• @[email protected]
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    4511 months ago

    I haven’t had a tv in years, and every time I get tempted by the screen size I have to remind myself about this shit. It’s just me, 30 inches is enough, and I haven’t seen an ad within my own home since 2012 (not entirely true, I’ve changed browsers a few times and had to re-setup adblockers).

    • Zoot
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      2011 months ago

      You can look for display boards, they’re specifically meant for like retail space so don’t come with all the fancy bullshit. Typically cheaper, and you can go pretty large as well.

      • @[email protected]
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        911 months ago

        I was always under the impression the ad-riddled bullshit was cheaper because it’s subsidized by the sponsoring companies.

        • @[email protected]
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          3011 months ago

          In this day and age, they will charge you as much as they think they can get away, and then double dip with showing you ads, and triple dip with selling your data.

          The “ads subsidize the product” line was real years ago. But as always, it’s never enough.

          Just look at streaming services. They started to show ads or make you pay even more to get rid of ads.

          The line must go up, fuck everyone.

          • @[email protected]
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            311 months ago

            Fun fact: TVs are pretty much the only product that consistently goes down in price each year.

          • @[email protected]
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            411 months ago

            “The line must go up, fuck everyone” is a perfectly succinct description of capitalism, thank you for that.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 months ago

      Just use it as display device for your library and *arr services. A high-end 55" OLED goes for 1000$ nowadays.

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

      I’ve got a little 22 inch gaming monitor with a high refresh rate. Cost me like $80 I think.

      But I game alone, with headphones. No audience anyway, so that little screen does perfect for me.

  • @[email protected]
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    8511 months ago

    I equate Samsung TVs with HP printers. I would rather go without than have to put up with their nonsense.

    • @[email protected]
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      1011 months ago

      I don’t want any smart TV. If I want a smart TV I’ll hook my own computer up to it.

      • @[email protected]
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        311 months ago

        I’m happy with my cheap Sceptre tv. It isn’t for everyone, but I have no need for smart TVs. I’ve never had one, and I don’t want one.

        My cheap ass Sceptre has a beautiful 4K picture which I rarely use anyway. My kids watch YouTube on my switch most of the time. I think I seen a 4K video once when I hooked my Steam deck up to it. It was pretty, but I don’t have time for TV with these babies anyway.

    • @[email protected]
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      3811 months ago

      We should form a club. Would be great to avoid some of this insidious bullshit. Ads on a TV I paid for and subscription to my own printer. I hope both companies fail.

    • Phoenixz
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      2511 months ago

      Actually, like HP printers, the older models are great. I have a 10-15 yo or something Samsung 1080p 50" flat screen that I found at the garbage. Been using it for a bedroom tv for 2 years already and it’s awesome.

      I wouldn’t buy a new Samsung TV now to save my life.

      I was dumb enough to buy a Samsung 4k curved monitor, 6 months in the front fell off, literally. The screen literally fell out of the frame. Sanding it back was only allowed in the original box which I threw out because I lived in a tiny apartment. Took 3 months of daily calls until they decided to send me a box. Sent the monitor in, and recieved a repaired on one month later where they replaced the motherboard, buttons and other stuff but failed to glue the screen back in. sent it back again, now in the kept box, and got a new one that at least works.

        • @[email protected]
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          511 months ago

          Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I bought an HP M476DN in 2015, and no problems using non-oem toner, toner top up, etc. No subscription nonsense, no firmware upgrades nobbling things. Maybe I’ll regret posting this when HP find out but it doesn’t owe me anything nearly 10 years later…

      • Pyro
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        711 months ago

        My Odyssey G7’s panel also fell off 2 weeks before the end of the warranty.

        In addition to that, the Odyssey series also has a weird issue where if certain conditions are met, the entire screen will dip in brightness and display horizontal lines. It’s very distracting. They’re aware of the issue (as many people have reported it) but they aren’t doing anything to fix it. I won’t be buying another.

