This is really a good way to get me to avoid a brand.
I agree, but with TVs (or large displays" we’re at the point where there are no good options. Commercial displays are over engineered for the home and lag in technology Vs home TVs. So they’re not an option. Lg and Samsung are the display technology leaders, but their TVs are full of crap— so no. Monitors don’t go large enough for the living room.
Guess I’m stuck with what I have.
This Samsung is out of stock, but there are options. You just need to look for signage displays or hospitality tvs.
Why would you ever accept this anti consumer bullshit for a slightly better screen? It might not even take a year before the current cutting edge not “the best” anymore with how fast tech cycles. I would absolutely go out of my way to get a device I can deprive of an Internet connection and still use.
Here, take it:
)Ta
Monitors are still bigger than TVs our parents had in our childhood, no way I’m buying such a surveillance machine just for a bigger screen.
Really. A bigger screen just gives my dog a bigger target when he flails his toys around.
For real: I’m using a 38" ultra wide, and if you had told child me that a 38" monitor would be the smallest display in the house I’d have told you that you’re full of shit.
Damn you for making me feel old by realizing my computer monitor is bigger than my childhood CRT TV.
Get a projector. Cheaper, bigger display area, less obtrusive.
You can get them now days up to 360hz refresh rate. Gaming projectors and projectors in general have came a long way from the faded blurry shit they were 10 to 15 plus years ago.
Huh, I’ve heard that commercial displays are the way to go. What do you mean when you say they are over engineered?
They’re designed and built to run 16/7 or similar. If you have TV on 16 hours a day, a commercial display is worth considering.
No, I’m not joking - I’ve seen folk who turn it on at sunrise, and off at bedtime.
They’re industrial boxes with a screen. Not aesthetically what I want in my living room. The displays are chosen for their longevity, not their picture quality. They’re often actively cooled with fans, so adding a noise level to their operation.
So what im hearing is never buy an LG TV. Got it.
I have an LG TV. Absolutely love it.
However, it’s not connected to the internet so it doesn’t do any of this shit. It’s just a really nice dumb TV that has the potential to spy on me if I ever gave it a chance to be smart, and I still get to take advantage of the various picture improvements that come from having the processing power of a smart TV.
Just need something else to do streaming if that’s what you want. Like an Apple TV, nVidia Shield, Roku, or game console. Some of those will also advertise to you, but I’ve had good experience with my Apple TV.
I wouldnt be surprised if it randomly connects to unsecured/public wifi networks to still send the spy data if it can find any in its area.
Maybe. If they’re following the rules they need you to agree to their privacy policies, and to do that you have to connect to the internet. I know from the time I did have it connected (before they rolled all this shit out) that they would let you use the TV without those policies accepted. They would just bother you about it constantly. Since I factory reset and didn’t let it connect, it hasn’t asked.
But that’s assuming they follow the rules. I’m not knowledgeable enough to find out if they’re doing this or not.
IF YOU DIDN’T PHONE HOME I WOULDN’T NEED A PRIVACY POLICY
Always asume the worst with any (tech) product and any major company, and a lot of times you will be proven right later.
With technology and politics, always assume the worst.
if it’s anything like the other ai features they offer, it will be garbage and never work and slow everything down
And use 10x the electricity to get this slop.
If they ever make this a standard feature in all TVs and make it where I can’t just disconnect it from the internet, I will be using old TVs for the rest of my life.
My TV is there to display a visual output. It does not and should not do anything else.
Luckily digital signboards will always be an option to replace TVs with if the situation becomes truly dire. The sorts of no-frills displays corporations buy to display whatever media they want in store.
Might not come with sound, but you can pick up a cheap sound bar and it will still be better than whatever cheap speakers commercial TVs try to cram in there.
The future is great!
As long as my 1080p plasma tv works, there’s no need to upgrade. Going 4K would also mean I would have to upgrade my HTPC hardware, because that old APU probably can’t handle resolutions like that.
In the meantime though, I’ll just keep on watching online videos in my living room without ads or interruptions. It’s been great even though all of this hardware is cheap and ancient.
But that’s the thing: televisions are complex and can be very difficult to repair, so what do you do when you can’t buy a dumb replacement anymore? I have the same issue with cars. I would like to replace ours with an EV, but they are a privacy nightmare whereas my car’s peak technology is FM radio.
