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My wife and I bought a Fire TV for a particular use case: - The hot tub room in the winter - The outdoor patio in the summer It was so cheap, we don't mind t
by RajT88 3y ago
My wife and I bought a Fire TV for a particular use case:
- The hot tub room in the winter
- The outdoor patio in the summer
It was so cheap, we don't mind the ads on the home screen. If it dies from the moisture, we'll just buy another one. The apps are the key anyways, as I use a few totally ad-free apps to stream stuff:
- JellyFin
- VLC
- HDHomeRun (for my antenna on the roof)
PlutoTV is not ad-free, but has so much amazing shit, I don't mind it much.
Meanwhile, the big LG OLED we bought, I have been on a crusade to neuter all the ads without causing issues with downloading apps/updates/streaming. The RootMyTV exploit no longer works:
https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io
I have found blocking the IP of the local Akamai peer works for blocking some ads and the OS update check, but at the cost of other things which also use the CDN. It seems to use internal DNS, which complicates things.
- edhelas 3y agoI love how you think that TV can be throw away when used <3 You're like a Environmental Hero to me.
- RajT88 3y agoYou'll notice I did not mention what we do with it when done with it. Point of fact, we use the (many, free) electronics recycling programs available to us in our area. Thanks for making dumb and uncharitable assumptions.
- speedgoose 3y agoRecycling the TV is better than not doing it, but not wasting it is even better for the environment.
- RajT88 3y agoYou'll be happy to know we're not wasting it. We use that TV frequently.
- speedgoose 3y agoI understand, but when you describe your TV as a cheap consumable not worth being careful with, be prepared to trigger some emotional reactions with people who are concerned about the environment.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoLess than 1/5th of e-waste is actually recycled, and most of it ends up in places with little or no environmental regulation or health and safety protections for workers. And that's the stuff that makes it into the e-waste stream. Most of it just gets tossed in the garbage with everything else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVnu0doouJI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVnu0doouJI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axYKPbr9_MA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axYKPbr9_MA
- graphe 3y agoRealistically what would you recycle them into? Art pieces and using old components for your legacy or simple electronics for reuse and then what? Besides maybe melting it for the trace amounts of metal, I don't see any use for recycled electronics.
- adamomada 3y agoSaw where ewaste goes in Ontario at least – a 20 ft deep hole in the ground at the dump
- kxrm 3y ago> It seems to use internal DNS, which complicates things. I have the same TVs I resolved this with my router utilizing a firewall rule that redirects all udp port 53 traffic back to my pihole.
- RajT88 3y agoSee - that would work if our TV was sending out DNS requests. It doesn't though! Like, it seems like it has its own truly internal DNS resolver, which gets updated I presume via OS updates.
- hackernudes 3y agoIt could be doing dns over https (DoH).
- whalesalad 3y agoyeah probably doing this, or using a secure vpn/tunnel or both.
- RajT88 3y agoI don't recall seeing HTTP traffic in the trace during TV startup and update check, so it's got to be a tunnel or internal. I'd read reports of some smart TV's having internal resolvers, hence my guess at that. I'll have to take another look though. If there's a DoH host I could block, that'd be nice.
- kxrm 3y agoInteresting, I wonder if newer OS updates are now using DoH. It's sad that I have to block upgrades for my TVs firmware for what could resolve potential security issues simply to have control over how my TV behaves on my network. This just re-enforces that I should continue to not let my TV upgrade it's firmware and continue to not let it access anything on the internet directly.
- 3y ago
- genericacct 3y agorecently realized you cant even start vlc if the fire cant connect to the internet. Bummer if your link is down
- wkat4242 3y agoThat's ridiculously stupid yes. Came across this too when my fibre was down.
- adamomada 3y agoYou guys are just seeing a message from the home screen but you can bypass it by holding down HOME and pressing right to go to the app quick launcher. The home screen doesn’t work without internet but anything else that doesn’t need it will work
- wkat4242 3y agoThanks I'll try that next time!
- grishka 3y agoDoes it run Android? If so, you can try replacing the launcher with a user-friendly one.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hardcopy 3y agoIt's really quite easy (for the average HN reader) to do this too, no cables required. I used FLauncher and followed this guide. https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher#method-2-disable-the-default-launcher https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher#method-2-disable-the-...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- zumzumzum 3y agoHave you found a way to block ads while preserving the voice recognition feature? I have a C1 and a C2 on which I have successfully blocked all ads, but I can no longer use voice recognition for things like searching. It's a fair trade, but I wish I could have both.
- averageRoyalty 3y agoThere are still solutions out there: https://gist.github.com/throwaway96/e811b0f7cc2a705a5a476a8dfa45e09f https://gist.github.com/throwaway96/e811b0f7cc2a705a5a476a8d... I also have a modern LG. I have rooted it, but it lives on its own VLAN on a default-outbound-blocked firewall config. I log all its requests, it's always trying to access something. I give it access to a local DNS and NTP server (with restricted responses) and Jellyfin. I've also experimented with a squid proxy to allow specific web traffic that worked well (need to get around to setting up a CA and installing it on the TV). But for me it's just a Jellyfin streaminh screen.