  • I Cast Fist
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    4211 months ago

    Ah, 2021, when cryptobros were all in on NFTs, which was totally the best thing ever and totally not a greater fool scam, you guys!

    • @[email protected]
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      911 months ago

      I had a co-worker who bought into the NFT scam hard. He even had a virtual room on his phone to display his multi-thousand dollar “investments”. He collected all his favorite Avengers or some shite.

      Guess how much they’re worth now.

    • @[email protected]
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      1111 months ago

      Used to work with a guy who kept trying to get everyone else to buy crypto and NFTs, and said he had 2 million in Bitcoin on a drive in his house.

      Given he lived in a one bed flat and wore the same cigarette smelling jumper every day for three years, I doubted that very much.

  • bitwolf
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    7811 months ago

    The BS really makes the follow up statement believable

  • @[email protected]
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    11711 months ago

    Surgeons generally initial their incision site pre op; one of the general docs I worked with had the initials “HA”, and would do laparoscopic surgeries with 3 port sites… so our patients would roll in with “HA HA HA” written across their abdomen. Always got a kick out of it! ^_^

    • @[email protected]
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      2311 months ago

      I’m assuming this is with a marker on their skin or something? Because I remember reading an article about a surgeon getting busted for signing people’s organs once.

      • @[email protected]
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        3511 months ago

        https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/13/doctor-branded-liver/

        Yeah that was pretty fucked up. Psychopath got caught literally branding a patient’s liver.

        Pre-op, surgeons use a skin marker (washes off after a few days) to confirm the correct site, and will sometimes even write “NO” or put an “X” over the same site on the other side. If you go in for surgery on your left leg, then wake up with you left leg still fucked up and a bunch of stitches on your right leg… yeah not a good situation. And it’s happened. There are a TON of redundant checks now to prevent wrong-site surgeries, but people get tunnel visioned and still manage to fuck up every now and then. I was even in a case where we had a close call - cataract surgery. We did all checks, heard and read “left eye” probably 20 times just in the OR. Shit’s all good and we’re ready to start: “Uh… Doc? You just draped the right. This one’s left.”

        It was the only left eye that day, all the others were right. So even despite all the checks, our monkey brains still find a way sabotage us.

        But that’s also why we do shit as teams, so when one of us fucks up, there are like 4 others there to call us out - hopefully in time to prevent any harm.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 months ago

        Yea branding can be legit for navigational orientation purposes during arthroscopy procedures, but they really need some cool universal orientation design, not dude or school initials.

        Something like Prince’s symbol, that the patient chooses. Way cool private organ art.

        And patient consent.

        Get your shit together, docs.

      • @[email protected]
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        2711 months ago

        Yeah they do it with a marker when the patient is awake. Like “this is the surgery I’m doing on you, you cool with that? Ok I’m initialing that we are doing the right thing here”

        Like for an amputation they’ll mark the leg while the patient is awake “yes I want this one removed”

  • @[email protected]
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    1011 months ago

    I did a network analysis of outgoing traffic/connections from my Samsung TV. I don’t have the results anymore, but with the TV sitting idle, the amount of connections was… Staggering. Just, a lot of different connections, and I have no idea why.

    Unfortunately, we use our TVs smart features so we don’t have a lot of options for keeping it from doing these things.

    I’m still pretty salty that it’s basically special order to get a non-smart TV. You basically need to buy a commercial model to get one that doesn’t have or need an internet connection to do what you need it to. I don’t have that kind of money, and I don’t have enough money to just throw away a TV because of this shit.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 months ago

      You basically need to buy a commercial model to get one that doesn’t have or need an internet connection to do what you need it to.

      You can just not hook your TV up to the internet

      How many times do I have to leave this comment

      • @[email protected]
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        411 months ago

        That’s really not what I would want. If I’m not going to use the smart features, I wouldn’t want them baked into the display, it’s just more shit that can go wrong that I don’t need. The OSD menus are all built into whatever “smart” bullshit is included. So you have to plug it in once and a while to check for updates and whatnot so it doesn’t get all fucky for no reason.

