I love my smart TV (From Mastodon) - Repost
I love my smart TV (From Mastodon) - Repost
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51919648
Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.
The text in the image:
I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology
Stop plugging in your TV to the Internet!
Came across a TV the other day, I think it was a TCL Roku? Couldn't rename the HDMI input while offline. Smart TVs were a mistake.
Just make sure it can't see your neighbor's unsecured Wi-Fi and that it doesn't have an Amazon sidewalk radio embedded.
Pro tip: Sceptre still makes dumb TVs.
(I'd love to list other brands so as not to give the appearance of shilling for a particular one... but I don't know of any others.)
Also, beware: not all of Sceptre's TVs are dumb; they also have some that run Android TV. Avoid any TV with a model number starting with "A".
Some commercial model displays are still dumb, although it's really hard to tell which ones by Googling.
Stop connecting TV’s to your network. Plug in a smart device in the hdmi port.
Apparently there are some more recently that ask to connect to the internet to allow you to use it at all, and will block you from doing anything without a network.
Then return it.
My TV is from 2012 I think, and it wasn't even a modern one back then. There are no smart features at all. I'll never upgrade until I've got no other choice.
My TV is. 27" CRT. I won't upgrade it because I sure as shit don't feel like moving it, and never will.
You might enjoy this video.
My dumb TV broke and I am still mad about it.
My TV is a Samsung from like 2009. The bezels are massive but I almost never use it anymore and the way everyone bitches about new teevees, I'm not sure I'll bother upgrading.
Also, someone I live with got a cheap-o projector for Christmas and I'm liking that.
I see myself going for a projector too, but my current flat just doesn't have a large wall it would work on.
My TV is ten years old and "smart" only in the dumbest sense. How well do modern smart TVs operate when airgapped and only using an external device for files and streaming services? Is it still painful?
I realize the question is quite general!
I have an LG OLED with a lot of "smart" bullshit. It has no WiFi connection. Everything goes through my Google Streamer (far from optimal, I know) which keeps the enshittification somewhat in check.
I also have an lg oled that is connected to the internet but it I have changed the dns server to one I manage through my own server that runs AdGuard and also blocks all lg related services. Runs pretty well as a result but still a bit laggy. No updates and it’s rooted with a lot of homebrew stuff which helps
I also have a cheap tcl/roku tv which doesn’t allow this, you are not allowed to customize wifi or Ethernet connections. Sucks if you need a custom dns or proxy config. You can only connect via dhcp. Changing it at the router level also makes the roku os go haywire, if it can’t load ads it goes nuts and none of the apps load correctly. Hostile bullshit and I’ll never buy another tcl or roku product again.
Recently bought a new LG. I have not connected it to the network and have it set to automatically return to the last input on startup rather than go to the home screen. May as well just be a really big monitor at this point, which is perfect. I never see the LG interface and it never prompts me for anything.
Even if it was connected to the Internet you could skip to your last input, that's what mine does
In a general sense, airgapping with TVs is pretty effective. Just know that more modern TVs can still be a total pain in the ass with TOS popups and shit.
I've got a computer connected to mine, it boots to HDMI 1 where my computer is connected and when I want to watch something on a platform I use the shortcut on my remote, I never have to see the TV's home page...
LG C1
When I first got a smart TV I experienced all of this in the first minute after setting it up, then factory reset it and never gave it (or its replacement) the wifi password again.
Are there non-smart TVs these days? Whenever I go through Costco, I only see smart TVs. I don't own a TV so I haven't looked into any this in quite a while.
Some smart TV's are fine. Just never connect them to your network. It's the ones that won't allow you to use them/set them up without connecting that are the problem.
You need to buy a professional display
This is why I ended up upgrading to a Nvidia shield, specifically because I can boot into whatever loader I want. When Amazon started live adverts for sports, which I've literally never shown interest in my entire life, and I couldn't disable or configure the apps it showed, yeah, I was done. My TV is next.
Just wait until they try doing laundry.
Those are already kinda shit. I have a washing machine that doesn't let me disable the ridiculously long jingle that plays after finishing. If I want to do that, I had to have purchased a more expensive model...
Fucking Samsung man...