- Buy an LG OLED TV. They're as gorgeous as they are notorious. I just got a 77" LG C6 and it is crazy good.

- Root it [0].

- Install Glasshouse [1] and disable all telemetry. YOU now own the glass. Now you can chromecast to the TV, use Adfree YouTube, access IP TV, etc etc etc. No point crippling your TV by pulling the wireless module and voiding your warranty.

- Install a bunch of cool apps to your TV [2] (there are many more out there besides those listed here)

- Restore to Factory Defaults if you ever want / need to unroot and get back to stock e.g. a warranty claim

The only issue is that LG recently closed the vulnerability that made rooting possible so you don't want any firmware released after 2026-10-10 like 43.21.84. Hopefully a new exploit is found that makes rooting possible once again.

BTW, you might have heard of Dev Mode on these TVs but they don't allow anywhere near the functionality that rooting provides.

[0] https://tv.slada.sk/guides/rooting-guide

[1] https://github.com/rorygallagher2024/glasshouse

[2] https://www.webosbrew.org/

Recently I've had to deal with this same problem - get a new TV for living room. Personally, I do not watch TV at all, but kids want to see cartoons when having their breakfast. I spent a week reading forums and came to conclusion that best solution would be to buy a "dumb TV" and connect it to a PC I trust, but it appears there are no dump TVs in my rage of 55" and larger. So, I bought "Google TV" based TCL.

When I brought it home, I never connected it to Ethernet or WiFi. Instead, I connected it to my laptop over USB, then using adb I uninstalled almost every application from it. It took me quite some time to figure out what app is possible to remove and what should be kept to let TV functionality to work. I even had to factory-default it a couple of times because some random apps I removed were crucial for Android to work. :) I think it took me 5-6 hours to clean it. Now it has only basic TV functionality like any dump TV does, I can watch air and cable TV channels, watch movies and play music from USB storage. If there's a need to watch something online, I connect it over HDMI to my small mini-PC that runs FreeBSD. I think I'm satisfied with the result. :-)

PS: Yesterday I opened the case and disconnected WiFi antenna. Just in case.

Buy any tv with CEC support (almost all of them) and never connect it to the internet. Never. Never start any app on the tv. Hook a Kodi box to the hdmi port and use that, and only that.

For the Kodi box get series-7 Intel NUC with Kabylake-era processors, gen 7. They don't run Windows 11, so come very cheap second hand, but decode h264 and hevc in hardware and drive a 4K screen like charm. You can install a modern Wifi card in the NUC and a PCIe SSD.

Then buy one of these: https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/154/intel-nuc-hdmi-cec-adapter and put it in your NUC, so you can use the TV remote to control Kodi.

That's it.

Bonus, you can take your TV with you when travelling.

$1050:

  Samsung QB55C-N 55" UHD 4K HDR Commercial Monitor without Wi-Fi

3 HDMI ports. Any downsides using as a TV?

First of all, open the TV and disconnect the wireless radio from the main board, on mine (Samsung) it was just unplugging one cable (AI or Google it). I dislike doing stuff like that, but it was easy in my case, maybe you'll be lucky, too.

Second, never use the "apps" built into the TV.

Next, don't plug Ethernet into the TV. Plug HDMI cables into the TV.

Use a box of your choice on the other end of the HDMI cables. This is now the box that you trust. (Roku? Shield? Blu-ray? MacBook? PC? Linux? Playstation? XBox? Whatever you want.)

The Smart TV itself is now fine. Choose the devices you plug into it to play content. The TV just shows it.

I went and researched this, and found that basically none of the TV brands were anything but creepy on privacy.

What I’ve ended up doing was I got an LG and never hooked it up to Wifi/internet, and then use an Apple TV to watch things on.

It’s a bit annoying if I want to switch to a game console as Apple TV can’t control the TV’s input channel, but otherwise works very well.

Make sure the TV supports HDMI CEC.

Buy any TV you want, ignore all instructions to connect it to the internet, then look for an HDMI port on the back. Plug an HDMI cable into one end, and in the other end plug in a cheap Linux computer like a used Intel NUC from ebay. Then use a nice air-mouse remote like the Pepper Jobs W10.

I watch any movie or TV show I want in 4k via Kodi, but then can alt tab to a Terminal or a real web browser.

Privacy, and dramatically more functionality than any TV would ship with anyway.

Using this setup to type this message right now on pc hooked to a projector in my garage from my couch.

It turns out we never needed Smart TVs in the first place. Just treat it as a screen for a desktop computer.

Sceptre, in southern California, has a line of dumb displays.[1] HDMI/HDCP in, and that's about it. Walmart sells them, and of course they're on Amazon.

[1] https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV/U650CV-UMS-65-4K-UHD-TV...

If you are open to projectors they still make “home cinema” projectors that don’t have any smart features or connect to the internet.

I have a BenQ (710tki iirc) that is like this and I believe it meets all your stated requirements (size, resolution, etc). I’ve been very happy with it.

We have to block our TV from dialling home (there just aren't any privacy oriented 'smart' TVs). We chose to go down the DNS filtering route and pay for https://nextdns.io/ - it turns out it super helpful for a whole host of home network privacy jobs (ad blocks, kids safety filtering, security posture etc.). I can't stop recommending it to people.

Don't bother with all of the hassle of buying a smart TV and then trying to make it what you want it to be. Just go buy a good, dumb TV.

https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.htm...

Buy any TV, just don’t connect it to the internet at all, ever.

Plug in an Apple TV or any other streaming device if you want digital content. If your want terrestrial content ensure the TV has the relevant input connections on the back.

Don't buy a TV. Buy a monitor.

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/samsung-65-inch-commercial-4...

I recommend a projector. When we moved into our current place, I considered a TV and went with the projector instead. Because:

- A TV has a backlight. It doesn't feel as 'natural' to the eye when watching because you are staring directly at an LED.

- A TV is smaller than a projector.

- A TV, when it is off, imposes itself on the room. It's a large plastic/glass object which is obviously electronic. It invades the space.

- Most TV's are full of surveillanceware.

- A TV can be watched even during the day, when it's bright outside. The projector, by contrast, is much less pleasant during the day; I consider this a feature - I should be doing something else when the sun is out. (The only time this kinda sucks is sports. We make do with closing the curtains).

- Movies were made for the silver screen, imho. This might be a hipster opinion but in my view, the medium really does make a difference in this regard; the moviegoing experience is better.

To specifically answer your question - most projectors are just a dumb HDMI cable. Computer, media center PC, apple TV, etc. None (unless I'm not aware of newer models) have an app store, tracking, or other garbage.

I got an old gigantic monstrosity of a DLP tv off facebook marketplace for free then plugged an old Intel NUC into it. It's not for everyone, but I think that it's great, partly because the facts that it was free and that it's stupidly big give me joy.

More practically, when I am not using that, I just watch tv shows and such on my desktop computer running NixOS with a nice and modern (1440p 170Hz high quality but not highest possible end IPS) monitor over displayport.

Other options include a projector, buying a very large computer monitor marketed panel, or using something that is modern enough to be fine, but not so new that it has malware in it (like a friend who was moving gave me a very heavy but also very nice plasma tv, with zero malware on it).