        If I want a basic bitch display, I want it to be a basic bitch display. I don’t want the risk or complexity of having that extra bullshit.

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        There are infinite number of suckers on this planet. Just call them names next time, save yourself the stress.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 months ago

        I have mine connected through my laptop as a second/larger monitor, but I also just don’t gaf

      • @[email protected]
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        111 months ago

        As far as I can see, the only ones doing it are the dollar store quality manufacturers. They usually pair it with a sub standard panel, so they’re not popular. If you want the fancy display tech, like HDR, or OLED or something, then you’re stuck to “premium” brands who try to harvest your information through the “smart” features.

        Stuff like, watched time, content identification, etc, is all very lucrative in the advertising sector. Knowing what people are watching is important to knowing their customers for higher market penetration.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼
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    2611 months ago

    2 easy solutions:

    • Don’t connect your TV to the internet
    • If you need an internet connection for some reason, run a network-wide DNS filtering solution like Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home, and make sure to set it as the default DNS server in your router
    • @[email protected]
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      1411 months ago

      LG TV’s serve ads in notifications via the same domain that distributes new firmware. I got so sick of it that I blocked my TV from being able to reach the internet but it’s still on the network so I can still use wake on LAN to turn it on/off.

    • @[email protected]
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      811 months ago

      Don’t buy a Samsung tv is even better. There software gets worse every year. Recent tvs now can’t change inputs when first powered on. They also need to detect a device to change the input.

    • @[email protected]
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      811 months ago

      I’ve heard some will seek out open wifi in the area. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start having cellular data capability soon just for the ads and reporting back to corporate.

    • @[email protected]
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      3611 months ago

      Eventually they are going to require Internet on all TVs, it’s only a matter of time

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        Serious question: what’s the mechanism of this? I can think of a few it might be but I honestly don’t know:

        • Is it that 99.9% of the market wants smart TVs and there’s not enough demand for dumb TVs to support a production run?
        • Is it that existing companies can somehow block smaller upstarts from entering the market, and then they decided as a cartel to end dumb TVs?
        • Is the NSA infiltrating TV companies to force this product line choice?
        • Is there a new law requiring that all TVs get smart?
        • Some mechanism I haven’t thought of?
      • @[email protected]
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        1311 months ago

        it’s standard here in sweden to deliver TV over internet these days, TV can fuck itself sideways and die

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          You can possibly use a cheap chinese TV Media Box (about €35 for a decent one from Aliexpress) to stream Live TV over the Internet and then just connect it to the TV via HDMI.

          In my experience those things aren’t loaded with crap and have no Ads (for some, there are even things like libreElec if you want to get full control of it) plus it makes engineering sense to keep the smarts separate from the dumb TV (the actual dumb part of a TVs lasts a lot longer than the typical period between video streams moving to newer and better encoding methods - and decoding of those is done in hardware, not software - so if the smarts are in a separate cheap box, it’s a lot cheaper to get support for newer kinds of video streams a few years down the line and keep the TV than to replace the whole TV just to get the newer video stream decoders)

          Personally I use a Mini-PC with Linux and Kodi, but Mini-PCs are more expensive, require more expertise to set up and I do a lot more than just streaming live TV with it.

          • @[email protected]
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            111 months ago

            Word of warning, loads of those are full of hidden malware that will attempt to infect the other devices on your network. Probably best to make your own every time.

            • @[email protected]
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              111 months ago

              Apparently not loads, but some are. People can get the more expensive branded stuff if they’re worried or just overwrite the firmware with something like LibreELEC.

              Also for that reason I prefer my current solution with a Mini-PC, though at about €150 rather than €35 it’s a lot more expensive, which for me is fine as I use it for a lot more stuff than only as a media player, but since I’m a little wary of pitching something which requires quite a bit more technical expertise to use to people which might or not have that expertise, I only mentioned that option last and in passing.

