Another bonus is my TV UI hasn’t changed despite changing and upgrading TV brands.
I repurpose the old laptops that I seem to accumulate for this. Just about anything made in the last 10 years can handle at least 1080p video, and will have an HDMI output. I add a small wireless keyboard and use my regular desktop environment. But you can add a remote and use one of the open source media centre suites.
I do wish more TVs had a monitor-like sleep mode and accepted the command for it over HDMI. And were actually low power when they sleep. That seems to be pretty spotty.
It's also useful to have the Unified Remote server [2] running on the media computer so you can control it from your phone when you need to.
(not sure if it's discontinued btw; I struggled to find it in Canada last few years; but there are seemingly-identical unbranded alternatives usually available on amazon, e.g. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08H8LH7GP/ )
I needed another one for work a while back and ended up buying one of these (at $15, not the current price): https://www.amazon.ca/Computer-Accessories-Wireless-Keyboard...
It's actually relatively good, but not as good as the N5902.
https://www.amazon.ca/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-Compatible-Raspb...
Of course it's not a real keyboard and mouse but it works fine.
I do use an universal remote most of the time though (Harmony 700), but I use the Rii when I exit Kodi and I'm back to my HTPC's Linux environment. The Rii is then enough to open a browser and YouTube, for example.
[1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/LGOLED/comments/vhbqru/remove_trend...
https://www.inverse.com/tech/sony-2023-4k-smart-tv-picture-q...
Rtings is currently running a huge 2 year burn in test with 100 TVs [1], and have had major burn in issues on both their Sony and Samsung QD-OLEDs (while the LG WOLEDs don't have burn in issues, though their G2 had a column of pixels fail).
The LG G3 seems to compete with the QD-OLED panels in terms of colour and brightness this year with its MLA panel [2], but I'm not sure if it's worth the increased cost for most people compared to buying last year's C2.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my1lyUE7WVM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEnChcCQ2Dc
Edit: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/tvs-on-the-market
edit: Appears to be an urban legend, with not much substance to back it up!
Mostly theoretical though.
But I think you are right this could potentially let the device connect itself :(
I'm sure someday it'll be impossible because they'll embed 5G chips and do it over cell without involving your consent, but that day isn't here yet.
On a 70" 4K TV a pixel is about 0.4 mm x 0.4 mm. If the mesh were close to the screen I think about 30% of the pixels would have wire in front of them. Of those 30%, 1/6 would both a horizontal and a vertical wire in front (let's not go crazy and talk about orienting the mesh diagonally or anything like that), and 5/6 would only have one wire in front of them. So that's 70% of pixels not interfered with, 25% having one wire in front of them, and 5% having two wires.
The 25% with one wire crossing would have about 20% of the pixel occluded by the wire. The 5% with two wires crossing them would have about 36% occluded.
My guess is that the screen could be seen pretty well through that.
I've seriously considered getting a roll and building a cage.
There's also emf paint that one could use.
Works pretty well for MR at 3T (which is actually more like 2.89T) though - 125Mhz ish.
Then of course there’s a lack of 5G. I certainly don’t have any where I live. Just about have 1 bar of 4g near the window.
WiFi/Cellular convergence as a concept also doesn't seem like the most unlikely future.
So they'll add a $50 LTE/5G modem to the BOM just to save the trouble of entering a password using arrow keys, a process that takes maybe 2-3 minutes?
I've seen others in this thread argue embedded cellular isnt worth the cost, but this misses the critical point - if it costs almost nothing (we are close to this point already) and is already built into every off the shelf SoC, of course manufacturers will use it. We are talking pennies per unit at scale here in future.
The auto industry has already done this - Ford for example have embedded cellular analytics you can't turn off (or at least its non-obvious to me as an owner) on every single new Ford and has done so for several years now, and you don't pay a penny as the end user, even on their most basic entry level cars.
Same goes for any other appliance that radiates RF signals (IoT, etc.).
If cell access is essential, what happens in a place without cell access, much of Alaska perhaps?
I hate to think of all the lawsuits resulting from drivers who drive into locations where cells are out of range and get stranded.
Similarly, what happens when the cell phone system breaks down? And does that mean I can't buy a car if I live in an area with intermittent, weak or no cell or internet service? Hate to think what the manufacturer's sales department would think of that.
On the matter of reverse engineering, it seems to me we're just on the cusp of that. Hackers as still getting organized and aftermarket manufacturers have still to tool up for complete computer replacement kits. Reckon we're only at the very beginning of whole new industry.
Oh, I nearly forgot, the Right to Repair movement has only just begun to get organized. If manufacturers try to stop us altering something we've paid goid money for then they'll be in for a long political fight.
I do this on old smartphones that I have no intention of ever using as a phone again (say for testing APS etc.). It's dead easy, a razor blade through the circuit board tracks that connect to the antenna(s) and it's all over—no phone, with or without SIM (i.e.: no emergency service) and no WiFi or Bluetooth.
