If I had to buy a smart TV, this is what I would do. It's the only way to be sure.

Sadly, the purchase would still reward the company for making a spyware screen, and signal that I find it acceptable, which is why I plan to avoid them forever.

I thought texas sued them all because they did it even after changing settings.

FWIW, I would not trust LG here to actually do nothing even after turning all the elements off, their GUI is especially "web"-like. Just leave it disconnected.

I don't understand why people can't just get a secondary device for accessing live streaming programs. There's numerous devices you can buy that do it.

TVs should not be connected to the internet. The incentive structures are just too bad against the user.

TCL roku TVs are cheap and you can just tell them you don't have an internet connection (or whatever) on first setup. I have no idea if TCL or Roku have pulled a samsung/sony/visio - i forget which - and connect to "open wifi" to phone home.

I got tired of my TCL Roku taking so long to turn on and switch inputs and turning itself on and off to update. So i factory reset it and told it "no network". works fine.

Sceptre makes dumb TVs, too. https://www.sceptre.com/ - i have been buying their panels for something like 24 years. they're "decent" nothing super remarkable, but they're just dumb displays. at least mine are.

And finally, find a projector that does what you want. they're usually so compact they don't have roku/other smart stuff. I use a wall, we used dark brown or black paint to frame out a 95" screen roughly in between 16:8 and 16:9 aspect. wash the wall or sand lightly and wash the wall, then apply Behr Silver Screen in the matte-est behr base. I personally did three coats, it took less than a quart, so you only need a quart for ~100" with 3 coats. It looks like a movie screen when it's off, and it looks like a TV screen when the projector is on.

observe a random clip of it in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG6VJ9WlLcs note i know there is trapezoid, i fixed that later by ceiling mounting the projector in the middle as opposed to slightly to the side. a more expensive / nicer projector can actually transform the image trapezoid to fix this, and the most expensive can do it on their own! mine has vertical trap but not horizontal.

pitch black room and vibrant colors (powanqatsi maybe) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYrsm2B9UeY

Seems the only viable solution nowadays is computer monitor + converter box and/or computer + speakers. There's ~$150 32" monitors nowadays, even a few non-TV 42-43 inch monitors if you're willing to spend ~$700-1200.

I bought a dumb 4K TV years ago. When I looked not too long ago, I couldn't find any for sale.

They're increasingly turning to contracts with Comcast and AT+T so that even if you don't have them on the network, they can phone home on the neighbor's wifi.

Zealous Autoconfig https://xkcd.com/416/

Amazon sidewalk and related technologies will likely allow devices to bypass needing your network at all in the future. The last TV that doesnt support these features will probably be my last.

Thank god the EoH never became a thing, despite being in the HDMI standard

Do you just use a Roku to watch stuff or what?

They will probably eventually upload stuff through people walking by with Samsung phones or smart tags.