I’m getting from context that this is a smart tv displaying an advertisement, but what the fuck is it even advertising here? A baseball game? Why is the countdown to-the-hour? Why does the player look like a drawing instead of a photo? Why is it specifically that player and not just 'dodgers game tomorrow!"…? It almost looks as if it’s an in-game notification for an MLB-Manager game.
If it were a burger-king commercial I’d be upset, but the inscrutability of this as an ad at all actually infuriates me.
Is there an open-source version of Google TV and similar smart TV software? I feel like i read about one quite recently.
Connecting a Raspberry pi or a Linux computer into the HDMI port. And not connecting the TV to WiFi.
Smart TV’s can be used as dumb TV’s by not connecting them to the internet. Likewise the HDMI port can connect your own device for the smart functionality.
Depends on the TV. Some can’t be used unless internet connected. Roku TVs are especially bad about this
My two TCL Roku TVs work without an Internet connection. This isn’t in defense of Roku TVs to be clear- I regret my purchase, but at least for now they do work offline.
Honestly despite the enshitification those TCL Roku TVs are/were some of the better value smart TVs.
I bought a Sony on sale at Costco and it’s a massive piece of shit. Randomly reboots, won’t turn on, requires a factory reset every month to keep working. Android TV is a way worse experience than the Roku stuff I’ve used.
Yeah but is there an OS or a Linux distro specifically geared for use with a “surrogate SmartTV”?
It could also be used by connecting the device to a large monitor, as those are cheaper than SmartTVs. No point paying a premium for features you don’t intend to use.
On a related point, what would you do for a remote control in such a setup?
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for a while. I’ve not yet found a really good solution, but I can summarize what I’ve learned, partly for your information but mostly in the hope that Cunningham’s law will finally put me out of my misery. Here are suggestions I’ve seen, organized roughly along some axis of easiest/most popular to hardest/least popular:
- Get an NVIDIA Shield TV. This isn’t really what you asked for. It’s just a commercial smart TV box, but it’s generally considered the least annoying and highest quality of the lot. The unfortunate fact is that when dealing with DRM controlled media, having a big company like NVIDIA behind the product goes a long towards simplifying things.
- Install Kodi. Kodi (formerly XBMC) is the elder statesman of the FOSS smart TV world. You can run it on just about any hardware, including a SBC like a Raspberry Pi. You can even get it pre-bundled with a Linux OS like LibreELEC. It’s got a clean interface and good community support, BUT it’s primarily oriented towards viewing media from your own collection. If you’re a person who consumes content via streaming services then you’re gonna have a rough time. Apps (mostly unofficial / community made) do exist for many popular services, but installing them can be a pain, and you may have trouble streaming in high quality (DRM issues).
- KDE Plasma Bigscreen. Great concept, not maintained any more. See my comment here for all the gory details.
- Clean build of Android TV. I’m not aware of any major independent android distributions (Lineage, Graphene) providing official builds of the android TV operating system, but this site seems to provide relatively consistent lineage OS based releases. You can run them on a Raspberry Pi. I haven’t done this yet, but it will probably be the next thing I try.
- EarlGrey TV. This one is a deep cut. EarlGrey TV mad a very small splash in the FOSS news cycle a couple of months ago. The concept is simple: install your favorite Linux distro and configure it to boot directly into a browser displaying a static webpage with links to your favorite streaming services and/or local media folders. The implementation is extremely basic, but the upside is that it’s easy to tinker with if you’re so-inclined.
As for remotes, there are some decent options on Amazon that connect via bluetooth or a USB dongle and basically act like a mouse and/or keyboard packaged in a remote control form factor. I bought this one a while ago and it’s been fine. Nothing special, but fine. The play/pause/volume buttons on the front read on the receiving end like the media buttons on a keyboard. The air-mouse functionality isn’t for everyone, but this model is one of the few with a little track pad on the back if you prefer using that. Honestly just get anything with a full keyboard. So much easier than using the arrow keys to click-click-click your way through an onscreen keyboard.
Yea I always hear people say just hook up a PC or Pi but I don’t want a keyboard and mouse in my livingroom. The value of these Apple TV / Roku / Google TV setups is you have a little remote and a UI that is designed around it with big visual elements you can see across the room. I’m surprised there seems to be so little movement on something like this.
I guess one issue is apps. The likes of Netflix wouldn’t support it.
“I don’t want to use a keyboard,” was what my wife said at first too. Then she realized that saving hundred of dollars and never seeing another advertisement was worth it.
I used to have the PC setup. Ended up going for an Apple TV 4k. Yea it was $200 but it was a one time purchase 7 years ago and there’s no ads. Just serve up everything though Plex and Infuse
Apple TV still has a ton of privacy concerns and most people who are against having to use a keyboard probably aren’t going to be setting up a Plex server.
