Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

perflyst.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 246 posts

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#21

Post by rpdillon »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #8
pigbearpig wrote: post #4

"#secure.netflix.com" "#api-global.netflix.com" "#appboot.netflix.com" These are commented out, but did someone really think the app would still work after blocking these? I get blocking ads, but I don't understand the mindset of someone who wants "smart" features but still wants to block everything.

1. It's actually very difficult to buy a non-smart TV. They usually cost more. 2. The comments also serve as a "no really, don't block these" reminder to enthusiastic contributors.

I bought a Sceptre after reading comments here. It was cheap and I'm very pleased with how dumb it is. I'm not sure if they're available everywhere, however.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#23

Post by burnt_toast »

KerrAvon wrote: post #12
somat wrote: post #10

What sucks is that none of this will work once the manufacturers figure out DoH.

Are the number of people who do this numerous enough for them to make the effort? (edited to add) I feel like the real problem will be when they start adding wireless connectivity that you can't disable. I can keep my LG off the network today by refusing to configure networking for it. I can't do that if it doesn't use/require my network...

I was bored a few months ago and opened up my samsung tv to see if I could unhook the wifi antennas. Turns out there wasn't actually any in there but I was able to desolder the wifi chip. It was a small separate board mounted by 8 or so pins off the motherboard that I had to use low temp solder on.

TV still works (minus the streaming services). If you try to open the network settings the screen just shows a loading icon indefinitely.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#24

Post by somat »

k4ch0w wrote: post #13
somat wrote: post #10

What sucks is that none of this will work once the manufacturers figure out DoH.

They would need to have a fallback in case people block DoH. I think this is way further out than people may realize. I've done pentesting in a lot of different office networks and 53/UDP is open for all, but not 443/TCP unless you're a known device.

Can you reliably block DoH? I guess if you can figure out the DoH endpoint someone is using you can block that.

On 443 blocking: Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a "smart" streaming tv. If you are willing to blanket deny 443 you might as well just block the whole address and turn it into a dumb tv.

And on that note. I have set up unsecured wifi access points before and seen the neighborhood samsung tvs eagerly use it to send their nefarious spyware payload.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#25

Post by cebert »

If you don’t want to do a lot of setup. If you set NextDNS as your DNS provider, you’re all set. NextDNS has a free tier that includes supporting block lists. In my opinion it’s pricing model is reasonable too.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#26

Post by CoastalCoder »

the_snooze wrote: post #15
confident_inept wrote: post #2

Praise be the folks that curate these lists. Even without a pi-hole you can plug these into any firewall for your brand(s). More annoying is the 15 second "home menu" that pops up on my OLED every time it is turned on. I almost always forget to manually dismiss it before I set the remote down and there's no option I can find to disable it. I would pay a premium for a TV with no internet connection.

>I would pay a premium for a TV with no internet connection. I bought a Samsung QLED TV recently, and it works fine without an internet connection. I did give it an ethernet connection to grab firmware updates, and it downloaded a bunch of ads and crap to clutter the home screen. Luckily, unplugging the ethernet cord and factory-resetting the device got rid of the garbage and kept the updated firmware.

I bought a Samsung Q90 about 6 months ago.

FYI I was able to update the firmware via USB stick without much hassle.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#27

Post by freedomben »

Groxx wrote: post #5
confident_inept wrote: post #2

Praise be the folks that curate these lists. Even without a pi-hole you can plug these into any firewall for your brand(s). More annoying is the 15 second "home menu" that pops up on my OLED every time it is turned on. I almost always forget to manually dismiss it before I set the remote down and there's no option I can find to disable it. I would pay a premium for a TV with no internet connection.

Computer monitors are overwhelmingly "dumb", as well as having far lower latency and far higher refresh rates. And also more expensive :) I wish I knew if that was because the crapware and ads on smart TVs are actually reducing the cost, or if it's just that smart TVs use crap hardware and software by comparison. Given how laggy they can be, that wouldn't surprise me.

I think it's a little of both. The TV market is amazingly competitive, so it's not uncommon to find sales that are at or near cost. I suspect the reason there are so many players still in the game is because the monetary value of ads and data aggregation is really high.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#28

Post by bee_rider »

Groxx wrote: post #5
confident_inept wrote: post #2

Praise be the folks that curate these lists. Even without a pi-hole you can plug these into any firewall for your brand(s). More annoying is the 15 second "home menu" that pops up on my OLED every time it is turned on. I almost always forget to manually dismiss it before I set the remote down and there's no option I can find to disable it. I would pay a premium for a TV with no internet connection.

Computer monitors are overwhelmingly "dumb", as well as having far lower latency and far higher refresh rates. And also more expensive :) I wish I knew if that was because the crapware and ads on smart TVs are actually reducing the cost, or if it's just that smart TVs use crap hardware and software by comparison. Given how laggy they can be, that wouldn't surprise me.

Almost certainly this is a 'little bit of a, little bit of b' type situation, right?

At least in terms of the actual display parts. The smart TV probably has some processing capabilities that are incomparably better than what you'd get in a monitor. This is, of course, used to display ads. However, the ads are necessary to subsidize the cost of the powerful SOC... wait, why do we need the SOC again?

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#29

Post by RedShift1 »

danielheath wrote: post #17
1over137 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They would need to have a fallback in case people block DoH. How do you block DoH?

Block port 443 and configure machines to use an http proxy with a cert installed?

The 90's called, they want their technology back >:-(

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#30

Post by tikkabhuna »

confident_inept wrote: post #2

Praise be the folks that curate these lists. Even without a pi-hole you can plug these into any firewall for your brand(s). More annoying is the 15 second "home menu" that pops up on my OLED every time it is turned on. I almost always forget to manually dismiss it before I set the remote down and there's no option I can find to disable it. I would pay a premium for a TV with no internet connection.

I totally agree. My Sony TV has lost sound multiple times. A full restart is the only solution and that takes a few minutes.

Everything is so slow. Back when Freeview started being a thing in the UK, TVs then had a rapid TV Guide built in and everything felt instant. Now every screen change is a pause. I've got a PS5 so I'm much happier using that for apps.

It feels like feature phones were slow and laggy, we then got responsive smartphones. TVs were responsive, now they're slow and laggy.

Post reply on HN