maniel ,
@maniel@lemmy.ml avatar

…just never connect it to the internet i guess? you have cable or aerial, right?

Swarfega ,

I’m not answering the question directly, but I’m a large family and having the TV with no streaming services just won’t fly with my family members. I pay for NextDNS, which includes this filter, but if you run a PiHole or AdGuard this is a good filter for Smart TV’s…

github.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist

Meron35 ,

I prefer the term lobotomize

werefreeatlast ,

I just bought a 10 year old 1080p projector and it’s amazing! I can make a 10ft wide wall size screen. It’s like a theater venue in my living room now.

state_electrician ,

Doesn’t 1080 spread over 3m look janky?

bitwaba ,

Have you tried viewing it from 3km away?

AlphaOmega ,

You can grab 10 year old 720 and 1080p projectors all day from shopgoodwill for like $20

JoeyJoeJoeJr ,

For what it’s worth, I just bought a TCL 55S450F (55 inch 4K HDR FireTV) specifically because it does not ever need an internet connection to function (expressly stated in the manual). It is currently on Amazon for $268 (they have other sizes at other prices). It’s a great TV, considering the price. The only real drawback for me is the remote is Bluetooth, rather than infrared (less compatible with universal remotes).

Note that for full dumb TV effect, you’ll want to go into the settings and tell it to resume the last input, rather than going to the home screen when you turn it on (without connecting it to the Internet, the home screen is basically just a big banner telling you it’s not connected, and when you dismiss that, it just allows you to access inputs and manage settings).

locuester ,

I love TCL. Even as a smart TV. I’ve bought several of the ones with Roku built in.

Assuming the dumb tv version is same picture and build quality as the smart ones, that’s an awesome find.

potatopotato ,

Buy a large computer monitor

FiniteBanjo ,

Yes, even ARM and other System-On-A-Chip hardwares can all be unsmarted. Most of them are easy, you just need to trick it into updating to the correct version and then using built in commands to give you more access: most use Linux such as the TizenOS which is standard on Samsung TVs, or the GoogleTV OS which is a modified Android 3.0 or 3.2 version. Some of the more difficult ones can still be forced to dump their OS onto memory cards because their system on a chip has a pin for injecting code natively.

There is no TV that cannot be unsmarted.

umbrella ,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

tell me more about rooting samsungs, how can i know more

MeThisGuy ,

so now besides rooting my router, my phone, and my tablet I have to root my TV too? internet of things I guess… can I root my car too?

MrScottyTay ,

You can

Smokeydope ,
@Smokeydope@lemmy.world avatar

Just get the biggest computer monitor you can afford

solrize ,

I’d want to find and physically remove all the microphones and cameras from the TV for peace of mind. Plus never let it have a network connection. Just use HDMI in.

someguy3 ,

What streaming tool then? Chromecast, but then Google just tracks it all.

solrize ,

That I don’t know. My mom just has Comcast s and we have the cable box HDMI output going to the TV. No streaming though in principle we could use a computer for that.

I wonder if an HDMI computer monitor could substitute for a dumb TV.

Regarding pihole etc: idk if that suffices since the TV might have a wireless network inside. Better find and disconnect that too if it is there. I think there is no safe “non-destructive” way to de-smart the TV.

Reverendender ,
@Reverendender@sh.itjust.works avatar

AppleTV 4k is probably the best option privacywise IMHO.

deranger ,

Watch out, you can’t say anything good about any Apple products on Lemmy lest you seek downvotes. Anything less than hate is insufficient.

BearOfaTime ,

Because Apple privacy is as much a sham as any other product. They just market and obfuscste well.

Reverendender ,
@Reverendender@sh.itjust.works avatar

I know, I know. Fortunately Lemmy downvotes mean nothing. Apple software has definitely gone downhill since I started back in 2007, but there’s still no total ecosystem replacement that is superior, as far as I can tell.

SkippingRelax ,

Look I don’t care for lemmy trends and I use Apple laptops as I get them from work.

That said it’s hardly a superior ecosystem, and particularly for this specific use. As a million people have said already, kodi on Linux is a pretty good start. Look at libreelec that is an os wrapped around kodi.

BearOfaTime ,

FYI, tracking is also (potentially) done via the HDMI connection by the streaming device.

