12 ms·

Telescreens. Can anyone recommend a non-spying TV brand or a model? (Modern)

by avodonosov 27d ago

BLKNSLVR 27d ago
Possibly use a projector instead?
- simpaticoder 27d ago
  Or even better, don't watch (or own a) TV. But this response is like when there were meat safety issues in the US and some people said "then buy another brand". People didn't buy that argument (for what I hope are obvious reasons), and so regulation was enacted to protect the public. It's clear that this problem must be handled with regulation, too. I'm all for markets solving problems, but I'm also for recognizing when it can't. I haven't seen the whole video yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's NOT just LG.
  - avodonosov 27d ago
    Another comment confirms that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49593184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49593184
iamnothere 27d ago
Sceptre still makes some, Walmart carries many of their models.
simpaticoder 27d ago
I have an older TCL TV that I've never connected to the internet. Of course, that doesn't prevent it from finding open wifi access points and exfiltrating data without my consent. Based on this (really marvelous) reporting from Gamers Nexus, I probably need to double-check what is actually happening. BTW corporate meeting rooms with smart TVs...shouldn't have them.
ChiperSoft 27d ago
We bought a new tv two years ago and I spent probably a week researching to find the least-smart set I could. The best option is display only units made for businesses, like what they use for restaurant menus, but those are usually twice the price of normal tvs because they're not app subsidized like smart tvs are. What I ended up going with was Hisense. They ship with Google TV, but it's disabled by default. On first power up, it asks if you want to activate the Google TV features, and you can just say no. The thing then runs like a basic display.
adrian_b 27d ago
I have stopped using TV sets more than a decade ago. Instead of a TV set, I use a very big monitor, which is connected to a mini-PC (an old Intel NUC with Linux), which also has a TV tuner and an infrared remote control receiver. Besides just showing a TV channel, a mini-PC can also record it and it can play any other kind of movie or music files, or it can stream some video from the Internet.
- avodonosov 25d ago
  Can you watch youtoube in that setup? If that's Linux, what desktop environment do you use? How does infrared remote control works, like mouse - point and click? Of you can select applications with Up, Down, Left, Right buttons on the remote, like on usual TVs?
BoingBoomTschak 27d ago
I've been searching for one hour, and the only truly safe thing is an HTPC linked to an OS-free commercial display like these large VAs from ViewSonic: https://www.viewsonic.com/global/products/commercial-display/CDE65G3-1C https://www.viewsonic.com/global/products/commercial-display... (goes from 45" to 100").
- avodonosov 25d ago
  What software would you install on the HTPC? User will typically want to have a remote control and have applications like youtube.
  - BoingBoomTschak 25d ago
    At first I thought about something like https://libreelec.tv/ https://libreelec.tv/ but Kodi instead of the much more powerful mpv is not an option. So probably a custom lightweight distro with mpv outputting to DRM directly and a game controller to navigate some file explorer ? Maybe try to script around some speech-to-text LLM to be able to say "Play me X", heh. Or just control it via ssh because that's actually simpler for me.

Telescreens. Can anyone recommend a non-spying TV brand or a model? (Modern)

BLKNSLVR 27d ago

Possibly use a projector instead?

simpaticoder 27d ago
Or even better, don't watch (or own a) TV. But this response is like when there were meat safety issues in the US and some people said "then buy another brand". People didn't buy that argument (for what I hope are obvious reasons), and so regulation was enacted to protect the public. It's clear that this problem must be handled with regulation, too. I'm all for markets solving problems, but I'm also for recognizing when it can't. I haven't seen the whole video yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's NOT just LG.
- avodonosov 27d ago
  Another comment confirms that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49593184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49593184

iamnothere 27d ago

Sceptre still makes some, Walmart carries many of their models.

simpaticoder 27d ago

I have an older TCL TV that I've never connected to the internet. Of course, that doesn't prevent it from finding open wifi access points and exfiltrating data without my consent. Based on this (really marvelous) reporting from Gamers Nexus, I probably need to double-check what is actually happening. BTW corporate meeting rooms with smart TVs...shouldn't have them.

ChiperSoft 27d ago

We bought a new tv two years ago and I spent probably a week researching to find the least-smart set I could. The best option is display only units made for businesses, like what they use for restaurant menus, but those are usually twice the price of normal tvs because they're not app subsidized like smart tvs are. What I ended up going with was Hisense. They ship with Google TV, but it's disabled by default. On first power up, it asks if you want to activate the Google TV features, and you can just say no. The thing then runs like a basic display.

adrian_b 27d ago

I have stopped using TV sets more than a decade ago. Instead of a TV set, I use a very big monitor, which is connected to a mini-PC (an old Intel NUC with Linux), which also has a TV tuner and an infrared remote control receiver. Besides just showing a TV channel, a mini-PC can also record it and it can play any other kind of movie or music files, or it can stream some video from the Internet.

avodonosov 25d ago
Can you watch youtoube in that setup? If that's Linux, what desktop environment do you use? How does infrared remote control works, like mouse - point and click? Of you can select applications with Up, Down, Left, Right buttons on the remote, like on usual TVs?

BoingBoomTschak 27d ago

I've been searching for one hour, and the only truly safe thing is an HTPC linked to an OS-free commercial display like these large VAs from ViewSonic: https://www.viewsonic.com/global/products/commercial-display/CDE65G3-1C https://www.viewsonic.com/global/products/commercial-display... (goes from 45" to 100").

avodonosov 25d ago
What software would you install on the HTPC? User will typically want to have a remote control and have applications like youtube.
- BoingBoomTschak 25d ago
  At first I thought about something like https://libreelec.tv/ https://libreelec.tv/ but Kodi instead of the much more powerful mpv is not an option. So probably a custom lightweight distro with mpv outputting to DRM directly and a game controller to navigate some file explorer ? Maybe try to script around some speech-to-text LLM to be able to say "Play me X", heh. Or just control it via ssh because that's actually simpler for me.