Unfortunately, I expect consumer-hostile behavior like this to become more common. The path that consumers take from intent-to-purchase to transaction will radically change over the next 5 years. It will result in less time shopping and better purchasing decisions for consumers, while diminishing the role of marketing/advertising. As that river runs dry, there will be desperate and intrusive attempts to monetize users like we’re seeing here from Vizio.
My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
151–160 of 268 posts
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#152My favorite development is ads interrupted by ads.
When the second Youtube preroll ad cuts off the first one... My favourite development in this regard is the lying timers on those ads. More than one streaming app I've caught resetting the overall timer on every ad. So it will say that there's 90s of ads, play through a 15s ad counting down to 75s, and as soon as the next ad plays, the timer resets to 90s again. Eventually after a few minutes of ads something must re…
I have noticed on some smaller ad delivery sites that they use fake seconds. The "seconds" are actually 1.5–2 seconds long. If anything can be made worse, let's do it!
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest, this is part of why TVs can be offered for so cheap these days. Same reason really cheap phones are stuffed with bloatware. Luckily with TVs you can freeload: just never connect it to the internet and only apply updates via USB. Stick an Apple TV / Chromecast / console into it for playback. This might even become standard operating procedure considering Samsung is getting into the ad game, and LG and So…
I don’t know how much longer that will be possible with how cheap 5G is getting. Sooner or later they’ll be able to install a $10 part and make a deal with wireless carriers as backhaul for unconnected TVs. 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. The best solution is commercial displays but…
> I don’t know how much longer that will be possible with how cheap 5G is getting. Sooner or later they’ll be able to install a $10 part and make a deal with wireless carriers as backhaul for unconnected TVs.
I had a really snarky reply to this, about how I'd just crack it open and remove the sim card, warranty be damned. Then I realized that even sim cards are going away, that's all done in software on the latest phones (no doubt an option soon for everything). Sorta fucked, I wish you were wrong.
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest, this is part of why TVs can be offered for so cheap these days. Same reason really cheap phones are stuffed with bloatware. Luckily with TVs you can freeload: just never connect it to the internet and only apply updates via USB. Stick an Apple TV / Chromecast / console into it for playback. This might even become standard operating procedure considering Samsung is getting into the ad game, and LG and So…
I don’t know how much longer that will be possible with how cheap 5G is getting. Sooner or later they’ll be able to install a $10 part and make a deal with wireless carriers as backhaul for unconnected TVs. 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. The best solution is commercial displays but…
This idea doesn't bother me at all. I won't buy any TV for which I cannot disable the 5G antenna with basic tools by following a simple procedure described on some website.
If said TV won't work without 5G connectivity, it goes on my "Do Not Buy" list.
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
All TVs at home are blocked by MAC on the wifi router, so there's definitely a way to turn off this bullshit.
Out of curiosity, do you simply not use streaming services, or do you get them on the TV some other way?
TV here - have 4 of them now, one for each TV, one for the portable projector, and one for music in the workshop.
Fabulous boxes - I’m still running a 4 generation old one and they just work.
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple TV is pretty good and not very pricey. It’s a good value
Apple TV has to be one of my favorite purchases over the last five years. It just does what it says on the tin and gets the hell out of the way otherwise. I've bought three of them and disconnected all our tvs from wifi in favor of using these devices.
I struggle a bit with the remote control and UI in several apps
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#157- this scenic mode isn't an essential feature and can be turned off
- TVs are cheaper here in the US than they are in China (or at least they were when I lived in China), and these revenue opportunities are likely the reason
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#158- this scenic mode isn't an essential feature and can be turned off - TVs are cheaper here in the US than they are in China (or at least they were when I lived in China), and these revenue opportunities are likely the reason
The FAQ says you can't but apparently that's wrong (or intentionally deceptive?). Someone posted instructions below.
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#159Earlier 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.
> 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.
That's more clever than my reuse story. I repurposed an outdoor AP into a client bridge and pointed at the nearby walmart. I had it feeding an unlocked AP and a yagi pointing into the neighborhood.
I ran it for a year without getting my door kicked in.
Re: My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
When the second Youtube preroll ad cuts off the first one... My favourite development in this regard is the lying timers on those ads. More than one streaming app I've caught resetting the overall timer on every ad. So it will say that there's 90s of ads, play through a 15s ad counting down to 75s, and as soon as the next ad plays, the timer resets to 90s again. Eventually after a few minutes of ads something must re…
I have noticed on some smaller ad delivery sites that they use fake seconds. The "seconds" are actually 1.5–2 seconds long. If anything can be made worse, let's do it!
Maybe that is the right kind of start up make it worse. Until we get a decent percentage of rage quits things can not improve.
I one time click an add because I was curious how the scam worked. First they wanted my name and phone number... when I typed the last digit of the phone number into the form my phone rang immediately. They even managed to confuse me for a moment.
Next level would be to use 10, 100 or 1000 phone lines (depending on budget) and call people when they haven't typed their entire number.
Quickly train the sales "person" llm on whatever public personal information can be found using their name ip/location, phone number, anything about their friends, relatives coworkers etc. Mimic the correct accent for the region.
Or howabout a question about the ad to check if they watched it properly. If they get it wrong it seems only fair to give them a new ad. Some question should not have a correct answer.
Or, how would you rate this advertisement? With each rating triggering an unique-seeming follow up question.