Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?

Posted by LecroJS 21 hours ago

I haven’t owned a TV in years and would like one that respects my privacy. Are there any TV’s which do this well? I am looking for something in the 60”to 80”range and would like a 4k display with at least 60hz display. I don’t mind paying a premium.

I have heard good things about Apple TV as a better alternative to most smart TV native apps. Would some TV’s pair better with this than others for privacy? I don’t want the TV doing anything other than being the display for Apple TV.

I am curious what success others have had.

588 points | 699 commentspage 11

n0on3 5 hours ago|

I was browsing through the comments and thinking how insane it is that the answer basically appears to be “there isn’t any”. Most common advice seems to be either “buy an evil product and work against it” or “buy a close-enough something-else not-(yet)-affected”. Another instance of “enough bad choices make better choices no longer an available option”? Smh…

sgt 9 hours ago||

The answer is really simple and this gets asked a lot.

Buy any TV, don't connect it to the Internet. Then connect the HDMI or DP to Apple TV and you're good to go.

sharts 15 hours ago||

Is this really more complicated than just never connecting it to wifi and then using a dedicated device like AppleTV only?

oliyoung 9 hours ago||

I have an LG OLED. It's gorgeous, but

- It's MAC address is blocked from the network

- It's never had WIFI credentials

- It's ONLY ever used with an Apple TV or PlayStation

shadowAuror 20 hours ago||

Disconnect the TV from internet and use a solution like Apple TV for apps you would like in TV. Even better is a Mini PC connected to the TV if you are savvy enough.

pythonRon 6 hours ago||

Connect any TV to a laptop/desktop computer... running Linux, of course.

MikeNotThePope 14 hours ago||

Out of curiosity, do these “smart” TV features even matter if you’re just switching to one of the HDMI inputs? I’ve used an external device to drive my TV for years, and I honestly have no idea what is installed on the TV itself.

K7PJP 11 hours ago||

They don’t. My Hisense doesn’t nag me at all. I just use my Apple TV and 4k player and PS5 without issue. It’s not nearly as hard as all the comments here have made it out to be.

MikeNotThePope 10 hours ago|||

Maybe it’s more of a factor for people who watch over the air broadcasts or use cable TV. I haven’t used either in years.

ndsipa_pomu 9 hours ago|||

Similarly, my Hisense TV never gets a chance to show the VIDAA interface. It just displays the HDMI input and I switch that between Kodi running on a Raspberry Pi and a VirginMedia TV box.

zamalek 14 hours ago||

They will probably find an open (or semi-open, like the comcast ones) to connect to.

mixmastamyk 14 hours ago||

ACR also notes what you're watching even on HDMI and will upload it if given a chance.

guitarlimeo 20 hours ago||

Any AndroidTV and then run CleanYourTV [1] on it, gets completely rid of all Google ads and additional bloatware by the manufacturer. Maybe run Claude against the repo first to check for malware but going by the number of stars it seems to be solid.

[1] https://github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv

u1hcw9nx 20 hours ago||

Samsung is the worst by far. Samsung (TizenOS) does not respect even privacy opt outs. It seems like LG, Google TV OS (Sony) and Fire TV OS (Amazon) and VidaaOS at least do that.

https://allaboutcookies.org/smart-tv-tracking-privacy-opt-ou...

Never connect to internet is the best option.

bob1029 9 hours ago|

It's not hard to find options if you stop looking in stupid places with bad search terms. "TV" on Amazon is literally the innermost circle of consumer hell.

> I don’t mind paying a premium

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1916990-REG/lg_65ep5q...

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