• kamen
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    97 months ago

    What would you guys recommend for a dumb TV with a good quality panel in the 65-75" range that’s a available to buy in the EU? My intention is to hook it up to my own device (probably a mini PC running some Linux distro with Kodi and some other stuff).

    • @[email protected]
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      67 months ago

      Eizo or iiyama monitors are very good imo. The other use raspberry pi ( or anything else ) + tv card

      • kamen
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        27 months ago

        Thanks. Anything more specific in mind? I know Eizo for their monitors for colour-critical work and from looking on their site I’m only able to find a 50 something inch model that’s probably very expensive (I think it was in their medical lineup). As for iiyama, they have some 65 and 75" models for e-signage, but they’re running Android.

    • @[email protected]
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      67 months ago

      The non-capitalist solutions have been here all along, mostly things licensed under copyleft. But people just need to have the wherewithal to actually use these solutions.

    • @[email protected]
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      67 months ago

      Ahh yes, unlike all those non-capitalist modern nations with their complete lack of widespread insidious surveillance.

      • @[email protected]
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        177 months ago

        Civilians used to own canons. For blowing up ships. And the occasional home invader. Doesn’t matter if it has sailed if we sink it. We should sink that ship.

    • @[email protected]
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      207 months ago

      Cars being online has some tangible benefits in that they can transmit location data to emergency services, especially if the driver is unresponsive. Might save someone from dying in a ditch in the middle of nowhere.

      Arguably, some of the data collected while driving is also very useful for maintenance and development (e.g. if a lot of vehicles start having a similar issue after X miles).

      That said, this data should be limited in scope and use (e.g. must not be sold, especially not to insurance companies), as well as anonymized as much as possible. Which is currently not the case, and that definitely needs regulation.

      • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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        7 months ago

        You don’t need a high bandwidth connection to do emergency notifications, and considering it might be in a remote area satellite would be better than LTE.

        For the diagnostics you could log events internally and then collect them with OBD-II readers, though I’d like to force car makers to use open data formats so people can see for themselves what’s collected.

      • @[email protected]
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        107 months ago

        That said, this data should be limited in scope and use…

        Yep, anonymized, limited, non-distributable, and secured, with severe penalties (on the order of tens of thousands of dollars per person, paid to the harmed party) for failure to adhere.

  • @[email protected]
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    117 months ago

    this article is a load of bollocks;

    i really love my smart idiot box!

    but wait, this may sound bad,

    we interrupt this limerick for an ad –

    have you thought of switching to our socks?

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      There once was a man who went mad

      When YouTube kept forcing an ad

      They kept crossing his border,

      So he bought this camcorder

      Now he’s looping his own tape of a cat.

  • @[email protected]
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    77 months ago

    I just use an Apple TV connected to my TV which isn’t connected to any network. I hook it up every now and again to update the software when there are new features available related to picture/sound.

    I also run a Jellyfin server for most of my streaming needs.

  • Captain Aggravated
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    47 months ago

    I bought a commercial digital signage TV. No Roku/Chromecast/whatever, but the damn thing STILL has Ethernet and Wi-Fi and nagged me about setting it up on the internet. I’m only buying computer monitors from here on out.

  • @[email protected]
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    37 months ago

    I dumbedcmy smart tv by disconnected it from the internet. The stupid thing is the tv was requesting internet connection to work, so I had to put it on my network and then block everything so the tv pouted and then shut up.

    Now I switch to a Fire tv usb stick on it but god I hate it…

    • @[email protected]
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      727 months ago

      And cars, and smart thermostats and smart cameras and smart fridges and routers and literally every fucking thing in your house that is connected to the fucking internet. Every single thing in our homes is a data miner.

        • @[email protected]
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          7 months ago

          Yeah. Samesies. Not all of us put up with this crap.

          Edit: There are dozens of us!

          • @[email protected]
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            117 months ago

            Dozens!

            (They also last longer than the premade stuff, including the fairly dumb zigbee devices. Though just grabbing some ZigBee sensors is soooo much easier than cleaning up and painting small 3d printed housings…)

            • @[email protected]
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              127 months ago

              They also last longer than the premade stuff,

              And they’re a much nicer experience. It’s funny how fast even minimum hardware performs when it’s doing what I ask it to, instead of spying on me.

              • @[email protected]
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                27 months ago

                Soooo much nicer.

