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Comment by aquir | Hacker News Reader

Don’t ever connect your TV to the internet?

I'm expecting that later ones will contain methods to get out however they can, whether that's connecting to xfinity free wifi, connecting to a satellite, or having a cheap cell connection that is always on. They want your data and will do their damnedest to get it with/without your permission. Geolocation will be found. I'd expect they'll scan your local wifi SSIDs and send those too and ethernet MAC address to figure out who you are. There must be methods of using this info to wrangle your identity for marketing purposes.

There are still annoyances. Our TV finds every opportunity to send you to its home screen of apps, requiring me to reset the input to the PS5 that we use for Netflix etc. And regardless, I don't want to pay for a lousy customised Android with a bunch of crappy apps preinstalled.

Don't ever let anyone else connect your TV to the internet either.

Better be far enough from the neighbor's password less wifi.

Please provide a specific example of a tv that does that, or stop spreading misinformation.

I was just extrapolating. Why wouldn't a "smart" device connect to any wifi it has credentials for, and why wouldn't the implementation consider "has credentials" to include "it doesn't need any"?

But now I wonder why your aggressivity sounds so defensive.

Why wouldn't a "smart" device connect to any wifi it has credentials for, and why wouldn't the implementation consider "has credentials" to include "it doesn't need any"?

Practically because lots of "open" wifi networks have captive portals that don't actually get you Internet access without further action, and legally because using random networks without user confirmation is rather dodgy.

But now I wonder why your aggressivity sounds so defensive.

It's an urban legend that people keep repeating, and nobody can ever point to a specific case of it happening. It would be extremely easy to demonstrate: set up an open network, take a new or factory-reset TV, and wait.

Don't be so upset. Next time think twice before posting and check your sources. Don't spread misinformation and urban legends.

They nag.

This must be a very new or not universal feature. I have an Element E4AA70R 70" 4K UHD HDR10 Roku TV I picked up in mid-2023 for well below $1000. It has never once been connected to the internet, and it doesn't nag me.

I rented an apartment that had an LG. It showed a FOMO-inducing popup every week.

Any information on model number so people can compare, learn from your experience, etc?

Might still be possible to jailbreak LG TVs. Not sure what the quality of the homebrew TV firmware situation is like though. Maybe not stable enough for family use.

I have an LG C3. The old jailbreak no longer works.

I keep avoiding the upgrade to keep the possibility open. At some point they force upgrade your firmware.

My Phillips 65" doesn't. I just have it connected to my old PC via HDMI. Don't need any smart features.

I’ve had plenty of RokuTVs and my previous home had wired gig e Internet in every room. I plugged the TV to the Ethernet to get software updates, unplugged it, set the TV to always switch to the HDMI port with my AppleTV connected and never thought about the Roku again.

The AppleTV supports CEC and controls the power and the volume.

No nagging

Maybe some brands do (feel free to name them). My Samsung does not.

However, if you do connect, then Samsung pushes so many updates (more ads) than anyone else. My ancient samsung tv in the garage was getting weekly updates for some reason.

Some brands are better than others. I bought a Sony Bravia TV less than a year ago. The nags are infrequent (maybe every fifth time I turn it on) and unobtrusive (a toast notification pops up in the upper right corner of the screen for a few seconds; it's gone by the time the Fire Stick UI comes up).

Getting rid of ads on the streaming stick and various streaming services is an interesting challenge though...

I've not experience that on my TCL.

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