Yeah I have a couple of recent Samsung OLEDs and they're fine without an internet connection despite reports that they wouldn't be. If I press one of the annoying streaming service buttons on the remote it'll give me a setup popup which needs to be dismissed, otherwise they work fine, albeit without any built in streaming support.

I'd read reports that Q-Symphony (audio from the TV speakers and soundbar simultaneously) wouldn't work, but it does.

I stuck an OSMC (https://osmc.tv/) box to the back of both of them so they can play stuff from my NAS. They're not the cheapest solution and I realise Kodi/XBMC on which they're based isn't everyone's jam (I grew up with XBMC on an Xbox so it is very much mine) - but they play everything, have wifi, HDMI-CEC, integrated RF remote, and work out of the box.

Model numbers if anyone cares: Samsung QE65S95C, Samsung QE77S95F. I believe S95, S90 and S85 (at least up to F) are all very similar so they should all work but ofc ymmv.

This OSMC box looks interesting, but does it allow to run arbitrary programs like a plain Linux box? What I have in mind here are things such as VacuumTube (YoutubeTV front end), a Web browser to stream from various online sources, etc. I found KODI (as running on Linux) far too restrictive when it comes to streaming from the Internet, and the add ons to be terrible. (In particular the YouTube add-on requires an API key registered with Google, which makes it a far worse proposition than using VacuumTube anonymously.)

Thanks for mentioning VacuumTube, it sounds useful.

I’m using a Minix Z100 running Gnome and Kodi. I use a simple Bluetooth keyboard, the interface is clunky but it does the job. I use Samba to also share files to VNC running on iOS and Android on the same network.

I tried using fancier solutions but anything that browses content without involving directories always break for some specific content in unpredictable ways.

That has been my experience as well. So far nothing has come close to the flexibility of Gnome (upscaled) with an airmouse. I am keeping an eye on the Plasma Bigscreen project however (10-foot UI for Plasma).

An alternative could be some x86 Android TV build like Lineage, but I have not seen very convincing demonstrations that this is truly viable.

No, it doesn’t in the way you are intending. I run various utilities on them, but nothing that ever shows up in the interface/TV

I just think of them as the best solution to run Kodi for media that is on my network.

Yeah that OSMC box is just running Debian with their stuff coming from its own package repo. You can get a root shell. I realise I could have built something myself (and have in the past) but it's absolutely worth the money to me to get everything in a tiny package and working perfectly from day one.

I wouldn't recommend Kodi for streaming, it kinda works but the experience isn't great. I use it exclusively for playing stuff from my server full of legally acquired public domain videos (ahem).

I do watch YouTube videos on it, but I use TubeArchivist (basically a fancy wrapper for yt-dlp) to pull them onto the server first, and a script to organise them into nicely-named directories.

Why can't you just run the Kodi app directly on the TV?

some will yell at you with a notification until you give in and connect it.

Return it as unfit for service.

Yup - my LG (~6 months old) works fine without my ever having given it a WiFi password.

This is what the article recommends by the way.

My recent TCL TV forces you agree to Google's terms and conditions, and you aren't even provided the text of what you're agreeing to unless you connect the TV to the internet.

It felt illegal.

It is technically illegal if that is how it is configured. Go get ‘em.

But kidding aside, who are we even really kidding anymore, even if you were provided the TOS would you simply not use the device of there were something in the TOS you disagreed with? How about when you’ve been using the device and all the sudden they change the TOS and force agreement as you are about to start a tv evening with the family?

The people simply accepted their enslavement, the taking of your agency, because we all allowed or were overwhelmed with it.

They take our agency through process just like they’ve taken our freedom and rights in so many different ways, just like through YC funded Flock, where treasonous mass surveillance cameras just show up over night and most here seem unaware it’s a YC company that now provides a mass surveillance network to the government and global government tightening its noose around humanity’s neck.

My 2 year old LG complained every time I turned it on that I hadn't hooked it to the internet. No way to disable it.

Now that it's connected, it shows an ad at that time, in the same way. Can't win.

i have a vizio which I opened up and removed the WiFi module. it never complains about the internet now.

"In the land of telescreens, the man with the soldering iron is king"

Did't even require that. It was a standard mini pci-e wifi card, just unclipped it and removed it from its slot.

I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my TV. We never use anything mode of the TV. (Then again, I have zero streaming services, so perhaps I am not who this article is for.)

Neither do I, but what about YouTube? Not letting your TV manufacturer sell your watching habits is already a big win, and on macOS you can further block telemetry. A big chunk of my YouTube consumption happens through yt-dlp using a VPN provider that presumably does not cooperate with Google.

What do you use for a remote for the Mac Mini?

I have a Lenovo used minipc connected to mine and I just use a Logitech K400+, it runs Linux with KDE. I will never need a smart tv, or want one, for that matter.

I get that people would rather have a remote but I personally actually don't like remotes at all. My TV is basically a screen only.

Yeah the problem with a keyboard and trackpad is you need the lights on.

I do not, but I get what you mean :)

Not the parent but my family also has a mac mini to offline TV setup - just a small bluetooth keyboard/mouse and the tv remote for volume. Works well.

As far as I know there are no remotes that work with MacOS.

Sadly, there's just a keyboard + trackpad sitting on my TV-audio console (a kind of home made speaker credenza I built years ago).

So no remote. I get up, hit the spacebar to pause/play. The audio is into a multi-channel receiver though so audio has mute/volume controls on a remote.

I think they, or at least samsungs. will happily use open wifi if they can find it.

Source, my open test network and a neighbors tv that keeps trying to phone home with it.

The TV can happily connect to my neighbors printer WLAN. That is the only open wifi around. It isn’t 2008 anymore.

I'm curious about that neighbor TV, do you have a model name or something if one would like to reproduce?

A guest logged into Wi-Fi on a Vizio of mine and there was conveniently no way to disconnect/forget it without a factory reset back to motion smoothing hell.

Change your network name. When the TV prompts you to connect, join the renamed network. Then, rename it back so everything else can connect again and the TV can't. I can think of a few potential problems with this, but, it might work?

Or blacklist the TV's MAC address in your router settings. Didn't think of that first for some reason.

You gave me flashbacks to my Samsung washing machine that needed a factory reset after changing my SSID. Which also reset the service life of filters and liquids and such which was somewhat of a hassle. Such a dumb design not being able to change the wireless network.

My LG TV is pretty dumb since the only button it has is "connect to media server" in local network.

My Vizio wouldn't go past the "connect to internet" screen on first boot.