I just went and double checked; they are still making “Dumb” TVs. Best Buy has several in their Insignia line. They are really, really hard to find on their web site, though.
Expect to pay a bit more for a non-smart TV though. Most people still think of it as being a selling point, so “Hey, it’s like getting an Amazon stick FOR FREE!!!”
They could but I doubt they do. It’s more complicated for less valuable data that is harder to monetize than people who use the built in streaming services which is probably most users.
Couple of years ago, I bought a 65” Vizio floor model at Best Buy for ~$250. Works well except that around 1 in 5 times when it doesn’t recognize the signal from my DirecTV receiver. Power cycling either the TV or receiver fixes it. I don’t use their streaming but do use it for AppleTV+ and that works well except that after the stream ends, it stays in streaming mode and sometimes I need to use the TV remote to change the input.
I have a 4K projector hooked to a small linux/arm box that streams stuff from my server.
No ads, but anything I want to watch. I’ve not owned a TV since 2005.
I don’t know why anyone would bother with “smart” TV’s. They’re piles of crap running crappy spyware.
They don’t do full image captures; but reportedly they do phone home image fingerprints of whatever is being displayed; so it’s considerably more than just what input you are using.
Some years back LG got caught crawling the network the TV was attached to for file shares and phoning data on media files back to the mothership as well.
Between the audacity of their objectives and the rank incompetence of some of their implementations(ancient linux versions with known vulnerabilities; exfiltrating private data without even having the decency to use TLS, etc.) these things are straight into ‘treat as adversary’ territory.
Because that’s pretty much all that’s available now if you want a wall-mounted media viewing device that works in all lighting conditions and doesn’t cost as much as an enormous computer monitor does. I needed a screen for flying a flight simulator on a game console and don’t use any of the “smart” features but still bought one because there were no other reasonably priced options at the store. Computer monitors in the 40” range are not cheap. But I leave the WiFi for the TV disconnected.
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