Basically, anything except something marketed as a consumer grade TV. The last time that I had to displeasure of dealing with that it was when my parents bought one and asked me to set it up, and the built-in Roku software refusde to even display from an HDMI or DP input unless it was logged in and connected to WiFi! Alas, I was not able to convince them to return it, but I did decline to have anything to do with it.

The best privacy method is to completely disconnect the TV from any wired or wireless network, and like you suggested to use it as a dummy display with the Apple TV (or whichever your favorite media player is). So in that sense you could just go to Costco (or any major electronics retailer if not in US) and pick one that you like the image & price.

I guess I am more concerned about random devices at home that need internet to work yet I have no idea what data they send where.

Sadly the Samsung TV I have was the best display for the price by a mile, so I've done what i can to balance usage and protection. Its connected to the wifi to allow for AirPlay natively. The tv has a fixed IP at the router to block all traffic in and out of the network, and as a visibility layer its DNS'd through a PiHole too.

Its unbelievably talkative over the network! In the 7 days just passed, its been 90% of the blocked requests by volume (there's no allowed domains from that IP).

I'm still not convinced it isn't sneaking out data somehow - piggybacking off a connection somewhere to the neighbors TV. Its HDMI runs through a stereo amplifier, so it can't piggy-back off the connected PC that runs it.

Maybe the PC (Mint) can run AirPlay somehow and I can disconnect it entirely from the internet?

I feel overly paranoid about this device relative to everything else in the house, I'm not sure how justified that is.

Sony Bravia TV and Panasonic.

Panasonic is decent but the problem is their presence around the world is spotty. I think they only decide to reenter US market and Panasonic the parent company has been thinking about ditching its TV business for a long time already.

My only hesitation with Sony is that they will form a JV with TCL next year.

Otherwise I wouldn't trust LG, Samsung, HiSense, TCL or Vizio.

Just get a computer monitor and speakers. Here's something the enthusiasts won't tell you: a smaller screen looks fine if you're just not so far away from the TV. Huge screens are necessary for movie theaters since they seat so many, but the huge 70+ inch screens people are buying these days are totally unnecessary.

I would go one step further and recommend a router with a customizable, Linux, firmware (OpenWRT, Tomato, DDWRT, etc).

Your TV is probably just one of the many devices that sends a scary amount of requests to a bunch of shady servers. With a firewall + DNS server that you control and a decent blocklist you should be able to block most requests and you won't be exposed if a new device connects to your network (for whatever reason).

I think that any TV can be Ok if you override the OS with an AI retro engeneering, there are plenty of github repos poping up with tools to do it.

I rooted my LG C1 and honestly I can't go back to an unrooted TV. Game streaming works so much better(I can actually install the apps). I can control everything so Home Assistant automations are much better. Internet is blocked so no nagging or ads, But they are turn off via root just in case.

As others have said, buy whatever you want just never connect it to the internet.

Now many people are also claiming that TVs will surreptitiously connect to an open network, but as far as I can tell, there is no evidence of this actually happening [0]. Of course it’s technically possible, but until a researcher actually observes this behavior I would not lose sleep over this.

[0]: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/how-to-use-smart-tv-offline

https://www.sceptre.com/ seems to be pretty much the only remaining brand of non-smart TVs left. However, I have no experience of them.

I allow my Samsung to connect to my local network, but then use openwrt and refuse to allow any outbound data from any IP using the MAC address of the television set. It cant update itself and no traffic suggests it can do anything regardless of what it might be collecting. Rooting it to prevent it from connecting to other wifi AP’s is probably the only better thing.

I like LG OLED quality. My lg tv has never been connected to the internet and connects to a avr that handles inputs and 5.1.2 speakers Nvidia shield with hdmi-cec to turn on/off the receiver and tv. Jellyfin, android tv app for cable company, YouTube sans ads and projectivy launcher (Google one sucks). You can update firmware via usb stick. Would get an Apple TV if it died but like my Dolby vision HDR10 and atmos. Highly recommend.

Imagine you wouldn’t have this but technically the front two speakers are on a much higher end naim amplifier (connected to my audio stuff) but it has avr pass through. Sometimes an extra button to switch it to turn the front two speakers back to avr mode.

Why aren't there any manufacturers that see a market opportunity and produce a TV with no spyware / invasive telemetry etc.? Are these data sharing deals so lucrative for them?

Is everyone seeing their product as a potential advertising platform?

LG makes the best panels, in my opinion, but they’re also the most customer-hostile when it comes to privacy.

The easiest solution is to never give the TV network access at all (no WiFi, no Ethernet) and only drive it over HDMI, via an Apple TV for example. The onus then shifts to how much you trust Apple, and the TV becomes mostly a dumb display. That still isn’t a 100% guarantee, though, since the TV has radios and could potentially talk to other networks or devices without your knowledge. If you want certainty, the only real option is to remove the radios entirely, which can have side effects, like the remote no longer working if it relies on BLE.

Personally, I don’t like LG’s “smart” apps, so never using them isn’t much of a loss.

But if you’re more technically inclined and want to use a product you paid for the way you want, you can do what I did with my C1:

Root it, put it on a restricted VLAN with no WAN access and no outbound privileges to any device on the LAN, and enable SSH. These displays run webOS, which is Linux-based. Yes, you can literally SSH into your TV. :)

That let me deploy my own custom app that I drive over the network. My display also never actually turns “off”. I just paint black pixels when I’m not using it, so it’s very snappy when I want something on the screen. It works as a spare data and metrics display while I’m working, and as a media player (a simplified DIY Plex) when I’m not.

So I get the “smart” part of the TV without the privacy concerns.

I have a TCL QM8, which until recently I was using for its full smart-TV capabilities, and always feeling rather icky about all of the stuff it was sending. I would keep getting notifications about the microphone being turned on even when I had explicitly disabled it at every level.

I eventually got an NVIDIA Shield Pro, for which I:

1) Blew away the default launcher and installed Projectivity

2) adb disabled nearly all of the background Nvidia/Google services, following a guide

3) Removed all of the preinstalled streaming apps and added back the ones I use, opting for more privacy-respecting alternatives like Smarttube over YouTube standard.

Finally, I then factory reset my TCL TV and put its Google TV into "Basic" mode, which makes it a dumb TV for all intents and purposes. The TV itself is not allowed to connect to the internet anymore for any reason--everything goes through the set-top box.

The skeezy thing is the TV still tries very hard to get you to enable regular mode. Like if you try to launch ANY app of ANY kind, it will throw some pop-up about needing to connect to the internet to do so, and then flashing some fine print about how this will revert the TV to normal Google TV/Android TV mode. I had a guest in my house using the TV while I was in another room and suddenly asking me for my WiFi password, and when I went to see what was up, saw that they were halfway through opening the floodgates again before I stopped them.

Keep the glass disconnected from the network forever and it will solve the vast majority of your concerns.

Jellyfin is the answer if you are looking to spend a premium on a privacy-focused media experience.

Call your representative and talk about privacy and right to repair.

Vote for politicians who fight for privacy and right to repair.

