I just realised I've got a slightly older IdeaCentre left over. Might do something about that. I really like the tuner Cerebus posted about.
Edit: This is all about being able to ship off the old TV, and not have a rootkit replace it. No modern TV with a DVB-T2 tuner in is free from the spyware that turns into abandonware and more or less bricks itself on a 4-year cycle. Currently looking into digital signage displays to get something unencumbered.
Many of the cheap 2K & 4K TVs are "dumb". As they have no internet connectivity at all, probably reasonably safe from the Chinese peeping Toms.
I have a cheap (as in sub-$200 Canadian kopeks) 45" 1080P RCA we bought "just to get by" that is similarly unencumbered.
If I'm going to have my viewing habits observated, I prefer it to be with someone I actually have a contract with, who has some business interest in not excessively pissing me off; this is why the ROKUs/FireTV. Also, when we travel, I can very easily take all my favorite content in a pocketable package.
I haven't been paying for my ISP since we moved into the new place; one of the few advantages of this property.
Even when I do pay for my own ISP, I do not include it in my entertainment cost. I am always going to have an ISP, and I am not willing to put up with any service not fast enough to support at least a couple HDTV streams at once, since that would mean my surf potato-ing would be glacially slow as well.
I run everything through my own router and treat the cable MODEM as a untrusted gateway. I have VPN for when I need to do personal business back in the US, and I also use that for my Hulu.
I pay a grand total of US$59/month for Netflix, Hulu/Disney+, CBS All Access/Paramount+, and PrimeVideo/Prime Music; and that includes my Prime membership.
Every month or three, I review these services to decide if they are providing me with value per dollar vs the assache. I've canceled/re-upped CBS like 3 times since I first got them to watch Picard.
Nobody cares aboot the whiners who bitch aboot every penny but still give them money for cableTV; freeloaders and deadbeats who watch pirated content are the enemy, so they don't matter either. The people staying away in droves and paying for ad-free content, and showing the bastards that the ad revenue model is dead, they are the ones who actually matter.It's all aboot getting the most ROI... and
I don't mind paying for what I use, which includes rewarding those providers who actually deliver ad-free content. THAT is the only way to change the paradigm in today's corporate-centric world; by voting with your dollars. mnem