                Working on tweaking a new launcher for my “Kids Version” htpc, with gcompris, a few shortcuts to some really great non-profits with education games, and of course JF. 4th gen Intel dell micro, runs like a dream…

        • @[email protected]
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          17 months ago

          How do you learn? I have some ESP32s that I’ve messed around a little bit with, and done some neat stuff…But I don’t have an electronics background at all and I often have trouble even figuring out how to power the damn things safely.

    • oce 🐆
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      177 months ago

      Or the patent with a camera to make sure you’re watching the ad.

  • @[email protected]
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    227 months ago

    Technical fixes only work for the technical and often it’s technically working against the law. We need the law on our side, not the corporations. So we need to engage with law as much as technology. Or we end having to break technologies like secure boot and laws.

  • @[email protected]
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    7 months ago

    my TV incurred my wrath by having the gall to show me a banner ad while I was in the middle of a game.

    so I promptly cut its balls off. (disabled the internet entirely). now it is a dumb TV. and it behaves like a TV. and not an ad machine.

    • @[email protected]
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      157 months ago

      I’ve never given a tv my wifi password.

      I’m not any techier than the average millennial. Maybe my trust issues are worse than average. I don’t regret my actions.

      Also - my xbox one s may have streamed more video content than provided rocket leaguery…until I tripped on a cord…

      Laptop now. Learning how to utilize these new capabilities.

    • @[email protected]
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      427 months ago

      But what device do you use to stream? That’s the dilemma I’m in, streaming sticks and devices are all so spammy.

      • @[email protected]
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        67 months ago

        My main PC has HDMI directly to my TV because I’m not a desk gamer but my backup or when I’m using my PC heavy for something else, I have a ~4 year old flagship android phone with a USBC dock. It has a broken screen so no further mobile use but I could tape it to the back of my TV and have keyboard and mouse on android to do whatever and forget its back there.

      • @[email protected]
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        207 months ago

        I bought an Apple TV after I had some smart tv related issues with my Samsung. I’m happy with it and it supports any app you’d want.

      • @[email protected]
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        147 months ago

        I’ve been using a Chromecast for years. I cast whatever I want from my phone. It plays media and that’s it.

      • @[email protected]
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        87 months ago

        Another chiming in on the best device by a long shot is the AppleTV. It’s damn fast and its UI is actually nice to use. Oh and all the apps are always up to date. Zero ads just sitting on the screen anywhere.

      • badbrainstorm
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        167 months ago

        Join the darkside, and run something like a Raspberry Pi with Kodi, and/or Plex, etc.

        • @[email protected]
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          7 months ago

          LibreELEC is basically a Linux distro with Kodi and installing it in one of those (or quite a number of supported similar boards, such as Orange Pis) should be the easiest way to “join the darkside”.

      • @[email protected]
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        27 months ago

        Never connected my LG TV to the internet. I got an Nvidia Shield TV Pro hooked up to it. The default home screen got riddled with ads as well after I got it, but at least you can change it to a third party one and never have to see it again. Otherwise a cheap used Xbox Series S might also work, but is much bigger and arguably less flexible. And if you want a truly privacy-respecting device you might have to go with a Linux mini PC, though that’s much more involved to set up and many commercial streaming services won’t give you the full quality streams you are paying for.

      • Refurbished Refurbisher
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        67 months ago

        I rooted my (Android TV based) smart TV, removed all the tracking (verified with PCAPDroid), and I use Stremio and SmartTube to stream everything. I also use AFWall as a firewall to whitelist only apps that I install to access the internet only through my VPN. I set my DNS to 0.0.0.0 to block all traffic outside of my DNS if my firewall ever fails because Android TV doesn’t have that option unlike regular Android.

        I have a Hisense TV if you’re curious. You can also get a TV box that is supported by LineageOS and do the same thing on there.

        Whenever Android 10 gets super outdated, I’m hoping that Plasma Bigscreen will be advanced enough to be able to replace it, then I will just use my laptop for TV activities instead. I also would need Linux to get better HDR support (currently it only supports HDR10 and not HDR10+ or Dolby Vision) and for AMD drivers to gain HDMI 2.1 support (which is being blocked by the HDMI forum for stupid reasons. The code has been ready for a while, but AMD isn’t allowed to release it)

      • @[email protected]
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        737 months ago

        I just run an old PC plugged in to my TV. It’s been running Windows, but I’m strongly considering switching it to linux now that it seems HDR on linux is getting stable. I might even use SteamOS directly since it’s got a nice interface for controller use.

          • @[email protected]
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            47 months ago

            Looks like a nice little device. I’ve already got a similar Logitech keyboard that’s a bit bigger and is missing the IR remote, but I’m still able to turn on my TV via an HDMI CEC command.

