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Comment by deadmetheny | Hacker News Reader

And to add to that, it's next to impossible to buy a new dumb TV without knowing the keywords you need to be looking for.

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Would buying a smart-tv and never connecting it to Wifi work?

Or would it be constantly scanning and looking for an open access point, and get online once a neighbor leaves his open for a few minutes?

On a smart-tv I was given, I manually set garbage WiFi info and that seemed to work. No internet and no scanning.

I'd want one with hardware kill switch for any network connectivity. I wouldn't trust them not to do something stupid like automatically connect to open access points, connect to mesh networks like google wifi or use 4g as a fallback (anyone do smart TV teardowns?) for small but valuable data.

Aside from stupidity like that, having wifi on might be susceptible to vulnerabilities in the network stack or otherwise pollute the local airspace.

But you’d trust that their hardware kill switch was actually hooked up to something?

I'm in the market for a new TV, what should I be looking for?

Personally, I'm considering looking at computer monitors the next time I need to buy a living room display. Some of the larger gaming monitors announced at CES are so much better than my 37" 720p TV, it may be worth the cost to avoid the SmartTV stuff.

Some people have also said that a computer monitor has less lag, too. I have a VCR with HDMI output, so you can use that for tuning the channel.

Seriously consider getting a projector and screen. They're never "smart" and are dramatically cheaper at larger sizes.

If you have a lot of devices to plug in a mixer may also be needed.

It's great but you always have to turn off the lights to watch.

Since people are asking, one way to find dumb tv’s is to look for “commercial displays” or “monitors” that meet your specs otherwise. They usually have a smaller bezels and less of the bloatware/spyware if any. They will be a little pricier by about ~20%.

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