4 ms·

tl;dr: don’t connect it to a network, and/or use a computer monitor.

ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
Yup. Works great. All things equal I'd prefer just not buying a damn Smart TV to begin with, but absent that as a realistic option (every 4K TV I've ever seen is smart) I'll happily settle with them never seeing one byte of Internet.
- eightnoneone 10mo ago
  I’m in the same camp. The next escalation is defending against a TV scanning for, and joining unprotected neighbor networks to “phone home.” It’s a thing.
  - jonnrb 10mo ago
    I mean yeah or they include a 5G modem because the ads are so lucrative. But then we can start discussing how to cut the red wire to disarm your spy rectangle.
    - kotaKat 10mo ago
      That one I’m starting to lean on getting closer to happening because we now have 5G RedCap out there for the ‘cheaper’ moderate-speed IoT data market. https://about.att.com/blogs/2025/5g-redcap.html https://about.att.com/blogs/2025/5g-redcap.html https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-redcap-powering-smart-devices-with-smarter-5g https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-redcap-powering-sma... Wouldn’t surprise me to see modems and eSIMs and embedded PCB antennas some day down the line.
      - ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
        Imagine if we could put this kind of innovation to work to solve actual problems and not find ways to bypass people attempting to not have capitalism screaming at them 24/7 to buy things.
  - anonym29 10mo ago
    Bet this is easy to fool with a fake/honeypot open network with a high rssi that blocks all traffic except the initial captive portal / connectivity check.
- dr_coffee 10mo ago
  The article lists several manufacturers of 4k dumb tv’s
  - ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
    The article also says why they suck: > Dumb TVs sold today have serious image and sound quality tradeoffs, simply because companies don’t make dumb versions of their high-end models. On the image side, you can expect lower resolutions, sizes, and brightness levels and poorer viewing angles. You also won’t find premium panel technologies like OLED. If you want premium image quality or sound, you’re better off using a smart TV offline. Dumb TVs also usually have shorter (one-year) warranties.
    - cgh 10mo ago
      Yeah, Sceptre's site shows a bunch of dumb TVs that max out at HDMI 2.0, 4K/60Hz. Basically, they are ten years out of date.
  - imp0cat 10mo ago
    Some of the advice is a bit weird though. Get a 4k HDR TV and then connect it to an antenna? I mean, why do you even need a 4k HDR TV in that case? Not to mention disabling the smart/ad features is an option on some smart tvs (ie. Sony).
jonnrb 10mo ago
Someone should start a blog where it's all clickbait titles and the articles are all once sentence with the obvious resolution to the bait.
jeremy151 10mo ago
My work health insurance recently offered a free scale and blood pressure monitor, I thought that's a nice perk, I'll use that, so I ordered with the intent of never using their app, just using it for my own tracking. The first time I used it, I got an email from my insurance company congratulating me and giving me suggestions. Both devices have a cellular modem in them, and arrived paired to my identity. I destroyed them and threw them in a dumpster like that Ron Swanson gif. All to say, little cellular modems and a small data plan are likely getting cheap enough it's worth being extra diligent about the devices we let into our homes. Probably not yet to the point of that being the case on a tv, but I could certainly see it getting to that point soon enough.
- aquir 10mo ago
  Holy shit! I would’ve done the same! This is pure evil! I guess the box never had this info on it
- anonym29 10mo ago
  I'd have tried to disassemble it, locate the SIM card or cellular modem, and see if it could be used for other traffic. A wireguard tunnel fixes the privacy problem, and I can always use more IP addresses and bandwidth. Until people start abusing these "features", they will not go away.
  - tzs 10mo ago
    Be very very careful if you do that. The data plans on some embedded modems are quite different from consumer plans. They are specifically designed for customers who have a large number of devices but only need a small amount of bandwidth on each device. These plans might have a very low fixed monthly cost but only include a small data allowance, say 100 KB/month. That's plenty for something like a blood pressure monitor that uploads your results to your doctor or insurance company. If you are lucky that's a hard cap and the data plan cuts off for the rest of the month when you hit it. If you are unlucky that plan includes additional data that is very expensive. I've heard numbers like $10 for each additional 100 KB. I definitely recall reading news articles about people who have repurposed a SIM from some device and using it for their internet access, figuring that company would not notice, and using it to watch movies and download large files. Then the company gets their bill from their wireless service provider, and it turns out that on the long list of line items showing the cost for each modem, a single say $35 000 item really stands out when all the others are $1. If you are lucky the company merely asks you to pay that, and if you refuse they take you to civil court where you will lose. (That's what happened in the articles I remember reading, which is how they came to the public's attention). If you unlucky what you did also falls under your jurisdiction's "theft of services" criminal law. Worse, the amount is likely above the maximum for misdemeanor theft of services so it would be felony theft of services.

