I’m mostly sailing the high seas, using the tv as a giant monitor for the always-on laptop connected to it. I’m afraid of the 1984-esque “You must connect to the internet to continue using this TV” that might come after some time.
I’m mostly sailing the high seas, using the tv as a giant monitor for the always-on laptop connected to it. I’m afraid of the 1984-esque “You must connect to the internet to continue using this TV” that might come after some time.
Why do you assume you’re being less monitored on your laptop?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, you probably should. I am logged out of all services on my TVs. If you don’t use the built-in apps then why would you be online at all.
It’s just… people that get in the (correct) mindset that smart TVs mostly run spyware can be too kind on the alternatives.
Maybe because I can run Debian, Arch, or even custom Yocto or buildroot distros on general purpose computation hardware, instead of being locked into a walled garden purposely built to increase shareholder value?
Sure, you can. But the point is it’s only more private IF you do that AND you’re not also using services on your laptop that report the same info like, say, Youtube or Netflix.
If you’re only using a laptop with Arch to play back offline videos then by all means, carry on, you’re good. But there’s a bunch of people out there worrying about Smart TV spyware and plugging in a Chromecast dongle instead or streaming from their subscription apps from a laptop, which doesn’t really achieve anything. I guess it may cut Samsung or LG out of the loop, if you have a particular grudge with them specifically, but that’s about it.
OP’s topic isn’t about being monitored. They just don’t want an update pushed onto their tv that disables it from operating the way they want it to operate
The way they want it to operate is not monitoring them, presumably. You just added one extra step for the same thing.
I mean, if it’s not for that reason then connect it to the Internet and have fun, who cares. Just give them all your data and hope for the best.
Everyone else on this page is interpreting it differently than you are
OK, so… how? How is everyone else interpreting the desire of keeping your TV offline if not for privacy? What other reason could there be?
So that it won’t push updates that make the tv worse, like slower startup times for example
OK, but that’s not what the OP said. OP is concerned that keeping the TV offline may trigger a mandatory connection check down the line (not a thing that I know of, at least outside of very specific ad-based cheap models, to answer their question).
The only other thing being brought up in their post are that they play back pirated content primarily. That and the reference to 1984 make me think privacy more than “mostly made up minor technical inconvenience related to firmware updates”.
Either way, if the TV works fine and they are exclusively using an external device for playback there should be no downside to keeping the thing offline indefinitely.
OP just posted a clarification comment. You were right, i was wrong
Hey, you didn’t have to say that at all, disagreeing online is what it is, but it’s genuinely rare to see that written down. Genuine tip of the hat to you. Trivial as this conversation is, that’s huge gentlemanly energy right there.