I’m going to buy my first new TV in years. Even if it’s a ‘smart’ tv we plan to just use our Roku. I’ve heard that some TVs require you to connect it to the internet before you can even use a Roku device. For privacy reasons I don’t want my TV to EVER have access to my wifi. Is anyone aware of how to know what models/brands of TVs allow me to use it without ever connecting the TV itself to wifi?
If necessary I guess I could connect it to my guest network to ‘activate’ the TV, set up the Roku to connect to my private network, then change the password to the guest network.
Would rather just have a TV that doesn’t even ‘phone home’ once.
I have a pair of LG tvs that didn’t require any activation. Might wanna take a look at those?
Definitely stay away from Samsung. All my encounters with Samsung have required some type of sign up-activation process.
I’ve seen some users here also recommend checking out monitors as tvs but I’m not well versed in that area.
How old are they? We bought an LG TV 1 or 2 years ago and it has a lot of online features and keeps prompting me to make an account and accept various terms and conditions for their advertising or to let them listen to the microphone and such. I think it’s mostly optional but they don’t make it easy to opt out
To add to this, my LG C2 kept popping up a message that I could use Alexa with it if I connected it to Wifi.
To kill that message, I did. Now it pops up advertisements in that same way from time to time.
If I take it offline again, I get messages about connecting it again.
It’s effectively impossible to kill ads on it.
If you have a modern router you can block WAN connections while allowing LAN connections. This is what I do and it doesn’t give me crap (and bonus, I can interface with it still with home assistant for automations).
My router is an ASUS AX5700, if it matters.
That’s an interesting idea. I’ll have to see if I can do something of the sort and see if it matters. I have a feeling it’ll still pop the stupid messages about connecting to the internet, but maybe I’ll get lucky and it won’t.
Thanks!
Can confirm, I no longer get network or ad pop ups on my LG C1.
That’s awesome. I can’t wait now.
No prob. Extra tip, the router has support for guest networks. If you want to be hardcore about it, put it on a guest network where it literally can’t see any of your other devices (bear in mind, this will make the automation stuff I mentioned not viable, but I’m sure most people don’t care about that).
Funny that you’re concerned about your TV “phone home” when you’re using a Roku which is the worst offender for that sort of thing.
You’re already soaking wet but afraid of the rain.
If that sort of thing already concerns you, then you need to get rid of the Roku and find something else. Like an Nvidia shield or media box with Kodi.
With a caveat on the shield. It’s still android TV so ideally you put your own OS on it if you’re worried about that kind of thing.
Shield also refused to update mounting networking drives after Android 14 so they are pretty useless now
How does that make them useless? They may not work for a use case where you’re mounting network drives, but still work perfectly fine if you’re using them to connect to a media server.
Nvidia shield was known as king of media servers because it was able to be client and server. Now it’s a running on a build from ~2015 that can no longer function as a server. Yes it’s a client, but it’s old and overpriced now with a bunch of additional Google shitware. If you have one use it, don’t buy one.
I suppose I don’t have enough experience or interest in the Shield as a server, so I’ll take your word on that part. I don’t disagree that purely as a client, it’s overpriced today, although I’ve always been satisfied with mine. It’s always outperformed most other clients I’ve ever tried. What would you suggest as an alternative now, just a mini pc or something?
It’s bleak, Xbox one is my preferred client and it’s quickly degrading. Chromecast has little overhead but requires another client. I’ve heard older rokus are in demand on eBay. I don’t recall if apple TV has a casting feature, but I’ve heard the ecosystem works for apps. I checked this thread for new recs.
