we live in hell

I don’t even understand the pitch? you have the disc playing, in your hands, your ownership, no buffering, no subscription required. and they’re saying…hey do you want a worse experience?

    • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.worldEnglish
      128·
      11 months ago

      I ended up giving up and just putting a Linux PC attached to my TV as a media center. I host plex on it.

          • KptnAutismus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            14·
            11 months ago

            while often outdated, there are youtube tutorials. you could buy a cheap thinkcentre or set up a virtual machine to try it out.

            personally, i run truenas scale with jellyfin as an “app” on my old PC.

          • AFallingAnvil@lemmy.caEnglish
            5·
            11 months ago

            So here’s how I’m running things: At the top level it’s a Raspberry pi 5 running raspbian, then everything else (jellyfin, prowlarr, radarr, sonarr, Usenet download software, etc) is a docker container. If that sounds like how you want to do it feel free to message me and I can try to get you on your feet

            • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              3·
              11 months ago

              I’m not who you replied to but I’ve been looking to set up something like this (I have a year old dedicated tower for hosting)

              But I don’t know anything about docker, and it seems like a pretty big learn - is it required for the sonarr radarr and overseerr stuff, or just a nice to have thing?

            • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              I’m using OMV headless and have zero luck with Docker or Portainer.

              Is it going to be easier to set up Docker using Raspbian with a GUI?

              • AFallingAnvil@lemmy.caEnglish
                4·
                11 months ago

                I used CLI for setup, the GUI is just for ease of file management and checking libraries. I recommend hotio for super easy images to just fire and forget. Links I hope will help you: https://hotio.dev/containers/jellyfin/ https://wiki.servarr.com/

                Step 1. Get docker up and running (Portainer helps with other containers) Step 2. Use prowlarr to set up all the search engines you’ll use on other *arr apps Step 3. Set up your libraries with Jellyfin

                • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  2·
                  11 months ago

                  You’re wonderful, thank you! I’m going to leave my local OMV PI4 setup alone and when my pi5 arrives, I’ll try this!

          • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            Honestly you can just run the app on your computer and tv connected devices. You don’t have to get fancy. I had trouble getting it setup to recognize and remember my library server address at first, but somehow I got it to work. I don’t like the UI though, and just use PLEX instead.

      • SkippingRelax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        32·
        11 months ago

        I don’t see how this is giving up though. Been doing this to close to two decades in one form of another and I wouldn’t consider any other way. Except kodi instead of plexus here.

        • Chee_Koala@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          11 months ago

          I mean, steam made it work with games, you telling me that 6-7 of these giant media companies can’t get it to work for video? The giving up part is that you have to embrace piracy (again?) to get to acceptable levels of service per dollar

        • nevetsg@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          I still watch TV through a Laptop running Windows Media Centre. MS have given up on trying to kill it. The Microsoft remote has seen better days but is still functioning.

        • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          11 months ago

          Other server software are available of course. The concept stays the same though. Very much recommend doing this. I’m halfway there, running Plex on my desktop PC and watching on my TV and other devices at home. Very comfortable setup. But I wish I had a small computer like a Pi or something, and a NAS to hold my drives. That way my desktop PC could rest.

          • Krauerking@lemy.lolEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            Personally I was a fan of buying something like a Dell optiplex as my my NAS and Pihole but I do wish I had a better enclosure for the drives as any truly good one seems to be hundreds of dollars and mildly defeats the idea of self hosting being cheaper.

            • MonkeMischief@lemmy.todayEnglish
              2·
              11 months ago

              I just use an old crappy hand-me-down mid-tower gaming case I stuffed some drives into. As long as you can keep them cool, dusted, and away from vibrations (with HDDs), plenty of (used?)cases will have enough HDD slots to get you started.

              Also old rackmount servers on ebay have plenty of slots I hear, but rackmount fans are waaaaay louder.

              • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                11 months ago

                Room is my main issue. Living in an apartment I can’t have large boxes/computers just standing anywhere. So it has to be very small and quiet. 😅 Pi should be perfect. Maybe mount it underneath my desk where my desktop PC is or something. 👍

                • MonkeMischief@lemmy.todayEnglish
                  3·
                  11 months ago

                  Right on, that makes sense!

                  If you’re not planning on storing absolutely tons of data at first, you can also squeeze a lot into so-called “1 liter PCs”. Traditional platform, a little more power and room than a Pi, and you can neatly tuck them away!

                  I hear they float around eBay quite readily these days.

                  Sadly haven’t been hearing the very best things about the Pi 5, but earlier ones can do well as little servers.

                  I’ve been learning a lot from the self hosted podcast lately haha. Also one of the hosts runs this site (which I happened to find first) that can be pretty helpful!

                  https://perfectmediaserver.com/

                  I remember some folks on reddit saying USB isn’t the most reliable connection for long-term drives, but I’m not 100% sure what that was about. Maybe the connectors wear out?

