There was an era, not too long ago, when Vizio was the reigning king of budget TVs in the US. They’re still potentially a decent option — but they’ve been eclipsed by China’s TCL and Hisense, which often provide better specs at a reasonable price. If you pick the wrong Vizio model, you may find yourself locked to 1080p or a 60Hz refresh rate at a time when 4K 120Hz or higher is de facto.
Still, Walmart’s ownership makes Vizio an omnipresent brand, and it’s not like you can’t get a fantastic experience if you shop carefully. One thing’s for sure, however: you need to disable ACR if it’s active. In this guide I’ll explain what ACR does, why it’s so terrible, and how you can shut it off quickly.
What is ACR, and why is it so terrible?
Your TV’s worst (so-called) feature
ACR is short for Automatic Content Recognition. Though TV makers sometimes try to spin it as “personalization,” what it’s really doing is harvesting data about your viewing activity, which can then be used internally or sold to various partners. If advertisers can better gauge your interests, they can (hypothetically) avoid wasting their money.
In a sense, that’s not too far removed from what happens when you browse the web without anti-tracking plugins. What makes ACR especially egregious, then, is how wide it casts its net. It’s always present, no matter if you switch to a PC, a Blu-ray player, a cable box, or a PlayStation. As far as it’s concerned, Microsoft Word, The Lord of the Rings, and that DVD of your childhood memories are all worth scanning. Your exact identity remains secret, and a lot of data is useless for the people receiving it — but you are being fingerprinted, just the same. Understandably, most people don’t want this intrusion, and may not even be aware that they agreed to it.
That last point is worth dwelling on. The companies that subsidize TVs with ACR often mask it with euphemisms like the one I mentioned up top, making it easy to turn on by accident, and harder to turn off. In the case of Vizio TVs, be sure to reject Viewing Data during the initial setup process.
How to disable ACR on a Vizio TV
Dealing with non-standard software
Vizio is rare in this day and age for continuing to insist on proprietary operating systems. Specifically, it uses two: SmartCast and VIA Plus. You’ll need to follow separate instructions depending on what your TV is equipped with.
For TVs based on SmartCast, follow these steps:
- Hit the Menu or gear button on your remote to open Settings.
- Click All Settings.
- Choose Privacy and Legal.
- Highlight Viewing Data by scrolling to it.
- Tap the right arrow on your remote to change the setting to Off.
On a set with VIA Plus, the process is similar, but the labels are different.
- Click the Menu button on your remote.
- Select System.
- Select Reset & Admin.
- Highlight Viewing Data without clicking it.
- Press the right arrow on your remote to toggle the feature to Off.
As a final note, if you’re in Canada and you’re not seeing these options, that’s because you’re in luck — Viewing Data isn’t active that country, presumably for legal reasons. No matter where you live, the tech has been disabled on all Vizio products with the original VIA interface.
