Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

adguard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 579 posts

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

#531

Post by welder »

welder wrote: post #264
rendall wrote: 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…

> 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. Not just that, it also means having thousands of companies know every show or movie you ever watched: > [tv manufacturer] shared IP addresses of its consumers with the data aggregators who then would find a person or a household to which it belonged.

Also, knowing which ads you've seen is more valuable than the shows you've watched. Think how much advertisers are paying TV manufacturers to know the conversion rate of their latest TV ads.

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

#532

Post by dylan604 »

ska wrote: post #403
dylan604 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

This isn't really surprising, as in general consumer electronics has famously thin margins. If you are in the race-to-the-bottom part of that, any other revenue source has an easy time moving the needle.

But until recently those low margin consumer goods didn't have the ability to generate revenue after purchase. So it's same but totally different. It's not really the same thing if you sell at a 20% "loss" knowing you're going to make more than 2x the sale price in the data generated by that device.

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

#533

Post by sidewndr46 »

rendall wrote: 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…

Amazon Prime Video showing preroll ads is massively dumb on their part. I'm already paying you and already actively using your service. I specifically have a Prime subscription because it gives me access to a huge catalog of obscure sci-fi & horror films. Really awful stuff. I'm not interested in the latest content you paid some outrageous amount to acquire the licensing rights to.

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

#535

Post by tyingq »

tzs wrote: post #404
tyingq wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Tablo looks interesting. I don't see any power consumption figures on their site, though. I'll have to contact them and see if they can tell me. 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 poin…

The wall wart is 12V 2A, which would at least tell you the max draw.

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

#536

Post by iamevn »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #207
1ncorrect wrote: post #117

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.

I would love to pay my local sports team or NBC or something money directly for broadcasts of all their games but it's impossible because the exclusive streaming rights are split out across at least 3 different services that I'd need to pay far too much for on top of my season tickets.

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

#537

Post by proamdev123 »

fmajid wrote: post #322
afavour wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Apple is planning on adding ads to the AppleTV. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-08-14/apple-...

That was a long article to read only to discover ZERO indication that Apple is planning on adding ads to the Apple TV (other than the author’s pure speculation).

Thanks for linking the article so I could see that for myself.

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

#538

Post by jdbernard »

scarface74 wrote: post #274
jdbernard wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is actually legal force behind our ability to say no, then this is not a bad place to be. Ideally we'd include in the law the provision to say no once for some extended period of time. CAN-SPAM is a precedent for this, I believe.

How did that work out?

Well, given that people make pretty good money baiting companies that don't respect their opt-out, I'd say it's working fairly well. It's not scammers we're battling here, it's companies that need to play by the rules.

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

#539

Post by ouid »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #207
1ncorrect wrote: post #117

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.

Society needs to pay for the creation of content. Patreon is a pretty good model.

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

#540

Post by ouid »

secret-noun wrote: post #456
rendall wrote: 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…

It feels like a Clockwork Orange's aversion therapy eyelid-clamper thing sometimes. I mute the volume for ads to take away some of that edge. It's one of the few things I can control about it.

why not use an adblocker?
Post reply on HN