Technology

I once got a 42" tv from some Korean brand Seiki for like $400 back in like 2008. The best thing about it was you could update the firmware to that of one of their other models and get true 1080p 120hz without any of the post processing junk ruining response times.

Lasted me a little over a decade before something burnt out, best gaming monitor ever though.

not a permanent solution… some are experimenting with making a network connection mandatory to work at all

I’ve heard that the “smart” feature services actually help subsidize the overall cost of the TV, but if that’s true, I doubt any of those savings are being passed to the consumer.

There are relatively few, but there are a couple. The Sceptre U515CV-UMC is probably the most well known one. It's easy to find a dumb TV in the sub 24" category, too, but that's probably not what most people are looking for and at that rate most nerds would probably just use a computer monitor instead anyway.

No DisplayPort on that Sceptre, obviously.

you're right and that's what I do but I'd still buy a sceptre tv if they were sold outside of trumpia

People aren’t just objecting to the quality of the software, and even more than objecting to the relentless commercialization at every opportunity in the ‘smart’ features, they are rightfully worked up about the firehose of surveillance telemetry these devices are feeding back to the manufacturers.