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Comment by bagacrap | Hacker News Reader

Can't you just remove the smart TV's internet access (no wifi pw, no Ethernet) and treat it as dumb? Then attach a Chromecast or whatever "smart" dongle you think has the best UI.

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Depends, but generally yes, for now. In the near future though you're likely to see smart TV's and similar devices with dedicated SIM cards and cellular modems that can't be disabled.

What do you mean by similar devices?

Other appliances. Set top boxes, refrigerators, washing machines, doorbells, anything someone thinks should be part of the "Internet of Things" product line they sell.

> similar devices with dedicated SIM cards and cellular modems that can't be disabled.

All such radios can be disabled, if not by removing the antenna, then by enclosing it in a faraday cage. It is chilling, though, that these things may become necessary for basic things like appliances.

It also really affects the viewing angle.

This is definitely one approach, but I would actually just prefer a full computer, because I do sometimes run other software that is simply not available on any dongles.

One downside though is that I only have a couple HDMI ports to work with, so between a Nintendo Switch and a full desktop PC I'm already using all of the ports.

Also, even though I love the NVIDIA Shield, I find it does not really integrate as well as I hoped via HDMI CEC. It's a bit clunky to be honest, and though it's cool I can use the TV remote over CEC, it is definitely not as good as using the Shield remote, due to latency and some weird behavioral differences. So there are also downsides like that, too...

My shield also keeps stealing focus. When I turn on the switch, the TV turns on, then the shield turns on and steals focus from the switch, and I have to go grab the tv remote and turn it back to the Switch again.

Pressing the Home button on the Switch controller automatically changes the input source to the Switch, on my TV.

Get a Sofabaton u1. Programmable universal ir and Bluetooth remote. You can map the buttons to control both at once.

Typically you'd buy a receiver to take all the HDMI inputs and power speakers and control which source went to the TV via a single HDMI cord. My receiver has something like 6 HDMI ports. Smart TVs have attempted to invert this relationship by accepting HDMI and splitting audio out to the receiver, but you don't have to play along.

I remember reading in another of these threads that the TV will try to connect to open networks or neighboring networks that they know the passwords to (like Xfinity). But I can't find any good source through a quick search, so this might just be HN rumors.

Keeping the comment in case anyone does have a source. If no response, let's assume rumor.

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