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The trick is to never give your TV access to the internet and to pair it with an Apple TV. If you buy a TV and it won't even boot or work without an internet co
by whalesalad 3y ago
The trick is to never give your TV access to the internet and to pair it with an Apple TV. If you buy a TV and it won't even boot or work without an internet connection - return it and get a different one.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoThat works fine with a TV. I bought one knowing that the "smart" features weren't all that great. I tried connecting it to the internet, and it felt more sluggish, although it's a brand new 2023 model. I was able to reset it to factory defaults and it's working well enough for what I bought it for (the image is very good, at least for my needs). For reference, it's a TCL with Google TV. But the Fire TV TFA talks about... well, the whole point of the thing is to stream internet content. So not connecting it to the internet kinda defeats 90% of the thing's purpose.
- EricE 3y agoyou can still stream stuff - just use something else and just leverage it as a cheap display. Unless it won't work if not connected to the internet (wouldn't put it past them). I bought my Xbox mainly because it was the best/cheapest option for a 4K bluray player. I think I've loaded a game on it a handful of times at best, but watched lots of movies and other content with it. Thanks gamers for subsidizing a great BR player!
- bombcar 3y agoThe key is to verify that the TV will return to just showing "HDMI 1" or whatever after power off. Because the smart TVs have a history of returning to whatever ads they want to show after power on.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoMy particular TV, if it's never been connected to the internet, will not show any ads. It will show a notification that it isn't connected to the internet when you turn it on, but it will work fine otherwise. It'll even switch to the correct video input if you power it on through that port, say through a firetv stick. Otherwise, there's a setting for power on behaviour: 1. go to home screen 2. Go to last used input.
- buildbot 3y agoEven better, if you can avoid accepting the ToS for the apps, they don't even start. My Samsung TV is so snappy now because I reset it and ignore the accept ToS button :)
- vladvasiliu 3y agoThe FireTV is not an actual television set. It's the "something else" that you use to stream content to a screen with no internet connection.
- ArchOversight 3y agoNo, in this case it is actually a full size TV that has the same OS as the FireTV stick.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoMy bad, I only quickly skimmed TFA, didn't think these were actual TVs since they're not available where I live last time I checked.
- Retric 3y agoThe fire stick is the pure streaming dongle, a Fire TV is an actual TV which includes that dongle built in and sold at a discount. So, buying a cheap Amazon fire TV and not connecting it to the internet is a reasonable choice for a cheap ‘dumb’ TV.
- squeaky-clean 3y agoThere's also the "Fire TV" which is a streaming box and not a stick, sold from 2015 to 2022, which doesn't help the confusion in the naming.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sneak 3y agoApple TVs in the default configuration show large video ads for Apple stuff in the hero unit on the homescreen, same as Amazon is being accused of doing in TFA.
- brk 3y agoThey do? I have not seen that on any of mine. We don’t spend much time on the Home Screen though.
- EricE 3y agoIf only defaults could be changed :p
- upheaval7276 3y agoowned an apple tv for many years (many models) and i've never seen this
- riversflow 3y agoOne of my favorite parts of AppleTV is that it has those beautiful screensavers.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoI would pay for more aerials. I don’t understand why they are limited to so few, and if I could eliminate N.Y.C./London/Hong Kong/SF/other major cities, and get some lesser seen areas, that would be awesome.
- sneak 3y agoIt’s quite difficult to get permission to fly a drone over an active LAX (to say nothing of Times Square or London). The fact that they got to do this (and show it off via screensaver) is one of my favorite “we have unlimited money and power” Apple flexes. The amount of time, money, and planning to produce these is staggering. They’re slow motion, probably shot in 8K, and are drone shots with expensive cinema lenses. There is probably a team of 1-3 people dedicated simply to the paperwork and approvals and flight planning, not counting cinematography/DP and postproduction. I would love a reddit-style Q&A with Apple’s internal filmmaking team. They’re not aerial, but they’re beautiful paid apps: search “magic window” on the ATV app store. They have a few timelapse video apps that I love to leave playing on my ATVs.
- jdminhbg 3y agoYup. People always complain that the AppleTV is too expensive vs the competition, but stuff like this is exactly why.
- snoman 3y agoI’ve had Roku, FireTV, and Chromecast, and I have had hdcp and/or performance issues with everything but Apple TV. I hate that I’ve turned into something of an fanboy but Apple TV follows the same old story from Apple: expensive but it consistently just works.
- baq 3y agoSame reason I've become an iPhone fanboy - the alternatives were simply unbearable at some point and the iPhone... was ok. Apparently, consistently ok is a high bar. Can't say that about macOS, though - it's consistently below expectations for me.
