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)?

  • @[email protected]
    -11•10 hours ago

    What I don’t understand is that if you want the TV to be offline, why don’t you just buy a monitor and connect a digital TV receiver to it via an adapter (if it doesn’t have an HDMI output). It’ll be more expensive for sure and it will require a design-hostile antenna but all the privacy issues should just go out of the window.

    • @Im_old
      10•10 hours ago

      Do they make 55" OLED monitors? Only stuff I’ve seen is LED, and I’m pretty sure the picture/color quality is inferior to proper tv panel

      • @[email protected]
        -2•10 hours ago

        I think the color quality of good monitors is far superior to it in TVs because monitors are meant for professional image editing. The size may be a problem though. Usually monitors are not more than 27".

        • @[email protected]
          12•9 hours ago

          A big monitor with 100% AdobeRGB is going to be very very expensive. And if you want it to be 65", you just can’t find them…

          And it is a monitor, meant to be watched from a close distance. It will not be such a great experience for movies and such.

    • @[email protected]
      4•9 hours ago

      monitors are generally made to be viewed up close - if video quality is no issue, then a commercial display /digital signage is also okay.

      however, a good detailed list of tv aspects would help with even that choice.

      not shooting any option down - just wondering about available resources/information.