Metz Classic from Germany. Pricey, but privacy friendly. https://metz-ce.de/en/

Simple answer that no one seems to suggest:

--> Buy a TV in Europe.

Regulation blah blah slowing down innovation also does that: it protects your privacy.

So, get the TV of your choice but European version.

Digital signage displays might be the only out of the box solution at this point. I wish there were more open source TV firmware options in the spirit of dd-wrt

The tv doesn’t matter much. Don’t connect it to the internet, set it to remember the hdmi port when it powers on. Then plug it in to an older laptop and you can control everything that way, play media locally, block ads. An Apple TV would be fine too

Projector with media server running Kodi with various plugins. Projector screen is unbreakable by kids or pets and projector itself is high enough to be outside a range of them.

Kodi is controlled by smartphones connected to home network so no need to store one physical remote controller.

Bonus: When you are outside home, you can still control remotely your projector/media server via VPN. Which is handy when you need control over what kids are watching.

Using like this over 6 years now, no complains and any reasons to change. Only disadvantage is that you need to spend one evening by configuration, but then it works as intended.

Idk why (apparently) no one has mentioned it yet.

Forget consumer TVs.

Get a commercial "display".

That's it. That's the solution.

Pros: dumb display. Longer warranty.

Cons: more expensive.

I’m sticking with my 2010 Toshiba REGZA until it dies. 1080p is fine for me.

Spectre has historically been an OK buy in this category. No smart features, but they don't last that long overall. Usually they fail right at the 2-3 year mark, though they have had QA issues requiring a return a few times but that's likely bad distributor practices.

I can't see a new device making it past inspection all the way to the Walmart or local shelves from China with a broken backlight, or other failed display.

I don't know how true it still is, but dumb TVs have traditionally been marketed as "commercial displays". You'll pay more and have to bring your own media, of course.

Some good answers here already. Step 1 is always not to connect the TV to the Internet. You can go further and remove the WiFi daughterboard and/or desolder the chip.

Step 2 is to connect a TV box, but if you replace Samsumg, LG, or Google by Apple or Amazon, you have made no progress at all towards privacy.

Having researched this topic extensively, there are two main options for real user control and privacy. First, you can run an ordinary Linux distro on a mini PC, with a "launcher" such as Plasma Bigscreen. It's fine with an airmouse, but you will be mostly running upscaled desktop apps that aren't remote or controller friendly.

The best solution is actually to keep the mini PC and compile Lineage OS (Android TV 17) for a generic x86 target. This is a true degoogled Android TV distro that can, with some more hacking, run any ARM TV app from F-Droid, Aurora or other source. It is by far the best solution in that it is a true 10-foot UX and is compatible with almost all TV apk apps out there. The downside is that this not exist off-the-shelf. I spent a couple of days putting this together with Claude and it takes several hours to compile. I also found several upstream bugs in the process and will be submitting patches to the AOSP and Lineage.

I have a Sony Bravia that I've never connected to the internet, only to an Apple TV and a Steam Deck. It makes a noise when you turn it on or off, and sometimes it makes that noise all by itself while turned off. Makes me feel like it turns itself on to try and collect audio data periodically. But! I think since the TV itself is never going to have direct internet access, I'm not that worried about it sending my data.

Any TV as long as you don't connect it to the internet in any way, shape or form.

Then connect either your computer directly to it or if you want something fancier, use an Apple TV.

Anything else is just too much pain - you can spend a lot of time debloating your TV, but then you either break updates (not good) or the updates will revert it and you are back on the square one. Not fun unless it is your hobby somehow.

The simple answer is: any

Smart TVs are just a normie alternative for what tech enthusiasts were doing for 30ish years: put a computer next to the tv and use it.

Alternative, get yourself something capable of running Moonlight (https://moonlight-stream.org/) and run Sunshine (https://app.lizardbyte.dev/Sunshine/) on your workstation, I am even playing games this way. RPI 5 works great, also libreelec (https://libreelec.tv/) is excellent and has Moonshine plugin.

You buy a TV, NEVER connect it to the internet and set up small computer next to it. Obviously not Android based as it is spyware on its own.

Then use it. It is that simple. No special methods, software, whatever needed, tv becomes only a large monitor for your computer conveniently placed in living room.

To be completely honest, I'm considering an old TV that has DVD and VHS inserts and going back to physical media.

I think a lot of peple don't know how you can do this the right way:

1. just don't give your TV internet and use another device on the HDMI

OR

2. Buy semi professional network infrastructure from companies like ubiquity: They support a feature called VLAN: You can put your tv into the privacy VLAN and just block internet access on your network layer, or you could filter stuff etc.

I got a 2025 Bravia because after some research it may not have the best panels, but it's the least likely to pull shannigans around snapshotting your viewing and forcibly connecting to a open wifi and that sort of thing. I connected it, updated the bios, immediately killed the wifi and I've been happy with an Apple TV ever since.

Unless the Apple TV decides to be evil, I feel safe.

I was thinking about buying this ViewSonic CDE65G3:

https://www.cdw.com/product/viewsonic-cde65g3-65-inch-4k-uhd...

It's damn near impossible to find an OS-free TV that is actually for sale like this.

Paul Graham in his keynote speech at PyCon[1] bolted an iMac to the wall as TV.

I use a Mac Mini M4 and a huge 300 euro 4K screen as my TV. much better than an Apple TV and no spying or ads at all.

Best TV in my life, a user friendly computer.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ITLdmfdLI

Personally I opt for projectors; but similar problems arise with the built-in apps. They're just rubbish. My personal preference is to use no abuiltin apps, just use a laptop to access Jellyfin with a Logitech K400 (keyboard with inbuilt trackpad) sitting on my lap.

The next step for me will be setting up a Raspberry PI with Plasma Bigscreen.

The fact that we even need to have this conversation is messed up...

Thanks everyone for more practical comments, definitively bookmaking this post.

I'm unsure on current models, but historically the best bet (and what I did last in 2023) was to purchase a TV from Costco, as Costco used to (and probably still does) mandate that SKUs they sell must be able to be operated in a non-connected state. I bought a 70" Sony 4K TV in 2023 and /only/ the Costco version provided this option, but on first power on you could select "Basic Display" or "Connected Experience", and after that unless you explicitly changed it that was set. It's never asked to connect to a network or done anything I can detect as nefarious since, and is used only via an HDMI connected appliance I use for streaming.

OP, I have been a user of the AppleTV family of products for years. I have no complaints. So far I trust Apple more than Roku or Amazon, and I find the devices work far more smoothly and easily than other players in this space.

Consequently, I have no interest in hooking ANY TV directly to the network. It seems pointless.

I'm 100% not interested in any discussions that begin with "buy model XXX and then install different software..."

I'm not going to hack my TV. I have no interest in sysadmining my television. Success for me would be finding a TV that would work fine for its working life without ever being attached to a wifi network, and that will not try to do so on its own (ie, by joining known-open networks like those provided by Comcast and ATT).

The other day I saw this project to flash your TV with custom software: https://www.tiktok.com/@itstundealao/video/77013919041931215...

