116 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Why can't I buy a dumb TV?
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date: 2022-12-31
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tags:
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- Privacy
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description: Dumb TVs don't appear to be a thing anymore. I wonder why?
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---
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Our old TV is showing it's age a bit. It's an old Samsung. About 30" and 1080p.
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It works fine, but certainly isn't what you'd call modern. I think it dates from
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around 2010.
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I thought I'd look and see how much it would cost to replace it -- allowing me to
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use it as a monitor. I spend the majority of my time in a terminal, I don't game
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and as such 4k, high refresh rate, wide screen monitors are of little interest
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to me. What is of interest to me is how many terminal windows I can tile and
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still use.
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Anyway, I went to various sites and navigated to TVs. What I found surprised me
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a little: no dumb TVs. None at all. There were smart, 4k 55" TVs for under £400,
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but nothing without "smart features".
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Most people assume that if I don't like something, it's because of privacy
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concerns or similar. While this is partly true for TVs, it's not my main
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dislike.
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Smart TVs need to be maintained by the manufacturer when it is in their interest
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not to do so. Think about software updates. Is Samsung / LG / Sony / Philips going to
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be putting updates out for your TV in 10 or 15 years? If you think they might,
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take a look at how phones have gone. I'll use Samsung as an example: they offer
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3 years worth of feature updates and 4 years worth of security updates -- that is
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for their flagships. Lower end phones won't even get that. This means that after
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4 years, your Samsung flagship phone will not be patched for security issues.
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Why would they do any different for TVs? Many smart TVs even run Android -- a
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variation on the system used on most smartphones.
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That just relates to the manufacturer maintaining the device. Let alone the apps
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who can also [decide to stop supporting the TV](https://9to5google.com/2019/07/26/sony-tv-amazon-prime-video-september/).
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It is bad enough spending hundreds (or thousands) of pounds on a phone every few
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years, I don't want to do the same for a TV.
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"What about apps?", you might ask. This is a non issue. I can buy a 4k fire
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stick for less than £50. That is without offers. I've seen them sub-£30 on prime
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day. If that only lasts 3 years, I can swap that for a new one at the time,
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rather than swapping out my whole TV. I don't love the idea of replacing a set
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top box every few years, but I like that idea far more than replacing a whole
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TV.
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Modern versions of HDMI will happily support your HDR, single remote and
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surround sound needs.
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So, planned obsolescence is one reason, but I don't think it is the whole story.
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I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to anyone reading this blog that data
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collection is a huge business these days. Targeting advertising allows companies
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to charge exuberant prices for well placed ads. The amount they can charge
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correlates nicely with the amount of data they can collect. It is no coincidence
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that the largest advertising companies (Google and ~~Facebook~~ Meta) are also
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two of the worst offenders for hoarding information.
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TV manufacturers realised that they can make more money selling adverts than
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they can selling TVs. The more TVs they sell, the more they can charge for
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advertising. This is not just me and my tin foil hat. Vizio went public a year
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or so ago and, as a result, had to publish their financials. They made over
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[twice as much money selling ads as they made from TV sales](https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/10/22773073/vizio-acr-advertising-inscape-data-privacy-q3-2021).
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This isn't the post to go into why I think it is important to protect your data.
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If you're reading my blog, you probably already have some idea. However, it
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seems that just as most of our phones, smart speakers and watches spy on us, our
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TVs are trying to do the same. Maybe you don't care if big companies know what
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you're watching. That is your decision, but it is a decision you should make --
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not one that you should be compelled into.
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It seems clear to me that planned obsolescence isn't the only factor at play
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here. Sure, they want to sell you a TV every few years, but they also want to
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harvest as much data as possible in order to sell ads. I don't want this.
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The question then becomes, what can we do about it? Unfortunately, I haven't
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found a good answer to this but here are some thoughts.
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The first, and perhaps most obvious answer, is to buy a smart TV and just not
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connect it to the network. With this you get the advantage of (comparably) cheap
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units, and don't have the risk of data harvesting. A slight variation on this
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might be isolating the TV or blocking access via a firewall rule. This doesn't,
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however, mitigate the issue of security updates. Additionally, I'm told that
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many TVs will either not work at all, or continuously prompt you to connect them
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to the internet. I recently tried to use a Fire TV stick on a network without
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internet connectivity, in order to watch content stored on a local server with
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Jellyfin. The process was a long way from ideal. The home screen (where you
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would normally select the app such as Jellyfin) was replaced entirely with a
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network error and a prompt to go to network settings. Even apps that don't
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require an internet connection were unavailable.
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It was possible to launch Jellyfin by going `Settings` -> `Applications` ->
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`Manage Installed Applications` -> `Jellyfin` -> `Launch Application`, but that
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is not a process I want to make every time I turn on the TV, and certainly not a
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solution that would get wife-approval. I have no idea if I would have similar
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issues with other devices, and buying a smart TV to test that is not
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particularly palatable.
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Another option might be using a non-tv monitor as a TV. You can buy large
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computer monitors or displays meant for digital signage. Computer monitors of
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this size [are
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expensive](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-558M1RY-Monitor-Ambiglow-FreeSync/dp/B086X4J9KG/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=65+inch+monitor+4k&qid=1672490924&sprefix=65+inch+monitor%2Caps%2C292&sr=8-3).
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Digital signage signs are also expensive, but do tend to come with the advantage
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that they are designed to be on all the time. Although I couldn't find much in
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the way of data, I suspect this would mean they would last longer. However,
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again, they are a lot more expensive than a consumer-grade smart TV.
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My plan is to do some more research and try and find a smart tv that can be used
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without constant nags when not connected to the internet. If any of you know of
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such a device, or have any other ideas, let me know in the comments below.
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