this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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Privacy
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Don't reward shitty practices with your money. Just don't buy them.
Where can you buy a non-smart TV ? I searched a lot, there is nowhere to buy such TV for private consumers. I could find some Hotel or Hospital TVs on eBay, they are all expensive and shit specs.
Get a smart TV which lets you go through set-up without Wi-Fi. Google TV (which is suprising for GOOGLE) models support that.
Sceptre was still offering some non-smart TVs that were quite cheap and work fine. They aren't going to be super impressive in technical specs, but they work just fine. It might be worth considering a soundbar or speakers though, as that is one place you can feel the quality difference.
Most importantly, they aren't available where I live.
There are several dumb tvs, such as the Samsung BEFX-H series and the LG UN640S. Yes, they are more expensive for the same specs, because they don't make money with ads and paid services.
These are exactly the kind I was looking at and couldn't find anywhere to buy as a private consumer, apart from some suspicious eBay listings.
Amazon is showing BEFX-H series for me and not even that expensive, but with it being Samsung you're stuck on LCD which can be a downside for many
This is the reason I have a 20+ year old plasma TV. Absolutely nothing smart and still somewhat thin. Also the picture is sometimes better for movies because of how it handles blacks and contrast.
Burns more electricity I guess. But most plasmas should be around the time of the flat TV crazy started before LED took off. Before they started making them cheaper by stuffing them full of spy software.
You can get a smart TV and set ut up without Wi-Fi. You can do that on Google TV, Tizen and WebOS. You will have to turn off the eco mode and motion smoothing so it is not dim and blurry.
Do you have some TV box connected to it? Like Nvidia Shield, Apple TV 4K, Chromecast Ultra, Roku, Fire TV or some Linux box?
Oof, I haven't had to shop for a tv in over a decade, so I assume it will be worse when it's my time.
I got rid of my old TV that was developing purple spots when I moved to another apartment. I ended up going for a smart LG OLED tv with the specs I was looking for. Available at a good price. It's not connected to the network and boot straight to my Nvidia shield.
I've had nothing but good experiences with LG tvs
They have been up to pretty shady stuff as of lately, like blocking your TV if you didn't accept the new terms of the user agreement they mandates to send your data the 500 and some partners. As long as it never ever gets and internet connection, it should be fine.
That sounds fucked
I bought some cheap "Sceptre" TV on Amazon 4 years ago. You're not going to be able to walk into a Best Buy or Walmart and find one, that's for sure.
Someone on Lemmy has recommended me Sceptre, unfortunately I couldn't find anywhere to buy one in Germany. Also the specs aren't great, I was looking for an OLED panel.
Very large computer monitors.