TV software is getting loaded with ads, changing what it means to own a TV set.
“The TV business isn’t just about selling TVs anymore. Companies are increasingly seeing viewers, not TV sets, as their most lucrative asset…”
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Oh I didn’t know that. Sorry I was living my life to the fullest sailing the high seas 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
sounds of the fan for a raspberry pi running pihole begin to filter through the background noise ya’ll allow ads on your network?
Sceptre TVs. All dumb, affordable and are great in terms of panel. That’s my next brand now that my old LG Nanocell is already showing dead pixels.
https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.html
They do sell smart TVs too, but that’s not what any of us is looking for.
I just got one of these last week for $150 new. The panel won’t be winning any awards for visual quality, nor will the speakers be lauded by audiophiles, but it perfectly serviceable and affordable.
Yeah. At the end of the day, for the price and the privacy, I’m totally willing to add a dumb soundbar to it as well 🤣
The Yamaha Audio SR-C20A seems like a good option.
I bought a new TCL TV recently. Stunning visuals for the price. But I had to jump through a load of unnecessary crap to keep it from phoning home, letting every tech company on the face of the planet know what I watch at 3am every morning before heading out to work.
Need to keep it disconnected from the internet, plugged into an Nvidia Shield that had the projectivity launcher installed alongside plex and steam link, and with a whitelist on my router preventing it from accessing anything other than my media server and linux pc, because that covers all I will ever use the TV for.
End result: a near dumb TV that is able to watch anything I want to watch, and play any game I want to play, but without all of the ads and tracking nonsense.
what the hell guys, it’s not even free and i am the product anyway ?!
Can sell the TV cheaper than the competition, if you get some revenue from ads. Race to the bottom, market regulates itself, and so on.
Sounds like a pathetic amount of money for betraying your customers with a shitty ad infested smart tv
Now multiply $5 by 1.75 billion…
But televisions cost hundreds of dollars at least
I don’t see your point
The profit they get from the sale of the television should be enough that they don’t have to make the television shit to get slightly more profit, why do people even buy these
The profit they get from a tv is a single sale. The way they want to make money nowadays is as passive income, that’s why they’re pushing all the subscription services everywhere. It’s a lot more money for them.
Think of it like this: a $500 tv can earn them $50 profit, but $5/quarter for the same tv means they get double that profit in 2 and a half years. And they’ll probably make triple or quadruple that, so they get 4 times as much money for the same tv sale.
There a manufacturer called Spectre that has very good TVs of all sizes, at great prices and no smart features whatsoever.
Recently had to buy a new TV due to a lightning strike (surge protector did nothing) and I never let my new “smart” TV communicate with the internet and it becomes a “dumb” TV and I feel pretty good about that.
The annoying thing is that even without it connected to the internet, it’s still slowed down by the OS. I did the same and it’s still not as responsive to things like switching inputs as the projector I was using before it.
This is the way to do it. Sadly, my wife really wants to use the Roku remote. I must oblige her.
Pi Hole successfully blocks all that.
Note I have my router redirecting all requests to port 53 (DNS) to the pi hole for those things that don’t obey the DHCP DNS. Not sure if Roku is one of those offenders, but I haven’t seen a Roku ad in years.
I miss dumb TV. I would pay more for a dumb OLED TV. Then add the media box of your choice, be it an Apple TV, a Raspberry Pi or whatever…
I just don’t use the smart features. Maybe it’s because I run Pi Hole, but I don’t have any ad issues at all using Apple TV.
There are ads on YouTube TV, the normal ones you find on broadcast TV or cable, and that is all.
I thought not connecting it to the internet will make it OK?
They can also hijack the connection of a connected box (ethernet over hdmi) or via a connected phone (bluetooth & chromecast iirc)
Any source on this?
Some literally will not let you use them without an Internet-enabled setup
Commercial monitors or digital signage displays are out there.
B&H has a good selection.
They are a bit more expensive, but not crazy.
The processor in my Bravia seems to do wonders for image quality tho. Same file on my HiDPI computers doesn’t look nearly as good.
I’m okay with image processing in the screen, by smart, I mean with a media platform and apps installed on the screen. I have two Roku TV that are now unusable even as a screen because the recent Roku software updates made the whole tv sluggish as hell even to simply turn on to an input like HDMI. It’s baaaaaad. Image processing on the other hand no biggie (as long as it’s not this motion flow shit)
I have a 2012 Vizio TV with a Chromecast. I have it hooked to WiFi so that I can cast to it. Is it able to connect to the Internet through the Chromecast?
If connected via HDMI, no. But your TV might be able to act as a remote control for your Chromecast. No internet data via HDMI.
Ethernet over hdmi
https://thehometheaterdiy.com/hdmi-with-ethernet/
https://www.cmple.com/learn/learning-center-hdmi-cables-with-ethernet
Wow. Ok I did not know that.
Oh man, I would kill for this…
How about 10x more
Very much unrelated but I recently read samsung’s smart monitor/tv privacy policy and it says they can record EVERYTHING you do on it and devices connected to it including programs or games you use and you can’t opt out of this short of foregoing smart features (except screen casting) altogether. There’s also an option (that doesn’t look optional in their ui) that lets them automatically process that data.
I’d heard those things were ridiculous but didn’t imagine this much
Does that mean they don’t (or can’t) steal information when you’re screen casting?
I think they only do if you agreed to the privacy policy
This isn’t a new concept and it’s really stupid that Ars is presenting it that way.
If companies didn’t know this, then they are already out of business. If the viewers didn’t know this… well… I can’t help you.
You can help them by telling them? Like the most obvious thing? But if that is to big of a leap for you… well… I can’t help you.
It’s been a digital billboard for at least 40 years of my life. Radio was no different, so be sure to drink your Ovaltine.
Have you never seen a commercial before? Cheap subsidized hardware? Bloatware loaded on phones? Bloatware on TVs? Games that require 5 mins of ad time? Google’s crippling of Chrome to break ad blockers? Unskippable ads on YouTube? Sponsored ad spots in YouTube videos? All the 3rd party logos on Smart TV boxes? Product placements in movies? Ad placements before the movie starts? The list goes on.
The entire entertainment industry is based around advertising. Every delivery platform is designed to show you ads first and entertainment second.
People have problems figuring that out?
I bought one in november to only use the HDMI to my Linux desktop. I’m never connecting it to the internet.
A TV? I don’t have that.
Oh, wait. Turns out, this thing I’ve been using as monitor for my HTPC actually has some of this ancient TV stuff people keep talking about. Who would have known.
So do I have a TV now? Technically…
Go away, batin!
Another Torment Nexus that is already well underway.
Na, I’m still using a TV from 2009.