For example: I have an HDMI Blu-ray, and the TV has tech to sample what is on the screen - so it knows what I’m watching even if it’s not streamed. The bastards are always a few steps ahead of us.

DreadPotato ,
@DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz avatar

If it’s not connected to a network(or connected to one without internet access), the data never leaves the TV though, and then the tracking doesn’t really matter.

locuester ,

They’re starting to put LTE modems in all cars. When will they do the same with TVs? LTE or LORAWAN prob.

You cannot hide. Lol

DreadPotato ,
@DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz avatar

They’re starting to put LTE modems in all cars

Because a lot of the market also wants to be able to monitor and control certain aspects of their car remotely, and this is only possible with remote internet connection. LTE is the cheapest and best way to get this. I know it’s unfortunately also used for data collection, but at least it provides some useful functionality for the user as well.

But TVs are pretty much always located near a network source, either wireless or wired. There’s not really a need to implement LTE, that they have to pay for, when they can just use the customers network for free. Since 99% will connect to the internet, the last 1% are not an interesting market share for them compared to what they would cost.

I kind of doubt LoRa is used for this application because the bitrate is super low. Transferring any meaningful amount of telemetry is not feasible.

philpo ,

Kodi on a Raspberry!Easy to install, once set up it’s rock solid and you can integrate a lot of streaming and IPTV serviced these days.

avidamoeba ,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

If you’re already using an Android phone with Play Store on it, the additional exposure through the Chromecast is probably not significant. Otherwise, in addition to the other suggestions, you could grab an Android capable board from HardKernel for example and run plain Android TV on it. For example the ODROID-C4. It’s got nearly identical hardware to the CCwGTV. The setup is obviously more elaborate.

linearchaos ,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

Some form of tiny PC with Kodi and a remote.

I’m currently looking at jailbreaking an Apple TV for the purpose.

DaCrazyJamez ,

I’ve replaced rokus / firesticks with cheap mini PCs. Currently they’re running ReviOS (a stripped down version of windows) but I plan to migrate to linux as I get more comfortable with it.

BearOfaTime ,

Remove any networking you can. Remove wifi antennas and cap them with RF test plugs (I forget what they’re called). These absorb RF frequencies, converting them to heat which radiates out of the absorber is IR (If I remember right).

Professorozone ,

They are called loads or alternately terminations, but technically you would specify which termination, for instance a 50 ohm termination to distinguish it from a short or open.

Max_P ,
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

For the non-destructive option, yeah preventing it from using the network is about as good as you can make it.

For mine I intend to open it up once it’s out of warranty and try reflashing the Google TV on it or neuter the board entirely. From a hardware perspective, I expect the panel driver and the smarts to be on separate boards entirely. On mine, the Android TV UI renders at 1080p despite the TV being 4K HDR, so there’s got to be some hardware switching and multiplexing going on to make it work which means it should be possible to bypass the smarts entirely if I can figure out how it signals to change settings and inputs. It’s probably gonna be I2C or something.

If you’re not too risk averse you can probably at minimum open it up to cut the microphone, camera and WiFi antenna. Although careful with that, they tend to have Bluetooth remotes these days so they’d share the 2.4 GHz antenna, if you disconnect the antenna you’ll have to use the IR fallback. It won’t connect to any network not even open ones if it’s got no antenna.

philpo ,

Sure. Choose one that still let’s you default connect to a HDMI input (or display port if you are really lucky) and connect a KODI box to it. Either a Raspi 4 or something similar will do.

That solves most of your problems as the smart part is on the Kodi Box and not on the TV and Kodi is (mostly) OS and can be configured to your liking.

thantik ,

They’re getting to the point where they can capture their own output - and Amazon is building out a public network for IoT style devices. It’s not long before they’re siphoning data outside of your house even with the wifi turned off.

philpo ,

It depends on your infrastructure,sure. But as long as no Amazon Devices are in the apartment/house and the WiFi/radio emitting function is permanently turned off (which, again,is a legal requirement per EU laws - and I am 90% sure per FCC as well) there is little chance of them meshing with something.

And if you have active Amazon devices in your home the smart TV is not your problem.

BearOfaTime ,

Well, if your neighbor has one, I could totally see it being designed to use that connection at least for discovering nearby open networks.

philpo ,

Possible,yes. Illegal? Yes.

So,sorry,unless you show me any proof that any device does it I consider it unlikely.