- kkielhofner 3y ago> same old story from Apple: expensive but it consistently just works. Not to mention at least you know where they're hitting you - up front, on the hardware. It's like the people that complain about a Macbook being 20% more (or whatever), buying a PC-something, and then coming back complaining that Windows is loaded with ads or Linux has all kinds of issues on it. I'm with you - I went from being a die-hard Linux desktop, Kodi, Android, etc, etc user to just saying "the hell with it" and plunking down for Apple products. They're expensive and they're not perfect either but my life is much less stressing and annoying as a result.
- mholm 3y agoAdditionally, if you're willing to resell when you're done with them, you can often get that 'Apple tax' back on the resale price difference.
- codedokode 3y agoMacbook costs like 3x compared to competitors. For example, Apple M1 8 Core score on cpubenchmark is about 14000. If you look for non-Apple laptops with equivalent CPU score, they would cost around $450. And they support Linux. The only good thing in Macbook is display, which covers more than 100% of sRGB color space and has giantic resolution. I wish it could be bought separately and installed into a normal laptop.
- stronglikedan 3y agoEven if it requires an internet connection, it surely has an option to start up on the Apple TV input, bypassing the home screen.
- ladberg 3y agoI have a Roku TV (it was free) that I've never connected to the internet. Even when starting it up with an Apple TV it'll still hang out on the Roku home screen for 5s before even starting the input change. It's pretty infuriating and definitely an intentional dark pattern.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoThat is a device that belongs in the trash. I have always bought the cheaper Sony TVs ($600 to $700) and never experienced anything like that. All I ever do is use the Apple TV remote and it just turns the TV on directly to that.
- ensignavenger 3y agoDo Apple TVs not display ads? I have Google TV devices, in part because I can install what er I want on them, including 3rd part launchers that don't have ads.
- sharkweek 3y agoApple TV advertises its own content when you are on the homepage (even as a non-Apple TV+ subscriber so it's a little more aggressive than like sitting on the Netflix homepage as a subscriber) but as far as I can tell nothing more than that. Been a user for the last 7-8 years and I love the UX.
- ace2358 3y agoIf you count the top-app-row preview as an ad, maybe there are ads. If you move the tv+ app off the top row you don’t see anything by Apple. There are no app suggestions or notifications on Apple TV (or at least I turned them off about 8 years ago). I have been happily streaming media off my computer with Apple TV and have never had a single issue with it.
- sharkweek 3y agoOh that's interesting, didn't even think about moving it. Even then though, I'm an on-again/off-again Plus subscriber so I don't even mind it because it often times suggests shows that I might want to subscribe for. I'm not sure how many Apple TV devices they sell, but I've always viewed it as super underrated, just a clean piece of hardware with great "It Always Works" functionality.
- tokamak-teapot 3y agoI have Spotify at the top left of the clickable icons and the top row of the screen shows Spotify’s suggestions.
- Slylencer 3y agoYou can get around this by being selective with the apps on the home row. I have the Home Sharing, Settings, Search, Photos, and Podcasts apps on the home row. No ads. Even then I don't quite consider it quite ad-free. Content I've purchased in iTunes Movies or iTunes TV Shows will always show the store on launch or will switch to the store if you pause content for some amount of time.
- ceejayoz 3y agoAt some point they're gonna put a cheap cellular modem or something like Amazon Sidewalk in all new TVs.
- grishka 3y agoThen you open up the TV and disconnect the modem.
- bee_rider 3y agoI’m sure we’ll see TVs with built-in AI tools to create new generative ads. Maybe they could include little cameras, so they could keep an eye out for any Amazon products in their house. This would help achieve Amazon’s apparent goal of advertising things I’ve already bought from them to me. Or, they could just include a little cellphone radio. Probably only need to phone home once every couple months to get the new ads. And remember: hard drive space is cheap nowadays. You might not ever connect your TV to the internet, but it can at least record fingerprints for everything you watch. Maybe your kids will connect it to the internet some day, or you’ll hand it down to somebody else, and then that poor trapped taste-profile information can finally make the trip back to Amazon’s servers.
- hnlmorg 3y agoThat only works as long as TVs connect to the internet via WiFi. Unfortunately there are protocols out there for IoT that bypass per device WiFi settings entirely by setting up mesh networks.
- mmh0000 3y agoAmazon Sidewalk[1][2] being one of the biggest players: [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Sidewalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Sidewalk [2] https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?node=21328123011 https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?node=21328123011
- hnlmorg 3y agoIndeed. Devices can also ship eSIM too. But at least that comes with bigger cost than just the radio chipset. I believe 5g can all support meshing. But I don’t know a whole lot about that. Suffice to say, what little control we have now is going to disappear completely over the next decade.
- winternett 3y agoDon't worry, smartphones will begin to fill the gaps, we pay for them, but the Industry does whatever it wants with them. In about a year, we may well have to watch 2 ads before making phone calls with the way things are going, while we of course pay even higher fees for mobile service (of course).
