA that allows you to use the TV and software, simply having it in your legal posession means you have the right to use it.
- jbritton 2y agoI won’t buy Sony TVs because their EULA says you have to indemnify Sony.