this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
939 points (99.5% liked)
Technology
82524 readers
4672 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Anybody have un-enshittified 4k tv recommendations?
Mainly want good picture quality for movies + high refresh rate for games.
The biggest thing you can do is just never connect it to the internet. I even block the MAC addresses so ever if someone tried to connect it, it won’t. Then use an external box like a Roku, PC, or AppleTV to connect to your content.
And, if any TV requires an internet connection to set it up, immediately return it.
Exactly this.
"Smart" TVs never go online, never connect to anything but power and an HDMI, and quite frankly..if it didnt risk causing warranty headaches, I'd open teh fucker up and unplug its wifi antenna too.
Always use an old PC/Laptop/Raspberry Pi/whatever to get them online/on youtube/streaming/etc. You have full control over those devices, and can update them as desired and modify them at a whim.
Fuckin hate smart TVs. a bunch of fucking spyware and adware that just makes the device run hotter and die sooner.
We're gonna need this "requires Internet connection" bit to be in reviews.
LG OLEDs are still great. Mine is not connected to the internet and use an external media box (AppleTV). It can be set to turn on to the last used HDMI input instead of the Home Screen. I never see the LG OS.
LG is solid as long as you don’t agree to the terms. I get no ads but I only use the internet on it to update the firmware. Samsung is more annoying with their ads.
You don't even need to do that. I download firmware updates from the LG website, throw it on a USB drive, and plug that into the TV. Actually important firmware updates are so rare that I'm fine with the extra effort required.
i dont have an LG, but I've only had to firmware update 1 TV in like.. the past 13 years, and that was because it had a horrible issue with the image vertically splitting in half and green corruption across the bottom. Which makes you think hardware failure, but it wasnt, the firmware update 100% fixed it for the rest of its life.
So unless you are facing a major, catastrophic issue like that, I'd say fuck updates.
yeah, i don't have any desire to update my TV as long as I can plug in HDMI and get a picture and sound
Exactly. If it's displaying the line-in correctly, I don't see what a firmware update would bring to the table.
It's a display. Once it's achieved being able to act like that, then you should be done for as long as the hardware lasts.
I bought an LG a little while back. Looks good, no need to connect it to the Internet, you can turn on and off all the features you do or don't want.
For now. That can change at any time with an update.
What update?
you can say that about literally any TV brand, this doesn’t help.
Hell yeah. I was considering a C5, but saw people online saying ads are present on LG.
I use shield anyway, but I will probably just follow your advice and set default input to the shield
No. Mine is totally connected. Use all the apps. I don't get ads on it.
There are ads, but if you're willing to slog through the settings you can get rid of them. I just used a pihole LG blocklist. I really enjoy using the magic mouse on the screen and I'm finding it hard to give up.
Mine doesn't have ads. But like I said, I've never connected it to the Internet, so I don't know if it would start showing them if I did. I just use a Chromecast, my Switch, or an antenna.
I have one connected to the internet due to WAF, but I never signed into an LG account on it. As a result, the "home" page just shows something about signing in "for the full experience" rather than any ads.
Would you consider an old plasma TV? They won't be in 4K (I think they topped out at 1440p) but there are some real advantages to them (if you can tolerate the disadvantages).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIuKA2DUgas
Plasma burn-in is scary for games.
True... but that was greatly mitigated in later models.
I swear that the motion quality and the deep blacks rival high end OLEDs. Really, really good. So long as you can find a decent TV (like the one in the video).
The issue I have with them is - power draw and heat.
My brother in law had one, it was very pretty
Yeah I'm still using the last of the good Panasonic VT50 models. It's still going strong with a great picture. We got it in 2009. It's early smart features were retired long ago.
These articles make me shudder what I might replace it with
I have one in my room. It gets pretty hot with it and my PS3 running, and I live in Minnesota and sleep in the basement
What I hear you saying is you have great taste in consoles, a kick ass TV and a free space heater.
Lol yeah I suppose. Funny story how I got my PS3, I was on ebay and there was a "broken" one listed on ebay for a dollar. The seller said the blu-ray drive wasn't working and replacing it didn't help. That was a good day to be me, I tell ya
My LG has been safe so far.
Well what about a PC monitor? You can get u to like 43" and beyond. Obviously they are great for gaming as well.
The other very impractical mention - after TVs starting adding ads, cameras and microphones, I switched to a 2nd hand projector. Most have no smart features.
All you need is a white or off- white wall to protect on to. And the ability to block some light coming into the room.
Downsides:
Some can project from a coffee table.
For tv series and YouTube like content, I use a laptop. Then for big movies, I use the projector and 5.1 sound system (mostly 2nd hand as well.)
projectors are just not a practical recommendation for most people. unless you take pretty drastic measures to set up your room like a proper theater, the picture quality will be drastically worse than an average TV.
Indeed, that's why I mentioned a PC monitor first
Just a heads up that the Smart virus is spreading to monitors, too. In a few years most monitors will be Smart.
There are still non-"smart" monitors (as opposed to tvs), get one while you can. I would but too poor. My world's full of 1080p trickle down :p
A Google TV. That have a "Basic TV" mode which lets you use it without internet.