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Why not buy a smart TV and don't connect it to wifi?

by gruez 2y ago

viraptor 2y ago
You still reward the company and there's a chance you'll resell it to someone in the future, who will not understand the dark patterns. If you really disagree with the approach, just don't touch them at all.
yaur 2y ago
After a house guest decided to accept the EULA and connect my smart tv to the internet it took me years to figure out how to get it to function without being connected to the internet.
LeoPanthera 2y ago
Some smart TV don't enable all features until you've connected them once and done a firmware update. And I don't even mean smart features, sometimes it's things like HDMI input formats. Of course you could just do the one update and then unplug it.
cortesoft 2y ago
Smart TVs are slower to do things like turn on
- driverdan 2y ago
  That depends on the TV. I have 3 smart TVs from different manufacturers that have never been online. They all turn on as fast as my dumb computer monitors.
  - RandomBacon 2y ago
    That's because they are already on with just the display turned off. Unplug it for 10 seconds then plug it in and try turning it on.
genocidicbunny 2y ago
As noted in another reply, some smart TVs require an initial internet connection. I suspect we'll see more and more of them also refuse to work without a persistent connection. After all, if you're already just using streaming apps on the TV, then you're probably also connected to the internet, so the whole 'no TV without internet' thing won't bother most consumers. And even if you don't connect it to your wifi, do you trust that everyone who uses your TV will remember to not do that? There's also speculation that some manufacturers were looking into ways to piggyback ads and tracking onto public Wifi. For example, if you're in the US and you're near anyone who has Xfinity/Comcast service and haven't disabled the open hotspot, if that is even possible nowadays, there's a possibility that the TV might try to connect to the open hotspot. I don't know what the state of this is, but it's not that far-fetched that smart TVs could do that. For the latter problem, you could potentially open up the TV, disconnect the wifi module if it's discrete, but then you're hoping that it is discrete, and that the TV will still function without that module.

Why not buy a smart TV and don't connect it to wifi?

by gruez 2y ago

Why not buy a smart TV and don't connect it to wifi?

You still reward the company and there's a chance you'll resell it to someone in the future, who will not understand the dark patterns. If you really disagree with the approach, just don't touch them at all.

yaur 2y ago

After a house guest decided to accept the EULA and connect my smart tv to the internet it took me years to figure out how to get it to function without being connected to the internet.

LeoPanthera 2y ago

Some smart TV don't enable all features until you've connected them once and done a firmware update. And I don't even mean smart features, sometimes it's things like HDMI input formats. Of course you could just do the one update and then unplug it.

cortesoft 2y ago

Smart TVs are slower to do things like turn on

driverdan 2y ago
That depends on the TV. I have 3 smart TVs from different manufacturers that have never been online. They all turn on as fast as my dumb computer monitors.
- RandomBacon 2y ago
  That's because they are already on with just the display turned off. Unplug it for 10 seconds then plug it in and try turning it on.

genocidicbunny 2y ago

As noted in another reply, some smart TVs require an initial internet connection. I suspect we'll see more and more of them also refuse to work without a persistent connection. After all, if you're already just using streaming apps on the TV, then you're probably also connected to the internet, so the whole 'no TV without internet' thing won't bother most consumers. And even if you don't connect it to your wifi, do you trust that everyone who uses your TV will remember to not do that? There's also speculation that some manufacturers were looking into ways to piggyback ads and tracking onto public Wifi. For example, if you're in the US and you're near anyone who has Xfinity/Comcast service and haven't disabled the open hotspot, if that is even possible nowadays, there's a possibility that the TV might try to connect to the open hotspot. I don't know what the state of this is, but it's not that far-fetched that smart TVs could do that. For the latter problem, you could potentially open up the TV, disconnect the wifi module if it's discrete, but then you're hoping that it is discrete, and that the TV will still function without that module.