They are absolute trash. All of them. 

 I'm in the market for a new TV, and I don't think I have any option other than building one myself 😂 I can buy monitors but the larger ones are very expensive.  

 estate sales 

 Huh? 

 not sure where U r located but here there r whole house items on sale when people vacate @ actual houses called estate sales - a service. 

 LOL, you mean one of these? https://image.nostr.build/5cb361e793573a33fb9aee1edfd25da761a900f46306939ddd9e9604066e4ace.jpg 

 a woody! nah, but @ least they lasted before landfill reclamation.  planned obsolescence my fren; do U think it's real? i follow flows & boomers r checking out. Cycles 

 These TVs lasted decades ❤️ 

 The smartest move is not buying 

 i guess you could use a smart tv as "dumb" output only by using the HDMI input and making sure it doesn't connect to the internet (to be able to take screenshots and report them 😀 )

but yes it's ludicrous how anti-consumer the whole smart tv hype is, apparently one reason they're relatively cheap is that companies subsidize it for the adware/spyware on it, so there's no competing without "smart" functionality 

 I feat that's what I'll have to resort to, I was also researching taking out the panel and sticking a pi into it, but it seems like it''s very closed proprietary tech they have on their devices.  

 interfacing directly to the panel would be incredible, definitely a neater option if possible ! but you're right if it's not stock eDP/LVDS then it's going to be a nightmare to figure out a way to drive it 

 Where did all the dumb TVs go😭 

 Get an Apple TV. 10/10 Best Apple Product. Better than the iPhone.