Samsung says it can remotely disable stolen TVs

The "smart" part is for the manufacturer's benefit more so than the user. However, if these "smart" TVs are never connected to the internet, how will they become "disabled"?

The only way I can see is if the TV is actually "disabled" by default and must be connected to the internet to "enable" it after purchase. In which case, they're not really "disabling" but declining to "enable".

It's getting hard to find one but all I want is a big display screen --- a dumb TV. I'll add my own "smarts", thank you very much.