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My Sony Smart TV is crap and I will never buy another Sony TV. Yes it runs android. It's slow to respond to input. Sometimes when I'm guessing it needs to page out code it can take 5-30 seconds before u can actually use it. It's crashed in the middle of watching shows and I mean the TV is being used as a dumb tv with input from an external source and suddenly android reboots. It also covers the home screen with ads for shows/games/movies. If possible my next TV will just be a 60inch monitor

Our Samsung smart tv is super slow as well. It seems just smart tvs in general are awful.

Have you tried installing pi-hole on your network?

I recently did it and was stunned at the amount of phoning home from Roku, both telemetry and ads to serve.

After blocking the calls home with PiHole my Roku's performance also improved considerably

My Panasonic runs Firefox os. I use it for Netflix cos every android box I’ve tried is slow and laggy.

I own a Sony smart TV - it’s awful. Far and away the worst piece of consumer electronics I’ve ever owned. It’s ruined Sony for me as a brand. I always take the opportunity to tell people how much I hate it whenever the opportunity comes up.

Life imitates art: https://www.theonion.com/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-s...

I bought a Panasonic 1080P dumb TV a few years ago. Turns on instantly, no apps, no ads, no updates, no tracking. I have no idea what I'll do when it finally dies.

For streaming and playing media from my NAS I use an Nvidia SHIELD TV. It's based on the Tegra X1 so performance is on par with the Nintendo Switch. Really great bit of kit, and of course I can just chuck it out (or repurpose it as an emulator box) if it gets too annoying.

I'm not sure creating a network without no internet access is going to be a long term solution. It's entirely likely that they will create future functionality in these devices to cycle through open networks and networks to which they have credentials for until they find one with internet access.

I guess you could then add some user-important content to the walled-off network, like a basic SMB share. Maybe it will avoid disconnecting from the user-set network if it has user content. But yes, this isn't a very stable solution.

No vendor will use SMB to check for connectivity. They would check for relevant internet paths.

Though I doubt the companies would be ballsy enough to connect to unsecured networks, if that breaches laws in a country that the tv is sold it may have legal ramifications for the company.

Edit: then again my argument is based on logic and risk, not two factors marketing and sales teams consider very often..

HDMI will share its connection through the cable as well. So if you want to use a Chromecast or a BluRay player, etc, then your TV can get internet through that.

If you’re using a chromecast and also trying to keep your tv from phoning home what are you even doing? I mean I guess one fewer place having your info is good, but...

VLC supports casting to a local network Chromecast. It works fantastic.

And Plex!

There's also Cast All The Things (catt)[0], which makes any of the hundreds of websites supported by youtube-dl[1] cast-able.

[0] https://github.com/skorokithakis/catt/

[1] https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html

I hear this speculated a lot; is there any proof of this being done in the wild? Not trying to discredit, I think it's perfectly plausible, I'm just curious if any companies have been caught doing it

Apparently we now need HDMI condoms. Do such things exist?

Most probably there will be a market for HDMI cables with Ethernet specifically disabled - so, IMHO, there'll be sellers for it :)

Pretty useless. The number of devices that actually use Ethernet over HDMI is appromiately zero.

Can you please point to any consumer product that has implemented the Ethernet channel of HDMI?

I’d like to think that would be a CFAA violation, but I’m probably overly optimistic.

Wouldn't that be trying to circumvent security measures, and therefore very illegal in some jurisdictions?

One person's "security measure circumvention" is another person's "security measure".

> It entirely depends on manufacturer but I've heard of some actually seeking out open networks for internet access if you don't configure their Wi-Fi. Some people reported an unconnected TV suddenly prompted to update because the neighbour's wifi was unsecured. If you can, I'd set up a specific SSID with no LAN or WAN access just in case.

They probably will use 5G cellphone service eventually...

Many cars are similar nowadays too, except with cell phone service. It's very aggravating. Even if you don't pay for the 'safety' features and never turn it on. It used to be only on star but now even toyotas have it.

Assuming you don't pay a monthly fee for that, this means that there's a SIM with a free cellular data subscription somewhere in your car? :)

>Even given all that, Sony TVs are probably still the tamest smart TVs out there.

The article seems to say Vizio TVs are better for your privacy than other TVs. The article says Vizio TVs describe ARC in 100 words and people must select accept or decline.

That page you linked to says

>However, you can accept or decline Sony's Bravia privacy policy, as well as one for Samba TV, the ACR technology Sony uses. You have to scroll through the entire Bravia policy before you'll see the options for turning off various data-gathering features, including Sony Smart TV Services, Program Recommendations, Product Improvements, and Advertisements, as well as Samba TV.

This sounds like a harder process.

Vizio was the only company willing to have an employee be interviewed by The Washington Post. Samba didn't even reply to their emails.

FTC Vizio settlement: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/02/vizio...

Vizio is doing those things because the FTC is making them. (See @sologoub's comment) Before that they didn't even ask or tell you about it.

I doubt they're doing the interview because the FTC made them.

I was referring to the disclosure, simple privacy policy, and option to decline. I'm fairly certain the interview is one of many PR moves to restore their reputation.

Perhaps it is time to wrap our TVs and other consumer electronics in faraday tape.

I can't wait until my microwave tells the manufacturer how often I'm reheating my pizza.

I can see a future where it will be necessary to start opening up new consumer electronics and using small wire cutters, precision screwdrivers and needle nose pliers to physically rip out the Wi-Fi functionality.

Why would this be more likely to happen in the future? Is the future steampunk? Let’s try ripping WiFi chip off present day pcb and see what happens.

The more likely course of action is your microwave refusing to work without internet connection, so that it can verify the DRM on your pizza, make sure you are using only the approved, overpriced pizzas.

Also, it will be sold to the public as "verifying that you are using the fresh and genuine product".

You joke, but we already have this type of mess with Keurig, Nespresso Vertuo and that Silicon Valley juicer whose name I forgot.

Juicero.

I don't joke. I am a frequent reader of /r/shittykickstarters and it's a popular business model amongst these startup hardware products.

Oh... thats where you are going wrong, when reheating pizza it is best to use a pan, although the base may get crispy. The oven works quite well too. Sure they take longer but tastes so much better!

I can't wait for my iot pan and stove respectively tell their manufacturers how often i'm reheating pizzas. Maybe my iot stove fan will get there first. All way after my iot fridge ofc called home to tell me to buy more pizza.

I can totally imagine a future iot fan to have chemical sensors so that it can send a "fingerprint" of the food you're cooking ...

An air fryer works wonderfully to reheat pizza or anything else involving bread. If it's something thick like a sandwich, I'll give it a low power preheat in the microwave first.