Televisions that can stream platforms like Hulu or Max usually come loaded with technology that collects information on what viewers are watching, and buyers consent to have their viewing tracked when they open their new TV and click through terms of service agreements. Sometimes, data firms can connect those viewing habits to a voter’s phone or laptop via their IP address, promising a trove of information about an individual and the ability to track them across screens.
Other times, firms focus on dividing households into groups based on what they’re watching, how they use their TVs and how many campaign ads they’re seeing, which is a boon to political campaigns eager to target specific groups of voters. Connecting this data to voter files is increasingly a focus — a move that adds individual voting habits into the mix.
The more and more of stuff like this I see, the kore I just wan’t to buy the cheapest possible mini pc, make it tv remote controllable and just put it to open jellyfin directly that’s connected to my home media server.
And then hook it up to the most dumb tv I can fijd with decent picture quality.
I wish there were more high quality dumb TVs. Most of the dumb TVs I can find today are both very expensive and lack the features I’m looking for like HDR and 120hz+ frame rates.
I know the argument is that the privacy invasions are subsidizing the cost of the TV but I have yet to see non-anecdotal evidence of that and suspect that the price of the TV would be the same either way because the market will only support so much expense.
Just don’t let it connect to internet.
There are no good dumb teevees for home use
It will work at a premium cost, and only until they start selling them with LTE chips buried away in the motherboard.
Punish me harder daddy… No doubt on LTE chip tho haha
LTE? That costs money. But do you remember that 5G has a low range, kind-of P2P variant?
That is the solution. Connect your box to the internet, never the TV.
It’s becoming harder to find TVs that will operate without a network connection
Even if you just passing your device to it?
Yeah, I’ve seen it on some Samsungs and LGs that get real pissy when the TV itself isn’t online. I’ve also heard of some brands (that I don’t remember atm) that won’t even let you go through the initial setup without a connection.
I use computer monitors for TVs. Mostly because they’re smaller and I don’t have that much space for stuff. Most have all those features but don’t have a smart interface. I plug them in over HDMI and make sure CEC is enabled so I can turn it on and off with a dumb remote the RasPi. Works pretty well actually.
I’m biased but I think everyone should do this. You can basically find the hardware you’d need out of a dumpster, and then you can slowly build your library from there.
The best and possibly only dumb TV brand is Spectre.
https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.html?sort=tbt.parent_pdtype&order=DESC
Source: framework CEO https://community.frame.work/t/in-defense-of-dumb-tvs/160
Disclaimer: have not tried them.
As others have said, just buy a TV that meets your A/V needs and don’t connect it to the internet.
I know everyone talks about Jellyfin these days, but Kodi is an excellent option too if you don’t need streaming to multiple devices. I use Kodi via LibreElec on an rpi4 and it’s been great. All media is stored on my home server and shared over Samba, but you can easily store it locally on the box if you don’t have a server.
For music streaming, I run a separate instance of miniDLNA on my server, since I like to browse-by-directory for my music instead of relying solely on metadata. This also allows you to stream to any DLNA-friendly device on the LAN.
I’ve digitized my disc collection and just keep the physical media as a backup. The local library has a huge selection of media too…and if we don’t use it, we’ll lose it.
I have my own Emby server and I would love to have a dumb TV instead of my current one. Problem is its 4K screen has absolutely SPOILED me and I don’t wanna go back. And I’ve heard it’s difficult to find a 4K dumb TV.
Also, and most importantly, I’m the kind of person who uses something until it won’t work anymore. The way I see it is “My TV is currently 6 years old and yet still working fine so why would I buy another when I don’t need one.” (Why generate unnecessary waste?) So, I’m waiting until it dies to get another.
Our Smart TV is offline 99% of the time, so I rarely see the smart features. We’ll sometimes have company stay over and they’ll connect the Ethernet to use the built-in streaming apps with their own credentials, so it’s a nice option to have and it doesn’t impact us otherwise.
