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The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

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Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#301

Post by vonseel »

blueflow wrote: post #74
bjoli wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had one since 2006. I haven't missed it, nor do I watch any streaming services apart from the occasional documentary that generally leaves me disappointed.

I agree that the quality is disappointingly bad, and this was the main driver behind my decision to not buy an replacement.

Maybe you're just not TV people. That's OK. But plenty of people on the other side would say the Golden Age of TV is still ongoing. There are more shows and productions being made than ever, maybe that's led to an abundance of mediocre content, but there have been many great shows made in the last 10 years.

Try Kingdom on Peacock.

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#302

Post by stryan »

vonseel wrote: post #254
kornhole wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you have been following the news about Apple expanding its advertising business. If you don't want a corporation collecting data about your viewing, you could modify your approach slightly and try kodi.tv. I have Librelec running on a RPI with attached SSD as house media server. The add-ons catalog is large and growing, but it won't have all the channels you might want.

Does kodi / librelec have decent Netflix/Prime/HBO Max/Apple TV+ apps? I was under the impression they don't really support the big streaming apps and aren't really of use outside of watching torrented content.

Kodi has Netflix and Amazon Prime apps that I've used. They get the job done, though they ain't pretty.

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#303

Post by Larrikin »

ospzfmbbzr wrote: post #295
vonseel wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does kodi / librelec have decent Netflix/Prime/HBO Max/Apple TV+ apps? I was under the impression they don't really support the big streaming apps and aren't really of use outside of watching torrented content.

If you can't wait for the p2p download then you are already lost. Needing the latest an greatest or not being able to wait a year to watch something means they already have you firmly in their grip. Just pay the media troll toll if you can't wait.

Haven't a lot of torrent sites gotten in trouble or implemented rules to mitigate against their sites providing content before the official release since they come out so fast and not always from official sources?

I've never heard of issues of having to wait any significant amount of time from an official release on the streaming companies.

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#304

Post by scarface74 »

Markoff wrote: post #296
scarface74 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right, it’s a moral imperative to show children that if you can’t legally get what you want just do it illegally…

downloading video content copy for personal consumption without owning original is legal in many European countries, uploading/distributing would be very different matter, let alone software

Most pirating is done via torrent. If you’re downloading content, you are also uploading it.

But no it isn’t legal to download content that wasn’t authorized to be uploaded.

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#305

Post by jsnell »

flanbiscuit wrote: post #164
jsnell wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Disney+’s ad-free subscription tier, which currently costs $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually, will remain available But it will not remain available at that price. Instead that's what the plan with ads will cost, and the prices of the current ad-free plan will be bumped up by 30%.

oh I missed that, I'm only just finding out about this now. Can you point to where you read that? I just found this contradiction to what I had mentioned earlier (going to edit my original message) > Regarding kid-targeted ads on Disney+, Ferro said, “Yes, we’re going to have advertising… to kids, but it’s going to be controlled advertising with a lot of parental levers to pull. We’re not going to collect data on tha…

The new prices are here:

https://dmedmedia.disney.com/news/ad-supported-disney-plus-s...

> Premium (No Ads) $10.99

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#306

Post by kennend3 »

jacquesm wrote: post #252
dsr_ wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bought a cheap HiSense TV for my kid to use as a big monitor. It literally will not work for any input source -- including OTA TV -- until it has been hooked to a network where it can register itself. It appears to work afterwards without a network connection... but I cannot recommend HiSense at all.

Return it as defective. If enough people do that they'll get the message. An internet connection should not be a requirement for buying an appliance.

This!

you see post after post of people complaining about things but doing little about it.

Returning products as "defective" is pretty hard on manufacturers as stores do not like this happening.

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#307

Post by jamesbfb »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #228
xoa wrote: post #87

FWIW, it is still possible to get TVs without this stuff, albeit at a premium. TVs are still made for business usage in areas like conference rooms, wall displays etc. They're often found under labeling like "commercial digital signage" or "business display" or the like, they seem to often try to avoid using "TV" (if being cynical maybe to make them harder for normal people to discover and confuse them if they do). B…

OMG it has a carrier board for an RPi Compute Module built in: https://i.imgur.com/D3p8bCA.png That's amazing!

Jeff Geerling talks about this very TV in one of his videos a while back: https://youtu.be/-epPf7D8oMk

If my partner wasn’t so hell bent in decor when choosing a TV, I would have loved one of these!

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#308

Post by petesergeant »

flanbiscuit wrote: post #103
Datagenerator wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just cancelled Disney+ with the one worded reason: commercials

Disney+ is going to have ads? ... just googled it: So they are _adding_ a new plan that's cheaper and ad-supported, and they are not touching the current plans. So nothing will change for my current subscription plan thankfully. > Disney+’s ad-free subscription tier, which currently costs $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually, will remain available. and this: > What’s more, if the Disney+ profile being used is associated…

> So they are _adding_ a new plan that's cheaper and ad-supported, and they are not touching the current plans. So nothing will change for my current subscription plan thankfully.

Fundamentally the problem with paying for ad-free content is that the people who can afford to pay for it are the people advertisers want to target.

Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool

#309

Post by jacquesm »

kennend3 wrote: post #306
jacquesm wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Return it as defective. If enough people do that they'll get the message. An internet connection should not be a requirement for buying an appliance.

This! you see post after post of people complaining about things but doing little about it. Returning products as "defective" is pretty hard on manufacturers as stores do not like this happening.

The asymmetry between the costs for the returns process and the 'happy path' of sales is such that even a relatively small percentage would throw a giant spanner in the works. You need to sell three more to make up for one return or so.
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