My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened? • Hacker News Board

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#141

Post by hypercube33 » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 3:56 AM UTC

vitus wrote: post #94

leereeves wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like ads are taking over everything. I fear the world will soon resemble Minority Report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bXJ_obaiYQ

Soon? Sure, we don't have billboards that scan the biometrics of whoever's walking past in order to deliver customized ads, but instead we have conditioned everyone to glue themselves to their own personal miniaturized billboards.

We have had close so I count that as yes. About 10 or so years ago there were demos of a pi and webcam driving a smart ad display that monitors anyone walking by - gives them a unique id, guesses age sex and mood (at least) and if they look at the ad monitors for mood change and duration of attention.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#142

Post by Larrikin » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 3:57 AM UTC

rerdavies wrote: post #118

jamesy0ung wrote: post #39

Just don't connect it to the internet and use an Apple TV instead.

Just don't buy an Android TV box. My ancient, very dumb, and totally wonderful Chromecast died, and I had to replace it with a Chromecast TV device. It's turned my TV into a 24-hour a day ad faucet. Transformed from a device that does remote Chromecasting very very well, to a insufficiently provisioned Android TV box that crashes and locks up frequenly when you are doing remote chromecasting. :-(

Just change the launcher. Android TV is the only platform that can block YouTube ads and supports Sponsor block

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#143

Post by dharmab » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:01 AM UTC

Nectar0516 wrote: post #125

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe a Roku does the same kind of TV fingerprinting, and probably so do the other streaming hardware devices. So, not sure there is any relief anywhere? You can run your own linux HPC, but those get locked to 720p quality.

The bigger problem with running on a PC is UI. No longer will it work well with a simple remote that only needs 10 buttons.

I had a media center PC that was usable with a remote control in 2008.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#144

Post by hypercube33 » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:14 AM UTC

genocidicbunny wrote: post #85

someonehere wrote: post #25

Before anyone asks, you can buy a TV that’s dumb. Look on Sony or Samsung or business kiosk TVs. I bought some Sony kiosk TVs for conference rooms when building out an office ones. They can be left on forever have the same great quality and cost a little bit more. But they’re dumb in the end and they turn on fast.

Iirc, in the earlier days of LCD tvs, the ones meant for digital signage sometimes had different color calibration, and also sometimes had weaker processors than their consumer bretheren because they weren't really meant to display high-framerate motion content, and were mainly used for static images. A friend's dad picked up a few for cheap when their employer was updating some of the ones they used for digital sign…

Bet money on it being the garbage smooth frame stuff that pushed the TVs to fake 60 or 120fps by guessing frames. Even my newest 75" TV has this junk and makes the picture stutter enough that it drove me bonkers trying to turn it off - Google TV is awful for this but the TV also lets you fully turn it off on some ports.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#145

Post by Finnucane » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:14 AM UTC

paradite wrote: post #73

You can turn it off. This is just a poorly worded FAQ. At the beginning, there is an FAQ that says you can't turn off ads in scenic mode. Q: Can I turn Scenic Mode ads off? A: No, not at this time... But in fact you can turn the Scenic mode off completely, but it buried later in the content of an FAQ about settings. Q: Can I change any settings for Scenic Mode? A: Yes. To use Scenic Mode with or without volume, navig…

I read it as you can turn off Scenic Mode, but you can't turn off ads when Scenic Mode is on. It is poorly worded.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#146

Post by waltbosz » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:24 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #126

thakoppno wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has already made a deal with Spectrum or XFinity to use those open wifi networks that are open to customers via their account signin. I’m skeptical an arrangement like this could work. The authentication mechanism would be interesting enough to attract security researchers and likely open anonymous Internet access that may undermine any potential benefit gained from viewer data. I…

Definitely a risk. I knew a guy who basically got internet access at his apartment in college via his local DOT. The message signs on the boulevard he worked on were just cellular mifi units with open or default credentials. Not super fast, but the price was right.

Tangental story about free Internet.

I once got a few years of free broadband Internet because I signed up for broadband plus basic cable, but they never put broadband on my bill. They came and did the installation and everything. Then when it eventually shut off, I called them back to complain and they said they had no record of me being a broadband customer, so I was able to sign up for the lower new customer rate.

At the same time, my TV had a built in digital tuner that could tune into the on-demand streams of other people in my neighborhood. I could watch as the paused/rewind/etc. The watching trends were interesting. Late nights you'd see soft-core adult movies, Saturday mornings you'd see lots of kid's shows.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#147

Post by donnachangstein » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:27 AM UTC

Am I the only one here that read the part where you can absolutely disable this? I don't understand the performative outrage. The TV has an ad-supported screen saver, which they claim is used to support free streaming content. You can disable the screen saver entirely. No, you cannot just disable the ads but keep the screen saver. What is the problem?

Meanwhile half the posters here work for Google or other ad-surveillance purveyors. I watched a short YouTube video today with half a dozen unskippable ads. If you had a hand in normalizing this then you can't claim to be upset by it.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#148

Post by gblargg » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:38 AM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #37

laweijfmvo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you can turn the feature off entirely, which seems semi reasonable — the ads support the updated scenic content, and you can opt out. but i’d bet it shows ads in other places too.

> the ads support the updated scenic content, Ha, that's a good one! Gotta have regular updates to my videos of forests, waterfalls, lapping waves and crackling log fires. You never know when they're going to launch a new version of trees.

And as they say in the FAQ,

> Q: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened? A: Your TV launched Scenic Mode, a FREE, new feature that displays relaxing, ambient content when your TV is idle for a period of time. Scenic Mode delivers an experience that adds to the environment of your home or office.

It's relaxing, so you need to RELAX rather than getting in a huff over blaring ads. What, you're not relaxed and going to pull the plug?

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#149

Post by kelvinjps10 » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:40 AM UTC

mystraline wrote: post #99

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe a Roku does the same kind of TV fingerprinting, and probably so do the other streaming hardware devices. So, not sure there is any relief anywhere? You can run your own linux HPC, but those get locked to 720p quality.

> You can run your own linux HPC, but those get locked to 720p quality. That is demonstrably not true. If you run Jellyfin and pirate using thepiratebay and yandex searches, you can get 4k 7.1 audio shows.

It's not the OS but the streamimg sites, like netflix and others are locked to 720p.

Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?

#150

Post by kelvinjps10 » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 4:41 AM UTC

nomel wrote: post #42

pmags wrote: post #2

I seem to recall that Vizio was added to my "do not buy" list quite a long time ago, when it turned out they were monitoring your watching habit ( https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/7/14527360/vizio-smart-tv-tr... ). This seems to be more of the same I guess. Choice text from the link above: Q: Why did I see an ad in Scenic Mode? A: After Scenic Mode launches to full screen, you may see ads. We offer free, scenic conten…

Many Android TVs do this, including Hisense, and they try to mask it with dishonest verbiage about what the feature is doing. It's definitely not just a VIZIO thing.

The android ones are just pictures with no ads