You're viewing a single thread.
Disabling ads is easy, don't connect it to the internet ever
Any way to connect it to an internal network so I can still cast from local devices? Otherwise it's just going to exist plugged into a laptop.
Something like a chromecast would be the easiest solution.
Me personally, I just like having a media pc hooked up to my tv. I bought an amazon fire tv cause it was fairly cheap for 4k and its never been hooked up to the internet.
Just watch them litter those with ads too
It is a problem, my shield tv started having ads on the home page, but I was able to install a new launcher on it to fix that.
Overall having a media player plugged in to a disconnected tv is the way to go. It is easier to replace a chromecast than the whole tv.
What launcher are you using? I haven't found one I really like yet.
I think I am using the wolf launcher. I have it set up pretty minimally. 95% of the time I just use it to launch Jellyfin.
FLauncher is decent
It's even open-source: https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
I've been having a seperate media box connected to my TV for decades now, and if I want to get support for newer video encoding protocols (which happens maybe every 8 years or so) I can just change the media box, which is far cheaper than getting a whole new TV just because you need the hardware decoder chip for a newer video encoding.
The dumb part of the TV easilly lasts decades.
If they do there'll be a media center raspberry pi within a week.
Depends on your router. Some have the ability to disable internet access to single devices while leaving their internal network access intact.
You probably can give it a static ip through your router and block any access to the internet for it. Could even set up pihole to block the ads from coming in to any device. That said, it's possible the TV has built in ads or error messages to show in place of the ads when offline/blocked, or may just not even work if offline for longer than x minutes/hours/days
I think a PiHole wouldn't work cause the ads come from the same place as the videos
Samsung, AFAIK, doesn't have a streaming service so that doesn't matter.
We weren't talking about ADs on some streaming service, we're talking about ADs displayed on the TV from Samsung themselves
Also, AD proxying with content isn't always guaranteed, I've seen YT do it ofc
I was reading “Active Directory” and it made it all the more glorious.
Not sure about Samsung devices but I've got a few Rokus and my pihole does a great job of blocking ads.
They still push "promotions" into the menus and every month I have to go through and turn them off, but I don't see ads in the UI.
I have an old Intel nuc that I could slap a hard drive in. It wouldn't have to handle all traffic, right?
That should be fine, most people use raspberry pi's as a pihole server so a much shouldn't have any problems handling it
That will definitely work for a Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home. If it has 2 network controllers, you could even set it up as a router and firewall with OPNsense. That would allow you to do even cooler stuff like DNS packet redirection for devices/applications that have a hardcoded DNS server.
Only DNS lookups. And it's lightweight enough you could have an original NUC, set up a pi hole LXC on proxmox, and have plenty of power left over for other tasks.
That's how I handled my "smart" TV - I had a spare minipc from my old homelab, threw Linux on it and plugged it into the HDMI port.
It has never connected to my network, despite the BestBuy employee insisting it would need firmware updates for better picture.
firmware updates for better picture.
Good fucking lord.
Omg, that reminds me of a time when a retail employee insisted that installing Linux on a particular machine would rock crashing the hard drive. This was, oh, maybe 2006 or so.
I did not buy a new computer that day.
if it gives you the option you could try setting the DNS settings to something that doesn't exist.
Maybe if you give it its own vlan? Idk tho
You can probably get a DNS based ad blocker and configure your router DHCP to assign it to devices.
You may use it as a display and connect it to a Raspberry Pi (or other mini-PC) with Kodi on it.
Smart TVs can also scan the input from their hdmi ports and relay that to advertisers.
Except if you don't connect the TV to the internet, but use it as a huge display only.
True. That said, another comment has claimed that some smart TVs seek out open wifi and use that. Not a big problem in my area though.
...that's what I've been doing. I've accepted my fate
Sure, break it's routing. You can give it a fake DNS server (like a pihole that blocks everything), you could set up routing rules that block everything not addressed in the network ip range, there's a ton of ways I can think to do it off the top of my head. It might require some tinkering though
Yes, I have a firewall profile that I do exactly this for all my IoT devices.
Eventually they are going to require Internet on all TVs, it's only a matter of time
Then I make my own mainboard.
Good thing I saw that pcbwaydotcom ad.
I'm afraid reverse engineering proprietary internal connection is not an easy feat.
it's standard here in sweden to deliver TV over internet these days, TV can fuck itself sideways and die
You can possibly use a cheap chinese TV Media Box (about €35 for a decent one from Aliexpress) to stream Live TV over the Internet and then just connect it to the TV via HDMI.
In my experience those things aren't loaded with crap and have no Ads (for some, there are even things like libreElec if you want to get full control of it) plus it makes engineering sense to keep the smarts separate from the dumb TV (the actual dumb part of a TVs lasts a lot longer than the typical period between video streams moving to newer and better encoding methods - and decoding of those is done in hardware, not software - so if the smarts are in a separate cheap box, it's a lot cheaper to get support for newer kinds of video streams a few years down the line and keep the TV than to replace the whole TV just to get the newer video stream decoders)
Personally I use a Mini-PC with Linux and Kodi, but Mini-PCs are more expensive, require more expertise to set up and I do a lot more than just streaming live TV with it.
Word of warning, loads of those are full of hidden malware that will attempt to infect the other devices on your network. Probably best to make your own every time.
Apparently not loads, but some are. People can get the more expensive branded stuff if they're worried or just overwrite the firmware with something like LibreELEC.
Also for that reason I prefer my current solution with a Mini-PC, though at about €150 rather than €35 it's a lot more expensive, which for me is fine as I use it for a lot more stuff than only as a media player, but since I'm a little wary of pitching something which requires quite a bit more technical expertise to use to people which might or not have that expertise, I only mentioned that option last and in passing.