Here are the repos mentioned: https://github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv

https://github.com/simbasjungles/free-my-tv

The video is pretty cool. The guy flashes his tv with a custom firmware with a look/feel and elements he chose, plus a feature he created to leave handwritten notes for his girlfriend on the home screen of the TV, remotely from his laptop

I just dont connect mine to the internet, hook up an Apple TV to it.

What my own research led me to: https://www.viewsonic.com/global/products/commercial-display... (OS-Free Commercial Display, all sizes available) + HTPC.

Huge fan of "never give it wifi, hook it up to a little linux box, remote control it via input leap" myself

- Buy any TV you want

- Don't connect it to the network

Got a Bravia TV for cheap back in 2014 that happened to be pre-Android TV (and pre-Google TV) so Android TV was just released and those something-else-os were "outdated".

Sony stopped releasing security patches a while back and there are no longer apps whatsoever and they all were crap - the youtube one was pure torture because of how slow it was and the web browser was just as miserable as ie6.

But besides that I can send it commands to it via its IP and control it, consume stuff via a DLNA daemon, do screen mirroring, and all the usual tv stuff. The image quality and sound are still great after 10+ years though I can't care less about oled 4k 120Hz and all that stuff. So it's no longer a "smart" tv but it's not also so "dumb" for a now dumb tv.

I've been on the projector train for many years. In addition to their being awesome for the home theater experience (they're not for everyone or every environment), I've yet to read about a manufacturer engaging in the bs happening on TVs.

I think at this point if someone charges 50% upfront of what hypothetically they could make from all the bloat people would pay for it. If a smart TV costs 500$ and each TV makes them 400$ in 10 years then charging 700$ sans smart features would sell if they advertised it that way particularly and the quality of the picture was good. And this is even profitable because getting 50c now for a dollar that may or may not come 10 years down the road is much more sensible for the finances.

This is what I'll do for my next TV...

I'll purchase a LG / Samsung Digital Signage Display. Basically a stripped down panel with no features, and then just run something like apple tv, or something else on it. For broadcast television (yeah I still occasionally watch that), I have a hdhomerun plugged into the network, and I use VLC/Infuse to stream the channels available.

I'm completely done with the malware that is modern televisions

LG Ultragear 48GQ900-B

Ok I'm cheating, it's a monitor. Only it's the size of a TV and there's a remote.

But no tuner and no ARC.

But I don't care.

Zero smarts, boots in a millisecond, auto-wakes on device power-up, input switching just works, no half-baked HDMI-CEC hell. No wifi. No network. Nothing to spy on me because it's a FUCKING MONITOR and THAT'S IT.

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-48gq900-b-gaming-monitor

Get a big monitor with all the specs you want and connect it to an old laptop. You can watch whatever you want on there. You can even play video games on your Playstation or XBox if it has an HDMI port.

A used one from 15 years ago that doesn't have any internet connectivity built in. I suggest the same with buying a car.

My parents' TCL TV running Google TV was full of spyware and adware but was very easy to clean up using a coding agent and the instructions on this site (which was on HN a couple of weeks ago) [1]. No need for any rootkit. It all took about half an hour via a laptop on the same WiFi network.

[1] https://cleanyour.tv

I was able to root my Samsung TV easily with Codex, disable updates and spyware, MITM everything with the eMudhra certs. The problem is no one really knows what these TVs do, they're all liars with 100 page privacy policies that will legally allow anything, and encrypted HTTPS communications that we can't even ordinarily monitor what they're sending. They can be updated at any time to start sending more or less data without your knowledge. So I feel the only realistic option is find a TV that can be rooted and do that. If you root a TV, you can fully disable network access and then use an Apple TV, or use the TV's software with MITM and deeper analysis with AI to disable snooping.

The whole telemetry stuff isn’t even new - I’m in the process of rooting and building custom firmware for my 2018 Panasonic OLED running Firefox OS, it doesn’t look to have as much as the newer sets, but there is still far more than I’m comfortable with.

Managed to establish root via a tv data channel, just working out the custom firmware and rollback options (it does an A/B firmware thing, just making sure there is a path back if I goof something).

Have given up. Not happy about it. But realistically I'm not going to spend half my waking hours locking down my digital existence from a wall of threats and still failing. The bad guys have near unlimited financial resources, incentives, and technology to breach whatever feeble defenses I erect. Nobody has any privacy anymore. Live life assuming anything and everything you say, do, search, browse is going to be in the newspaper tomorrow.

Buy a TV from 2016. Mine's a Samsung from 2016. It showed me a EULA on first boot. I declined it. It's been a dumb TV ever since. One input is a LibeELEC NUC, the other an Apple TV, because Netflix requires a botnet to stream >480p.

4K is unironically a meme. You don't need it. A set of decent floor standing speakers (and room treatment) will elevate your movie experience far more than more pixels ever will.

Use any screen or projector connected to a linux box or AppleTV for streaming. Personally I use an old laptop running Kodi.

What sort of screen? Well, whatever you can tolerate. I use a very old commercial display I got through an e-waste reseller. It’s not great, but it was cheap ans has worked fine for years. If you insist on a “TV” screen or any monitor/projector with connectivity, pick one you can root. As other users have pointed out, simply “don’t connect to the Internet” unfortunately isn’t enough to guarantee your data stays private.

Roku TVs are really easy to turn into dumb TVs. Don’t connect the WiFi, and set it to always turn onto the HMDI input your PC/device is connected to. No tracking, ads, or extra steps.

I shop for elite televisions at the “reuse” center, my latest score was a 2013 Panasonic plasma which is a perfectly good dumb TV hooked up to an XBOX ONE and a home theatre. Downstairs I have a big curved Samsung 4K attached to my big PC. Someday I’ll see the high end OLED that I crave.

If you have the room and price is no object you definitely want at least 5.1 theatre, both movies and TV programs sound great in 5.1. The next step up is a second subwoofer, even for music subwoofers take a load off your other speakers and reduce distortion.

Don’t connect it to the internet, only to your lan (on a separate vlan) connecting to your jelly and *arr setup, or, you can get a tv box, flash it with vanilla android, have kodi and addon pointing to your jelly server, and from that tv box is an hdmi to your TV, same is also doable with a rpi. It won’t be plug and play but it’s a weekend project, because there are no tv manufacturers who cares about privacy, or get a dumb tv and connect an hdmi to your pc but you will lose new features.

My three Sony Bravias from 2010 are still going well - LCD 1080p, no screen wear at all (a later Sony I bought ~2017 has already worn to buggery)

Not sure if there’s even a used market for older TVs, though

Personally, I used to be very privacy-conscious, but have given up on enforcing it everywhere over the years. I still care, more than most people I know in real life, but when it comes to stuff like TV's I just get whatever has the best panel for the lowest price. Last time I bought a TV, that was an LG TV running WebOS, which is not exactly the best from a privacy standpoint. Initially I used it with an Apple TV, but now I just use the native apps and try to disable the telemetry that I can in the settings panel.

The only solution I use is connecting the TV (LG OLED) via ethernet and set a traffic rule to drop all outbound internet packets from the TV and then have an Apple TV for viewing.

