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My 13 year old TV is starting to kick the bucket and I ain't gonna get one of those smart TVs that's just gonna spy on me and age like milk.

My 13 year old TV is starting to kick the bucket and I ain't gonna get one of those smart TVs that's just gonna spy on me and age like milk.

(post is archived)

[–] • 6 pts (edited )

I am not sure they even make televisions without all the crap in them these days.

If you are ok with a smaller screen. Larger size computer monitors (newegg.com) may be the ticket for you. (as an example of roughly the largest size traditional format)

Just a dumb LCD panel when compared to the crap they stick into TVs these days.

Or you can shop for digital signage displays (lg.com)... those are often pretty dumb screens too and can be larger, but often less crisp. (again just an example of the type of item). Notice the specs list nothing about vid streaming garbage... These as stated, can be very large, but are often low on the performance side of the display arena.

[–] • 1 pt

Can you plug anything into a monitor?

[–] • 2 pts (edited )

Not really. You would need something to drive it.

You asked for dumb...

But for under 150 bucks you can have a raspberry pi gen 5 media box driving it that you can plug all the things into. Shit we drive our samsung tv with the pi 3b for a long time. Now it runs on a 4, repurposed the 3b to be an octoprint box.

[–] • 1 pt

$150 for a dongle seems a bit steep

[–] • 2 pts

Apparently this brand called "sceptre" makes some. I don't know if they're any good.

See also:

https://hometheateracademy.com/best-dumb-non-smart-tvs/

My plan is to get a nice projector and stick it on a mount pointed straight up. That way I can just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling.

[–] • 1 pt

Funny. Some of those "dumb" tvs they list include features like alexa voice control...

[–] • 1 pt

consider NOT having a TV.....

when I got married we kind of decided not to have TV

best decision ever

[–] • 1 pt

Aint had a tv in 25 year. If I want to watch something I use my laptop. Keeps my brain a little bit cleaner.

[–] • 1 pt

Facebook marketplace around retirement parks.

[+] [deleted] • 1 pt
[–] • 1 pt

You can use a smart tv as a computer monitor. Don't give the tv access to the internet or connect it to an antenna or dish. Problem solved.

The computer that it is connected to can be connected off course, the screen is just a screen.

Dont use the menu on the TV at all, just use the remotes 'power' button to switch it on and select the hdmi port.

Do what you want on your pc and it will be displayed on the smart tv monitor.

Plug a K400 Plus Wireless Touch Keyboard into your pc and you're off to the races.

[–] • 0 pt

the screen is just a screen.

... so far as we are aware.

[–] • 0 pt

Probably good will

[–] • 1 pt

Our local good wills don't take tvs or monitors for some reason. A couple years ago we went looking for a cheap TV to toss some consoles on and they told us they didn't take them or sell them period.

[–] • 0 pt

I wonder why that would be. I recently donated an old TV and monitor and they took both at mine.

[–] • 1 pt

Ours seem to be pretty awful in general. We overheard the staff of one of them talking about picking through stuff to put up on eBay personally without putting it in the store. The places also seem to be stalked by people who put stuff up on line. We happened to get to one a few minutes before it opened and there were a bunch of people who ran in shoving one another to get to the 'new' stuff first. They all had big trucks or vans they were loading lots of stuff into. I assume for resale.

We are in a huge city, though. The thrift stores by my mom out on rural Georgia are all run by small local charities and are actually enjoyable to browse and have decent prices.

[–] • 0 pt

Careful in high density areas, some TV, samsung for sure will connect to the (((shared))) wifi from comcast boxes without your input.

[–] • 0 pt

Ask at your local TV repair shop. They may give away a broken one, because they seem it not worth fixing.

[–] • 0 pt

Good luck. There are a few brands out there that make them - the big names sell them under 'signage' but even those are now coming with 'smart' tech (which is really just a built in OS that caches how you use the TV). At this point, the better option is to learn how they communicate and block it - most IP based communications can be blocked but the mesh net aspect would require Faraday type physical block.

[–] • 0 pt

You could just not connect it to a network...?

[–] • 0 pt

That's what we did for my mom's tv. She had a direct cable to tv hookup and that was it; wifi was not set up so it was basically a dumb tv. I think it was one of the super cheap TCL "roku" brands. Definitely got our money's worth out of it.

[–] • 1 pt

Yes exactly, if it doesn't have access to a network it has no way to communicate.

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