LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps – Krebs on Security

Just an FYI to anyone looking, you can still actually buy mostly-dumb TVs.

I was looking for a TV to buy for my parents last year and it seemed like the only options available were “smart TVs,” and I begrudgingly ended up buying a Philips ambilight unit. I was pleasantly surprised by how dumb the Titan OS on it was. Sure, it had WiFi, and the usual Netflix and other streaming apps, but I just didn’t connect it to the WiFi, and from then on it was just a souped up version of their 15 year old TV. It did ask to be connected to WiFi, but stopped after being told no a few times.

I’m sure other manufacturers have similar “smart on paper, but dumb in reality” OSes, as it seems to mostly be a cost cutting exercise. The hardware in the TV would need to be more expensive to run an actual smart platform. So the manufacturers just make a low end thing that ticks the right boxes to be able to call it smart for marketing, thinking that’s what people want.

Pro tip: Look for a hospitality TV, they come in smart and non-smart versions. Generally they’re made tougher also. You do pay more vs a Walmart pos though.

Pro tip 2: Avoid the Samsung ones, their quality control is shit.

also don’t buy LG, as they design devices that will brick themselves with no way to recover the firmware and will simply tell you you’re shit out of luck

Do you know which models or years?