However, I bought my Apple TV in 2022-2023 when it was like £129, so excellent value for money, not so sure nowadays.

The reason why I keep it connected to the network (with a traffic rule) is I use home assistant to run automations etc so need at least LAN connectivity.

As everyone is saying: just don't let it on the network. It's a little annoying because you can't have smart home stuff like "turn off the TV when I leave the house" working, but that's it.

My thing is, don't use an Apple TV. For the last 15 years or so I've just used a Mac Mini plugged into a big TV, and it's perfect. Get a wireless keyboard and trackpad and one of the many available trays that will hold them together. I'm literally typing this right now on this exact setup.

Buy whatever TV you think is best, don't connect it to network, and then use an AppleTV box to run it which is connected to network.

Does anyone make TVs with Opera/Vewd (rythmes with lewd) anymore? That's what mine is running, and it supports Netflix and whatnot, but doesn't show ads or spy.

Also, Android TV boxes sometimes have shenanigans installed by the manufacturer, but they are easy to customize to only run what you want, and they run fine without a Google account.

As far as I can tell, there's no way to use an Apple TV box without linking it to an Apple account and letting them spy on you.

Disconnect the TV from internet and use a solution like Apple TV for apps you would like in TV. Even better is a Mini PC connected to the TV if you are savvy enough.

Samsung and LG OLED TVs are especially great, owned them for years and they're still going great with good efficiency. I also heard that smartubenext from github might be of great resource for "adless youtube". The new Apple TV 4k is great too but would be absolutely better paired with the Homeview/Homepod (immersive voice something)

An interesting question is why aren't there companies in the same vein as AMG was for Mercedes, that buy the product, modify and resell them? In this case, buy the factory LG and using expertise, lobotomize it and resell it people here? If this post shows the demand the where is the supply?

It doesn't seem that it's a DCMA limitation, yet at least. Would it fall under "right to repair"?

Old but low-hours plasma TV. They also have the most incredible contrast ratios, a million to one. They also typically have "all the inputs" so you can plug nearly anything into them. RF, S-Video, composite, component, VGA, HDMI. No fussy scalers or anything else needed.

Our TV died a while back and I was looking into this, but turns out we don't really need it as everyone's enjoying consuming on tablets and computers. Only thing is the PS5, but we haven't played it for a while.... But this is a useful thread for when I actually do get a TV though!

The Russian user manuals for LG OLED TVs list the exact part numbers for the WiFi and Bluetooth modules. Search the PDF for IEEE and it will be listed. The English manuals omit this information!

I think desoldering the WiFi antennas and leaving the Bluetooth antenna connected is also a viable option. Although I think a 50 Ohm dummy load is needed if doing that(?).

I buy the best tv that satisfies my needs. I will not handicap my viewing pleasure reading chicken little stories of the paranoid Internet.

Tvs can themselves have their privacy improved by never connecting it to WIFI, except, maybe for software updates, if needed (rare).

The smarts you connect to the TV can vary.

Apple Ts manage things in some good ways.

NVidia Shields are good in others for Android TV.

The Android TV platform is likely more customizable (check youtube the past few weeks) to get it how you want.

Last, but not least, some poeple may just hook up a web browser to the TV and then contain that.

Any AndroidTV and then run CleanYourTV [1] on it, gets completely rid of all Google ads and additional bloatware by the manufacturer. Maybe run Claude against the repo first to check for malware but going by the number of stars it seems to be solid.

[1] https://github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv

I've gone LG OLED 65" - C5 I think. I have never connected it to the internet. It's annoying to get prompts about needing to update - they seemed to have stopped.

An AppleTV has been my first purchase or installation for nearly the last decade with a flat screen tv.

Can't recommend a TV as the newest one I have is from 2016, runs android tv, works offline but takes ages to start up.

But if you go for a projector, stay away from XGIMI, I helped install a horizon 20 series for a friend and while the image quality was great, it was impossible to setup without connecting it to the internet.

Samsung is the worst by far. Samsung (TizenOS) does not respect even privacy opt outs. It seems like LG, Google TV OS (Sony) and Fire TV OS (Amazon) and VidaaOS at least do that.

https://allaboutcookies.org/smart-tv-tracking-privacy-opt-ou...

Never connect to internet is the best option.

Best setup is buying whatever tv, never connecting it to internet, and connecting to an external device running whatever os flavor you prefer. I have setup using bazzite with a steam controller and an old laptop, and added non-steam games for YouTube and jellyfin, works great for my needs and I play a few small steam games on the tv aswell

Aside from getting a "dumb" tv, your best bet right now is to get a tv running google/androidtv and run a script like https://github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv against it to remove all of the tracking etc. from it.

Few years back, I bought two TVs: 65" LG latest at the time TV ($2k) and a 55" Sceptre tv from Walmart for $200. The TV from Walmart is a dumb TV with terrible speakers. So, in addition to tv I got a $150 soundbar and an Apple TV. I almost don't watch the LG one and daily watch the Walmart tv. It’s good enough in this setup.

I’m so pleased my old Panasonic plasma is still going. It used to have WiFi, but apparently that was an afterthought connected to a hidden usb port at the back.

Last time I took it off the wall I accidentally grabbed it by the WiFi card that I didn’t know was there and now it doesn’t have WiFi or a hidden usb port anymore.

OT:

There are several videos on YT regarding removing all this Ad/Spy/Bloatware from "smart" TVs using Claude and only a few prompts: Actually, it should be very easy for most poeple here on HN to do this as Ive found some videos which seem to be done by "non techies" and they were successful.

I love the comments around rooting the TV. Tickles the hacker in my.

My setup is a CRT a neighbor was giving away. Add an HDMI to RCA adaptor.

What I like is that it is self-regulating. It sucks compared to modern televisions, so I don't sit there for hours.

Fun tip: watching archival new footage feels authentic.

I ran into issues with only the smart TV apps being able to provide certain formats like Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, etc.

Is this really more complicated than just never connecting it to wifi and then using a dedicated device like AppleTV only?

Are there no "dumb" TVs left? Surely you can still buy a television that has no option to connect to the internet/doesn't have built-in apps/is just simply a display? I haven't shopped for a TV in a while, I figured they're still out there though

I think the answer now changes with ability to root some of these tvs.

Still, might be best to run an android tv box yourself, and plug hdmi.

Sceptre dumb TV. Failing that, large computer monitor or digital signage display. You WILL pay a premium.

I have a 42” tv from this cheap brand i found in MediaWorld in italy (i guess it’s called MediaMarkt in Germany and Switzerland): it’s called Ok.

It’s just great. Besides decoding digital tv it does essentially nothing.

If i want smart features i plug in an amazon fire stick.

I had it for six years now, i still love it.

I have a Samsung and I never connected it to WiFi or accepted their terms for “advanced features” like voice control. I don’t get any ads or any slow down. I suppose this works until they start shipping TVs with cellular modems to ping home.

Dumb question, but what happens if you never connect one of those TVs, I assume it will collect a bunch of stuff but all means nothing if it can't phone home right? Or do these things now ship with some built-in cellular data telemetry?

