Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features

arstechnica.com

20 pointskotaKat5 comments

I only use the Jellyfin/Plex apps on Xbox, never any Vizio apps, and the TV has never been online. Would this change affect users like me at all?

> Vizio OS has required a Vizio account since mid-2024

If you were impacted, you ought to already have been by now. Can’t be as sure if you buy a new Vizio TV what will happen, though.

I'm not sure what the boundaries of Vizio OS are. If it's what runs when you switch to their smart apps input, I'll never see it. But if it's their basic settings menu and you can't use the HDMI inputs without an account, that's a dealbreaker.

If it has been in place since 2024 then you can just say "no" to the terms screen, and it turns into a dumb TV that turns on when ARC tells it to, and off when told to.

Lovely. No need to connect it to network or wifi or anything, it just sits and does what it needs to do.

Not as bad as Roku TVs which needs an account to do basic features

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