            • chingadera
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              27 months ago

              Ah nice. We were using a mouse/on screen kb for a minute before i got fed up and did some looking around. we also didn’t have a TV remote so we thought we were killing two birds. Turns out you can only copy IR commands from another source, so I hit the bullet and bought a cheap 7 dollar remote too to program it that way were just using one device for the bedroom TV.

        • @[email protected]
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          7 months ago

          I didn’t realize Valve released SteamOS to be installed on other devices, that’s killer! I just threw mint on a 15 year old laptop a few weeks ago and VNC into it from my phone to control it as my streaming box.

          • @[email protected]
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            7 months ago

            I’m using a N100 mini-PC with Kodi as a Media/TV Box and it works pretty much as a dedicated device would with one of these remotes.

            I seldom have to actually access it with a keyboard and mouse, though that machine also works as my home server so I do regularly access it remotelly for stuff that has nothing to do with using it as a media box.

            • @[email protected]
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              27 months ago

              Oh that remote is not a bad idea, does it do mouse input via the circle d pad? Or is it keyboard only?

              • @[email protected]
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                7 months ago

                There’s a button there to enable/disable air-mouse functionality (basically the tilting of the remote moves the mouse pointer), though it’s awkward to use compared to a normal mouse.

                The keyboard on the back is also awkward to use, not just because the keys are small and not quite in standard positions but also because Shift and Alt are both “press to enable, press to disable”, with no notification lights (so, say, your keyboard might be in “Alt mode” and you’re trying to used it and it’s just doing weird stuff).

                The thing does work as a combo of media player remote + mouse + keyboard, but it’s not very practical for the last 2. Also that specific model seems to have problems with the remote buttons not working if the remote is tilted (which shouldn’t be at all a problem given that’s a wireless remote).

                The idea is good, the implementation could be better. There are other models like that around. Just avoid the “Google” remotes as that’s Android-locked and for voice recognition (plus it comes pre-enshittified with only a handful of buttons which only start apps such as Netflix).

                Even with the quirks of the remote, whilst using that setup I often find myself altogether forgetting that what I’m using there is a PC with Linux.

          • @[email protected]
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            37 months ago

            I think they still haven’t officially released it, despite promising years ago. There are community projects like HoloISO

            • @[email protected]
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              16 months ago

              They did release it but the latest iteration that’s on steam deck is still steam deck only, or shared via community projects like the one you mentioned

        • @[email protected]
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          37 months ago

          Same here, still on Windows 10 though it’s desperately trying to reinstall it’s crapware removed from the image with NTLite.

          Will be switching to some flavour of Linux at some point (we also use this PC for some Steam games), so I’ll check SteamOS out!

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        Honestly, the apple TV is the least spammy by a long shot. I also hear great things about the Nvidia shield, but it is pretty ancient by now. Or use a computer, but of course that’s got its own annoyances. Of course these are all the most expensive options, apparently for a reason.

        • @[email protected]
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          117 months ago

          It’s ancient, but in a way I respect Nvidia for not milking it by releasing a new version every year.

          Its still a perfect decive. Fast, streams absolutely everything, amazing remote. I seriously don’t know what I would want from a new version

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        If you want customization and the ability to sideload apps, get an Nvidia Shield. There are custom OSes you can load which remove a lot of the spammy ad BS that the Shield’s default OS has baked in.

        If you want ease of use and setup, get an Apple TV. It won’t natively run all of your pirated hentai apps, but it at least has Plex so you can stream custom content from a server if you set one up.

        • @[email protected]
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          7 months ago

          You don’t even need a custom OS, just a custom launcher. I’m using FLauncher on mine. You can use adb to disable the built-in launcher.

      • @[email protected]
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        27 months ago

        Old laptop connected to tv through hdmi + cheapest wireless mouse I could find. If you want to get fancy you can also get a wireless keyboard but screen keyboard does a good enough job

      • @[email protected]
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        47 months ago

        I usually hook my Steam Deck up to my TV via a USB hub and HDMI, and then fire something up on Plex, which I keep running on my desktop.

        Bonus: Make it a wireless HDMI dongle (which I’m too cheap for but are a thing), and now using it from the couch is even more convenient.

      • @[email protected]
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        17 months ago

        But what device do you use to stream?

        Raspberry Pi with a bare image of Android TV installed. The result is a Roku without any attempt to serve home screen ads.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        My TV has always been run without the “smarts” ever since I bought it.

