Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You

[ourmandave]

I don't understand why you'd want a Smart TV. If something goes south (in this age of disposable tech) it becomes like those TV/VCR combos of the past where 1/2 of it doesn't work.

http://www.howtogeek.com/176392/smart-tvs-are-stupid-why-you...

[wildmusings]

Smart TVs don't cost more. And they function just fine as normal TVs. I got a 60 inch Vizio smart TV for about $400 and I'm pretty happy with it. I was pretty skeptical about the Smart TV features, but the built-in Netflix and Amazon Prime apps are actually very convenient and are more user friendly than a Chromecast. I can search, pause, rewind, change episodes, etc. without using my laptop. When the Smart TV features become obsolete, or I switch to a streaming service that's not available, it still has HDMI ports like any TV. As for this privacy concern, a) it can be turned off, and b) it's nothing new; Netflix tracks your viewing habits, Amazon tracks your viewing habits, Facebook tracks your web browsing habits, etc.

[LordKano]

I don't get it either.

That article hits the issues why I won't buy one.

I'd much rather have a plain old dumb tv and a smart device attached to it. With the same tv, I have been through a Chromecast, a NeoTV, a Roku 2 and a Roku3.

I have kept adding features on to the same old tv.

Also, I'm concerned about EOL issues. A friend of mine had a smart Blu-Ray player, the manufacturer stopped updating the software and when YouTube stopped supporting the version of the app on his device, he was shut out.

It was a minor inconvenience to buy a new Blu-Ray player but if it has been his TV, he'd have to either go buy a new TV or buy an external smart device just to enjoy the same feathers the tv had when he bought it.

Meanwhile, I would have spent less for my dumb tv and smart devices while maintaining a more positive overall experience.

[TeMPOraL]

You wouldn't. I wouldn't. Members of general population... that's a different story. Companies do everything in their power to make people choose smart TVs. They deceive people with marketing and price smart TVs below dumb TVs. They also make sure customers aren't aware of the expected lifetime of such smart TV. Couple it with the fact that for a non-technical person, setting up two separate devices that sorta, maybe will work together is infinitely more complex than just getting one that has all the "smart" features bundled and working out of the box, and there's no surprise that people buy those.

[bsilvereagle]

The "fix" to this is to not let your TV connect to the internet. Instead, use a set top box that you trust to stream Netflix, etc. Mythtv or tvheadend are good solutions for live tv if you have a computer with a capture card.

[Bud]

No. The fix is to militate against "smart" TV makers and boycott them until they remove this malware and stop snooping as a means to gain more revenue. That is the only fix. No other fixes are trustable and verifiable at this point.

The fix is, don't ever buy a smart TV. Buy the stupidest TV you possibly can.

TV makers don't know anything about software and security, and they don't care at all about user privacy. So they shouldn't be allowed to write software and put features in their TVs.

[kylec]

I wonder how long it'll be before a smart TV is sold that automatically scans for and connects to open wireless access points so it can phone home.

[pdkl95]

That works until manufacturers make a deal with cellular networks. precedent: onstar

[jordache]

sneaky ass vizio.. the setting to disable this is buried under a system diagnostics section with the word "Reset" prominently showing as the menu entry. It's as if they want to discourage owner from venturing into that menu out of fear of the Reset.

[qq66]

Much safer to never give the TV network credentials.

[cmdlinerambo]

They call the feature smart interactivity. Set to on. Talk about a dark pattern.

[yuhong]

This was on Ars a while ago. I mentioned how even today's "non-smart" TVs have to decode digital ATSC signals from the antenna (unlike the TVs of decades ago) in one of the comments, and how today's "monitors" are not that different besides lacking this decoder/tuner and a few other things like the IR sensor/remote.

[McGlockenshire]

I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen any tuners on a stick, given the increasing trend of things that directly connect to HDMI ports. On the other hand, most "dumb" monitors don't seem to often include multiple HDMI inputs, so that might explain that.

[spedru]

The only winning move is not to play, as they say. Televisions are overrated anyway.

[hueving]

The comments on that article are awful. Spare yourselves and don't read them!

[zobzu]

ive a vizio smart tv (they basically are all smart tvs now) its just not online. easy. the software sucks anyway.

[winstonZedmore]

1984