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Comment by sivers | Hacker News Reader

Sorry for my dumb question, but the timing of this topic is perfect because I'm just now considering getting my first TV.

Can't I just get a nice OLED smart TV and NEVER connect it to the internet?

Put MP4/MKV movies onto a USB stick and watch them in "AUX/USB" mode? Or use HDMI from my computer, and just treat it as a big monitor?

It might ask me to connect, but I can just decline and keep watching the USB/HDMI inputs, right?

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You’ll still have slow startup and splash screens and the like, but yes.

It would be nice if top-of-the-line models were available with instant-on and unobtrusive UIs, like CRTs used to be.

Yeah, the start-up can be atrocious on low-end smart TVs. I had a Samsung that I more often than not would turn off before it turned on, because I thought it hadn't registered the input from the on/off button.

And as salt in the wound, turning off takes like 10 seconds.

Hahaha. I dug into the setting on my newish tv and found an option for the tv to make a little chime when turned on and off. It is so nice because the sound will play right away even if the tv hasnt visibly started to turn on/off yet. It's the only thing that saves me from hitting power multiple times and being unsure what state the tv is in.

You absolutely can. But you'll want to pay attention to how insistent the TV is when it comes to being disconnected from the internet. I have an offline Samsung that will occasionally prompt me to accept the terms of service, which obviously fails because it's offline. I can imagine there are some brands/models that are more pushy.

I’ve been very happy with my Sony in this regard. Its OS is extremely basic Android TV and it doesn’t bug you at all if you don’t connect it to the internet. Newer models than the one I have also come with a “basic TV” mode that disables most of the Android TV bells and whistles.

Yeah Sony means a higher price, so it’s not going to be as cheap as some other options, but peace is worth a lot of money in my opinion…

Which Sony models? I have a Bravia and it's android TV all the way, no basic / dumb mode.

XBR75X900F, which is a 2018 model and made before they added basic TV mode in 2021.

Also depends on the model, my Samsung TV from 2022 hasn't bugged me about anything yet when offline.

I have a Samsung oled from 2022, I think S95B. It’s technically connected to the local network (I still want it to be usable with home assistant), but denied all connections at the firewall level. I don’t recall it bothering me about anything, and I pretty much always turn it on directly into Apple TV.

Same here. I have an older LG model with a Nvidia Shield hooked up. I never even get terms of service prompts.

My Vizio just turns into a dumb tv if I say “no” during setup.

Since all I need it to do is come on automatically when the Apple TV turns on, it works great.

How often does it nag you to say yes, while using it as a dumb TV? are all features usable in that mode? I may need to rethink a Vizio if that's the case and not annoying.

Mine only does that if I accidentally hit the TV+ button on the remote. So I took the remote apart and disconnected that button from the board. Problem solved.

Otherwise it turns on quickly and it's just a dumb tv. Perfect.

It's never nagged me as far as I can remember, and changing input and volume work fine (though it always stays silent on HDMI 1 with EARC).

Of course, none of the "smart TV" things work, and it's not connected to a network, but I don't need those.

how old is it? vizio used to collect everything without your knowledge and got sued.

Not the person you responded to but I never connect my vizio tv to the internet

> Can't I just get a nice OLED smart TV and NEVER connect it to the internet?

Until they start shipping wideband chips in them. Make sure your helpful in-laws don’t connect it either.

Connect it but block traffic at the firewall. Or intercept it all. Traffic shape it, MITM it, etc.

The biggest concern to me is built in 5g etc.

I could imagine a future TV requires phoning home every 30 days or else it stops functioning. Single network source for both the "license" check + the ad network so as to simple deny rules.

Yes, of course it will have a grace period (of similar length to the store return period) before it starts up. This will all be buried in the EULA you didn't read.

I would bet “similar length + 7 days” so you won’t know about the requirement until after you can’t return it.

This is actually the smart question in a dumb discussion.

None of these TV show ads unless you connect them to the Internet. If it’s a big deal to avoid ads, plug them into a media center PC or an Apple TV.

We have an Apple TV connected to an LG OLED. We very rarely use Blu-Rays but we have a Blu-Ray player also connected.

The family has been instructed to never connect the LG TV to WiFi.

Anyway, I'm sure you could use HDMI from your computer and that seems easier than dealing with a USB stick.

That's how I setup and use my C2, which is fairly performant and non-egregious as far as smart panels go. It's not strictly necessary, but I even install firmware from USB.

Can it play +50GB remux mkvs from a USB pendrive?

I haven't tried direct playback, but the ports are USB 2.0 which should work for anything with a bitrate below 480Mbps.

LG TV - Supported Video Codecs For Connected USB Devices: https://www.lg.com/us/support/help-library/lg-tv-supported-v...

For now (see e.g. [1]), though companies with surveillance capitalist business models are not only abusive but often sneaky and may do things like include a surreptitious prepaid mobile connection to better thwart your wishes. You really can't trust the bastards.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/hdmi-customized-ad-i...

Note that HDMI has an option for running ethernet over it. Probably invented by the advertising industry.

You might be better off buying a big monitor instead of a TV.

Why is HDMI Ethernet brought up so often in Smart TV posts here and on Reddit?

HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC) was added to the HDMI spec in 2009 to allow Blu-ray players to access the internet without a direction connection.

There are zero devices ever released that support HEC.

There are zero OEM HDMI chipsets that support HEC.

The streaming device manufacturers have no incentive to enable this feature.

It's a nice reminder that a good amount of people on HN/Reddit have no idea what they're talking about, even if they use acronyms.

People don't want solutions. They want to be mad.

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