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by rotifer 520 days ago
A year or so ago I bought a Hisense 65U88KM, which comes with Google TV. During the setup procedure it asked me if I wanted to enable the "smart" features, such as Google TV, the camera and microphone, or connect it to a network. I said no to all of them, and that was that.

Now it just acts as a dumb screen for my Apple TV box.
1 comments
Astronaut3315 520 days ago
I did the same with a Sony A80L, which also runs Google TV. I even uninstalled the bundled streaming apps for good measure, although I never see the home screen.

It behaves like a monitor. I never see the TV UI unless I ask for it.

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RajT88 520 days ago
My LG could be configured to behave like this (and believe me, I am thinking about going that way).

I have a cheap FireTV which cannot be made to behave this way. If you disconnect it from the internet, it will still require you to interact with the (slow-ass clunky) OS in order to select a different input.

Your best case scenario with some of these smart TV's is the ones which run Android to replace the launcher. Possibly, this gets reset periodically, meaning you have to keep doing it.

Apparently there's a few Fire devices which can be flashed with LineageOS - I might try researching that and see if it is doable. A FireTV stick with LineageOS would be the best case scenario.

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dexterdog 520 days ago
I find that most of those reset to some nonsense occasionally or whenever the power goes out. I make sure they have no internet connectuon, but I usually have to dig up the remote to get back to hdmi1 so my device interface will come back up. I accept the annoyance because I accepted the discount that they give to have all of the spyware crap on there that I am blocking. I wish they could sell something cheaper that is just a display, buy product managers will be product managers.
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CharlesW 520 days ago
> I wish they could sell something cheaper that is just a display…

The "smart" part is what makes TVs cheaper, since that's what opens the door to a higher CLV. People willing to put their money where their mouth is can still buy dumb displays: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/Multimedia-Displays-Di...

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dexterdog 517 days ago
Which is why I buy them and then cripple all of that stuff by not giving it a network connection.
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