    • Anas
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      1011 months ago

      At this point, just get a cheaper non-smart TV

      • Sabata
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        1211 months ago

        An more expensive dumb TV, actually. They want you to buy the thing that makes passive income so its cheaper.

      • Patapon Enjoyer
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        They don’t sell good TVs that aren’t Smart anymore. You could get a monitor but that comes with size, featureset and price limitations.

        • Veraxus
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          2011 months ago

          Even monitors are getting “smart TV” features these days… ostensibly so they can push non-consensual ads there, too.

          • @[email protected]
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            911 months ago

            I was looking at monitors recently, they do have Samsung “smart” monitors. That’s gonna be a fuck no from me. I hope we don’t see everything trend that way.

        • @[email protected]
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          711 months ago

          I’m leaning toward a projector hooked up to a mini pc for my next living room ‘tv’.

          I only ever use mine for movie nights or special occasions anyways so it’s always dark when I use it.

          Any other regular viewing I usually do on my pc.

          • @[email protected]
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            111 months ago

            I went with a projector in my living room for years. I had it hooked up to my main PC but it was always an awkward setup until i stuck a mirror behind my monitors. Basically have the PC on the wall opposite where you want the projection, and put the projector on your computer desk way off to the side, angled so it shoots to the wall behind you. Set up the mirror so when youre sitting at your PC, the wall behind you with the projection is reflected in the mirror as a sort of extra monitor on top of the others.

            I know it sounds terrible, but its super useful for quickly controlling the projector while still at the monitors.

            • @[email protected]
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              311 months ago

              Or get a little air mouse remote for $20 on Amazon. This is what i use for controlling my pc when its hooked up to the TV and it’s so unbelievably good, even has a full keyboard on the back if I want to search something, full range of media controls on the front, and just point it and click to control the mouse cursor. Gamechanger.

              • @[email protected]
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                111 months ago

                That’s what I was thinking about doing. I’ve already been doing a little research. I’m either gonna do standard wireless mouse and keyboard just on my couch or coffee table or one of those wireless keyboards with a TouchPad built in as a mouse replacement. I’ve also seen tiny Bluetooth wireless keyboards meant for phones but they also work with pcs.

                I’m not planning on any crazy streamio RSuite setups as I don’t torrent often and definitely not for shows I watch. Standard mini pc running Linux is all I’ll probably do. Firefox with unblock serves me well on my main pc and it’ll do here as well.

                • @[email protected]
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                  211 months ago

                  Seriously try one of the air remotes. It’s like a gyroscopic remote and it works way better than I ever thought it would for controlling a mouse cursor. They’re very cheap too, the one I have cost 30bucks, it can sense if you have it on the keyboard side or the media side facing up and disables the other sides buttons, deactivatable backlight on the buttons, and rechargeable battery, although it lasts for weeks without charging.

              • @[email protected]
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                11 months ago

                I’m doing the exact same thing with a Mini-PC running Linux with Kodi.

                Sure, for the linuxy stuff (management and other funcionality that has nothing to do with using it as a media player in my living room) it’s way better to use a real keyboard and mouse (so I mostly do that stuff remotelly from my PC), but for the whole side of using it as a media player device that remote is perfect and since I bought an air-mouse remote which also has the buttons of a normal media player remote - which works perfectly with Kodi, be it on Linux or with the Android Media Player I had before - I seldom need to actually use the air-mouse functionality to move a mouse cursor around.

                Absolutelly as you said a gamechanger.

      • @[email protected]
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        2911 months ago

        Where are you buying a non-smart TV in 2024? Genuinely asking for some links to something bigger than 32" and that is not a $3,000 “commercial display panel”.

        • @[email protected]
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          311 months ago

          For me it was craigslist. I spent $20 on a 32" Vizio that came with a useless Comcast remote so then I spent $6 online on a replacement Vizio remote. I did see some larger dumb tvs listed for more money as well.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 months ago

      Yeah, but some new tech won’t work at all if you don’t.

      Plenty of people aren’t aware of that, and when you’re buying shit, it often obfuscates that fact.