I was thinking earlier today about how much technology waste there is because old stuff is superseded so quickly. Maybe in future we will treasure the tech we had before it all went to shit.
Kit cars have been around for ages, and Framework offers DIY laptops. I think we should have kit displays as well. Surely, someone has already made something like that with a raspberry or something.
Yeah, hopefully we can just buy cheap panels and put it together how we want. If that also opened up options for hackers to build entirely new display applications, or in new ways, that would be the dream.
So glad I’m not in the market for a new TV
Rather have a TV from 1999. Hope LG goes under.
Nahhh that’s insane. A recent 1440p/144+hz monitor is a fantastic choice and it doesn’t know how to connect to the internet.
A TV used to be clearly different from a computer monitor. Hopefully monitors resist this for longer but no reason to think this can’t happen there.
And you are correct as there are now Samsung and LG smart monitors. It won’t be long before all monitors are smart.
BOOOOOO
I recently bought an LG TV. I didn’t connect it to the Internet, I just use it with my Chromecast or Switch. Works great, no ads, no AI BS.
This is the way to do it
I blocked my lg from the Wi-Fi after i got a “Kobe Bryant memorial” ad, while playing on my switch… TF?!
Do you think he thought avoiding all that traffic was worth it as he plummeted?
Okay so fuck rich people destroying the planet with private air travel—however, he was still statistically more likely to die from driving that day. And so was his daughter and the other innocent kids on that flight
I’ve heard this line many times from so many people.
So basically just Nintendo and google profit off your personal information? And doesn’t Chromecast serve ads? In the background, but still?
I fully support your decision to not connect your LG TV to the internet. I do the same thing but it’s often just for convenience. I get better performance from my devices rather than from the TV itself for whatever application.
Just was thinking about that recently is all.
Hopefully no IBS either.
Coming soon (if not already): TVs with utility cellular connections or corpo network (like Amazon sidewalk) access that your neighbor may have not opted out of.
Coming soon: a screwdriver and a soldering iron
Luckily my neighbors are way out of WiFi range and there is barely enough cell service here to send a text from inside the house.
How close are you to a starlink constellations orbital path, now that they can be connected to via cellular modems?
this sounds terrible
That doesn’t support data yet. Data will probably cost a fortune when they enable it. I doubt anyone will be willing to pay that much to serve ads. If they do, then the antenna will be replaced with a dummy load.
I find it highly likely that TVs cease to function without an internet connection, complete with some BS explanation about protecting your privacy or security.
I can’t set my dryer to medium heat unless I do so with an app over the internet even though the controls exist to do it on the unit. I bought a window AC unit and the only remote control is an app - thankfully I was able to put that on a subnet with no internet gateway and it still works.
Name them. Bosch does this with some functions too. I bought the model below and didn’t care about delayed start or whatever. I am not loading your app!
I swear we need to start some appliance hacking clubs or something to sidestep this crap.
It’s an LG dryer.
I’d have to go look up the window unit. Its almost certainly a white labeled OEM who’s advertised brand no longer exists, though.
such things should be brought back to the store as defective
Why did you buy those devices?
Neither mentioned a network connection was required. The AC unit didn’t mention it at all, and consumer reports mentioned the dryer had “smart features” and an app but never said basic controls were locked behind a network connection
Broadcast TV is already going that way. ATSC 3 requires an internet connection to get decoding keys. For your protection, of course.
complete with some BS explanation
“For child safety!!!111”
a quick reminder that the 5G standard defined a peer to pear operating mode for smart devices
Pear to pear communication.
I mean, a camera is an easy thing to block, as long as you’re aware of it, understand the implications, and have the desire to block it. Just obstruct the lens. Roll of black electrical tape, put a strip over it, done. Now, most people out there may not actually do so…
Only becomes an issue if other services that you actually want are tied to the camera, or if the TV refuses to operate without a usable picture of the viewer or something.
Pictures are far from the only thing to worry about.
Some TVs already have the ability to connect to sidewalk. More worrying is that every newer “Smart” TV has the ability to cast to it so if anyone ever does that using an internet connected device like a SmartPhone then bam…your TV just got an internet connection and can now send out stored data and potentially grab a firmware update.
