Without connecting my TV to the Internet for firmware upgrades, I would be missing out on several fixes and improvements especially with handling of higher frame rates, VRR and IIRC at least one in the HDMI ARC subsystem that was causing audio drops.

Interesting! I haven’t connected my smart LG to the net since it was new, and it handles everything I throw at it.

I prefer to use an external box as opposed to the built-in apps, to have a more responsive interface, to keep the TV as clean as possible, and to have control over choosing to update the TV or not.

What brand is the one you’re talking about?

Which TV manufacturer is shipping out buggy TVs that require updates?

I imagine all of them. This is all controlled in soft/firmware and as such is bound to have bugs. There's also updates that make better use of the hardware.

Then use USB offline update?

Samsung: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00062224/

Vizio: https://support.vizio.com/s/article/Firmware-Information-215...

TCL: https://support.tcl.com/rokutv-common-questions/01-how-to-ma...

Name the specific one you're talking about. Either there is a manufacturer we should all avoid, or atleast a model, or you made it up.

Lol ok so I'm making it up, then. I don't owe you anything, dude. You can believe whatever you want, I don't give a single f.

And now we're getting into much more technical details and why I said "inherently".

A proper built-in box will let you bypass it.

That's exactly the problem. There's no guarantee that the built-in will be and remain "proper" with updates. It's like saying we can trust our government with encryption backdoors as long as they behave properly.

My perspective: the incentive for manufacturers is to generate as much revenue as possible. In hardware manufacturing, margins are extremely tight.

Consequently, any additional revenue from selling customer data is incredibly attractive.

Especially if you can do so better/faster than your competitors, thereby competing at the same retail price points with better net margins.

As a result... they have every incentive to fuck their customers over from a privacy perspective.

And what they're doing is invisible.

And this is an entity people are comfortable trusting with unfettered access to their devices/network?

Sorry, I was unclear.

By 'bypass', I mean something that does not require the cooperation of the box.

I should have said the proper way of adding it will let you bypass the box, not phrase things as if the box is the gatekeeper.