I think the cool kids today buy commercial “displays” (used for things like advertising in retail areas). They don’t have smart functions. They don’t connect to the internet. There’s no tuner. You’d have to bring your own antenna, media player, HTPC, whatever to send it content, but it’s 100% under your control.

The other option is a computer display - there are pretty large ones that act the same (probably just a commercial display in a different box for a different market). The prices weren’t historically that high if you didn’t need absurdly high resolution and refresh rates (gamer stats - irrelevant for general tv watching).

I haven’t tracked any specific brands for years so can’t give a specific recommendation, but I’d suggest looking for second hand. If a store goes out of business their displays will be cheaper than anything you get directly from a distributor.

If that’s a dead end, you can still look at a bloated smart TV. Just don’t connect it to the internet, ever. Generally the same result as using a simple display, except the bundled remote will probably have a bunch of stupid buttons you’ll never use. My tv has a huge Netflix button and every time o accidentally press it I get a giant ad to buy Netflix 🙄

Sceptre U435CV-UMRD. One of the new non-portable "dumb" TVs left on the market. It's just a TV. It tunes to digital channels, or it takes whatever you feed its inputs and puts the picture on the screen. That's it. It's a 43" so close to but slightly below your size target. They do a 50" and a 65" version as well.

I have an LG C3 OLED from Costco and its easily the best TV I've ever had and got it for pretty cheap. Not sure if they make it in a smaller size than 55" though.

It does have smart slop integrated into it, but I blacklisted all the LG domains on my home router and haven't been nagged by any of this stuff since.

Get an OLED, the picture quality is amazing. Just never connect it to the internet, you can just plug in HDMI and it will simply work.

Edit: thank you for all the kind suggestions! 🩷 I ended up keeping my current TV for now. I was this 🤏 close to buying a 48 inch LG B6E, which is UHD OLED. Just before heading to the store, I got cold feet and decided to look through the settings of my current TV again. It's a 43 inch Panasonic 6700 from 2020, which is UHD LED. I don't know how I didn't realize this until now, but I was actually able to remove ALL preinstalled apps, which made the TV way snappier. I also found, after an unreasonable amount of digging, that there is a setting under input sources - HDMI 1 called HDMI Ultra HD that was TURNED OFF by default. 😱 My only gripe with my Panasonic is that it emits a lot of heat. When I checked out the LG earlier today, it barely felt hot at all... Well well... The heatwave is passing anyways, so... 😅

Nah: Get a monitor and connect something to it instead.

Alternately, check out commercial displays if you really need an actual TV.

Pay attention to the panels they use more than the brands (companies like LG can use shitty panels and sometimes "generic" companies can put out some real nice stuff for not that much).

I have a deslopped setup that I'd recommend, but keep in mind all of my stuff is a few or more years old at this point so the newer models may not behave the same.

• an LG oled that has never been connected to the internet, though I did do a firmware update when I got it using the usb port. If I remember right, the factory loaded firmware was limited.
• an nvidia shield tv pro with updates disabled. These are android TVs so they can run the real netflix/prime/whatever app that you want, but they're unlocked enough to let you put custom apps and disable system apps as you like. Updates needed to be disabled because the current version of the launcher added ads, but you can alternately use a custom launcher if you want to keep updates enabled. I keep mine separated on the network to limit any damage it might be able to do if there's any security issues.
• a logitech harmony companion remote. They stopped making these a while back, but they continue to be supported. I may swap this for a Flirc Skip 1s if it stops functioning.
• a minipc running linux. I have a sort of nostalgic channel surfing interface video player thing I've been working on that runs on this, but you could also use something like this in place of the android tv entirely. A good mini-pc will be small and silent, a usb IR receiver will let it read commands from a remote control, and the GPUs in new ones are even capable of gaming directly, but can especially handle streaming well if you have a gaming PC elsewhere. If you want that, make sure you find one that can do 4k@120, a lot can only do 4k@60, and will only do 120hz at 1080p.

No ads, no bs buttons on my remote, it all works together with my audio setup and it's the same experience every single time I turn it on.

as others have said those commercial TVs are a good pick for completely avoiding bullshit, sceptre also makes non smart TVs

as for budget picks ive found tcl is pretty good if you dont connect it to the internet, I got a 65" 4k screen for like 500 bucks and it works fine for me as someone who hates slop too. its snappy and doesn't get in my way

Look at Digital Signage displays

If possible a 120Hz one, that refresh rate is a multiple of most frames per second used in movies and TV so it shouldn't do that awful thing during slow uniform motions.

If you don’t want to spend a premium on a commercial product or a large computer monitor (which will be more expensive than an off the shelf modern tv if you want high resolution), then I’m sorry to say your best bet is to simply never connect your tv to the internet. I have a Hisense U8H 55” tv, and it’s amazing. It has all the stupid shit included, but I literally never see any of it, because it’s not connected to the internet and my input is either set to my Apple TV or my computer’s HDMI port.

It’s 4K, has Dolby Vision, HDR10, filmmaker mode, etc., all the bells and whistles and it has never touched the internet, despite being capable of being a huge piece of shit if I ever did connect it, so I just don’t. It’s also about 4 years old at this point, and its software has never been updated (because I won’t connect it to the internet), still works like the day I bought it.

I just got a TV. I went to my local thrift store and paid 25 euro for a very nice 32" LG FLATRON "Full HD Monitor TV" all I know is it has HDMI and ports for every kind of game console and retro computer too. It has no smart anything. Not even a way to hook it up to a network.

You’re not going to get next gen video without apps.