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The good news: large-panel TV sets are inexpensive for their performance. The bad news: like many modern products, and as freely confessed in the linked articl

by lutusp 2y ago

The good news: large-panel TV sets are inexpensive for their performance. The bad news: like many modern products, and as freely confessed in the linked article, you don't own the TV, it owns you. The remedy: Connect the TV to your computer as a dumb monitor -- make it show only content you directly control. And disable the TV's network connection -- without that connection, it can't show ads. My large-panel TV serves only as a computer monitor. My Linux computer runs the Brave browser and has a frequently updated ad-block list in /etc/hosts. This means no "Scenic Mode" ads and no YouTube corporate ads, only ads embedded by video content creators, which I skip over with a pointing device because the video is being controlled by a browser, not a TV. The FBI recommends use of ad blockers to guard against fraud and malware (https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-blocker-to-dodge-scammers https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-b...). On the other hand, some sites refuse to function if an ad blocker is in use. Those sites don't deserve access to my eyeballs. If all this fails, I pick up a book. Books don't have ads ... so far.

account42 2y ago
> This means no "Scenic Mode" ads and no YouTube corporate ads, only ads embedded by video content creators, which I skip over with a pointing device because the video is being controlled by a browser, not a TV. You skip over the ones that are obvious, but not the ones that are more stealthily integrated into the content. IMO if a video creator sells out and adds sponsored content of any kind they are no longer to be trusted to not be manipulative in other ways.
- lutusp 2y ago
  This is a YouTube version of the well-established principle that consumers, while being trained to buy specific products, are also being trained ... to buy products, to expect consumer goods to solve existential dilemmas. And I agree, it's true -- deplorable and true.

by lutusp 2y ago

account42 2y ago

> This means no "Scenic Mode" ads and no YouTube corporate ads, only ads embedded by video content creators, which I skip over with a pointing device because the video is being controlled by a browser, not a TV. You skip over the ones that are obvious, but not the ones that are more stealthily integrated into the content. IMO if a video creator sells out and adds sponsored content of any kind they are no longer to be trusted to not be manipulative in other ways.

lutusp 2y ago
This is a YouTube version of the well-established principle that consumers, while being trained to buy specific products, are also being trained ... to buy products, to expect consumer goods to solve existential dilemmas. And I agree, it's true -- deplorable and true.