Would a projector fit in your space? There are 4k laser projectors with really good quality these days. And they don't come with any apps, just HDMI port. The good quality laser ones are so bright that you can see them pretty well during the day.

You can literally just buy any Sony and turn it onto dumb TV mode and not connect it to a network.

That's it, that's all you need to do, and the level of crazy over engineering and spend by some people below achieves literally nothing more at great difficulty.

One that can be purchased and shipped from the EU.

They have the strongest consumer protections and guarantees.

I'd go for a Sony.

Buy any TV you like, never connect it to the internet.

Get a cheap open source media box and attach it to the TV.

"Use some set top box and don't connect tv to internet" is a common advice, but what about ethernet through hdmi? Will the TV really not reach the internet through the box you use? If not, then what is the purpose of Hdmi HEC?

Anybody has experience with TCL and Spectre? I'm seeing them a lot, even saw one really big TCL TV in a local shop and loved the colors and the FPS, but no idea how good are they really, are they longer-lasting, are they annoying if you don't give them network access etc.

My honest answer at this point is none.

I just had claude connect to my Android TV over adb and rip out all of the spyware it could find.

The Apple TV itself might be more privacy friendly or open about policies, but I have no reason to believe that any streaming app you’d install on it would provide for more privacy than the app installed directly on the TV.

I bought a Hisense TV three years ago. I do not connect it to the Internet. I use an Apple TV for streaming. I went with Hisense because it was well reviewed. I think you'll be fine with whatever TV you buy as long as you follow this strategy.

The consensus thus far appears to be that all modern TVs wipe their ass with user privacy.

Given what happened with games very recently, perhaps the question should be rephrased to: "Which modern TVs support flashing unsigned/self-signed firmware?"

Out of curiosity, do these “smart” TV features even matter if you’re just switching to one of the HDMI inputs? I’ve used an external device to drive my TV for years, and I honestly have no idea what is installed on the TV itself.

My biggest issue with this is, the rest of my family. As many times as I've put a streamer box and instructed my family to use it, they always default to the built in system.

Unsolicited advice, with a different approach, from personal preference / experience:

Sitting screens considered harmful.

Treat them as a liability and "trash"-adjacent, no matter the actual display technology or whether you can remove the spyware.

That goes double for TVs, so don't buy one.

Re-invest the time and attention you save in a good projector and a generally "invisible" screen / room setup.

I'm a happy owner of a $1000 DLP LED projector and a similarly priced motorized 150" screen. Do look into laser projection, which has been getting steadily more affordable for a while now.

Disclaimer: I've never subscribed to the "maximum screen size" formulas. As long as my own nose isn't in the way when I look to either end, it's fine, and inching towards that range is exactly what I'm deliberately going for. So yes, I'm one of those people who sits in the front rows at the movies.

I keep filler-free shows (TNG, anyone? :') movies and game time strictly out of band. So to me that's even more enjoyable in an immersive and optimally shareable setup whenever I do purposefully take the time.

More reading, as well as a nudge towards doing stuff, is probably the main side effect I'm after here, as you can tell.

Gamers Nexus has a good discovery video on how extensive smart TVs are snooping on people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA

NEC is great but their affordable panels are largely only seen on facebook marketplace. Great construction, panel quality and I/O, just a little bit heavy

Xiaomi 3rd gen box. Or Onn 4k pro for $60 if you don’t need truehd.

Root and bootloader unlock allowed.

Run cleanyour.tv on it. Remove all services. Plug in to a smart tv or dumb tv that is never on WiFi itself.

Only the one you gut with LLM first. Even when you disconnect it from the internet these devices often connect to unsecured WiFi's around you and snitch about you. There could be more tricks they do.

Do local repair shops offer aftermarket “TV lobotomy” services these days?

A solid late 80s RCA Colortrak 2000 with down-converter is a solid choice and excellent conversation piece. Hardwood finish, or go for the full console experience. Best part is it can't call anything.

A monitor. You will lose some controls over color & clarity (motion smoothing). But it will provide the best “dumb TV” experience.

I use my monitor with a fire TV stick and it renders very well. LG 4k panel.

Sceptre. They have okay 4K panels at ludicrously cheap prices at Walmart that don’t have WiFi or a network port or any smarts at all. HDMI goes in, rendered images come out, end of story.

No TV at all, for series and movies get at projector and some sound system, to keep update with the news, read or listen to newspaper in the morning and that is it.

I get that they’re not equivalent, price wise, but have you tried searching for “55 inch computer monitor”? They sell large ones for use in video conferencing rooms for example.

LTT did a video not too long ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJh72_O4pXE

Many TVs are advertised with features (even local features) that don't work until the first firmware update.

So plug it in, and update it once.

Then you can do all the things these other comments suggest.

The answer is really simple and this gets asked a lot.

Buy any TV, don't connect it to the Internet. Then connect the HDMI or DP to Apple TV and you're good to go.

Philips 28inch CRT witha worldwide chassis that only shows vintage arcade ganes through MiSTer fpga and can sync to any 50 to 60hz signal

I just buy any TV, never allow it anywhere near the WiFi network, and attach an Apple TV

Unless… they’re not putting SIM cards in modern TVs or anything right?

I recently was stressed about the same & ended up buying an LG C6, sticking it on an isolated VLAN, rooting it, then just letting it hit my NAS for jellyfin.

A lot of people are saying to not connect an ethernet cable to the TV, but what about if I want to connect the TV to LAN for my Jellyfin server?

I have an LG OLED. It's gorgeous, but

- It's MAC address is blocked from the network

- It's never had WIFI credentials

- It's ONLY ever used with an Apple TV or PlayStation

I love all these people spending money and tearing apart their TVs instead of changing their WiFi password and not giving the new one to it

Just get a big monitor or projector and whatever TV box you want.

If you really want privacy there's always the NUC running youtube.com in a browser

Don't connect it to a network, buy a mini pc and install Linux on it. Get a Logitech k400 keyboard with an integrated touchpad to control it remotely

Curious -- Does Samsung smart TV (circa 2019) allow us to root? Where can I find the community and tools around Samsung devices.

A RPI 5/4 with a basic TV works really good !

just pick a PC screen with TV sizes, although they might max out at 55 inches. displayspecifications.com has many hits for what has no FRC then.

Hotel/Business Signage TV may be a good options, but they may lack speakers and be considerably more costly and harder to procure

Just open up whatever you buy and pull the networking components, microphones, and covert cameras. Leverage HDMI after that. Problem solved.

A TV should just be a display. If I already have an Apple TV or a mini PC, I don't need another smart OS tracking my activity.

Does anyone know about the kiosk tvs used for professional displays? Do they still make/sell those?

A computer monitor and small computer.

fwiw I've disabled ACR on my Sony Bravia, not the cleanest way but it's something useful perhaps if you already have one. https://github.com/joelio/bravia-guard

It's not hard to find options if you stop looking in stupid places with bad search terms. "TV" on Amazon is literally the innermost circle of consumer hell.

> I don’t mind paying a premium

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1916990-REG/lg_65ep5q...

Never plug it into the network. Connect it to an AppleTV or something else that is. Then who cares.