        That said, recently I’ve replaced my TV Box and Media Box with a N100 Mini PC running Linux and Kodi plus a wireless remote and in addition to that the thing even works as my home server with additional functionality than just that of the devices it replaced.

        For a cheaper/easier option try LibreELEC on top one of the devices they support (check the downloads page or the Wiki for the list). It’s basically a Linux distro with Kodi, so open and with none of the privacy intrusion risks of Android. The same kind of wireless remote (example - note that you don’t actually need to use the keyboard on the back or the air mouse) also works here since it just relies on standard shortcut keys of media programs like Kodi so works everywhere (even Android).

        However what all these privacy-protecting non-enshittified options have in common is that they’re not fully configured solutions that you just buy and use - as you’ve noticed, if you just buy a streaming stick or device it will likely be at the least “spammy” - and you do have to do some of the work to get them working.

        Something like LibreELEC on a mini PC should be the simplest to put together as the hardware comes preconfigured in an actual box and all that’s needed is to install the LibreELEC image from a bootable USB stick, but if you have a bit more technical know-how (not really that much needed, mind you) you can get something like one of the supported Orange Pi boards along with a box for it and it will cost you less than half as much as even a basic Mini PC - those boards are basically using the same chips as Android TV media boxes so you get the same performance without the “spammyness”.

      • DuskyRo
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        57 months ago

        I use a rooted Xiaomi Mi Box 2S rooted and degoogled filtered by pi-hole and I only use stremio or jellyfin and smartube for youtube.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        Apple TV has been reliable for many years. Don’t even have an iPhone or iPad anymore but the OS gets the fuck outta the way and it probably has the least spyware of all the commercial options.

        Building your own with like, a Pi or a PC is the best option if you mainly have pirated content… If you stream anything that option isn’t great because your device won’t pass all the DRM checks to play higher definition/4k stuff. (Someone correct me but last I looked into it this was still true)

      • @[email protected]
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        27 months ago

        Nvidia shield with a custom launcher. Google updated their Android TV home which made 60% and More of the dashboard just ads so I added projectify as my launcher. There are now only 2 apps being shown on my screen. Plex and Google Play (for updating apps).

  • @[email protected]
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    377 months ago

    For example, Amazon Web Services and ad-tech company TripleLift are working with proprietary models and machine learning for dynamic product placement in streamed TV shows. The report, citing a 2021 AWS case study, says that “new scenes featuring product exposure can be inserted in real-time ‘without interrupting the viewing experience.’”

    Peacock is also working with TripleLift to develop “In-Scene” Peacock ads that owner NBCUniversal says it’s currently testing:

    When a user plays episodic content, your brand’s product or message is dynamically placed in the frame of targeted scenes, creating a non-interruptive ad experience that aligns the programming with your campaign theme/goals.

    This could be hilarious when your omegaverse softcore porn drama gets plastered with prune juice, old people pill adverts, and trump propaganda on everyone’s shirts, tattoos, jock straps, voice lines and whatever else the AI can scrounge up. “It totally fits with the narrative!”

    • @[email protected]
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      237 months ago

      Am I reading this wrong or are they literally hijacking a shot in the content by placing a product in there?
      Sounds like they could literally go in there and replace the kid watching tele-shopping in a movie with watching a literal ad made to look like it’s genuinley in the movie.

      • @[email protected]
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        57 months ago

        It’s exactly that. Detect where there are ads in a scene ( a panel for example) and replace the space with their own ads.

        • @[email protected]
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          57 months ago

          Tbh could be worse replacing an ad placement with another (say adidas to nike).
          Personally actually be worse would be replacing an ad relevant to the movie (like an advertisement for the newest tool the protagonist always needed to progress)

    • @[email protected]
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      97 months ago

      Kind if reminds me of the scene in The Truman Show when they talk about the cereal to the hidden camera.

  • @[email protected]
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    127 months ago

    My current tv is a 42” I got in 2012. I would love to upgrade to a bigger one, but I don’t wanna get a lame smart tv.

    • @[email protected]
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      57 months ago

      I’m on the same boat 44" tv, from ages ago. Connected to my linux reinstalled asus chromebox. Freedom baby yeah!

    • @[email protected]
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      27 months ago

      You can get a smart TV and just not use any of the smart features. My TVs are on a separate VLAN with no internet access, so I can still control them via Home Assistant but they can’t reach out to the outside world. I use Nvidia Shields for streaming.

  • @[email protected]
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    217 months ago

    Of course they are without any data privacy laws companies are going to collect and then sell as much of your personal data that they can get away with.