> we'll just remove them or de-solder or whatever

If we continue giving money to people who build malware into the products, the malware will eventually be baked in deeply enough that the rest of the device will refuse to operate if it can't phone home to the ministry of truth or wherever.

Offline smart TVs are great. As long as they support wake over CEC, they are close enough to a dumb display connected to an Apple TV.

I let my latest LG TV on the network, but block internet access at the router. HomeKit integration (Siri turn off tv), Chromecast, Airplay, and other local services all work, without the ability for it to phone home.

I feel like there's a bit of a jump from "tech-savvy" to de-soldering things on an expensive piece of home electronics. As it stands now, though, I agree that turning off the smart TV features seems to be the way to go for most people.

> The real risk is cars: if they start not working without cell network connections.

Given how limited cell service is in a lot of the US, I think we're a ways off from this.

I just want a panel. I’m already doing what the article suggests (running a Hisense offline with a media box), but my TV still crashes a few times a month and needs to be power-cycled/takes about a minute to reboot.

There’s just no reason for this. You have one job: Take my signal and display it. Anything else is just another place for things to go wrong.

ha good luck. they already aggressively scan and use public wi-fi networks and have everything shipped on a chonky SoC