I wonder how big the market is for "dumb" TVs priced lower than smart ones --- given that the development costs, if any, for one would be much lower since you're basically just asking an OEM to combine existing parts (panels and electrics), perhaps it could be a startup opportunity to sell "the TV you watch" --- essentially big monitors with speakers and tuners and nothing else. Some things they could advertise:

    - absolutely no data collection
    - zero boot-up time
    - near-instant control response
    - no software requiring constant upgrades or maintenance

Nevertheless, a dumb TV marketing to me like that evokes an immediate "take my money!" response.

The boot time is something that has irked me forever, and it seems the culprit is the HDMI protocol itself, so that wouldn't be improved either.

Or, hmmm... How about simply not buying that 4k if it is "smart".

The only feedback channel you have to the makers about your displeasure over the TV offerings is to simply not buy one.

They listen to nothing else. If the unit sells, they don't care about any other expressed dislikes (it sold, after-all). If the unit does not sell, and none of the units sell, only then do they listen.

But as I said at the outset, too few folks care enough to make a dent in their sales figures. So those of us who do care are left with simply not buying a new TV.

Consumer projectors have built-in sound but you'll still want to hook up surround sound. And if you care about hi-res that much, you'll want it on a nice big screen where you can see the difference. I project onto a 100" screen.

There a plenty of dumb 4K Blaupunkt TVs sold in Germany pretty much everywhere.

Specific models I don't know by heart.

Exactly. A commercial display / signage display is indeed what you need to buy if you want a "dumb" TV.

Not only are they as dumb as dumb gets but they are highly reliable and usually fairly rugged.

Many of them have an expansion card slot which allows you to change the inputs - you could remove your 2x HDMI card and insert an SCART card instead, for instance.

Finally, if you get a video wall model, you'll get near-zero bezel.

They're not that expensive - how could they be if they are being purchased twelve at a time for display walls ? Yes, they are more than $399 + mail-in rebate from Frys.

It's worth it.

https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4b...

https://forums.redflagdeals.com/rca-haier-avera-fluid-sylvan...

I also haven't been able to find a decent non-smart tv to no avail :(

Have you monitored it's network activity?

If not, how can you be certain the "disable menu" was not actually a placebo?

Prices, though, are usually higher than TVs.

Might be worth finding the network chips and disconnecting or breaking them off.

From various places online, you can buy "scaler" boards that take HDMI/VGA/etc. to whatever interface the panel uses (LVDS is common), i.e. they comprise essentially all the electronics inside a standard non-smart monitor. They are intended for laptop display conversions but can drive much bigger displays too, as long as the interface is the same. That might be an alternative to buying a much more expensive "dumb TV", i.e. buy a smart TV and "dumb it down" yourself!

For example, this particular one is configured for an iPad's display but the sellers usually have other configurations available:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4K-eDP-HDMI-LVDS-Controller-...

Generally most modern TVs are gonna have a power supply, a main logic board, a display driver board and maybe another control board for stuff like backlights or sound. The logic board is basically gonna be an embedded mini computer running a full embedded OS that orchestrates the UI/smart features, decoding the inputs and generating the control signals for the panel driver. This will all be highly integrated on a single board, probably with almost all of the functionality in one or two main chips. Point being, you can't just yank out the smart stuff and still have a functioning TV. It'd be a bit like trying to remove a feature from a computer motherboard.

The ideal way to go about it would be to write your own firmware for the chips, but that's a practical impossibility because almost always there's no data publicly available on the chips or the other parts like the panel. You might also be able to get something working if the actual panel uses a standard interface, but it'll be a ton of work.

There aren't that many teardowns of televisions online that I can find, but this article has some to give you an idea.

https://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/cracking-open-the-55-s...

Now you're getting me paranoid.