I'm in Brazil, so I'm going to get Smart TV TCL 50 inches. It comes with Linux and you can manage it via adb.

A lot of the advice here seens to be "disable wifi, don't plug in ethernet, use a computer or similar to provide content".

This is good advice. But I'd consider it the absolute baseline. I'd be much more interested in hearing about TVs that'll still try to get to the internet (neighbor's badly secured IoT network, bluetooth, 5G) or ones that cripple themselves when you tamper with wifi.

Buy something used that was manufactured before ca 2018. Or get a projector that doesn't have any smart stuff built in.

I just rooted my LG in about 30 seconds [using claude] and disabled all the junk. can also run own apps / homebrew.

Suggestions for second hand the last of the “pre” smart TV’s.

What’s models. What sort of year? What to look for?

Why do people think that apple respects their privacy? That sounds naive.

I have an old 55” LG that has no ”smart” anything. It is connected to cable TV network and via HDMI to M1 Mac Mini. Genelec for sound. No network, no nothing. It is ”only” 1080p, but you don’t need 4K or high refresh rate. You think you do, but you don’t (unless you are a serious gamer or a massive sports fan). You can buy similar display for about 100-150€ in these parts. They can have several years of mileage still. If you need cable TV connection, make sure that specific model has it.

You can make a cheap linux box from old NUC to work as media centre and install it behind the display or TV. There is several ways to control those with your phone, but I just use BT keyboard and mouse. Some old Intel NUC’s have IR-sensors, so you can map your remotes IR-codes to use it with a remote (never bothered to do it personally, but it is possible and we do it all the time in AV). You can of course use Apple TV, but personally I don’t find it worth it.

I worked in government/corporate AV for 8 years and interestingly mostly the enterprise grade stuff has none of the ”smart” bullshit consumer stuff has. Many customer pay to have WiFi etc. disabled on their monitor at the warehouse. Mostly in AV you just repackage same technology in more and more bullshit and resell it to the customer with bunch off added junk, such as these smart displays. I would never touch one. But it is true consumers have been royally fucked by the TV manufacturers.

My preference is not connecting the TV to the network at all, and using an Apple TV via HDMI.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how absurd it is that our world regularly manufactures TVs that we have to be worried spy on us?

Can you imagine explaining that future to someone in the 80s? They would not believe that our society let it happen

Thread-adjacent question: who is running REA against these tv firmwares so anyone can root their TV?

A Benq gaming monitor with an android box, chromecast tv, nvidia shield, etc, with a soundbar.

wild to me that all the top responses are saying to buy a tv and root it to remove the spyware. Are there really no options that don't come pre-built spyware? Anything that doesn't have wifi in the first place?

There are retail displays that don't have the ad/nag/crap-ware of home TVs.

The one with the best looking picture at the store. Don't connect it to Internet and use your own streaming box (that you trust).

Really I think in store is the way to go. Some "low" and "mid" tvs look identical to me. Some "high end" are meh. Some other "low end" look great. I think it's a bit of a crapshoot. Not sure currently but Samsung QLED used to be rated well but I always thought LG OLED looked worlds better. I've always liked LG OLED although I've heard their firmware has gotten pretty predatorial...

buy a commercial display meant for advertising or store/business use

You can use a Sony Bravia connected to an Apple TV without connecting the Sony to the internet.

Connect any TV to a laptop/desktop computer... running Linux, of course.

You could just use something like adguard to block DNS requests for telemetry endpoints.

LineageOS TV is pretty good, just hook it into a non smart TV with HDMI CEC

> I haven’t owned a TV in years

… But you feel the desire to go back to it? Why?

Am i wrong if I say: get a simple PC screen, or a beamer without android ?

Digital signage displays are dumb PC screens in giant sizes, like you are looking for.

Just get any old TV and use the HDMI input and don’t connect it to the internet. The fears of it phoning home anyway even when you don’t configure wifi are overblown (almost no TVs can do this), as are the privacy implications. Nobody cares that you watch Severance and MCU movies. It’s sort of like people who tape over their laptop camera but leave the mic alone, as if 86400 photos of your face are somehow private and sensitive but all of the conversations in the room are not.

Just use a desktop computer.

I used to work in VFX, and for our big bright displays in the office we used digital signage displays.

I started using them at home in about 2018, after my nice medium budget sony TV died in a way that I couldn't repair.

I currently have an old HD NEC 48" display attached to an apple TV, and a freeview recorder for broadcast (although 98% of TV is done via apple TV)

Pros:

the screen is bright and adjustable. You can, if you wish fiddle with the colours and brightness

The screen is designed for 24/7 duty cycle, so is built like a fucking tank

It has all the HDMI you would ever need, plus displayport compute module ports (if that floats your boat) you can also get an ethernet remote control module (never tried it so it might be shit)

Second hand, they are dirt cheap. on ebay there are a couple of them in various sizes for <£400

If you don't have a compute module, the screen isn't going to spy on you.

Cons:

they are just screens. you will need speakers

They are built like tanks, so are heavy and thick (they are not the 15mm thick OLED jobbies)

Second hand, they generally don't come with stands or remotes

On ebay at least, they are generally pickup only.

In terms of driving it, Apple TV >> anything else I have used, apart from maybe a humax. Amazon firestick is frustratingly slow/unreliable. They also break after a year or so. Yes the apple TV is probably 5x the price, but the time to playing a show is about 7 seconds, from first pressing the remote to wake everything, to navigating to the show I want.

everything else I have used is horribly slow in comparison.

Absolutely every single TV that you don't hook up to your wifi. Easy.

2026 TCL I just bought seems to work fine without internet

buy projector, laser one are good, some of them are quite dumb in a good way. mostly US owned, or Japanese. Any chinese one are full of "android tv with their own flavors of spyware"

Any TV if you disconnect from the network and stream via HDMI instead.

I was browsing through the comments and thinking how insane it is that the answer basically appears to be “there isn’t any”. Most common advice seems to be either “buy an evil product and work against it” or “buy a close-enough something-else not-(yet)-affected”. Another instance of “enough bad choices make better choices no longer an available option”? Smh…

Disconnect it from the internet and connect a media player.

That old kind that just had a VCR slot on the front.

Or a projector against a wall.

Find an old projector TV

I'd recommend a search, this gets asked at least once a year

Samsung Frame is esthetically pleasing, high picture quality.

Whichever one does not connect to the internet

Any TV, just don't connect it to the internet

I was going to write buy Apple TV and never ever connect the actual TV to the internet, but:

- I am unsure whether modern TVs utilize ethernet over HDMI to connect to internet through Apple TV (I have no idea why Apple TV should allow this, but I don't trust Apple to not accidentally enable this)?

- I can only imagine nefarious five eyes reasons for why Apple released Apple TV that plays 4k60 exactly like the previous models, but now has 8 GB RAM, powerful machine learning CPU, and built-in microphones that are impossible to disable

So, apart from getting used prev gen Apple TV (and still having to trust company whose leader has to accept Trumps's lunch invite), I have no good advice.

I use a projector plugged into a tiny Linux box.

I love this: Just hook up your Apple TV for streaming.

