I’m considering buying a new TV. There’s plenty of posts about trying to find dumb TVs, comments like ‘just don’t connect it to the internet/network’.

What surprises me is that there isn’t a good overview of (popular) TVs or brands with basic information, answering for each TV:

  • Can you use it as a basic TV by choosing not to enable smart features during setup?
  • Can you opt out by just not accepting a bunch of agreements?
  • Does it have a camera and/or microphone? Where in the device are these? Is there a physical disable switch for microphone?
  • Does it nag when not connected to any network?
  • Does it have higher than normal power usage when not able to phone home?
  • Has it been discovered to connect to public WiFi networks? Does it have the (theoretical) ability to connect to 5G mobile networks?

And similar.

There are extensive lists with a lot of detail about VPN services but nothing like that for TVs. Am I ignorant of a good source, or does this just not exist (yet)?

  • Nicro
    2·
    14 hours ago

    Interesting discussion, but many of the questions have pretty lame default answers. I have a Sony bravia from 2015 for reference.

    • The TVs that come with an OS instead of just firmware are smart-TVs in all aspects. Your cable TV or hdmi input is an app just like Netflix is, and is subject to a launcher. You can’t make it dumb by disabling stuff.

    • You can mostly reject targeted ads and disable personalized data collection. But smart TVs are priced with ads included, so completely turning off everything will require unsupported modding.

    • cameras are only found in telepresence hardware, unless you want to be paranoid. Check the feature list. Microphones can be in the remotes of some TVs, but this will usually be advertised as a smart assistent if present.

    • I haven’t seen any TV actively complain about missing wifi (except for during setup for updates)

    • unless you are tricking the TV into thinking it’s online, any connection attempts/power usage would be a bug. Do note that smart-TV will by default have a standby-draw influenced by WoL or similar.

    • This is pure tinfoil-territory. No hotspot/carrier carries data without being payed for it. It’s also not economical when telemetry can be sent over the customers home-wifi in 99% of cases. There is no gain in hiding sim-cards in every TV. Unless you are a person of interest and are sent a modified TV in that case.

    Hope this helps.