Hacker News Reader

Comment by dvdbloc | Hacker News Reader

Pro tip for other people with 2019 and 2018 Samsung Smart TVs, if you back out of the network config and never set it up during the initial config or after a factory reset the TV will never show any ads and will never have the annoying icons for its own apps in the menus. If you attempt to use these features the TV will kindly remind you that you are not connected to the internet/have no accepted the user agreement. I have done this on all of my Samsung TVs and the result is a much cleaner UI.

View on HN

Alternatively, don't buy samsung TVs on principal.

Normally I’d agree with you, however when laying out things like picture quality between brand and cost, many times Samsung comes out on top and that’s why I end up going with them.

i have read repeatedly on this site that it is effectively impossible to buy a new dumb tv unless you get the kind of commercial ones meant for installation on walls in commercial buildings etc

Nope. I purchased a dumb tv from Sam's Club in June of this year. It's a 4k 55 inch vizio. Cost me all of $300.

Edit- my bad, it was a Hitachi. The vizio tv I have was purchased last year. However both are dumb, they have no internet capabilities at all

You can find them on Amazon pretty easily. That's how I bought my 4k dumb TV.

Just beware that some models don’t have speakers.

Even better. Can we go any dumber?

No channel controls? TV automatically switches to a whoever has made a better deal with the manufacturer?

That sounds like a traditional "smart" feature to me. Dumb could be a manual selection of HDMI input without scanning for the signal.

I have a pretty dumb TV with no apps or internet features, but I'll admit that the one "smart-ish" feature I do kind of appreciate is support for CEC controls over HDMI.

It makes it a bit more convenient to switch between my Roku/Switch/PC when I can push a button on the remote to have the devices ping the TV themselves.

I do prefer a dumb TV, but it doesn't have to be completely brainless.

"... effectively impossible to buy a new dumb tv unless you get the kind of commercial ones meant for installation on walls in commercial buildings ..."

Which is great news - they are fantastic displays, they last forever, and they behave just like a very big computer monitor.

NEC commercial displays (P461, for instance) are not expensive. I highly recommend you look into it.

i intend to next time i need a tv, but most people aren't thinking so much about their tv's spying on them

any idea if simply using HDMI only on a 2016 model stops "phone home" behaviors? The wifi is setup on the device, almost certainly, but never on the TV mode

Reply on news.ycombinator.com