Smart TVs must showcase Australian free-to-air channels alongside streaming services under proposed legislation

fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 204 points –
Smart TVs must showcase Australian free-to-air channels alongside streaming services under proposed legislation
theguardian.com
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All i want for Christmas is a large dumb tv

Hard to find, and unnecessary, as long as it has HDMI ports.

I have NEVER hooked up a smart TV to the Internet, and they work just fine with my digital boxes.

Same goes for the Blu-ray player that has Netflix, fuck that noise.

If there's a dumb option that is cheaper, go for it. Just don't think you have to pay a premium for it, when you can just not put the TV on your network.

I feel that they will soon have built-in 5G that you can't disable, to phone home.

Like u/circuscritic said, its expensive to use 5g modems here, so they have to:

  1. leach off the negbors guest wifi,
  2. hostage the consumer until they give you internet
  3. use 3g or 4g modems.

For option 1 or 3: or rip out the antennas/put it in a faraday cage. (Yes, tinfoil works)

For option 3 only: remove the sim card if possable.

For option 2: not much I can say but buy a tv without option 2. Try buying a model no later than 2021-22 ish.

That would be incredibly expensive. 5G modems are not cheap, and I can't imagine there's enough consumer demand that would justify the additional upfront cost and ongoing recurring charges. They'd be in clearance bins within a year or two.

I'm sure some niche displays already have embedded 5G WWAN modems, but they'd be commerical displays for digital signage, videoconferencing, etc. Those won't be cheap, or consumer standard issue anytime soon.

That would require a subscription to a 5G carrier, which would be crazy expensive here.

I can’t remember which brands, but some have been found to connect to any open wifi network to do it.

They basically did the same thing several decades ago with Kindles and whispernet. It’s not really that crazy.

Sure, but that required a partnership with carriers for a legitimate use. I hope none of the carriers would allow use of their networks for things that don’t need it, but who knows?

You’re right. They care about our privacy and would never do anything to sully that trust. Certainly not through a partnership with an electronics manufacturer that pays them to do it…

That’s a good expansion of what I meant by “who knows…?”

Maybe there needs to be laws in place to prevent devices that don’t need it from having 5G access. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Lucky (?) for me I live in a mobile service blackspot...