Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or just get any smart tv and add a android tv dongle . They don't cost much
If you care about privacy absolutely do not get an Android TV dongle. Get an Apple TV (though yes, they cost more. Maybe find a used one on eBay if you're particularly price sensitive)
The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
401–410 of 579 posts
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#402Earlier 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.
I also stopped pirating music the day iTunes was introduced
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
However those TVs are not easy to get and, like you said, they come with an increased price. I couldn't recommend enough to buy an Apple TV (or equivalent) and block all Internet access to your "smart" TV. I did this and everything was instantly better.
>they come with an increased price. Do they, or do the consumer TVs come with a decreased price to make them more tempting as the manufacture knows they will make up that discount in selling the collected analytics? There was an article back some time now that showed how one brand was making more from the data sells than from the TVs themselves. Edit: It didn't take as long to find an example: https://www.extremetech…
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this is a major concern for you, I think you'll be happy to hear that tuners are ridiculously cheap, with built in recording capabilities for under $30. I suspect if you're in the market for one of these pricier TVs and willing to pay the premium then the extra cost for an external tuner unit will be not be a major factor. For cleanliness you can attach it to the rear of the TV and use short cables.
I'm very happy with the Tablo tuner + dvr device. You can place it near the antenna, since it has WiFi. Then, you use it from a Roku/FireTV/etc app. It's more than $30, but they do sell refurb models. And you connect your own storage device, so no markup on space.
My house sufficiently blocks TV signals that with an indoor antenna I only get a couple channels well, and a couple more intermittently. With an outdoor antenna I can get all those well plus several others.
However the good places for an outdoor antenna from a reception point of view are terrible from a grounding point of view.
So what I was thinking of doing is putting in an outdoor antenna but not having it electrically connected to the house. There would be either no ground or ground to a grounding rod at the antenna site that is not tied to the house ground, and the coax from the antenna would go to a weatherproof box near the antenna. The weatherproof box would contain something like a Tablo or Amazon Recast, and a battery powered power supply.
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily - it's what the market will bear, not the cost itself. This just means the target market will tolerate the ads, not that they are subsidizing the cost of the TV. The extra revenue could just as easily be gravy - especially because this is probably the result of some implicit collusion.
This is my expectation of the market, based on at least the following two points: 1) Video games are sold at full price and still include ads and microtransactions 2) Cable TV was originally ad free (and marketed as such), until they realized they could include ads and make even more money. I hold the opinion that executives at many of these companies hold the view, "Why only get some of our customer's money when we…
Then the “Superstations” like TBS and WGN came to cable. They were local broadcast channels that used satellites to broadcast nationwide to cable companies.
Then came cable TV channels like CNN, ESPN, MTV etc with ads.
Cable TV has always had ads.
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
Words have meaning. I despise the insertion of ads in every form of media, but it is not violence. That's just silly.
We have precedent for mental and emotional harm. I'd argue that invasive advertisements including but not limited to ads that make you remember catchy jingles, billboards on highways, ads that specifically target you based on profiling ("addictive") etc. are or can be emotional and mental harm. Ever hear the phrase "stuck in my head"? This happens with commercial jingles all the time. What if I don't want it to be st…
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#408I run an hdmi cable from my laptop and have a bluetooth keyboard with a scroll pad on it. My wife doesnt like it. But its so much faster than a "smart tv". My issue isnt even the ads. Its that half of these tvs feel like they are running on low memory because of how slow they are. Add in the streaming apps that crash just often enough to be really annoying... I wish it didnt have to be that way.
Yeah these threads pop up on HN all the time and everyone starts talking about apple tv and roku whatever and I think they're all... pretty dumb. HDMI + Computer is just the best answer. Works in hotels just fine. I'm not aware of any smart TVs that push ads over your connected devices feed even if you do let them update for no good reason. Keyboard and mouse is better than remotes. Web search is the best search. You…
Netflix forces you to use Edge on Windows or Safari on Firefox to stream in 4k because they integrate with the OS's DRM.
HBO Max doesn't allow 4k at all on PC's but I think will at least do 1080p if you use an approved browser.
I don't think Hulu will stream anything higher than 720p regardless of which browser you use. Disney+ is the same.
Good luck getting anything over 720p running Linux and Firefox.
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ahh damn. Does signing in on the phone first not work? I'm struggling to remember what the captive screen wanted last time I did it, it's been a while.
No. It doesn’t. That’s where the travel router came in. It presents itself as one MAC address using one of its radios and exposes another interface for your devices. I was staying in an extended stay and we had computers and a WiFi printer set up. We were waiting for our house to be built. I was just informed that Apple added support for captive networks in March.
Re: The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have precedent for mental and emotional harm. I'd argue that invasive advertisements including but not limited to ads that make you remember catchy jingles, billboards on highways, ads that specifically target you based on profiling ("addictive") etc. are or can be emotional and mental harm. Ever hear the phrase "stuck in my head"? This happens with commercial jingles all the time. What if I don't want it to be st…
What you just wrote is violence, since it caused me to feel defensive and anxious and also think about it more than I'd like.
If you want to take the other extreme of your extreme example here, you should be ok with people driving down the street and blaring advertisements from trucks at full volume day and night.