Link: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/oct/20/smart-tv-television-dumb-wifi-techies-privacy

More consumers are becoming worried about how their information is being used by manufacturers. “There are increasing privacy concerns around to what degree TVs are essentially scraping your data,” says Parsons. “TVs these days are full of sensors, including microphones, and that can make people nervous.”

But according to Parsons, despite interest in “dumber” models from some buyers, most shoppers want their TVs to be catch-all entertainment systems. The result is that the dumb TV market is almost nonexistent.

at my house

Throw up a Pihole, blast everything that doesnt break the device into tartarus, and avoid vizio because apparently they dont work with their phone homes blocked. Fuck the world we built.

So..

Turns out you can hack your smart TV, and by giving it administrative access (for me it was going into settings, type 1-2-3-4-5, and the select developer mode) and you can get complete control.

I can now stream whatever the hell I like with no interacting with their menus whatsoever. all happens from my server via a html browser and some basic python.

All it took was an impending fascist police state...

Just block WiFi to the TV entirely and use an Apple TV or nvidia shield.

What TV?

They can still get around that. They talk device to device, and can send your data off via any connected device they know how to talk to. Even your neighbor's. LG was the one who specifically confirm this in their terms, iirc. So, don't trust entire brands, or better, zero spying "smart" devices.

I have people in my house that just want to use their TV and were not happy when I tried to attach a computer to the back. Unfortunately, not everyone in the world cares even when we show them why they should.

What was their hang up? Like how would they not be able to use their TV? I literally do not even use the normal TV interface. It starts straight up into Apple TV using the Apple remote.

They didnt like the remotes for the computers, they didnt like the interfaces I chose, apparently a computer that doesnt sleep, doesnt lock, and always launches a full screen app selection is not at all like a Roku or Samsung smart TV interface -.-

Oh like an actual computer. I thought you were just calling a nvidia shield or apple tv a computer.

No I have a few m70q machines from my work. They've just become my home servers instead.

That one I got at Costco but had only turned on once because once I did I found it to be so profoundly packed with slopvertisements. Since then it sat unused in my office.

But now I'm able to stream whatever I like and have full control of telemetry data. That being said, I could bork it all up at any time so, it might become a brick. Bit it had been a brick alr day for a few years.

WHAT TV?! Make, model, and firmware revision, specifically!

6 months ago I ditched my TV and bought a projector instead because I was tired of so much space being taken up by a black rectangle. The projector is still GoogleTV enabled, so that I can easily stream jellyfin, but it spends 95% of the day unplugged in the closet. And I have its access locked down via firewall. Maybe I'm growing into an old grouch, but it suits me I guess.

I rooted my LG TV. Specifically a 65UT8000AUA from Costco.

That didn't answer the question, my guy.

that's really good to know... our tv from the early 2010s is dying and we're gonna need one sooner rather than later, so it's good to know that there's an actual option that costs less than a commercial display.

Last time we bought a TV we really wanted to buy a big monitor and skip the smart features, but the monitors they make in reasonable TV sizes are mostly designed to be menus at restaurants or lobby displays and don’t have the featureset for gaming

Samsung, but that doesn't matter. What matters:

Novatek NT72671D, four Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.35 GHz, firmware-described 1.5G RAM configuration, 7.281 GiB eMMC user area.

I think a bunch of TV"s use this same board. It comes up as a hisense, but I promise its labeled a samsung.

Awesome, thanks!

(I do still want to know which specific Costco SKU contains (or "SKUs contain") that board, though.)

Look its not going to be a popular opinion but...

Jumping in here as I'm confused as well. If they don't like your interface, they can switch inputs and do their own thing. ?

Ah, the catch is I myself do not watch TV. So I wasn't going to leave computers where they weren't wanted. Since the intended users didnt like them and I myself dont watch TV they got moved to the rack and other uses were found. If I really wanna watch something my friend has a Plex server I'll pull up on my browser. That's where I pretty much just watch Star Trek.

Brb, taking mine apart to remove the wifi antenna and microphones.

Better fuck up your neighbors too if you want to be sure.

Got it, mostly. We don't watch TV either. Everything streams from my PC to a 55" TV that acts as a second monitor. PirateBay -> VLC, works great. I do have a Jellyfin server but the VLC controls are more convenient if I take the mouse to the coffee table. Why can't other media players do the 200% boost thing?! And mouse-scroll volume, can't live without it.

Reverse engineering this kind of shit and using it against big tech is like the one use of AI that I fully support. Just not as a permanent solution.