Live data from Hacker News

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

adguard.com

491–500 of 579 posts

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

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse, they think they need an TV because its "used by 95% homes in the US".

Would you say it’s good advice if someone needs to know how to change a tire - “I haven’t owned a car in 10 years. Just don’t buy a car?”

Its only unreasonable if you need the car for something. By implication, i assume having a TV is a necessity for you.

If you want a TV in your life so badly, you can say just that. Like "But i love Star{gate,trek,wars} and i can't watch it comfortably without a TV/Streaming". The thing with the 95% is a unecessary pretense.

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

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking. It indiscriminately pollutes the environment, and inflicts harm on non participants by incentivising unbridled data collection.

The hard, spikey, jagged, foul tasting pill to swallow then: Society needs to pay directly for content.

Which means realistic micropayment solutions must be discovered first.

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

#493
post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still get cheap ones. And by cheap I mean TLC/Hisense level quality displays. Walmart sells Sceptre's for low prices and have no smart features, best purchase I've made in years. We use a lot of Rokus here and my issue isn't the ads, its that every Roku built-in TV gets REALLY slow after a few updates, so now it's just easier to chuck a $20-30 device instead of having to buy an entire $300+TV. Sure I don't ge…

I bought a TCL with smart features and there's no ads and I just dont connect it to wifi. The Firestick 4k Max I got for $75 advertises prime shows occasionally (unobtrusively) but the UI is 2x as fast as my Chromecast so I very happily use it w/ IPTV, Airplay, and streaming apps.

I have a Firestick 4k Max on our main TV and a standard 4k stick on the other TV. They just work compared to my Shield TV which always seemed to fighting my home theater setup. I got them through a Prime deal, so I think I spent a total of $75 for both.

I've been tempted by some in-app features that only seem to work on AppleTV devices but not enough to spend that much when my current devices do the job so well.

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

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a "moral right" for companies to use intellectual property laws to force your children to watch ads? Children are legally unable to participate in contracts, should they be allowed to watch any media, with binding licenses and laws, at all?

Then either buy media without ads or limit the amount of time and content your children spend watching ads?

The media producing individual/group/company could do something else with their time/capital that isn't so casually pirateable, such as building housing or producing actual goods/services, instead of the "produce once then sit on your ass and collect royalties forever for the next century and a half" behavior that media production encourages.

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

#495
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…

its much easier to just buy any smart tv and not connect it to the internet

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

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then either buy media without ads or limit the amount of time and content your children spend watching ads?

The media producing individual/group/company could do something else with their time/capital that isn't so casually pirateable, such as building housing or producing actual goods/services, instead of the "produce once then sit on your ass and collect royalties forever for the next century and a half" behavior that media production encourages.

Are you spending your time building houses? Are you willing to quit your job and work for Habitat for Humanity?

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

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking. It indiscriminately pollutes the environment, and inflicts harm on non participants by incentivising unbridled data collection.

The hard, spikey, jagged, foul tasting pill to swallow then: Society needs to pay directly for content.

It's not that simple. The demand to reach a target demographic isn't going away. Thus, as the difficulty of reaching that demographic increases so does the cost advertisers are willing to pay.

Also, it's common for companies to offer a paid service and then double dip with an advertisement offering as well.

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

#498
post #57

> Some may argue that there's no need to be dramatic and that there's nothing wrong in seeing an occasional ad every now and then. Oh, no, I am very dramatic about this. I will go to any lengths not to see advertising. I will entirely forgo any platform that shows me even one ad, especially when I pay them. Amazon Prime video is already pushing it with their preroll previews. The second it's something else I'm cancel…

I don't know when or how it happened, but seeing or hearing even a single ad infuriates me.

The best explanation I can come up with is that it wastes my time, and I value time above all else.

I have never bought or purchased anything advertised online. And nowadays I consciously try to avoid products that I see on online ads.

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

#499
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…

From what I've learned the key to search for is "hospitality display". First result from brave search: https://www.samsung.com/levant/business/smart-hospitality-di...

'smart' is in the title which is a bit concerning

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

#500
post #57

> Some may argue that there's no need to be dramatic and that there's nothing wrong in seeing an occasional ad every now and then. Oh, no, I am very dramatic about this. I will go to any lengths not to see advertising. I will entirely forgo any platform that shows me even one ad, especially when I pay them. Amazon Prime video is already pushing it with their preroll previews. The second it's something else I'm cancel…

I don't know when or how it happened, but seeing or hearing even a single ad infuriates me. The best explanation I can come up with is that it wastes my time, and I value time above all else. I have never bought or purchased anything advertised online. And nowadays I consciously try to avoid products that I see on online ads.

> The best explanation I can come up with is that it wastes my time, and I value time above all else.

Yes.

Post reply on HN