A large format monitor that does not connect to the Internet nor has any smarts at all.

Also, do not plug any Internet-facing devices into it, have a captive SBC that connects to a LAN server hosting (legally owned) videos.

I read this as piracy and I was so confused.

buy a big monitor and hook whatever you want to it. samsung sells them and theyre about the same price as a tv, if not cheaper

Err - dont connect your tv to internet ?

Well, I have CRTs in most of the rooms in my home. That's because of an unrelated condition for which I refuse to be treated, but they are great for privacy!

At this point I'd just hooking up a gaming monitor (a very large one) with separate speakers and low-spec computer to run it.

I researched a bit for business displays from Samsung and these also have enshittified with "smart" features, so it lost my trust as well.

Would a simple pc monitor also work?

Another slightly pricier option is buy a digital signage display. These are screens intended for use in like retail floors or even outdoors. They tend to be extra durable, resistant to burn-in, very bright and devoid of most fluffy end user features.

no, if you're plugging something in just pick a good tv and never connect it to internet :p

Just don't connect it to wifi

There is a huge need and somebody has to deliver

I think Sony/Apple/Huawei/whoevergotballs needs to make a full TV with screen, really expensive, not a set-top box, and for the love of god make it zero ads, zero profiling, and zero camera/mic on by default, allow it to install apps and make it fully customizable. There is plenty of people with money that would pay big bucks for a TV like that

We are all fed up of all this invasive, privacy breaching, ad targeting scheme, and the first one to crack that nut will reap it dearly

A "Dumb TV" that doesn't have any Android / set top OS on it. Plug a debian box into it via HDMI, and you're all set.

Stop connecting TVs to the internet.

9 years ago I got a hisense 65h8c for around $800, at the time it seemed like the dumbest tv I could get (all new tvs, that now-old one included, are advertised as 'smart') that still hit other criteria. It has only ever connected over HDMI to a PC or an AV receiver. Still works great, used mostly for gaming, occasionally movie or show watching. It has weaker blacks and some edge bleeding, but meh; I'll never buy an OLED TV since at some point I'd play a game on it and soon enough after get burn-in from static UI elements.

Rather than trying to get a TV which doesn't have blatant spyware (when in all likelyhood, they all do, or will get one in a software update), I would suggest solving the problem the other way around - get a TV you know you can disable that functionality in. Trusting the manufacturer is a recipe for disaster.

I stripped out the bluetooth+wifi module from my TV and keep it disconnected from ethernet. Now it doesn't matter what it tries to collect, it can't send it anywhere.

SOFTWARE SWITCHES CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED!

Any TV that you want. Just don't connect it to a network. Why is this hard?

Panelook.com (DIY)

It's like every 3 months someone asks some variant of this question.

Do you really need a propaganda box? Connect with family or friends

Next TV I buy im connecting to to Claude code and lobotomizing it...

is a computer monitor big enough?

Honestly, anything pre-2020.

Read a paperbook

get a projector? or don’t get a tv at all

Any 2000s Bravia, they're given out for free.

>4k

lol

Avoid Vizio at all costs!

I recently picked one up at Sam's Club. Since my use was only to display an external HDMI source, I never even configured Wifi. Unfortunately, they're now wise to this. If it detects its been offline for ten or so start-ups, the TV will 'helpfully' force you into the Wifi config workflow on the next start. It seems to keep an internal counter in flash memory which nothing but a factory reset will clear. In my tests, it seemed like it can be kept offline forever but at the cost of manually dismissing the Wifi config workflow with three clicks on the remote every ~10 power-ons.

The TV also will not turn on and just display an external HDMI source even though it has a "Remember Last Source" feature. That feature does work as expected with any internal streaming source but external sources must first be manually selected with the remote after each power on (also undocumented in the manual).

I figured this out because I bought this small TV to be a wall-mounted screen in the dedicated bathroom of our home theater room. It's only job is to turn on while someone is in the little bathroom and display a copy what's on the main 150" projector screen in the next room, then turn off when they leave. The on/off is handled by a motion sensor and standard Home Assistant automation but after power on it correctly shows the Last Selected external HDMI source for 1 second, then blanks the screen. The source is already selected and working but being blacked out until you manually re-select the same source with the remote (only if it's external). This is clearly an undocumented anti-pattern added specifically to prevent the TV being used unattended as a display screen, picture frame, digital sign etc. Why? Because Vizio (now owned by WalMart) doesn't get rev share if it's: 1) Not online, and 2) Only displaying external sources. That's why it demands manual "proof-of-life" before it'll grudgingly deliver the basic functionality it claims on the box.

This made me angry - and the TV was otherwise the perfect size and feature set for my use case. So I programmed an ESP32 with an IR emitter so that every time the TV powers on it sends the remote presses to manually clear the "Please Connect Internet" message and re-select the already-selected external HDMI. Very annoying to be forced to figure this out but now it works fine and no one even sees the annoying messages as they're already gone before by the time we enter and see the screen. So, fuck Vizio :-). Although, I'm pretty sure almost all current consumer TVs now sell all your data exactly the same. The only differences may be the depth of dark patterns they deploy to resist offline usage.

To be fair, aside from all the super evil dark patterns, it's a shockingly good quality small TV (24-inch) for $88. Although it's obviously not a high-end display (no native HDR or 24fps), the chipset does do a decent job tone mapping external HDR (and HDR10) sources to SDR and it does proper 3:2 pull-down to display 24 frame external sources at 60fps - which very few TVs in this size do well (or at all). This is why I kept it and spent the time 'fixing' it. Of course, this is only because the TV is subsidized by the $35-$60 avg yearly revenue TV manufacturers reportedly can collect from advertising, app install payments, rev shares and selling all your viewing data. For $88 at local retail, it's probably being sold at a small loss. What's sad is I would have paid double that for the same TV without the dark patterns (in fact, I did buy and return two 24" TVs before this one for $160 and $200 but they couldn't even display external HDR or 24fps sources at all - which was a requirement since this secondary display has to display sources configured for the main projector).

Use dumb.tv

I'm a big fan of my Sony KV-25C5E. /s

When it comes to TVs you can buy in a big box store today, I'm not sure there are any TVs that fulfil your requirements. Everything's more or less on a scale of privacy to quality, where on one side you have the panels of 10 years ago with dumb electronics from brands you've never heard of, and on the other side are the LG panels, but with LG non-privacy. The other notable brands you've probably heard of fall closer to LG than to the no-name brands.

You can probably scrounge up a decent modern-ish panel on the used market that's old enough to not have been shipped with malware, but then you're betting on it not having been updated to receive the malware, or relegating yourself to rooting it the instant you get it home.

My unspoken assumption is that you don't want to give money to evil companies. If you yourself are fine with giving your money to evil people, then you can Just™ buy an LG panel and root it.

I have not checked the details recently, but it should still be possible to get an aftermarket "dumb TV" generic controller board to fit the panel, as LCD panels have a somewhat standardised controller-panel interface.

6 years ago, discussion of an article about such: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24877363 (site hasn't survived, but article can still be found in archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20190511065920/http://redlightgre...)

Get a panel and controller from China