      Most people will buy shit having no idea the thing will require you to connect it to your wifi.

      e: television is only one of the things. It’s getting harder to name things that don’t require this.

    • @[email protected]
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      4611 months ago

      Any way to connect it to an internal network so I can still cast from local devices? Otherwise it’s just going to exist plugged into a laptop.

      • @[email protected]
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        1111 months ago

        You probably can give it a static ip through your router and block any access to the internet for it. Could even set up pihole to block the ads from coming in to any device. That said, it’s possible the TV has built in ads or error messages to show in place of the ads when offline/blocked, or may just not even work if offline for longer than x minutes/hours/days

        • @[email protected]
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          411 months ago

          I have an old Intel nuc that I could slap a hard drive in. It wouldn’t have to handle all traffic, right?

          • @[email protected]
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            211 months ago

            Only DNS lookups. And it’s lightweight enough you could have an original NUC, set up a pi hole LXC on proxmox, and have plenty of power left over for other tasks.

          • @[email protected]
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            311 months ago

            That should be fine, most people use raspberry pi’s as a pihole server so a much shouldn’t have any problems handling it

        • Patapon Enjoyer
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          911 months ago

          I think a PiHole wouldn’t work cause the ads come from the same place as the videos

          • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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            611 months ago

            Not sure about Samsung devices but I’ve got a few Rokus and my pihole does a great job of blocking ads.

            They still push “promotions” into the menus and every month I have to go through and turn them off, but I don’t see ads in the UI.

          • @[email protected]
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            1311 months ago

            Samsung, AFAIK, doesn’t have a streaming service so that doesn’t matter.

            We weren’t talking about ADs on some streaming service, we’re talking about ADs displayed on the TV from Samsung themselves

            Also, AD proxying with content isn’t always guaranteed, I’ve seen YT do it ofc

      • @[email protected]
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        911 months ago

        That’s how I handled my “smart” TV - I had a spare minipc from my old homelab, threw Linux on it and plugged it into the HDMI port.

        It has never connected to my network, despite the BestBuy employee insisting it would need firmware updates for better picture.

        • @[email protected]
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          711 months ago

          Omg, that reminds me of a time when a retail employee insisted that installing Linux on a particular machine would rock crashing the hard drive. This was, oh, maybe 2006 or so.

          I did not buy a new computer that day.

        • Wugmeister
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          211 months ago

          Smart TVs can also scan the input from their hdmi ports and relay that to advertisers.

          • @[email protected]
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            311 months ago

            Except if you don’t connect the TV to the internet, but use it as a huge display only.

            • Wugmeister
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              111 months ago

              True. That said, another comment has claimed that some smart TVs seek out open wifi and use that. Not a big problem in my area though.

      • @[email protected]
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        4511 months ago

        Something like a chromecast would be the easiest solution.

        Me personally, I just like having a media pc hooked up to my tv. I bought an amazon fire tv cause it was fairly cheap for 4k and its never been hooked up to the internet.

          • @[email protected]
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            2311 months ago

            It is a problem, my shield tv started having ads on the home page, but I was able to install a new launcher on it to fix that.

            Overall having a media player plugged in to a disconnected tv is the way to go. It is easier to replace a chromecast than the whole tv.

      • unalivejoy
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        11 months ago

        You can probably get a DNS based ad blocker and configure your router DHCP to assign it to devices.

      • @[email protected]
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        611 months ago

        if it gives you the option you could try setting the DNS settings to something that doesn’t exist.

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        Sure, break it’s routing. You can give it a fake DNS server (like a pihole that blocks everything), you could set up routing rules that block everything not addressed in the network ip range, there’s a ton of ways I can think to do it off the top of my head. It might require some tinkering though

      • @[email protected]
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        1711 months ago

        Depends on your router. Some have the ability to disable internet access to single devices while leaving their internal network access intact.