Surprise!
This sucks.
You should drink another verification can.
Bro my body can’t take it anymore, I’m so sick. I’ve had 23 Mountain Dews and 14 Doritos Dew It Right today. My LG tv still wants me to sing and dance to continue.
I’m about to live in a camper full of paper books. I hate everything tech has done in the last twenty years.
I would make an inappropriate Ted Kaczynski joke if I didn’t know everything we do is being constantly monitored at all times by a bunch of turds with zero sense of humor.
Counterpoint, we have the Cosmic Desktop (or at least an alpha for it) and tbh its pretty cool :3
Even Hannah Montana Linux?
that was always my beef with ads, they just didnt speak to me on an emotional level
Yes, it’s always nice to feel like my ads get me, you know? Its important to have a meaningful relationship with your ads.
So we pay them to do this to us? I stopped putting tv’s on the internet once I realized it offered me nothing useful. Firmware is about it and if that’s the case I’ll either usb it or put it on the internet for 5 min to do the update. Even then Samsung sucks so much with firmware the release notes for every single update are “bug fixes and improvements”… thanks Samsung.
If I am forced to put it online or it comes up with a way to phone home on its own, I am done buying those kinds of tv’s, and I’m sure some other brand will offer one that doesn’t, even if it isn’t the best one to buy.
most firmware releases will be to fix something with the online service anyway. If it displays stuff coming down a wire from your PC when you buy it, it probably never needs an update.
I will say I had 1 time i needed it. It was my Samsung Odessey monitor. It supports freesync but I noticed when it was on there would be a slight flicker. Dealt with it for probably 2 years before looking into it. Low and behold online comments all said firmware fixed it. It worked, fixed it and now it’s been fantastic ever since. One of the only times an update on a screen did something amazing. It’s not the norm but the excception.
My LG OLED has never seen an internet connection and intend to keep it that way for a very long time: indefinitely.
Same. I have a C3 and it’s awesome. It has this feature where when you turn it off it has this nice subtle clock screensaver thing but it always shows the wrong time due to not having an internet connection.
Put it on an isolated vlan, run your own ntp server and if needed spoof the ntp dns it uses… Easy 😅
That’s pretty far out of my wheelhouse unfortunately lol
Enshittification in progress. Sadly their OLED TVs are amazing, if not for the intrusive ads. It is really crap what all those companies are doing shoving ads our throats.
I am trying to block everything using ad blockers, DNS filtering, Pi hole, etc.
I got an LG OLED a few weeks ago. Hands down the best TV screen I’ve ever owned.
Fuck knows what the stock OS does because I’ve only watched Apple TV through it.
Sometimes even that’s not enough. I’ve had some questionable kit before that would just ignore the DNS settings fed to it if it thought they were no good, and fall back to something else preconfigured.
pfSense is a wonderful tool for situations like that. Anything intended for local use only here just doesn’t get outside at all. Handy for stuff like a fire stick that only needs to be calling up a local media library.
It can also mangle any DNS requests going out to a different server and redirect them to itself instead. You could do this without it with iptables/nftables on a generic Linux box, but pfSense makes it much friendlier.
There are other packages that can do the same, but physically all you need is one piece of hardware as a bouncer that manages connections between inside/outside.
what can it do if the TV uses DoH, DoT, or something else similar? I expect that it can do nothing. unless the TV is on a separate lan with very strictly only access to internal services
Don’t connect it at all and just use an Android TV box or dongle.
well that’s what I’m saying to the parent commenter
At that point I would expect control of it, or at least for it to respect the configuration it is given. If neither are true, then it just doesn’t go online at all. If that’s part of the main function, then I find an alternative or live without it.
Nothing on the inside should be sending anything to the outside that can’t be inspected before it leaves, with the exception of stuff that is directly driven by a human (guests browsing, etc).
I just… don’t connect the TV to the internet. Never had an issue with anything like that.
This is the best way, really. Generally, you have much more control over what you plug into it.
A display shouldn’t have anything even approaching what can be called an ‘OS’ on it. Yet here we are.
Cool one more reason I’ll never connect my display to the internet.
Yikes, don’t ever wank in front of your TV.
Or wank lots in front of the TV. Make the collected data useless.
