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Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

perflyst.github.io

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Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#131

Post by NavinF »

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 mid-tier TVs are just a higher volume product with thinner margins compared to mid-tier monitors. The average american loves their 4K TV, but would never upgrade from the 1080p 60hz monitor they stole from work.

If you get quotes from chinese sellers on panelook, you'll find that monitor panels+drivers are cheaper than TVs with the same specs, even at 1pc pricing.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#132

Post by colechristensen »

confident_inept wrote: post #130
the_snooze wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 can always deny internet via MAC address, but a modern panel that just turns on instantly and works is the stuff of dreams.

You can buy them, commercial displays, but they are... quite expensive.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#133

Post by teeray »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #14

Is this for load-balancing? And they stopped 2 years ago? usage-us-fy2014.myhomescreen.tv ... usage-us-fy2018.myhomescreen.tv usage-us-fy2019.myhomescreen.tv usage-us-fy2020.myhomescreen.tv usage.myhomescreen.tv

Looks like an API versioning scheme for TVs manufactured during that fiscal year, if I were to speculate (FY2020 = Fiscal Year 2020). Remember that most TVs probably never get updated. Maybe they stopped because the API stabilized or they have mandatory auto-updates.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#134

Post by teeray »

xattt wrote: post #95

FYI: These lists integrate quite easily into things other than Pihole that do DNS blocking. I’m using this with a DNSMasq blocklist on an Edgerouter.

Do you have a guide for doing that? I have Edgerouters, and something never set quite well with shunting all the DNS traffic for my network over to a Pi. I do love the adblocking though that it provides.

EDIT: did some research after asking like a responsible requester of such information and found https://github.com/britannic/blacklist . Looks promising :) I’d be interested if you settled on another solution.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#135

Post by Groxx »

the_snooze wrote: post #89
nobody9999 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I agree despite using DNS blocking myself. DNS blocking can easily be mitigated against with DoH or DoT at the application level. It's only a matter of time before advertisers start using either to bypass DNS blocking and serve ads. DoH/DoT are just the camel's nose under the tent. Just wait (perhaps it's already happening) until TV manufacturers install 4g/5g modems in their devices. At which point, there will be a…

>Just wait (perhaps it's already happening) until TV manufacturers install 4g/5g modems in their devices. I hear this raised every now and then, but is that even feasible economically? Those embedded cell connections are a recurring cost, after all. I'm curious if the per-unit revenue from ads and tracking is large enough to justify the per-unit cost to send/receive that data over a cell connection. Seems like UI nud…

Car GPS devices have had them built in for almost two decades now, and they routinely sold for around $100 or less as a one-time purchase once they were relatively common (unless you wanted weekly over-the-air map updates rather than monthly or quarterly).

Far more TVs are sold than those car navigation units ever did. I don't think money is an issue if they want a slow back channel. If they wanted to ship all ads over it, sure, but periodic phone-homes? Updates to DNS-bypassing lists of IP addresses? Unless they're prevented from selling it, they'll do it eventually.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#136

Post by Groxx »

assttoasstmgr wrote: post #121
Groxx wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem is that it's a rather terrible, leaky, and easily-worked-around hammer. It mostly only continues to work because they haven't bothered to do simple things to prevent their more technical users from blocking it.

I previously had some Roku devices in my house and they immediately went into a restricted VLAN not for the least of reasons that their ToS/privacy policy stated I was agreeing to give them permission to collect data about my network and send it back to them. Whatever that means. Roku devices hardcode 8.8.8.8 DNS in their software. So a Pi-Hole would be useless in a typical config. Evident by the constant hammering o…

Yeah. It's less a hammer and more a strip of "do not cross" plastic ribbon across a freeway. It only works while they play nice, and they probably even breach it accidentally sometimes.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#138

Post by joncp »

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 bought a Sceptre for a decent price last year. It doesn’t even have internet capability and it’s wonderful.

Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole

#139

Post by wanderingmind »

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.

You can install Lineage OS android TV on raspberry pi and use the TV as a dumb screen connecting to the pi
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