                  Perhaps someone who knows more can enlighten me.

                  Best of luck! I hope you have a lot of fun. 😁

        • Z4rK@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          They hit my threshold of shittiness some years back and I’ve been enjoying Jellyfin ever since. It’s a much better alternative for most!

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          Plex is a great example of how proprietary software will inevitably become exploitative, and only purely Free Software systems can ever be trustworthy in the long term.

      • Dandroid@dandroid.appEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        I have my Steam Deck attached to my TV. It’s great for watching pirated sports streams via web browser.

      • frokie@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        I still get Roku recommendations on plex content from my Apple TV. They are doing content recognition off of the hdmi input

      • gh0stcassetteEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Honestly, I’m just using a cheap Android TV box with stremio and smart tube. Those two apps pretty much cover everything I’d wanna watch. Those $20 Walmart ones are super easy to root/bootloader unlock too, so you can put lineageOS on it if you want

      • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
        9·
        11 months ago

        Just get a cheap PS4 or Xbox and watch all your stuff on there. We have an LG “Smart TV” that just doesn’t need to be connected to the internet because our PS5 (formerly PS4) is fast and snappy, and has all the apps we could want to stream off. Plus, both have a Bluray player installed right off the bat, so we can even watch those if we’re up for it.

        Don’t bother with sluggish performance on your Smart TV, it’s just not worth it.

      • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        11 months ago

        Who said that? There are lots of streaming devices you can connect to your display, from game consoles to streaming boxes like Apple TV, Nvidia shield, Android box or if you really want to tinker a PC connected to the TV. The point is, don’t connect the TV itself to the internet as it has the most access to the whole viewing experience to drop ads on you.

      • Tja@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Exactly. Streaming is so much better than TV. People complain about 5s skippable ads and the pripesed solution is 5 minutes of ads?

        Also, so much more convenient than DVDs.

    • xyguy@startrek.websiteEnglish
      108·
      11 months ago

      Connected a Samsung smart TV to my network when we first got it. The thing damn-near crashed my pi-hole asking for so many ad/tracking domains. Factory reset it later that same day. I think my % of requests blocked went from 15% to 68% in just the 3 hours or so the Smart TV was connected.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.instituteEnglish
        55·
        11 months ago

        They started to wisen up and hard-coded dns requests to 8.8.8.8 to bypass dns ad blockers now. Heck, some apps like Netflix already do it for years now. If your router can transparently redirect all dns requests to your pi-hole, you should use that feature.

        • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.mlEnglish
          54·
          11 months ago

          So they recognize that the owner of the product is trying to prevent them from collecting data, and actively try to circumvent the owner’s security measures? This shit should be illegal, and carry a huge fine. You paid for the device, and it’s connected to your network, which you control. I’m sick and tired of corporations thinking it’s totally okay to be straight-up spyware and adware. Some supposedly legitimate companies these days make old-school computer viruses look down right respectful.

          • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            7·
            11 months ago

            Not only that, I have the entire Roku domain blocked on my network, and even though there’s no reason for it, as evidenced by the fact that there’s no problem running it for a month, and it doesn’t happen to all TVs, depending when it was last handled, it breaks my Plex app every 30 days in such a way that it needs to be fully reinstalled, which requires unblocking Roku, allowing phone home of the prior month’s data. Old, but not obsolete, app versions should still work fine - have a kodi Plex app that hasn’t been updated in years and that works without issue. So this is absolutely an intentional choice to force users to at least cough up their viewing data, even if they can’t give you their ads. And they can collect a surprising amount of information through those apps.

            Took me a couple months to figure out what was happening (by waiting 2 months and doing the reinstall on the same day for all of them and checking the next time one broke, then staggering them the next time) but I’m no longer using the apps and will probably just factory reset all three of them, leave them off the network entirely.

            The amount of work they do as a company to make my private experience complete shit because I don’t want them invasively collecting my info and shoving ads down my throat… is absolutely disgusting.

          • MonkeMischief@lemmy.todayEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            Remember Bonzi Buddy? I bet lil’ purple monke sent less snoop data than big purple roku.

            It’s the MOST blocked thing in Pi-Hole on my entire network!

        • Stupidmanager@lemmy.worldEnglish
          19·
          11 months ago

          or use the blocking feature of your firewall. Here’s Roku being persistent and ignoring my pihole. Firewalla for the win.

          • mosiacmango@lemm.eeEnglish
            10·
            11 months ago

            Firewalla’s are great. All the features of pfsense and then some, in a fine little hardware form factor.

            Heads up if you have the purple though : they had a bad hardware batch that had a soldering flaw on the lan side nic that would eventually make your upload reduce to KB/s. I replaced far too many waps before I found a thread about it and realized it was the firewall.

