cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/431688
Does anyone got any television recommendations for dumb tv’s or other words none smart tv’s? Or even a tv that is smart but the software is open sourced making it privacy friendly?
Any TV is a dumb TV if you take it offline :)
But yes I’m also interested in what other people have afound about ths.
Whether they’re online or not, if they’re preloaded with crapware they’re preloaded with crapware, and they’re still technically “smart”. If you’re trying to avoid dealing with those smart UIs, then they’re still a problem.
Amazon Sidewalk
Does Samsung use that? What about picking brands that don’t use it? Remove antennas from things?
Sidewalk is (to my knowledge) only used by Amazon devices.
My point was more that Amazon advertised a system where if you didn’t have internet, don’t worry, you can use a neighbours. The current system is all opt in. The issue is that these major companies have never minded hiding other technology or its uses from the end user. We believe we can just block the device from the internet, but it is entirely possible that some of the TV’s of today have similar systems to sidewalk (or even just cell connectivity) built right in.
Let’s not forget when Google nest security systems sold in 2017 received an OTA update (in 2019) to be able to use voice commands (oops, did we not mention there were microphones in the device you bought?)
I’m not saying everyone needs to slap a tinfoil hat on. I’m just saying that while I also block these devices from the internet, it really feels like any day now things will become more difficult than that (possibly in devices we already own)
Depending on what you’re looking for, you might just want a computer monitor. Those are essentially “dumb TVs” without Internet connectivity or an operating system, and they have HDMI connections, so there you go.
You can also look into commercial TVs, although more and more of those are “smart” these days. Even if they’re smart, and they tend to be a bit more pricy, they aren’t preloaded with crapware and usually have excellent warranties. So that’s another option.
There is commercial TV/Monitor but last I checked, a 70" SHARP was like $4000.
Or do as I did, I bought a smart TV, did the setup (it needs internet at first to update firmware) then went into the settings to forget network info, and that’s it. The TV is a big monitor used with HDMI for a chromecast or BD player.
if I was in the market I’d look at commercial signage displays first. explicitly digital signage because nothing is free from software anymore but signage needs to be plug and play.
Otherwise you’re looking at computer monitors.
Personally I have an old Sonique lcd from the analogue change over so it has a bunch of RCA, Component, Hdmi, a tosloink, an analogue tuner that doesn’t blue screen so I can watch static if I wanted to (or use a game console from before RCA without modding it) and a digital tuner. and the best part is it has a sleep button that just fucking works.
I do want to find a better option than chromecast but that’s a different story.
I have a Samsung TV (was not my choice), and it’s a hell for privacy, software is terrible.
Now it has no access to any network, all features that could be disabled are disabled. I use CCwGTV as an OS for my apps, but that could be any dongle or PC.