Oops, stepped on another $1200 landmine did you? Should have researched where you put your foot. Everyone knows this neighborhood is littered with landmines. No, there’s nothing we can really do about it except hand out these exhaustive charts and navigation tools. Of course they need to constantly get re-updated and are themselves periodically hijacked by the pro-landmine industry to turn into a second-tier grift. But that just means you have to research who you research for your TV research.
Don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually. God gave us two legs for a reason.
Gaming on a TV? Wouldn’t like that low refresh rate personally
144Hz TVs are a thing and common. I’m using a 65" 144Hz 4K OLED right now.
Modern TVs are excellent gaming monitors, and they’re much cheaper than an equivalent PC monitor. Especially LG OLEDs, since they are built with gaming in mind. Input lag is a thing of the past.
What’s the burn in like on the oled? I have an LG oled as my TV but haven’t dared buy one as a monitor as oled used to be so bad for burn in
You’re thinking of plasma TVs from like 12 years ago.
I just bought this dumb tv. Couldn’t be happier.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CJV6722?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
It’s not a good tv, but it’s the biggest one I could fit on my desk and it has absolutely no “smart” features.
Just don’t connect smart TVs to the internet. That’s all you have to (not) do
From what I have heard, this is not true for all brands. Some won’t work without being connected. Shouldn’t be legal, but here we are.
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In a different thread here on lemmy.
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I don’t know what you’re going through in your life, but I wish you all the best. Just wanted to pass on some information I thought was relevant.
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Yes. I’ve heard some brands will search for nearby devices of the same brands that are already connected to the internet so that even if YOU didn’t connect the TV to WiFi, it still calls home/gets ads.
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No way, tell me that isnt real. I remember hearing a patent about being able to deliver ads over hdmi but dont tell me it actually got implemented.
That ad is not over HDMI. Its a smart TV it inserts the ad on its own.
Which then travels… over HDMI. I realize that’s not what you meant but technically…
Just dont give the thing internet access then…
That works unless your neighbor had unsecured WiFi. The TVs will phone home in any way they can.
Seriously? If this is true… That’s insane… I can’t even imagine that…
That’s nothing. Check out the Amazon Sidewalk protocol for some real nightmare fuel.
holy shit that’s horrifying
Setup your own WiFi with the same SSID and block all ports. Bonus points, it will drive your neighbors crazy and maybe get them to up their security stance.
picture looks like a 'shop. look at bottom right corner of tv.
but, it’s inevitable. corporate greed knows no limit, knows no boundaries.
I totally believe this kind of thing could happens, but I’d expect broader outrage if it were.
When I set up my LG tv it wanted to show promoted content on the Home Screen and the screensaver.
I never connect my TV to the internet. People jerk saying they add wireless modems to them but in reality they don’t have to, most prime leave all the telemetry and “AI” features enabled.
Look up Amazon’s “Sidewalk” network. They don’t need your internet. They have your neighbors internet.
Instead of buying a TV, look for a digital signage display. It’s a TV, but with none of the “smart” crap on it.
Alternatively, just don’t hook your device up to the internet.
I’ve seen this advice over and over and I have to ask: does it really compare? TVs for me are all about frame rate, and no, I’m not a competitive gamer or anything. What’s the response time on those “digital signage” models designed to show static food menus 24/7 for a decade. I’m sure they don’t have a “game mode”, but what’s the refresh rate? If you’re going to literally pay more for a display sold to corporations, these factors need to be considered. Personally, I got a good consumer TV and just never connected it to the Internet…
This is good advice, but I really wish we lived in a world where consumers could bond together and get laws passed that make this type of crap illegal so that buying TV’s (or any type of appliance for that matter) didn’t involve having to do research on weird non-consumer hardware just to have a nice experience.
EDIT: some morons in my replies keep on saying shit about “voting republican” and We Do In OtHeR CoUnTRiEs. I’m not american, I don’t live in america, and I cannot remember the last time I set foot in america. Shut the fuck up, nobody asked you.
They cost like 5x more because they’re marketed toward businesses. https://www.samsung.com/us/business/displays/pro-tv/bh-series/65-bht-series-qled-4k-uhd-hdr-pro-tv-terrace-edition-lh65bhtelgfxgo/
I can’t believe this is real. I’ve just bought a relatively cheap Samsung smart TV and it’s got nothing close to this. I would hardly even say it’s got adverts since it’s mostly just recommendations from my apps in the same way they all do now, I don’t think I’ve actually seen it try to sell me anything or get me to watch something that wasn’t free.
Who the fuck would buy a TV like this? If a company was going to introduce on-screen ads like this they’d start really small.
Your Samsung will start pushing ads after the warranty period
Is that true
Who the fuck would buy a TV like this?
mindless consumers
I didn’t exactly do a lot of research into either of the two TVs I have and neither of them have ads like this.
I don’t mean they do this consistently, but that they do this by chance. sometimes people end up spending money on bad brands
First rule of smart TVs: if you really have to buy a smart TV, then never connect it to the internet!
I’ve read at some other post that some smart TVs won’t work at all if you don’t connect it to the internet.
Read with caution, I haven’t verified this.
