They’re a little bit better if you just never connect them to the internet.
I opened my smart TV and removed the Bluetooth/WiFi PCI card that was inside it.
Good fucking luck connecting to something you privacy invading piece of shit.
This just doesn’t seem to click for a lot of people for some reason that I cannot explain whatsoever. I don’t even have mine connected to electricity when I’m not using it.
To be honest, I recently got a TCL Roku TV and I almost gave up on trying to use it as a dumb TV. I’m not a beginner at this, but setting up a network connection was so embedded in the initial setup, from the moment you turn the TV on. I did a couple factory resets and I could not figure out how to bypass it. Turns out I had to set it to “store display mode” at a certain point and then connect my other streaming device.
Yeah, the Roku OS is REALLY baked in there and REALLY wants your data, and they recently updated it to make it even harder to circumvent. The trick is to just block its connection at the router level.
Mine gets put in the garage when its not being used. Microphones to record you can work on battery power inside the tv
Even then you still have a bunch of cheap hardware crammed into an insufficiently ventilated box that will lead to problems down the line.
My TV is 15 years old, not very smart, thick as oatmeal, but works like a charm.
It’s still there, though.
And since it’s usually one integrated board, a failure in the “bullshit” will likely affect the not-shit.
I’m not worried about me using the smart bullshit. I’m worried about it using me. Beyond the ones that literally spy on you through camera or microphone …
A few years back I started to see descriptions of media recognition, so a tv could know what you’re watching even if it’s not through one of its apps. While I have no idea how widely that’s deployed, it’s awfully dystopian. There’s a specific reason to keep your smart tv off the network, even if you never use the apps.
I’ve also read articles (not sure if legit) about smart TV’s piggybacking on other networks, such as using WiFi even when you disable it, or picking up your streaming devices network over hdmi
