72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

Post by judge2020 » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 1:06 AM UTC

greedo wrote: post #369

kstrauser wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re exactly right. Furthermore, an external box is easy to replace when it breaks or becomes obsolete. What are you going to do when the embedded OS in your sly TV is no longer supported? No thanks. My TV is a monitor, only. It has never been, nor will ever be, connected to my home network after I first brought it home and updated its firmware to whatever was current at the time.

I bought a Sony bluray player for the bedroom; it had Netflix etc on it, and seemed like it would be a good compromise between it and adding a disc player and AppleTV. About six months ago, the Netflix app stopped working. No updates available, just useless.

Post by canofbars » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 1:10 AM UTC

slg wrote: post #403

bo1024 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and there are a lot of good reasons for that! The two functions become obsolete at different rates, and people have different needs for each of them, so it's the right place to put an abstraction layer. When I buy a computer monitor, I can pair it with any computer I want. I can upgrade the graphics card or processor independently of the monitor. I'm not locked in to a particular computer based on the features o…

>The two functions become obsolete at different rates The implication here is that the connectivity tech goes obsolete quicker than screen tech. That has traditionally been true, but has it been over the last 5 years or so? We don't even have to get into the specific display technology. Just from a feature perspective, there has been a lot of innovation in screens including 4k, HDR, and high refresh rates.

Post by canofbars » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 1:12 AM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #306

Bud wrote: post #261

This isn't difficult: TVs should not be "smart". TVs should be incredibly dumb. They should be screens for displaying stuff. That's it. Nothing else. No network connection of any kind, no apps, no software beyond that necessary to do basic setup of how that screen works: brightness, input selection, etc.

You’re exactly right. Furthermore, an external box is easy to replace when it breaks or becomes obsolete. What are you going to do when the embedded OS in your sly TV is no longer supported? No thanks. My TV is a monitor, only. It has never been, nor will ever be, connected to my home network after I first brought it home and updated its firmware to whatever was current at the time.

Post by canofbars » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 1:14 AM UTC

scrollaway wrote: post #463

cmroanirgo wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google Assistant built in https://www.nvidia.com/en-au/shield/ Being internet connected is one thing (which it looks good for), but having an active mic in the room is a whole other level of "no thanks" from me.

So disable/don't use it? It doesn't even actively listen for "ok google", it only listens if you hit the assistant key. If you ever have an android phone in your home, it's exactly the same thing (except the phone actively listens by default). Edit: Also, for fucks sake, context. The person I'm replying to is talking about getting his parents a SmartTV (way worse privacy-wise than Google), for the convenience factor.

Post by canofbars » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 1:17 AM UTC

pishpash wrote: post #526

jeffbee wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously this thing has four hdmi ports and even a composite video input. It is the superset of dumb TVs.

Dumb TV's had ports forever. How else would people have connected their video sources?