Serious question: what’s the mechanism of this? I can think of a few it might be but I honestly don’t know:
- Is it that 99.9% of the market wants smart TVs and there’s not enough demand for dumb TVs to support a production run?
- Is it that existing companies can somehow block smaller upstarts from entering the market, and then they decided as a cartel to end dumb TVs?
- Is the NSA infiltrating TV companies to force this product line choice?
- Is there a new law requiring that all TVs get smart?
- Some mechanism I haven’t thought of?
I’ve heard some will seek out open wifi in the area. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start having cellular data capability soon just for the ads and reporting back to corporate.
"fun" fact: most modern cars have over a dozen sim cards because various components relay statistics, etc. to their respective manufacturers.
yeah, “fun” indeed
Don’t buy a Samsung tv is even better. There software gets worse every year. Recent tvs now can’t change inputs when first powered on. They also need to detect a device to change the input.
At this point, just get a cheaper non-smart TV
They don't sell good TVs that aren't Smart anymore. You could get a monitor but that comes with size, featureset and price limitations.
Even monitors are getting “smart TV” features these days… ostensibly so they can push non-consensual ads there, too.
I was looking at monitors recently, they do have Samsung "smart" monitors. That's gonna be a fuck no from me. I hope we don't see everything trend that way.
I'm leaning toward a projector hooked up to a mini pc for my next living room 'tv'.
I only ever use mine for movie nights or special occasions anyways so it's always dark when I use it.
Any other regular viewing I usually do on my pc.
I went with a projector in my living room for years. I had it hooked up to my main PC but it was always an awkward setup until i stuck a mirror behind my monitors. Basically have the PC on the wall opposite where you want the projection, and put the projector on your computer desk way off to the side, angled so it shoots to the wall behind you. Set up the mirror so when youre sitting at your PC, the wall behind you with the projection is reflected in the mirror as a sort of extra monitor on top of the others.
I know it sounds terrible, but its super useful for quickly controlling the projector while still at the monitors.
Or get a little air mouse remote for $20 on Amazon. This is what i use for controlling my pc when its hooked up to the TV and it's so unbelievably good, even has a full keyboard on the back if I want to search something, full range of media controls on the front, and just point it and click to control the mouse cursor. Gamechanger.
I'm doing the exact same thing with a Mini-PC running Linux with Kodi.
Sure, for the linuxy stuff (management and other funcionality that has nothing to do with using it as a media player in my living room) it's way better to use a real keyboard and mouse (so I mostly do that stuff remotelly from my PC), but for the whole side of using it as a media player device that remote is perfect and since I bought an air-mouse remote which also has the buttons of a normal media player remote - which works perfectly with Kodi, be it on Linux or with the Android Media Player I had before - I seldom need to actually use the air-mouse functionality to move a mouse cursor around.
Absolutelly as you said a gamechanger.
That's what I was thinking about doing. I've already been doing a little research. I'm either gonna do standard wireless mouse and keyboard just on my couch or coffee table or one of those wireless keyboards with a TouchPad built in as a mouse replacement. I've also seen tiny Bluetooth wireless keyboards meant for phones but they also work with pcs.
I'm not planning on any crazy streamio RSuite setups as I don't torrent often and definitely not for shows I watch. Standard mini pc running Linux is all I'll probably do. Firefox with unblock serves me well on my main pc and it'll do here as well.
Seriously try one of the air remotes. It's like a gyroscopic remote and it works way better than I ever thought it would for controlling a mouse cursor. They're very cheap too, the one I have cost 30bucks, it can sense if you have it on the keyboard side or the media side facing up and disables the other sides buttons, deactivatable backlight on the buttons, and rechargeable battery, although it lasts for weeks without charging.
Good call I hadn't heard about them, I'll check it out.
I've been also doing this kind of thing for a few months and just want to suggest you look for one with the full media player buttons like this since that works directly in Kodi, so if you're using a PC/Mini-PC with Kodi on as a media player, as long as you don't exit Kodi with this you pretty much have typical experience you do with a smart-TV or an Android TV media box with dedicated remote.
That said, I don't recommend this specific model since the buttons are requiring stronger pressing to work already and I've only had it for a few months - the idea is great but this specific device is a low quality implementation.
That said, I started with a wireless keyboard and mouse and still have them connected to it but in a corner, for the few times I have to do stuff with that PC outside Kodi, since the mini-keyboard on the back of my air-mouse and the air-mouse functionality itself are more awkward to use than an actual keyboard and mouse.
I don't really have any intention on using any of those programs to emulate regular TV watching once I have the mini pc and projector running. Not because I can't set it up because I've done it before but I've found that regular Firefox with unblock is good enough for me. I know what I wanna watch and I know where to go to stream it for free.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely check out the media player button. I'm still doing research on what would work best for my use case.
just don't connect it to the Internet
Where are you buying a non-smart TV in 2024? Genuinely asking for some links to something bigger than 32" and that is not a $3,000 "commercial display panel".
For me it was craigslist. I spent $20 on a 32" Vizio that came with a useless Comcast remote so then I spent $6 online on a replacement Vizio remote. I did see some larger dumb tvs listed for more money as well.
buy any tv and don't connect it to the Internet
An more expensive dumb TV, actually. They want you to buy the thing that makes passive income so its cheaper.
Yeah, but some new tech won’t work at all if you don’t.
Plenty of people aren’t aware of that, and when you’re buying shit, it often obfuscates that fact.
Most people will buy shit having no idea the thing will require you to connect it to your wifi.
e: television is only one of the things. It’s getting harder to name things that don’t require this.
It's simple: return the item