I’m mostly sailing the high seas, using the tv as a giant monitor for the always-on laptop connected to it. I’m afraid of the 1984-esque “You must connect to the internet to continue using this TV” that might come after some time.
A smart TV is primarily a surveillance device that also happens to display video.
Yes.
Not only due to privacy concerns (my main concern), as the device will constantly ping home even when turned off. Other concern is it will download “updates”, that eventually may render your tv browsing experience laggish.
Some tv sets have not only mics incorporated, but cameras, so it may depend on your level of concern.
Unequivocally yes. The less surveillance, the better.
Um yeah, definitely. My TV has never had Internet connectivity, not should it.
Yes.
Get a dumb TV, I’ve had great luck with the Specter brand, and hook up a set top box for your smart functionality.
Smart TVs spyon you, report on you, eat bandwidth even when off, and become out dated quickly.
I also bought a Sceptre “dumb TV” within the last year or so and highly recommend it. I had been recommending it over and over, but recently I found that the model I bought was no longer offered. I hope Sceptre didn’t abandon them.
TVs don’t seem to be a core business for them, I get the impression that they are a monitor focused business. Of course it’s not hard to upgrade a monitor to a TV so why not?
They do list all their products on their website so maybe check there?
You should’ve never connected it in the first place. Never even set up any functions that a piece of hardware prompts you to. Most of those are enforced only because the company behind them gains something from you having them set up. Unless you actually need something that depends on that function, disable the function.
Lol, my favourite thing about my smart TV is that the wifi was already broken when I bought it
Yes.
This is why I’m holding on to my “dumb” TV for as long as I can. Being able to pick and choose what streaming device I use is great, and if I have to build my own someday, that’s just fine.
I’ve fixed a couple extras and have them stored. If you find a “dead” TV, shine a flashlight into the screen and see if you see the picture. If so, then there’s probably just a problem with the backlighting, which is why TVs get trashed most often. Order up a set of backlight strips, find a youtube vid on taking that model apart, and put new strips in. Takes about 30 minutes and baby, you got yourself a TV.
I still have a 720p dumb TV and I’m not getting rid of it. But my eyesight is terrible so 720p, 1080p, 4k don’t really make much difference to me.
My next tv is probably going to be a dumb tv. You can search for commercial business tvs online and find dumb tvs for displays and digital signage. Same screen, just no smarts, plays a network stream, off a usb, or hdmi input. Nothing else.
For the next TV look at commercial and industrial panels. You can usually find the display you want with none of the smart tv junk.
Search for ‘commercial display + brand name’
Some brands (LG and Samsung iirc) have been confirmed to send periodic screenshots of your content, no matter if it’s through “smart apps” or HDMI.
I don’t see how they could, the laptop isn’t going to know what to do with them, they’d have to also get you to install something on the laptop which you’d obviously not do.
The TV takes screenshots of whatever is displayed on the TV screen, and sends the screenshots to TV HQ via the Internet connection of the TV
I seem to have misunderstood the point to their comment. They’re lending support to the idea that you should unplug it from the internet whereas I initially thought they were saying that even if “unplugged” from the internet, OP’s current setup wouldn’t save their privacy anyway because the TV will send those screenshots to the internet whether it’s by via the TV’s own apps, or “through” the HDMI cable which in my mind implied either getting internet connectivity through that cable or at least sending the images to the laptop and having that send them. I couldn’t see how that was supposed to work.
I realise now that’s not their point at all, they’re saying that if it’s allowed to remain connected to the internet, simply abstaining from using the TV’s own apps and using persistently a connected device via HDMI instead, it’ll still send screenshots of that HDMI output through its own internet connection and so yes, indeed OP should disconnect the TV from the internet.
Signal goes the other way around. Laptop -> TV -> router -> somebody else’s computer
should I unplug my smart _______ from the internet?
fill in the blank, it should always be yes.
I stoped using the smart function of tvs. I use one of that generic chinese things that you connect to the TV and it mirrors your phone. My TV is not connected it’s like I’m watching netflix in my phone
edit: to make it clear I was afraid because my TV came with a fucking camera. Didn’t like that so I disconected and also put a tape on the camera. WTF tv brands
You could
buybut that will make it sad. Do you want your tv to be sad?
Do you?If I were you, I wouldn’t have let it have internet access in the first place. Try a factory reset and don’t let it online, and you’ll probably not even notice.
But think of all the wonderful ads you’re going to miss out on!
Yes.
Even better, get rid of it entirely and get a dumb TV.
Where? Ive been looking everywhere and its like they dont exist anymore
Qb series Samsung are commercial displays but no Netflix or smart features. However, they are about double the price of a standard tv. Will last forever though. I would rather buy a less expensive and not connect it to the network.
Fuckin a, you weren’t kidding.
This is from Amazon on the first two I saw in USD
I spent less than $500 for my 50” 4K Samsung but here is twice the price.
Spectre makes a line of dumb TVs, but I don’t think any of them are 4k. I spent about $600 on a 75" 1080p model last year.
They don’t really as the “smart” subsidies the cost of the TV. Some commerical grade TVs and large monitors won’t be smart or need Internet connectivity.
I got a “signage display”, which is basically just a large monitor connected via HDMI.
Given that you’re using this for a laptop, you’re looking for a monitor. Not a TV.
Anything suitable for office work should be good here.
I mean… it depends on the type of TV you’re trying to replace. If you’re on a 65 inch OLED you’re not going to replace that with an office monitor.
There are really good “dumb” PC monitors for media watching in the 24-42 inch range, though. They’re just… often not cheap.
But even monitors are infected with ‘SmArT teeVEe’ bloat. My pc monitor is basically a TV, and is much worse because of it.
Is it? The monitors I’m currently using are fairly new and don’t seem to have any connected tools. There isn’t even an app to set them up (which I may actually find practical), it’s all OSD stuff.
I think even if there are connected monitors out there, it’s certainly easier to find “dumb” monitors, even with high end specs, than dumb TVs. The real hard breaks are size and feature set, in my experience.
I have a box that connects to the internet for video things. The TV has and will never connect.
Has never and will never connect
Or didn’t it did?
Yesn’t!
