• thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      It’s hard but not impossible, as even ‘retail displays’ run an OS in the background to control input switching, image settings etc.

      Honestly the best thing to do is buy whatever TV you want (we have a couple of the LG OLEDs in our household), and don’t ever plug them into your network (or WiFi). Otherwise, with updates OS and apps become sluggish, with more ads crammed in.

      Instead, use a seperate media player (e.g. Apple TV if you’re already on the iOS ecosystem, Nvidia Shield or similar for Android, HTPC if you’re so inclined etc.) - they’re more powerful, arguably more secure & private, and portable between displays if/when you upgrade.

      • coolmojo@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Unfortunately EtherNet over HDMI exists so your your TV can still access the Internet if the Apple TV or Nvidia Shield has Internet access. To prevent that you have to make sure use older HDMI cable less then HDMI 1.4.

        • Majestic@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          Never been implemented. It doesn’t exist.

          Cables support it but zero devices made it to the consumer market and both devices would need to support it for it to work. It’s a dead standard from another era at this point. WiFi speeds have become so significant that there’s just no reason for the additional costs that would be involved.

          I admit if half of the people out there who bought smart TVs started refusing to connect them to the internet and bought streaming boxes instead there might be an incentive for TV makers to try it but no incentive for streaming devices to help them do it and at that point it’s just easier for TV makers to require an internet connection or the TV doesn’t work.

  • ftbd@feddit.org
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    1 month ago

    FYI for those using DNS-based adblocking: I discovered that my AndroidTV box asks 8.8.8.8 when my local DNS server blocks a request.

    • addie@feddit.uk
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      1 month ago

      What a shower of twats. Don’t block the request in that case, just redirect it to your local server that returns a 1x1 transparent png for all requests.

    • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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      1 month ago

      Block all port 53 traffic from your network outside of your DNS server/pihole itself.
      Block all known DoH servers.

      If you want to get REALLY fancy you can write a NAT rule that will force any outgoing request on port 53 to route to your dns/pihole.

      I do all of this. It’s actually funny to see the requests that were hardcoded to go somewhere. Giant fuck you to those companies.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          1 month ago

          Yes. But there are lists of well known IPs that are serving DoH. So you can just block those. Obviously blocking 443 is not a good idea.

          • Goun@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            Damn, never digged into that I thought blocking the DNS port would be enough, thanks for the information.

    • wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Depending on your router you can forward all request on port 53 to your DNS server regardless of the IP they try to use.

    • stupidcasey@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I always have issues with dns blocking so I tried something sneaky I redirected all DNS requests to 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 and it worked brilliantly, for about a month when it stopped working all together, I don’t know if a cache was wiped or google saw what I was doing and made a special exception just for me, obviously I want to believe I’m a special snowflake taking the world’s largest internet company head on in an epic battle of wits and skill but I think the cache thing might be more likely for some reason.

      • ftbd@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        You mean redirecting on your router? How should google stop you from doing that? And why would you redirect to cloudflare lol

  • MrSoup@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    Ehm, it is already like that. Most of smart TVs use Android which is under Google control, a big (if not the biggest) ad company.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    “A convicted felon and sex offender wants to control your next country”

  • nshibj@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    What’s with the clickbait title?

    This is not news, it has been happening since Smart TVs started being a thing.

    One of the most common TV OSs is AndroidTV / GoogleTV. Google is the biggest ad company in the world.

  • BroBot9000@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Don’t ever connect them to the internet. Period.

    If it’s required, buy a different tv. It’s not difficult to look that up beforehand.

    • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 month ago

      I suspect in the near future it will be impossible to buy a TV without spyware/adware. The only option will be to not connect it to the internet and run your own Raspberry PI/SBC based solution.

      • BroBot9000@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Monitors aren’t being pumped full of this stuff and so won’t the premium televisions.

        The super budget/sold at a loss TVs will absolutely be gutted for spyware.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        If you manage to have access to AliExpress, you can have it shipped.

        When that is not an option, a big computer screen and a tv card.

        • DampCanary@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Aliexprees is great for low buget electronics,
          but I’m skeptical about anything larger.
          Plus with EU’s hike on tarifs and delivery services quality it’s like playing worst type of gambling.

          A TV card(and PC obviously) with screen could be for me,
          but there is no way my parents would agree to such setup.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        People smarter than me have already had that discussion in the thread and after some heated arguments the consensus is that smart TVs have been caught actively searching for same manufacturer hardware and open wi-fi networks to access the web and call home.

        So…

        • teft@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Then you turn around and return it. Don’t encourage that behavior by just letting it happen.

          • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            If your retailer has a generous enough policy to let you return an opened TV because simply because you don’t like it. I spent $1,200 on a Sony TV with backlight bleed issues that were so bad that half the screen was tinted blue. I tried to return it or get a replacement but was told by both the retailer and Sony support that half the screen being blue was “normal for LED TVs and within acceptable parameters” and to go fuck myself.

            • teft@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              That’s what chargebacks are for. You don’t have to rely on shitty retailers return policy.

              • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                You’re not going to win a chargeback determination in this case either.

                You will be, as I was, shit out of luck.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    So stupid! Everyone knows if you want people to see your company’s logo, you gotta put it on the back of the cereal box, at the bottom of the cereal bowl or on the front and back of the poon! The spoon is literally observed by every single human on every bite…here come the rice crispiest!..jeep! I gotta get me a jeep! Look! It’s on my spoon!

    • HeyListenWatchOut@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Not good enough. Any OTA updates your TV can get over the web will eventually be trying to circumvent your IP blacklists to shove in any ad-riddled garbage they can.

      Literally just blacklist your TV’s MAC address, and use a dedicated set top box of some kind to avoid this shit. My current choice is my NVIDIA Shield Pro 2019, which I installed a 3rd party WOLF launcher (there’s also F-Launcher) and turned off auto-updates so I could avoid NVIDIA and Google doing the same.

      At some point, I will probably need to switch to a NUC or other HTPC with some flavor of Linux on it, as eventually the Shield may succumb to this shit as well.

  • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    normal people can’t just… grab a single board PC and… install Linux on it! What are they supposed to do!?

    I dunno, suffer, I guess. Pass the keyboard. I’m feeling Friends.

    edit: my cousin and his wife came over about four months ago and saw we used a keyboard and the TV was just a computer and he went “why the fuck haven’t we just done that?”. He doesn’t know know Linux, but he has a Steam Deck and got by alright.

    Sometimes, they just need the idea, a little push.