Only janky solution I know of is to use a Raspberry Pi (or other computer) to run Kodi or Android TV. You can then point your TV’s DNS to a PiHole or other DNS filter to stop tracking/ads.
I wouldn’t call this a janky solution at all. The jank is the “smart” TV itself. I use an Nvidia shield to get the most out of my 4k OLED TV, but otherwise do pretty much the same thing. I put my TV on a VLAN that doesn’t have Internet access, too.
Samsung TVs are known to connect automatically if they detect an open network, and some ISPs have an open network on all their routers, so you can’t even guarantee that!
Only janky solution I know of is to use a Raspberry Pi (or other computer) to run Kodi or Android TV. You can then point your TV’s DNS to a PiHole or other DNS filter to stop tracking/ads.
I wouldn’t call this a janky solution at all. The jank is the “smart” TV itself. I use an Nvidia shield to get the most out of my 4k OLED TV, but otherwise do pretty much the same thing. I put my TV on a VLAN that doesn’t have Internet access, too.
The only jank thing about this is that you can’t get rid 100% of the ad/spyware on the tv…
You can by not connecting it to your network
Samsung TVs are known to connect automatically if they detect an open network, and some ISPs have an open network on all their routers, so you can’t even guarantee that!
Or just don’t connect the TV to the Internet at all.
This is how I’ve used Smart TVs since 2014, I assure you this is completely normal and not jank 🤣