    • @[email protected]
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      1411 months ago

      Smart TVs are cheaper than dumb TVs because smart TVs can send your watching habit data to be sold. I wish I was joking.

          • @[email protected]
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            411 months ago

            Nothing a little bit of electronics surgery can’t fix, clip the antenna or put a 50 ohm resistor in it’s place. Better yet pull out the power amplifier or cut any power traces.

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand
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        411 months ago

        That’s good. My fallback plan was to get one of those school style overhead protectors and just do pantomime shows with coloured paper and wires

    • Wugmeister
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      211 months ago

      My current TV is an old one I got from a friend of my dad when he got a bigger one. It’s a bit glitchy, but it’s not smart, and that’s what matters.

    • @[email protected]
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      2611 months ago

      No need, just leave any smart TVs disconnected from your network and they’re harmless

      • @[email protected]
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        611 months ago

        For now …

        I wouldn’t put it past them to start trying to mesh network their way out of local network jail. Are your neighbors as diligent as you are about privacy and security?

        • @[email protected]
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          211 months ago

          I’m pretty sure at least a few of them do that already. I’ve seen too many reports of tech savvy people not knowing why they got updates when the TV has never been connected.

          • @[email protected]
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            211 months ago

            Very possible. Or maybe “just” connecting to any open wifi networks that might be available…

            OTOH, I take “non-tech-savvy” reports with a healthy grain of salt. “Never been connected” could simply mean “I didn’t plug it in to the Comcast box”. Or “I connected Netflix, I didn’t connect the TV”.

            • @[email protected]
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              311 months ago

              These were tech savvy people who I generally trust, plus a few Internet reports of dubious trustworthiness (like everything else on the internet).

              I wish I could remember the brand.

      • VaultBoyNewVegas
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        1111 months ago

        Yep. I never use the smart TV features. I’ve a fire stick and yes I see the irony but the firesick is almost used exclusively for Kodi.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 months ago

    The hardware they use on these TVs is complete shit* anyway, so your actually better off not using them for anything other than a TV. Buy an android box or one of those mini PCs instead.

    *every time I saw the specs of these “smart” TVs a few years back, I would internally scream. I don’t know if it has improved since, but I highly doubt it.

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

      Any recommendations on shopping for an Android set top box? Every time I start down the rabbit hole I feel like I’m just getting AI-written SEO scam fake review sites.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 months ago

        I can’t really give you recommendations because you’re from Canada and I am from a shitty third world country, so my needs and available choices are likely vastly different from yours. My only source is AliExpress, and I mostly don’t care about the Android box being certified by Google so Netflix & co. work (at least I believe that’s what the Google certification is for) because I sail the high sea.

        TL;DR: Better to ask local groups.

        That said, here’s my recommendation based on my own limited experience:

        • A Xiaomi box would be a good choice if you want a product from a big international company.

        • A Mecool Android box is also a good choice since they are Google certified and have decent hardware like DDR4 RAM and somewhat decent CPUs. Just avoid the boxes with the AMLOGIC 905Y4 CPU (which uses the weak ARM Cortex-A35 cores) and only go for the ones with the AMLOGIC 905X4 (ARM Cortex-A55 cores). Otherwise, they both have the same GPU (Mali-G31 MP2) which should suffice for an Android box.

        • A more specific recommendation would be the Kinkhank G1 which has an AMLOGIC 905X4, 4GB DDR4, and 32GB of ROM and is Google certified.

    • @[email protected]
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      2011 months ago

      Or just plug in a regular laptop when you want to watch something. That’s my move.

      On top of crap hardware, “smart” TVs are a pretty serious security vulnerability, too. Better to not have it on the same network as your primary devices.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 months ago

        Connecting and deconnecting cables can cause damage. It’s best to have a dedicated hardware.

        Plus, you can literally turn your mini PC into an emulation box to play retrogames (snes, megadrive, ps1) and the new generation of “retrogames” (ps2, ps3, wii, nds). And if the hardware is good enough (modern amd APUs and 16gb ddr4) you can even play switch games on it.