Pi-hole
Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
21–30 of 548 posts
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#22Spoiler: this is Ars Technica. Obviously they suggest you to instead get an Apple TV so that you send your data to Apple and watch Apple ads instead (with the only argument being that "so far they do less ads").
Funny how the article itself is an ad
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. Works great. All things equal I'd prefer just not buying a damn Smart TV to begin with, but absent that as a realistic option (every 4K TV I've ever seen is smart) I'll happily settle with them never seeing one byte of Internet.
The article lists several manufacturers of 4k dumb tv’s
The article also says why they suck:
> Dumb TVs sold today have serious image and sound quality tradeoffs, simply because companies don’t make dumb versions of their high-end models. On the image side, you can expect lower resolutions, sizes, and brightness levels and poorer viewing angles. You also won’t find premium panel technologies like OLED. If you want premium image quality or sound, you’re better off using a smart TV offline. Dumb TVs also usually have shorter (one-year) warranties.
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. Works great. All things equal I'd prefer just not buying a damn Smart TV to begin with, but absent that as a realistic option (every 4K TV I've ever seen is smart) I'll happily settle with them never seeing one byte of Internet.
The article lists several manufacturers of 4k dumb tv’s
Some of the advice is a bit weird though. Get a 4k HDR TV and then connect it to an antenna? I mean, why do you even need a 4k HDR TV in that case?
Not to mention disabling the smart/ad features is an option on some smart tvs (ie. Sony).
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#25Sceptre is not in fact "a Wal-Mart brand" but rather an independent company. https://www.sceptre.com Westinghouse TVs are made by a company licensing the brand, not a "Pittsburgh-headquartered company". These seem like easy mistakes to avoid.
This is really poor research on their part.
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#26Spoiler: this is Ars Technica. Obviously they suggest you to instead get an Apple TV so that you send your data to Apple and watch Apple ads instead (with the only argument being that "so far they do less ads").
Yup, from the Apple TV article linked in the article[1]:
> According to its privacy policy, the company gathers usage data, such as “data about your activity on and use of” Apple offerings, including “app launches within our services…; browsing history; search history; [and] product interaction.” [...] transaction information, account information (“including email address, devices registered, account status, and age”), device information (including serial number and browser type), contact information (including physical address and phone number), and payment information (including bank details).
Yeah, sure, that's privacy, Ars.
[1]https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/all-the-ways-apple-t...
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#27Don’t ever connect your TV to the internet?
They nag.
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#28tl;dr: don’t connect it to a network, and/or use a computer monitor.
My work health insurance recently offered a free scale and blood pressure monitor, I thought that's a nice perk, I'll use that, so I ordered with the intent of never using their app, just using it for my own tracking. The first time I used it, I got an email from my insurance company congratulating me and giving me suggestions. Both devices have a cellular modem in them, and arrived paired to my identity. I destroyed…
I'd have tried to disassemble it, locate the SIM card or cellular modem, and see if it could be used for other traffic. A wireguard tunnel fixes the privacy problem, and I can always use more IP addresses and bandwidth.
Until people start abusing these "features", they will not go away.
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#29Pi-hole
I have a fire tv and run adguard, which does the same thing as pihole, and I can barely tell it's on. It may block some tracking, but I get an increasing amount of ads in the fire tv GUI, not to speak of YouTube ads.
Sometimes I wonder if the people recommending pihole actually tried it. You get much better value out of ublock, smarttube, and so on.
Re: Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
#30Sceptre is not in fact "a Wal-Mart brand" but rather an independent company. https://www.sceptre.com Westinghouse TVs are made by a company licensing the brand, not a "Pittsburgh-headquartered company". These seem like easy mistakes to avoid.
And Emerson has for a LONG time been just an American brand on the cheapest Chinese electronics your money can buy.
The whole article is pretty terrible.