Very simple really.
This coffee machine is equipped with M2M (Machine to Machine) techology which may be activated in due time with your agreement. Thanks to a SIM card already integrated in the machine, such network connections will offer new services (subject to further terms and conditions) to its customers and improve the after sales process by automatically communicating machine troubleshooting / diagnostics to our Customer Relationship Centre (depending on country requirements and specificities).
https://www.nespresso.com/shared_res/manuals/zenius/www_Zeni...
And if coffee pods don't come with always-online DRM yet, I'm honestly surprised at Nespresso's lack of dedication to this dystopia.
If so, then there would be hell to pay the first time if happened. If it works sans connection, then do what I've said elsewwhere and that's to cut or short out the antenna lead.
Removing the SIM may be deemed provocative by the manufacturer, if there's no signal reception then that's a different matter (the user can't be blamed).
I wonder if I can use it for mobile data.
All over, done permanently. Never another internet connection.
There'd be hell to pay if they ever did that. Moreover, it'd be impossible to keep the fact quiet if deployed at any reasonable scale.
A much bigger looming threat is the possible closure of terrestrial Free-to-Air TV broadcasting (it was an early agenda item to be discussed at the 2028 WARC/WRC (World Administrative Radio Conference) but was dropped early on.
That it ever got there in the first instance is a very big worry, it shows that people in high places have been or are considering such a move).
The Samsung was very chatty, but didn’t connect to an unsecured wifi network I had setup for testing.
It’s gone now and an equally chatty Sony is in its place - with not network access.
It won't forget network passwords without a full reset. So if you connect to download firmware then disable the connection, it is one click away from someone re-enabling it. If there's an unsecured network available, you're only 2-3 clicks away from joining that.
With other people in the house using it, the only way to reliably keep it off the internet is to connect it to a network, allow it to verify the connection works, then block it from making any more outgoing connections at the router level. It seems to be ok with this situation and doesn't complain too much.
My original plan was to setup HDMI CEC and lock away the Samsung Remote to prevent people from getting into trouble. But when the TV is turned on vi HDMI CEC, half the time it wants to immediately run the OLED refresh cycle, and will automatically shut off and start doing that unless you actively prevent it from doing so with the remote. This is annoying because they have a setting to run the OLED refresh at night when not in use. It's almost like they sabotaged this use case on purpose to force people to interact with the Samsung UI.
I should have bought a projector, assuming one can still get projectors that aren't similarly infected.
I will not make the mistake of ever connecting one of these to the internet again, and if I have to buy a Giant monitor for 2k, so be it.
I'm 90% sure that the flash drive on the TV wore out and they want me to replace what is otherwise great working hardware for features I don't even want anymore.
About a third of the time it will insist my Xbox is a 1440p/60Hz input, and I can do nothing about it except reboot all the things.
It spams me with in-screen notifications at least once a week with either Privacy Policy updates or advertising new apps or TV shows.
Great TV but definitely need to leave it unconnected.
One of the recent updates to my TV's software introduced bugs to a feature I use a lot. It is very infuriating, and it's one of the reasons I refuse to buy an expensive TV. Even if the hardware is good, I'm one software update away from a piece of garbage.
I'm never buying another "smart" TV.
It’s less cringy than ‘oh, it’s <the_store_name@<my_domain>.com’
My Roku one has none of those problems.
It's 1/4 the area, minus all features, AND the same price!? 8-/
It's a great option, for dell shareholders...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#HDMI_Ethernet_and_Audio_R...
Unfortunately it follows that with "occasionally connect the TV to the internet for a minute to see if it needs any firmware updates" which is pointless if the TV is already working properly.
Perflyst and Dandelion Sprout's Smart-TV Blocklist
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/m...
Kodi.TV on an ARM board is my preferred way to avoid Apple surveillance.
2. Google already knows everything I do and I trust them more than TCL.
Playing a stream from the dongle just freezes after 30s. I'm pretty sure it's the TCL hdmi implementation, because the dongle has been utterly flawless previously.
Also! your average joe would think this is for the Google account and would probably put in their Google password. I found an option to use a link number instead. How many Google passwords have been exposed to TCL?
It's 1/4 the area, minus all features, AND the same price!? 8-/
It's a great option, for dell shareholders...
They typically broadcast on 43-33 cm band, (700-900mhz), and 2.4/5 ghz.
You'd also be wrong about Apple's privacy protection.
I've always found its better to know than not know, since you can only control what you know about.
Except that as we saw with the CSAM debacle from a couple years ago, Apple will absolutely be scanning any device they have for anything they deem unsavory. I still can't believe people think Apple is a benign player in all of this
Apple and Google both scan images uploaded to their cloud for CSAM. Apple decided that they had the horsepower to do it on the device instead for only those images that would be uploaded to the cloud with the apparent intention of enabling end-to-end encryption for photos.