If you show me proof I am more than happy to call a few old contacts and raise a stink with ECC/CEPT. They don’t fuck around.

thantik ,

Illegal? No. If your neighbor sets up an internet network; with a EULA saying they can.

And then you set up a device, with a EULA saying they can upload data…that’s it. Bing, bang, boom. Done. Nothing illegal going on.

thantik ,

Yep, you got it - that’s EXACTLY what they do. That’s the purpose of the “Sidewalk” network.

SkippingRelax ,

I’ll build a Faraday cage

BearOfaTime ,

TVs have the capability to sample what’s on the screen so it knows what you watch from a streaming device/dvd/bluray connected via HDMI.

It really needs to have the network blocked.

philpo ,

Absolutely - But with HDMI to a Kodi and all other connections disabled there is literally no way for it to get “out”.

PillowTalk420 ,
@PillowTalk420@lemmy.world avatar

Can’t necessarily make it dumb, but you can change how the smart works without buying a whole new TV by getting something like a Roku stick or any other device similar that runs on android that you can then hack/modify to run side loaded apps and such to get around the bullshit built into the TV.

Of course if you’re already planning on getting a new TV you could just get one that runs on Android already and do the same thing. Basically if it runs on Android, there are tons of tools to make it not suck all over GitHub.

padge ,

I was wondering the same thing. Is anyrhing stopping me from buying a “smart” TV and just never putting it online? My current one hasn’t been connected in years but I bought that thing in 2018, maybe things have changed

jdeath ,

that is what i’ve done. you can even disconnect one from the internet and plug in a box any time

SendMePhotos ,

Still takes like 10 sec to turn on instead of a “dumb TV” where you pressed power and it was just on.

Max_P ,
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

They usually boot up faster because the Android side of it is just in sleep mode so it only needs to start up the panel. My smart TV turns on in like 1-3 seconds, a cold start is like a solid minute.

My older TV displayed the splash screen for a good 5 seconds as the panel backlight warmed up, and then it had to figure out the input and set it all up. That said once it was up, the menu was much much snappier and always responsive, which the Android TV side well, struggles.

Reverendender ,
@Reverendender@sh.itjust.works avatar

Allow me to regale you with stories of CRT tv’s from the 80’s that had to ‘warm up.’

SendMePhotos ,

I can hear the click and the high pitched whine now.

WaterWaiver ,

10 sec

Filthy casual.

My family has a Chiq U58G7P. Warm boots take about 30 sec and cold boots a few minutes.

Don’t try and press any buttons on the remote during this time or for a minute or two afterwards. They might work, 15 seconds later, or they might get ignored. Sometimes your button press inputs get re-ordered too.

Factory resets do work, but then all it can do is broadcast TV. If you let it update and install streaming apps then you will be back to the same problems.

I suspect that it might be running out of RAM and thrashing some poor innocent MMC as swap, but I can’t find a USB ADB port to properly find out (maybe it has one internally?).

SkippingRelax ,

I have a 12 years old TV if not older. Turns on instant.

How have consumers got to accept something like this as normal?

phanto ,

I have a “smart” TV with a network cable plugged into nothing at all, with no wifi connected, plugged into an Oooold Lenovo Tiny PC running Mint. The Mint box does all my smarts. Pihole, ad-block, all that jazz. It never occurred to me that it might have connected to some open wifi out there, but none of my neighbors have guest wifi or anything, so hopefully I’m good. It’s definitely not on my wifi, anyways.

thantik ,

You should educate yourself about Amazon’s “sidewalk” network. You won’t have to worry about open wifi networks soon; they’ll just be the default, and bluetooth - so you can’t turn them off without also disabling the remote your TV came with.

phanto ,

Hmm… The nice thing is, I don’t use the remote. I have a little wireless keyboard plugged in to my Tiny PC… But yuck. I guess I’ll have to start tinfoil hat wearing soon.

vampire ,

I’m honestly shocked that nobody has mentioned mesh networks. It might also just scan for any unsecured network it can connect to without informing you in any way. Not connecting your TV to your WiFi is not nearly enough to preventing it from phoning home. You need to open the TV and ground the antenna(e) to physically disable the wireless capabilities. Even then, there may be other antennae hidden under or inside components you can’t disassemble.

Short answer: No. Your smart TV is smarter than you are.

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