I don't get it. Also down below there's even a whole comment chain about how "hard it is" to buy a dumb TV. Why bother with all this blocking, just disable the surveillance entirely. Change your wifi password, don't give the new one to the TV, and use a computer as input. A TV is a big dumb monitor, full stop.
Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
151–160 of 246 posts
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#152I don't get it. Also down below there's even a whole comment chain about how "hard it is" to buy a dumb TV. Why bother with all this blocking, just disable the surveillance entirely. Change your wifi password, don't give the new one to the TV, and use a computer as input. A TV is a big dumb monitor, full stop.
The ability to wirelessly transmit to a TV on the LAN, without the ability of the TV to connect to the internet is valuable to me.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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…
I imagine that, at some point, advertising will pay for the costs of internet connections. I can also imagine companies subsidizing the costs of internet connections just so they can get their hands on data, or to accelerate the business model.
Companies subsidizing the cost of internet connections is already historic fact. Google fiber, googles project loon, and facebooks India initiative are already examples.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, so you're saying that DRM has become so ingrained in modern tech that if I wanted to connect a firestick to a Dumb Display(No electronics other than to drive the display), if that Display doesn't have DRM functionality then the app won't load or play content even though the firetv has the DRM?
No, the top parent here is FUD. Never give the TV itself access to the internet. Firestick would work for modern DRM, as would apple tv, a computer plugged into HDMI, etc.
Please don't throw the word "FUD" around, especially when you didn't understand the comment.
GGP did mean HDCP 2.x (DRM to encrypt the signal between display and device) which is often not supported by commercial displays. Unless devices detect a compatible, DRM-protected display, devices will refuse to play UHD content made by the movie industry.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't always support the DRM apps want for 4K streaming.
Wait, so you're saying that DRM has become so ingrained in modern tech that if I wanted to connect a firestick to a Dumb Display(No electronics other than to drive the display), if that Display doesn't have DRM functionality then the app won't load or play content even though the firetv has the DRM?
It's HDCP that's the sticking point.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't always support the DRM apps want for 4K streaming.
Wait, so you're saying that DRM has become so ingrained in modern tech that if I wanted to connect a firestick to a Dumb Display(No electronics other than to drive the display), if that Display doesn't have DRM functionality then the app won't load or play content even though the firetv has the DRM?
HDMI can be encrypted using HDCP and usually are when playing a movie.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#157Praise 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.
Why pay a premium when this is something that is extremely easy to achieve? Simply don't connect your TV to the internet. Criteria met. If you want to go further, you can also easily remove the WiFi antenna and ethernet ports.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#158Hopefully Software Freedom Conservancy's lawsuit against Vizio will lead to people being able to replace the OS pre-installed on smart TVs with standard Linux distros, so that blocklists like this are no longer needed. Of course even standard Linux distros have privacy issues, but they are easier to deal with than the ads and other issues in pre-installed vendor operating systems.
https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html https://wiki.debian.org/PrivacyIssues
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both!
Why is it difficult? You know how much they cost so they must be available.
Because they're not sold as televisions, they're sold as "commercial monitors", so first you have to know that, and then you have to figure out where they're sold, and then you have to figure out what is compatible with your home system.
It's difficult.
Re: Smart-TV blocklist for Pi-Hole
#160Hopefully Software Freedom Conservancy's lawsuit against Vizio will lead to people being able to replace the OS pre-installed on smart TVs with standard Linux distros, so that blocklists like this are no longer needed. Of course even standard Linux distros have privacy issues, but they are easier to deal with than the ads and other issues in pre-installed vendor operating systems. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-c…
Best case, only Vizio will comply, and only if it turns out Vizio violated the GPL, and only if SF Conservancy resists any potentially lucrative attempts to get the case settled out of court.