this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
139 points (97.9% liked)

Privacy

33589 readers
679 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I ran my old 2004 Samsung television into the ground: the EL backlight was so worn out that the picture had large dark holes in it, and the TV would take 20 minutes to warm up and display something.

And today it wouldn't start at all anymore. It's deader than a dead dodo. But hey, 20 years for a modern TV ain't bad. I'm pretty pleased with that.

So I went to the supermarket to find the cheapest set I could find. I asked the salesman if they had a cheap, but most importantly NON-SMART TV - thinking non-smart TVs are probably the cheapest of them all, if they still existed at all.

The man said "We have this dumb 43" TV here, but it's the last one, and then we won't get anymore dumb TVs for 3 months."

I looked at the price and it was - gasp - $20 MORE than the cheapest Android-encumbered smart TV of the same size.

I asked the man how come and he said "Well, dumb TVs are hard to get and they sell almost immediately. So they're worth more than the smart ones."

Wow. So people actually WANT dumb TVs and are willing to pay a premium for em. It means attitudes towards the value of privacy are changing and that's great!

all 33 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

That's a nice thought. Thank you for sharing

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 hours ago

I suspect the vast majority of people are buying dumb TVs because android TV sucks, not for privacy reasons. I'm willing to bet most go home and plug their Chromecast or FireTV stick right in.

So as long as android TV sucks, its good news for us.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago

I asked the man how come and he said “Well, dumb TVs are hard to get and they sell almost immediately. So they’re worth more than the smart ones.”

He's wrong. They're cheaper because the manufacturer makes money off selling advertisements.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Smart TVs are subsidized by selling your data.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

"subsidized" – TVs sold perfectly well before they were flooded with ads. Ads and selling user data just mean more money for CEOs. Always more, MORE, MOOORE PROFIT!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yes because 3k I paid for the large oled needed to be subsidized 🤡

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

If they can make money off you, they will.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

I've always wanted to ask a billionaire how much was enough, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't understand the question. Enough? What's that?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago

That's why I deny the parasite engagement and profit, every chance I get 🐸

We got a class war on our hands, normies are just oblivious

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Dumb TVs aren’t subsidized by ads

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Neither are all but the cheapest smart TVs.

It's called double and triple dipping. Every single company that can get away with double, triple, quadruple dipping can and does.

Buying the initial product + Subscription + selling your data + dropping support to force you to buy a new product is quite commonplace. The old mantra of "if you are not paying, you are the product" doesn't apply anymore because most companies do both.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

Well normies accept abuse, why would my daddy capital NOT extract that extra profit.

[–] _haha_oh_wow_ 18 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Look up "commercial displays" - that'll get you what you're looking for!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago

It's exactly what I got: it has the telltale PCMCIA connector on the side and a store mode in the menu.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Simple solution: buy a smart TV and never connect it to the internet.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Many smart TVs still give you popups telling you to connect to the internet or they simply refuse work without connection. There's not a very good way to tell if any smart TV you get will do this ahead of time without looking over reviews, and even then many people just connect their TVs anyway so it might not show up there either.

I'd prefer to just have a display that works as a display from the start and not have to worry about it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 minutes ago

Ask the sales rep if it works without internet, and if they're wrong, demand a refund.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

if u dont connect to the internet, wont it be dumb?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Often it will yell at you every day and be very intrusive, not actually disconnect from the internet and force join any old WiFi connections/any non-password protected ones, or simply refuse to work unless you connect them (I think some people were saying newer Samsung TVs do that)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

When your teevee behaves like Harvey Weinstein....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

My neighbor has a smart TV and it keeps bitching and moaning when it's not connected to the internet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

I got a Sharp Android smart tv last year when my 2006 Samsung died and it works great without internet access. Cheapest one there was.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

Now I'm picturing the TV sounding like Marge Simpson's sisters.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago

If you are not able to find a dumb TV, I recommend Google based TVs (GTVs). Unlike some Roku based TVs, GTVs will boot and work just fine even if you never configure their network access. If you do opt to enable network access on a GTV, you can set up static IP addresses on them, including PiHole as DNS.

My wife likes the convenience of a smart TV in her office so I DMZ'd it so that it has no access to our home network and it goes through a dedicated PiHole on a Pi Zero. Neither the Roku or LG TVs we had allowed for this, so I sold the RokuTV and I connected the LG to a thin client with a Bluetooth remote.

PS: Hisense makes a great 4K TV that goes to shit the moment you connect it to the network because of inadequate computing power, low memory, and bad code (memory leaks). If you don't connect it to a network and use it as a dumb TV, it is great display for very little money.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

This won't work if you use actual, classic TV. But I researched for a fair while and found none of the dumb TVs are cheaper than low end smart TVs. Not by a long shot. So I got a giant computer screen instead. I just connect my switch or my laptop.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Just an FYI that the Smart cancer has already began infecting computer monitors. It won’t be long until there are no more dumb monitors.

Samsung and LG make smart computer monitors. There are probably many others.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Well that just made my day a little worse

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

What store was this? And what was the brand of the TV?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It's a store in Sweden where I reside 6 months per year, and the brand is Finlux.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Must be a good store if you stay there half the year

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Hit up thrift stores they always have a pile in decent shape. Just test them at an outlet