- whalesalad 3y agomaybe on an android device but this is unheard of in the Apple ecosystem
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hnlmorg 3y agoiPhone have plenty of adverts. They’re just integrated in a way that you don’t always notice. Eg - I just opened the App Store and the whole of the screen is taken up by two adverts. - in settings, the 1st option is an add for Apple Care.
- silisili 3y agoFor cheapskates like me, Walmart sells an ONN Google TV box for like $20. Make sure to get the 2023 version, it's a much improved upgrade from one released a few years ago. I love that little thing, and if there are ads, I don't see or notice them. It's much nicer and more responsive than the actual Chromecast TV it replaced.
- garciasn 3y agoYet. You don't see ads, yet. But, what you are doing, is selling your viewing history to marketers, albeit indirectly. For that $20 box, you are giving away everything you watch, when you watch, and very likely anything that goes through that box. That said, you might be 100% ok w/that for the price and that's ok. But, you should go in eyes open about what these lower-cost pieces of hardware are doing to 'permit' you to pay less than they cost from competitors who may or may not be doing the same thing.
- silisili 3y agoI wouldn't say I'm 100% OK with it, more just accepted it. I don't think there's any real way around it with a streaming lifestyle. The streaming device wants data, the services want data. Even my TV I believe asked if it can view what's on the screen. Even if I had a dumb TV, and a secure trustworthy streaming box, the services themselves(Netflix et al) are collecting the same data, no?
- i_am_jl 3y ago>Even if I had a dumb TV, and a secure trustworthy streaming box, the services themselves(Netflix et al) are collecting the same data, no? Collecting, yes, but not selling. ONN explicitly says they do so in their privacy policy. https://onntvsupport.com/privacy-policy https://onntvsupport.com/privacy-policy >We may disclose “blinded” aggregated data and user statistics to prospective partners and other third parties. Blinded data is data that does not identify an individual person.
- 3y ago
- gambiting 3y agoMeh, I own an LG CX and I have never seen a single ad on it - the app integration is so good I can't imagine needing to mess with another device just to use streaming services. Just don't buy ad-ridden crap from Samsung and others, I guess?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- MBCook 3y agoTBF that’s a higher end TV. I love mine. The lower the cost, the more likely this crud is. If you buy a $250 55” TV you’re (unknowingly) signing up for ads. Sadly, there isn’t much middle ground anymore. Ads and spying, or a ton of money (and spying).
- devbent 3y agoSony sells TVs that cost just a bit more than the competition but you can easily not opt-in to ads during initial setup (they are not selected by default!). Sadly Google seems to insist on showing YT recommendations to matter what on Google tvs, but you can just opt into "app only mode" and then you get none of that.
- MBCook 3y agoI would put Sony in my second category above. High quality TVs, and a price to match. The fact they use Google gives me pause. My last TV was a Sony with Google and it was slow as dirt (Sony’s fault, since fixed on newer models). And it was a great TV otherwise. But I don’t trust Google not to find a way to shove ads in later.
- devbent 3y agoSony's tvs are broken into price tiers, they have low end ones with garbage picture quality, medium tier tvs with better picture and a better CPU, and high end ones with excellent image quality. Sadly neither Sony tv I have had (including one I just bought) are able to stay connected to my wifi for more than an hour or so before losing connection.... Sony is not known for the quality of their software...
- drewg123 3y agoAppleTv is amazing, and I use it for everything but YouTube. For YouTube, I use a Fire stick with SmartTubeNext
- whalesalad 3y agoI have YT Premium so I use/enjoy the native app.
- nickthegreek 3y agoSmarttube has sponsorblock built in. Even though I have YT Premium, it’s a much better experience than stock app for this feature alone.
- gainda 3y agoI've had a TCL Roku TV since 2018 and it was always sluggish using the apps through its default interface. I got an AppleTV last year and the ease of use & lack of input lag or advertisements was a breath of fresh air.
- delfinom 3y agoUgh, the Vizio I have became cancer after awhile. Even with it offline, it will automatically change the input to their spyware entertainment app after 10 seconds of no input. No ability to disable this malicious automatic switch.
- gustavus 3y agoMy solution was to just get an old box that was cheap, plug it into the TV with an HDMI cord, add a wireless mouse and keyboard, and viola. I have a viewing experience that is on par with what most other people have without having to have a locked down device that I don't control attached to my tv and spying on me. Plus I can use it to play Steam games, so gaming console and media device all in one.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoCan we hack the TVs? These things have computers inside. Surely we can run software in these things.
- LeonenTheDK 3y agoI have a regular old computer connected to my TV, I find it much more robust and under my control than any purpose built device. Steam to stream games from my PC, browser or VLC for everything else. Haven't seen a recent apple TV in action though so maybe they're more capable than I think they are.
- zzzcsgo 3y agoThat's until they default to using the cell network when it becomes cheap enough