            Replacement was simple and free, but they should have been more proactive reaching out to purple buyers.

          • PopShark@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            The countries listed there are really peculiar to me (I know that’s not the part of the image you were referring to).

            Like obviously U.S. is up top because presumably you live there but either way lots of internet traffic goes in/out of the country even for those that don’t… but I wonder why Germany and France? Russia and China can be sort of assumed I guess a lot of malware spawns from there. Especially China imho even though Russia is on the hot seat rn and it’s common to think of the country when thinking of hackers they just don’t have China’s huge internet/tech infrastructure to send out as much… manure I guess overall, everywhere. Russia seems to try to target malware whereas China just spews it indiscriminately. Feel free to correct if I’m wrong I’m no security expert.

            I use ControlD for DNS filtering and I don’t think I can view analytics like that by country? Wish I could though it seems really interesting now what my blocked connections would look like by country/region.

        • irotsoma@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          11 months ago

          Easy enough to do with NAT unless it uses DNS over https. Then you have to block a lot more than just DNS.

        • bitwaba@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          That’s my next project now that I have my pihole set up. My basic ass router from my ISP does not support that though.

          Side question: do you know of any openWRT supported routers in the $100-150 range with external antennas? Everything I’ve taken a look at is either an internal antenna, or like $400.

        • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          I recall having similar issues with Chrome. Instead of checking in with the pihole, it just went ahead and bypassed it by using a different DNS.

    • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comEnglish
      50·
      11 months ago

      Yep - this. I absolutely abhor “smart” TVs for just this reason.

      But, even lack of internet sometimes isn’t enough. I recently, and inadvertently, left the wireless adapter on my TV enabled, after having to temporarily join it to my wireless for a firmware update (digital TV tuning needed updating for my region). After I was done, I cleared the wireless config, but I didn’t think to go into the other menu where you can entirely disable the wireless adapter.

      Little did I realise that meant the TV started broadcasting its own SSID, for friggin’ Apple Airplay or some other shit. I found this out when my 9yo daughter was suddenly exposed to some adult content for about 10 seconds. Best guess is a nearby neighbour mistook my TV for theirs.

      I’ve obviously disabled the wireless adapter again, but this has been a terribly difficult lesson I’ve had to learn.

      For anyone concerned, my daughter is OK. My wife had a good chat with her about it. She had considerably more talking down to do with me - I was ready to start knocking on doors, to have my own chat.

      • NotSoCoolWhip@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        I work in IT at a fitness center and we have TVs in front of the treadmills. They are not enterprise TVs, just standard Samsung TVs. Above the treadmills, we have a conference room. After setting up a conference room with wireless screen sharing, I found that all of the TV’s below show up when trying to cast. Obviously I tried to disable them, but there is no way to do so outside of physically ripping out the antenna. I called support and everything. Why the fuck was that decision made

        • Konala Koala@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Sounds like the next conference you are going to have in that room is with the Supervisor or the CEO about either downgrading that shit and have everything wired instead, or physically ripping out the antenna is going to happen.

        • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Yeah - I had to dig around in my Samsung to find it. Under Settings | Network | Expert there’s a radio button labelled Wireless. Disabling that turns wireless off completely. Mine’s a 65" Q60A QLED 4K bought in 2021. Same on my Samsung 43" in the bedroom, so seems fairly common across the models, at least in the Q range.

      • KptnAutismus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        honestly, whoever connected to your TV is probably used to their device being the first one to show up. i would blame the streaming protocol for not requiring one of those one-time pin thingys.

          • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            I feel like I’m explaining how you use a screen without touching it. Is this what it’s like to be old?

            You use HDMI. There are ports on the side of the device that allow video input from devices like computers and Xboxes. I use my computer and Xbox to watch Youtube and TV shows.

            If you’re asking why I have a smart TV instead of a dumb TV, that’s because we live in 2023 and finding a TV without a wifi adapter is like finding a phone without a blighted notch

          • 0x2d@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            roku tv

            roku manufacturers 🤓 📺 in addition to streaming devices

            • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              I’m unaware of any widely adopted use of HEC. Certainly none of the modern consoles use HEC, and I don’t think my smart TV is compatible with it either

        • Konala Koala@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          More like everything will be in a landfill before you allow it to send 1s and 0s through anything but the HDMI cord.

      • phar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        You can get mini PCs for solo cheap now and just load Linux up on it. Check out Beelink brand. I have a couple and they’ve been great.

        Edit: so, not solo

      • Trollception@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        I prefer the Nvidia shield over Apple TV. It supports direct streaming of Dolby Vision/Atmos on Plex. Pretty sure the Apple TV is missing some key codecs.