I honestly don’t know why you wouldn’t just do jellyfin, unless you’re limited by your hardware and kodi somehow has less overhead?
They’re both free I guess. You can try them on and see how well they serve tour use case
JF’s UI hasn’t really done it for me for whatever reason…I have it running in an LXC already and mostly use it at my workstations.
I’ve tried to do this a few times, and unfortunately it feels like you really have to go all in on managing your own content library.
Like many, I had stopped pirating shit when netflix etc were “good”.
None of the streaming services want you to use them outside of their official sites/apps, so you end up being limited to like 720p when running them through kodi etc.
I never touched streaming services, mostly cause they came to my country 2years ago and were already shit they are now, plus cost me too much to even afford one.
So I just have torrenting setup automated with arr software. ( Don’t even need a vpn because my country has no copyright laws so free to torrent whatever I wan’t )
If you find torrenting to be distasteful, you can get a cheap USB DVD reader and rip dvds instead.
It’s still technically considered infringement, but at least it’s completely private.
Any recommendations for easily ripping DVDs? I have hundreds that I need to digitize, and drives that need to be filled.
That’s what I’ve done. It’s the way to go. Got a TV from the panel manufacturer that’s so basic you can see light shining through the back when it’s on lol
That’s what I did a couple months ago and I regret not doing it sooner. I got a Beelink SER and loaded it with Endeavour OS, a web browser, torrent client, and VLC.
Problem is, wife is the one who insists on having TVs and I know she won’t use Jellyfin.
All spouses can be taught to use Plex or Jellyfin. It just takes the right approach and some determination. Mine is now sailing the high seas with the finest of us.
All spouses can
Sorry, did you sleep with my spouse or what?
I’m sorry, but yes. She couldn’t resist my encyclopedic knowledge of self-hosted streaming options.
Okay I will learn more about self-hosted streaming options and hit spouses on the street.
Change the wife
that’s basically what i had. a cheap laptop for a ‘streaming device’ and media player with a k400 keyboard with trackpad. connected to a monitor to start, then a cheap tv. don’t have a ‘media server’ though, just a pile of hard drives (externals, or internals with usb adapter or ‘dock’).
the tv eventually did get hooked up to wifi but i only use it for a couple ‘free’ apps that require no signin and work through pihole ok. mostly the ‘tv’ is playing a random playlist.
The year is 2024. I purchase a nice TV to shun nearly all of its features and never connect it to the internet because it’s designed to be actively malicious.
While I get your point, the TV isn’t nice because of its app features. If it’s a nice TV it’s because of its display panel and features like upscaling, interpolation, etc., and it’s being subsidized by those built-in apps and tracking functionality.
By purchasing a nice TV, never using the built-in apps, and never connecting the TV to the Internet (or better yet connecting it to a segregated VLAN and dropping literally all traffic to/from the TV), you’re costing the company money on that TV set. Or probably more accurately you’re like the credit card user that maximizes their point rewards while paying off the balance every paycheck, you’re profiting off people who are in debt to their credit card company for whatever reason.
To be clear, I have a G series LG OLED that is not only in its own VLAN with no traffic allowed in or out, but I drop all DNS that isn’t coming from my pihole at the WAN port on my edge router, I watch stuff from a secondary device, and most everything I watch is pirated and streamed locally anyway, so I’m definitely subsidizing my entertainment with the privacy invasion of others. If I could get an OLED tv without any of the built in OS stuff I absolutely would, and would be willing to pay more for a SKU with that stuff stripped out, but afaik that’s just not possible.
For a long time I have disconnected my TV from WiFi, I watch the news in the morning and watch movies on the official website of public TV or on Pluto TV on the computer or via Bluetooth on TV for free and without ads. It has been clear to me for a long time that the prefix “smart…” on electronic devices is synonymous with “spy…”.
It’s more expensive; but look for Digital Signage.
Y’all still get ads beyond spytube sponsor shit?
