Privacy TV buying & de-smarting guide

Find a TV whose smart features you can actually kill, and pair it with a clean Apple TV setup

Problem

People who haven't owned a TV in years want one that respects privacy, and are willing to pay a premium. But every set ships with ads and telemetry, and while many have heard an Apple TV box is cleaner than native smart apps, nobody knows which models pair best or which settings must be disabled. One HN thread asked exactly this and got 60 comments of conflicting advice.

Solution

A buying and setup guide site: filter TV models by size, refresh rate, and whether smart features can be bypassed, with fields for boot ads, telemetry, and direct-to-HDMI boot. Each model gets a first-day setup checklist and Apple TV/streaming-box pairing notes.

Users

Privacy-conscious middle-class households and geeks willing to pay more for a clean experience

MVP

Catalog 30–50 mainstream TVs with privacy/ad/telemetry fields; a filterable comparison table by size and de-smartability; a per-model first-boot settings checklist; affiliate links to purchase pages

Revenue

Affiliate commissions from Amazon/retailers, plus a paid 'ultimate de-smarting config' PDF ($9)

Why now

Smart TV ads and telemetry keep getting more aggressive while the privacy-premium audience grows; this narrow buying info is something big media won't bother with, and manual curation creates a moat