5 ms·
> never use any of the online features of their "Smart" TV for this reason. Use a set-top box. That's basically the same exact thing. A SmartTV is just a TV wi
by maxsilver 8y ago
> never use any of the online features of their "Smart" TV for this reason. Use a set-top box.
That's basically the same exact thing. A SmartTV is just a TV with a set-top box built in. Nearly all Set-top boxes (like a Roku, Chromecast, Fire Stick, your old game console) report back your viewing habits and advertising/privacy data too, in basically the same way that any average SmartTV does.
These two devices are so identical that many manufacturers just directly use a more user-friendly STB as their SmartTV. Here's a list of Roku-based SmartTV's https://www.roku.com/products/finder/roku-tv https://www.roku.com/products/finder/roku-tv and another with Fire Stick built in https://www.roku.com/products/finder/roku-tv https://www.roku.com/products/finder/roku-tv , and another with Chromecast https://www.google.com/chromecast/built-in/tv/ https://www.google.com/chromecast/built-in/tv/ as some examples.
- VLM 8y agoSingle point of privacy failure, two ways. With a roku, roku is selling or having stolen your privacy. With a smart TV running roku app, both samsung and roku are selling or having stolen your privacy. The opposite direction of single point of privacy failure is watching TV must flow thru the TV. Theoretically I could watch amazon prime by plugging something that doesn't spy into a HDMI, and the TV can report very little spy data back. The argument is most CC theft doesn't involve stealing photocopies of CCs, so why go to any effort to avoid getting your physical CC photocopied? However, the real question is, what do I personally gain by making photocopies of my credit card and leaving them laying around? Nothing? Well, why bother? There are secondary effects because the primary purpose of a roku is being a roku they tend to do a better job at it, including better security/privacy/whatever, whereas the primary purpose of a TV is to display HDMI signals and there's a parasitic infection of privacy violation built into the smart TVs that no consumers want, as a secondary task of being a fake roku it'll never be a very good roku. Very much like asking why hardware stores exist in a post-swiss-army-knife world. My pocket knife has a terrible little pair of scissors why would any market exist for dedicated "real" scissors? The smart TV, at this era, distributes "smartness" at the quality level of the worst 80s era infomercial products, because for most people, its just a TV so expending more effort on the app beyond "well, it boots most of the time" is lost profit.
- Brakenshire 8y ago> Theoretically I could watch amazon prime by plugging something that doesn't spy into an HDMI, and the TV can report very little spy data back. I’d be interested in people’s recommendations for this. Can you use a raspberry pi, for instance, and get good performance, and access to online services like Netflix? Do most people use some open source set top box software, or just raspbian and a browser?
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoThe NVIDIA Shield TV is a capable Android-powered set-top box that should be able to run Netflix without a problem, and has a pretty decent history of getting OS updates[0]. Had I not already built my own HTPC shortly before it came out, I probably would've gone with that. Kodi (which powers most RPi-based HTPC's) had a Netflix add-on for awhile, although last I checked it was more or less just the page running in a browser.
- phobosdeimos 8y agoWhy not just plugin a laptop via HDMI? This worked 10 years ago and it still works today.