That won't last long either if at all. They will just require an SSL connectivity to their servers with a custom CA root. The end.

You're assuming a level of technical skill on the side of TV manufacturers that it almost sounds like a joke to me.

In any case, all you need is one model with a decent screen and broken certificate pinning and I'm good for the 3-5 years that the TV will last.

And until then, I'd assume that Nvidia sees the market demand for big TV-like PC screens and outcompetes the TV manufacturers.

so...

1. Order TV.

2. test if it works without agreeing to anything and without internet.

3. return if that's not the case.

I have yet to accept EULA on samsung on anything and it works...

Right now the ACR is troubling. Telling a remote server what you're watching... Only solution I found - not connected + hdmi to Linux box I control.

As an older comment mention, they can easily add an delay that makes it work without an connection only for the duration in which an return is possible.

It is very hard to win against hostile design.

I agree with you it's hard to win against hostile design but there are options for now.

If it stops working after return period I call under warranty that it stopped working (2 years), they are forced to fix the issue.

Explain the issue, explain you cannot connect to the internet.

If it doesn't work, forward the whole info to the customer protection bureau if you're in the EU.

Edit: I will test this out by setting a date far in the future when I buy new equipment (will also hopefully cause SSL failures due to expired certificates internally in the firmware)

This would be a known defect under EU warranty law, which means once it kicks in, you can get a full refund if you want to.

They can try and fix it 3 times then you get your money back.

That would easily cause lawsuits as it is clear that the other party is doing that solely to cheat against law.

It is called a monitor. Works just fine for whatever and people use it for work.

The factory I work at had large one scattered around to show line information. Some of the information is safety critical and so if it is inyeruped with an ad there will be legal issues.

In a not so-distant future dystopia you can only get monitors without ad-overlays, when you pay for the monthly subscription ...

You'll get the first month for free, when you sign up for the 2-year plan for 19.99$/month right now!!

Oh no, you'll pay the subscription AND you'll get ads. That's what Amazon Prime feels like atm, preroll ads for other shows at the start of everything you play (even next episodes).

I've wondered about this. The TV I have (a Sony Bravia) is now almost a decade old (works fine). We got it specifically because it has a slot for a DVB-T module (terrestrial broadcast). DVB-T is now gone (replaced by DVB-T2, but I doubt this will remain in the air long), so we have no broadcast TV now, only our HTPC connected to it with Netflix, local media files, and a browser.

Frankly, we don't miss the TV channels. Streaming works okayish for the public channels, but we rarely bother.

The TV is just a dumb screen connected to a receiver, which has the HTPC as input as well as record player.

So the only thing a 'TV' offers me is its screen. Is that any different from a high end computer monitor these days? Is there a difference based on the viewing distance perhaps?

Another difference between a typical TV screen and a typical monitor is many TVs will dynamically adjust brightness depending on what's displayed, and maybe other factors. Sometimes this is on by default and you can turn it off in a menu, but I've met TVs where you can't turn it off.

Using a TV which adjusts the brightness depending on what's displayed can be very unpleasant when trying to do computer work on it. E.g. opening or closing a window may cause other windows to abruptly change brightness. Scrolling through a document may cause the brightness to vary.

Historically monitors has better pictures at the expense that you couldn't look at them off angle, while TVs you could look at from anywhere in the room. I think that is gone today but it might be something that comes up again... Though in the safety critical application I brought up off-angle viewing is a requirement.

The problem with some monitors is that it gets tricky to get audio from hdmi that gets delivered to the screen

Sort of makes sense because a lot of people don't care about or plain don't want speakers on their monitor.