I'm actually going to be in the market for a new television later this year. My only use is to watch Netflix, some Blu-rays, and dock my Nintendo Switch to it. Are there any recommended high definition (4k+) televisions that aren't Smart TV's?
I’ll link you to the model when I’m back at my desktop.
https://www.lg.com/ca_en/commercial-tv/lg-55UX340C-public-di...
From lg.com you have to click the sneaky "For Business" button at the top-right. From there, it's under Products > Commercial TV > Commercial Lite. Even then, the dumb-tv options are a subset of what's shown. It's not under "digital signage".
They don't make it easy for us. I was lucky enough that these products are sold to normal people at canadacomputers; I was able to pick one up in my city. YMMV.
I fairly recently ended up with a TV with a large amount of features that are just ignored because I don't ever connect it to the internet, instead relying on an Android device I have more trust in. I'd rather not have things that I don't use. I won't be buying another for quite some time but I'll keep commercial displays in mind next time or when asked for a recommendation.
My MiL doesn't have wifi internet; possibly the TV wastes a lot of time at boot trying to connect as punishment for people who don't allow it to spy, I don't know.
That being said, IIRC my TV was ~$900, and at the time the most equivalent consumer smart TV was ~1050. So I figured that I saved a bit of money. But there wasn't exactly feature parity even at that price point (e.g. the Consumer tv had another HDMI input or two).
As far as I know, Sony is the only high end mfg that doesn't put ads in their current TV offerings.
My $DEITY, it's gotten that bad? Not that I'd connect a modern TV to a network connection, but yeesh, it's almost like they don't want me to buy another TV when this (thankfully, relatively new) one dies. But I'd guess there are a lot more folks willing to put up with it than there are cranky old farts like me.
That said we're just talking about ads. Both Sony and Vizio have questionable pasts regarding information collection/privacy violation.
But that's still giving money to the dirtbag company...
Only downside I noticed is the long boot time it seems to show. Combined with the low black level, you need the room somewhat dark to notice if the Backlight turned on. Netflix 4k on it is gorgeous, as long as it's close by.
That said, if you have a good space for one a projector is awesome. I bought an Optoma projector a while back and have worked it to death. TV, movies and games on a gigantic projector screen are just awesome.
If you don't need something that big or bigger, there are lots of options in the 40-50 inch range... 3 years ago I got a dumb 42" 4k@60hz Seiki "TV" solely to use as my primary workstation monitor, it works fine for movies too. I did have to get some beta firmware from Seiki's Facebook account though in order to remove the unbearable latency even for programming tasks (gaming was out of the question before the flash).
Neither of those is going to impress someone who really cares about display quality of course. They work for me.
https://www.apple.com/privacy/
>Roku Devices regularly upload usage information to Roku as part of their use. The collected information includes the specific identifiers of streams played, duration played, various quality measures, error logs, software version numbers, and other usage statistics. Usage information uploaded from Roku Devices is personally identifiable by product serial number. In some instances, serial numbers are associated with personally identifiable information to aid in customer service and support.
https://soundbridge.roku.com/privacy/
>Lol
https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Also he didn't mention the Raspberry Pi by name, but Linux does not collect your information and you have complete control over everything it does.
What does that mean? These models have reviews online just like regular TVs (sure, maybe there are fewer data points), and the tech specs tend to be even more detailed.
That may work with current TVs, but system-on-a-chip vendors have offered devices with LTE/etc baseband processors for several years. The only reason the TVs are still using your internet connection instead of the cellular networks is because nobody has spent the time negotiating for some sort off-peak bulk rate deal with the carriers.
The precedent for that happening is OnStar; if the TV manufactures start to lose too much of their spyware revenue due to being blocked at the home LAN, they will simply bypass the problem.
edit: my point is that the solution to this problem isn't technical. Political fixes (regulation) could solve the problem. Throwing people in jail for trespassing or harassment when they willfully appropriate private spaces without informed consent would also work.