Unequivocally yes. The less surveillance, the better.
A smart TV is primarily a surveillance device that also happens to display video.
Um yeah, definitely. My TV has never had Internet connectivity, not should it.
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.
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.
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?
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.
should I unplug my smart _______ from the internet?
fill in the blank, it should always be yes.
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.
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 ~~buy~~ but that will make it sad. Do you want your tv to be sad?
Do you?
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.
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’
I feel I must clarify. I value my privacy, and my money. I prefer to disconnect it from the internet immediately, but if the vendor put a piece of code that measures offline time and then disables critical HDMI input functionality - it is a different story entirely.
What if after X months of offline functionality - I have to connect it again because of "You must connect to the internet to continue using this TV"
What if being offline for a very long duration of time - means that when connecting it again - the firmware update bricks my TV?
I know the instabilities that occurr when updating after a very long time of being offline.
I'm unsure about my specific model - but it is an LG WebOS OLED 48"
If they disable stuff, call the manufacturer and tell them you have moved in a family member with sensitive medical equipment that needs to have no wifi in the area. Will they give you a code to disable internet or do you need to sue them for reckless endangerment?
I think we all know the answer to this.
Actually, I've seen reports where CS gives them a code. Maybe it's bullshit, maybe not.
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!
Why do you assume you're being less monitored on your laptop?
I mean, don't get me wrong, you probably should. I am logged out of all services on my TVs. If you don't use the built-in apps then why would you be online at all.
It's just... people that get in the (correct) mindset that smart TVs mostly run spyware can be too kind on the alternatives.
OP's topic isn't about being monitored. They just don't want an update pushed onto their tv that disables it from operating the way they want it to operate
The way they want it to operate is not monitoring them, presumably. You just added one extra step for the same thing.
I mean, if it's not for that reason then connect it to the Internet and have fun, who cares. Just give them all your data and hope for the best.
Everyone else on this page is interpreting it differently than you are
OK, so... how? How is everyone else interpreting the desire of keeping your TV offline if not for privacy? What other reason could there be?
So that it won't push updates that make the tv worse, like slower startup times for example
OK, but that's not what the OP said. OP is concerned that keeping the TV offline may trigger a mandatory connection check down the line (not a thing that I know of, at least outside of very specific ad-based cheap models, to answer their question).
The only other thing being brought up in their post are that they play back pirated content primarily. That and the reference to 1984 make me think privacy more than "mostly made up minor technical inconvenience related to firmware updates".
Either way, if the TV works fine and they are exclusively using an external device for playback there should be no downside to keeping the thing offline indefinitely.
OP just posted a clarification comment. You were right, i was wrong
Hey, you didn't have to say that at all, disagreeing online is what it is, but it's genuinely rare to see that written down. Genuine tip of the hat to you. Trivial as this conversation is, that's huge gentlemanly energy right there.
Thanks! It's something i try to do whenever it happens
The way they want it to operate is not monitoring them, presumably.
Or pushing ads on the device idle screen, or inserted into other things you are trying to watch. (pre-rolls on HDMI sources...)
What the hell kind of TVs you have, guys? I mean, home screen ads sure. You don't need to see them much if you're always on the one external source, but sure.
But what kind of TVs do you have inserting pre-roll ads on external sources? The one example of that I can think of off the top of my head was this one weird concept of a TV you'd get pretty much for no money and was primarily funded by acting as an ad service in your house, which was a crappy business model and that's probably nobody else is doing it.
Man, I wish people would get better at dealing with these types of issues well instead of making up new ones to get mad about. Getting your TV usage milked for data is a very real issue. And yeah, the enshittification of smart TV UX with targeted ads is as well. And it's hard to sidestep because a lot of it is also baked into the media sources you're paying for on the side, so even if you watch them elsewhere you get a lot of the same crap.
Is that genuinely not bad enough of a problem to solve to go into weird edge cases like HDMI pre-roll ads, self-destruct firmware updates or mandatory connection prompts? It is in my book.
You may think it's crazy talk, but the concept has already been patented.
I don't think it's "crazy", I just gave you an example of something similar that actually exists.
I think it's a bad business model, which is why I only gave you an example.
As opposed to the real stuff you should care about, which not only exists, but is widespread and nearly unavoidable. You don't need to dig through patents in ragebait articles to be concerned about this for real reasons.
Its silly how many people are proposing dumb TVs as something better ore something you need to hold on to at all costs. Get a TV with a screen that suits you and connect some playback device via HDMI or such. Kodi, custom entertainment PC, android TV, whatever. The tips about pihole are not good either. Its not a firewall with DPI, just a dns blocker. If the TV uses hardcoded IP then you are shit out of luck. And it bet they do.
Shit out of luck…. unless you run your own router and know how outbound firewall rules work. Granted the general public does not do either of those, but this is Lemmy.
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