Yup. Works great. All things equal I'd prefer just not buying a damn Smart TV to begin with, but absent that as a realistic option (every 4K TV I've ever seen is smart) I'll happily settle with them never seeing one byte of Internet.

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eightnoneone 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I’m in the same camp. The next escalation is defending against a TV scanning for, and joining unprotected neighbor networks to “phone home.” It’s a thing.

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anonym29 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Bet this is easy to fool with a fake/honeypot open network with a high rssi that blocks all traffic except the initial captive portal / connectivity check.

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jonnrb 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean yeah or they include a 5G modem because the ads are so lucrative. But then we can start discussing how to cut the red wire to disarm your spy rectangle.

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kotaKat 4 days ago | parent [-]

That one I’m starting to lean on getting closer to happening because we now have 5G RedCap out there for the ‘cheaper’ moderate-speed IoT data market.

https://about.att.com/blogs/2025/5g-redcap.html https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-redcap-powering-sma...

Wouldn’t surprise me to see modems and eSIMs and embedded PCB antennas some day down the line.

	▲	ToucanLoucan 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Imagine if we could put this kind of innovation to work to solve actual problems and not find ways to bypass people attempting to not have capitalism screaming at them 24/7 to buy things.

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dr_coffee 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The article lists several manufacturers of 4k dumb tv’s

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ToucanLoucan 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

The article also says why they suck:

> Dumb TVs sold today have serious image and sound quality tradeoffs, simply because companies don’t make dumb versions of their high-end models. On the image side, you can expect lower resolutions, sizes, and brightness levels and poorer viewing angles. You also won’t find premium panel technologies like OLED. If you want premium image quality or sound, you’re better off using a smart TV offline. Dumb TVs also usually have shorter (one-year) warranties.

	▲	cgh 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, Sceptre's site shows a bunch of dumb TVs that max out at HDMI 2.0, 4K/60Hz. Basically, they are ten years out of date.

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imp0cat 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Some of the advice is a bit weird though. Get a 4k HDR TV and then connect it to an antenna? I mean, why do you even need a 4k HDR TV in that case?

Not to mention disabling the smart/ad features is an option on some smart tvs (ie. Sony).