Yup. Works great. All things equal I'd prefer just not buying a damn Smart TV to begin with, but absent that as a realistic option (every 4K TV I've ever seen is smart) I'll happily settle with them never seeing one byte of Internet.

eightnoneone 10mo ago
I’m in the same camp. The next escalation is defending against a TV scanning for, and joining unprotected neighbor networks to “phone home.” It’s a thing.
- jonnrb 10mo ago
  I mean yeah or they include a 5G modem because the ads are so lucrative. But then we can start discussing how to cut the red wire to disarm your spy rectangle.
  - kotaKat 10mo ago
    That one I’m starting to lean on getting closer to happening because we now have 5G RedCap out there for the ‘cheaper’ moderate-speed IoT data market. https://about.att.com/blogs/2025/5g-redcap.html https://about.att.com/blogs/2025/5g-redcap.html https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-redcap-powering-smart-devices-with-smarter-5g https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-redcap-powering-sma... Wouldn’t surprise me to see modems and eSIMs and embedded PCB antennas some day down the line.
    - ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
      Imagine if we could put this kind of innovation to work to solve actual problems and not find ways to bypass people attempting to not have capitalism screaming at them 24/7 to buy things.
- anonym29 10mo ago
  Bet this is easy to fool with a fake/honeypot open network with a high rssi that blocks all traffic except the initial captive portal / connectivity check.
dr_coffee 10mo ago
The article lists several manufacturers of 4k dumb tv’s
- ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
  The article also says why they suck: > Dumb TVs sold today have serious image and sound quality tradeoffs, simply because companies don’t make dumb versions of their high-end models. On the image side, you can expect lower resolutions, sizes, and brightness levels and poorer viewing angles. You also won’t find premium panel technologies like OLED. If you want premium image quality or sound, you’re better off using a smart TV offline. Dumb TVs also usually have shorter (one-year) warranties.
  - cgh 10mo ago
    Yeah, Sceptre's site shows a bunch of dumb TVs that max out at HDMI 2.0, 4K/60Hz. Basically, they are ten years out of date.
- imp0cat 10mo ago
  Some of the advice is a bit weird though. Get a 4k HDR TV and then connect it to an antenna? I mean, why do you even need a 4k HDR TV in that case? Not to mention disabling the smart/ad features is an option on some smart tvs (ie. Sony).

jonnrb 10mo ago

Someone should start a blog where it's all clickbait titles and the articles are all once sentence with the obvious resolution to the bait.

jeremy151 10mo ago

My work health insurance recently offered a free scale and blood pressure monitor, I thought that's a nice perk, I'll use that, so I ordered with the intent of never using their app, just using it for my own tracking. The first time I used it, I got an email from my insurance company congratulating me and giving me suggestions. Both devices have a cellular modem in them, and arrived paired to my identity. I destroyed them and threw them in a dumpster like that Ron Swanson gif. All to say, little cellular modems and a small data plan are likely getting cheap enough it's worth being extra diligent about the devices we let into our homes. Probably not yet to the point of that being the case on a tv, but I could certainly see it getting to that point soon enough.

aquir 10mo ago
Holy shit! I would’ve done the same! This is pure evil! I guess the box never had this info on it
anonym29 10mo ago
I'd have tried to disassemble it, locate the SIM card or cellular modem, and see if it could be used for other traffic. A wireguard tunnel fixes the privacy problem, and I can always use more IP addresses and bandwidth. Until people start abusing these "features", they will not go away.
- tzs 10mo ago
  Be very very careful if you do that. The data plans on some embedded modems are quite different from consumer plans. They are specifically designed for customers who have a large number of devices but only need a small amount of bandwidth on each device. These plans might have a very low fixed monthly cost but only include a small data allowance, say 100 KB/month. That's plenty for something like a blood pressure monitor that uploads your results to your doctor or insurance company. If you are lucky that's a hard cap and the data plan cuts off for the rest of the month when you hit it. If you are unlucky that plan includes additional data that is very expensive. I've heard numbers like $10 for each additional 100 KB. I definitely recall reading news articles about people who have repurposed a SIM from some device and using it for their internet access, figuring that company would not notice, and using it to watch movies and download large files. Then the company gets their bill from their wireless service provider, and it turns out that on the long list of line items showing the cost for each modem, a single say $35 000 item really stands out when all the others are $1. If you are lucky the company merely asks you to pay that, and if you refuse they take you to civil court where you will lose. (That's what happened in the articles I remember reading, which is how they came to the public's attention). If you unlucky what you did also falls under your jurisdiction's "theft of services" criminal law. Worse, the amount is likely above the maximum for misdemeanor theft of services so it would be felony theft of services.