Back to the store it goes then
Still, Dark Souls the best.
Dark Souls sucks.
Must be a skill issue
No. It’s a “the game is too grindy to be fun for me”-issue.
Looked at the CES reveals and aside from some minor improvements, its nothing but overloaded AI crap.
Even on TVs from 10 years ago, the first thing you had to do was turn off the stupid auto frame generation, smoothing, lighting, and other effects so you can actually enjoy your content in original detail and correct FPS.
Well yeah, minor improvements really stack up.
A friend is buying a TV or a screen for console gaming anyway and man, the TV’s are actually pretty decent for gaming nowadays. I haven’t checked out any for several years.
I bought a UHD LED tv in like 2016 and what a POS it is compared to these modern models. I mean I haven’t had it for years gave it to my sister but still.
I thought they looked pretty damn nifty. And AI isn’t a curse word when it comes to everything. I get being annoyed at the marketing, I am too, but, like isn’t Nvidia DLSS AI? That’s shit’s actually good.
DLLS and similars are nice for running newer games on outdated hardware.
Sadly it also enables studios to cheap out on optimization, you shouldn’t need upscaling for 1080p medium on a new GPU.
Sadly it also enables studios to cheap out on optimization, you shouldn’t need upscaling for 1080p medium on a new GPU.
Well that is a food point in late stages capitalism.
I was idealistically thinking about it light might be beneficial for those 480hz and whatnot screens coming out.
And for these new Blackwells like for 5070 the vram is still only 12, but they claim they have a much better resolution compressing tech or something.
Idk man but to me just thinking everything AI is “ick” is sort of ludditic. Yeah it’s a garbage overhyped marketing term but some of the
featuresapplications people are coming up for sophisticated neural networks are pretty godddamn cool.deleted by creator
Yeah, people who don’t have to use it professionally don’t understand how useful a tool it is.
My current TV has started to die. It’s developing a purple spot that starts to be very distracting. I am not excited about researching a new model that doesn’t pull out this kind a shit on me. I don’t intend to ever connect it to the Internet. My current TV is nothing more than a big display for my NVIDIA shield TV and the next one will be the same.
I bought a 70" TV back in 2015 and it worked great until a couple of months ago when the screen suddenly went black. No amount of resetting or messing with it would fix it. Ended up ordering a new main board for around $125. Installed the new board and the TV works again. In fact I’m convinced the picture actually looks better.
During my research I found a lot of information about LED TVs. They basically only have 4 parts. A main board, LED backlight, LCD controller, and T Con board. From what I heard purple screens are often a cause of bad cables or the T-Con board. They are not complex, so if you are comfortable removing the back and messing with ribbon cables, then you can easily replace any part. Just try searching your model number on YouTube.
If you do go this route beware, there are a lot of places that say they have the boards, but they’re really just a repair service. I was able to find a replacement board at shortcircuitsolution.com.
This is where I would go to research a new tv https://www.rtings.com/
Check out “commercial” TVs. These are TVs for businesses (e.g. displaying a menu at a restaurant). They typically don’t have the “smart” features. You have to look for them specifically.
No, they are NOT tvs! The difference is that the display panels are to slow for fast action scenes or any kind of scene switch, that’s why they only show a set of static images on rotation.
There are plenty of panels that are 60hz+ with decent g2g in the display panel space. My company sells them sometimes so i just ordered from there for my current tv. 65 inch. LED. 5 year warranty. Just a panel. No smart anything. It’s fine for sports, at least cricket and basketball which is what I watch.
I’ve been wanting a Sceptre for a long time but they are hard to find in Europe.
Nothing to research. They’re all the same bad or will get bad in the foreseeable future. Only thing that matters is the screen technology and the specs of your external media center.
My LG has none of this. Any advertising/ai can be disabled as can the network itself.
You mean it doesn’t have any of this yet :)
I say this as someone with two LG TVs. Sure you can just not connect them to the internet, but a lot of people rely on the “Smart” part of the TV to view all their content.
I will be very sad when my 16 yo Sony Bravia TV dies
I still have a Panasonic plasma TV from 2008. Still going strong.
That thing likely gulps down electricity unfortunately and a replacement would pay for itself. Just don’t connect it to the internet and use a good streaming box and you’ll have none of these issues. Lemmy hates apple but the Apple TV is great.
Not as bad as this, but when I moved to a new town I got a free big TV with my new ISP. I was going with that ISP anyways so a free 4k HDR TV on top was a nice bonus.
I wish I had gotten some other bonus. Viewing angle is atrocious and it is impossible to get rid of the input lag (no there isn’t a gaming mode or similar) so no games with precise timing can be played.
So now we have a big living room TV that is too good to replace with something better but bad enough to be a little bit annoying.
Why not sell it?
Trade in for something slightly “worse” then?
Give it to your parents or some other older people who would use it just as a TV and buy yourself a decent TV.
It really doesn’t sound too good to replace? It sounds like you got free junk, and haven’t actually bought a TV yet?