    • slinkyninja@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      No, the fault is with the people who make the TV. It’s not the customers fault that other people are evil.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        It’s kinda both. Like, if I walk up to someone on the street who says they’re gonna stab me, and I get stabbed, the fault is obviously on them for stabbing me, but at the same time I got exactly what he said I’d get

  • Teon@kbin.social
    163·
    11 months ago

    Anytime you see the word “smart” in the name of the product, remember to mentally replace the word “smart” with “tracking”.

  • casual_turtle_stew_enjoyer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    162·
    11 months ago

    This is called Automatic Content Recognition and it can be disabled in the settings, highly recommend doing that. It should have asked you whether you wanted it enabled when you set up the TV, as it’s legally required to be opt-in in the US opposed to opt-out. Since you’re using a Roku Smart TV, it specifically is taking two full resolution “video snapshots” every second.

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.worldEnglish
    137·
    11 months ago

    They’re taking pictures of what you’re watching on the screen and sending it to random 3rd party data collectors to analyze and then harass you with ads.

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    100·
    11 months ago

    Even if you must own a smart TV (because it’s impossible to buy a large-ish TV anymore that isn’t), I see no reason to actually connect it to any network. But! I notice recent models will bitch at you on every single power on if you leave them disconnected. So you’re not even safe from being annoyed then.

    • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
      65·
      11 months ago

      Some people get big computer monitors instead of a TV, because of shit like this.

      • cobysev@lemmy.worldEnglish
        28·
        11 months ago

        That’s the route I took. I recently bought a 48" 4K monitor, hooked a mini PC up to it, and now I stream my movie and TV show collection through Plex. I still have Internet access on my “TV,” but I’m in control of what pops up (I block all ads on my home network). I just use a small wireless keyboard and mouse instead of a remote.

        I haven’t actually owned a TV since about 2008. I have better media options through computers, and the technology just keeps getting better. Cable and public access television are a pain because you’re constantly bombarded with ads. With my own computer, I can circumvent ads and get a solid viewing experience.

      • ivanafterall@kbin.social
        6·
        11 months ago

        I did a projector. Pretty close in price and I have a very modest, but serviceable 135" screen and no ads.

    • mvilain@kbin.social
      14·
      11 months ago

      If I found out a TV required internet access to function, I’d return it to wherever I bought it next day.

      Luckily I have a old-ish flatscreen that doesn’t require internet but does have a netflix and other channels I can setup if I want. The Netflix client is so old it won’t connect to their servers any more. That’s OK. My Roku still works.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        11 months ago

        I have yet to see one that won’t eventually let you use it as a dumb display after you dismiss one (or more) nags first. But I’m sure that’s coming eventually. The worst offender I found yet is the “cheap” Black Friday sale Amazon Fire TV my boss got to use as a security monitor in one of our satellite locations. That fucking thing won’t even show a picture until you dismiss its network nag, and then its sign-in-with-Amazon nag. At least I found you can disable the Amazon account nag in the options. The network connection one you can’t.

        We’ve just resolved never to turn it off. You can’t dismiss the nag screen with the bezel buttons, either. You have to use the remote, so that’s now permanently double-stick taped to the desk the TV is on.

        Next time he’ll just buy a fucking computer monitor like I told him to.

      • RandomPancake@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        11 months ago

        The TVs I’ve seen that do this have been smart enough to not get naggy about a lack of Internet until 30+ days after first power on. Then you get popups or autoplay videos begging you to connect it.

        My Hisense has been pretty decent, surprisingly. But for my next TV I’m honestly thinking of going with a commercial display.

        • RooPappy@kbin.social
          4·
          11 months ago

          I bought a 65" HiSense last month. I was psyched the first time I set it up, and it gave me the option to configure it as a dumb TV without the Android TV experience or a network connection.

          • RandomPancake@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            I’m tempted to do a master reset on mine to see if I got that option. I have the Roku edition and I know that I can specify what source it defaults to on power on. I can also turn off content recognition, which is what’s going on in OP’s case. But using it as just a dumb TV would be awesome.

            • RooPappy@kbin.social
              1·
              11 months ago

              Theres definitely a setting for turning off content recognition… but… even if I say “no”, I don’t trust my dogs not to eat food I leave within reach.

              These companies want the data, they profit from the data, they probably won’t get caught if they take the data, and even if they do they won’t get punished, and even if they do it’ll still be worth it. You have to turn off the network or block the traffic to be sure.

    • 9point6@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      I agree with you for the most part that there’s no reason to connect them to the internet, however:

      Most modern TVs have Bluetooth and WiFi radios, therefore they’re never truly isolated, and consequently that means if there’s a security flaw, it can potentially be exploited without physical access.

      Now your priorities (and frankly, hardware) will obviously differ from mine, but that risk alone is enough of a reason for me to connect things up in order to receive software updates. Of course, the privilege of getting software updates for your telly is not ubiquitous, but most manufacturers can issue updates if there is a good enough reason to do so

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        11 months ago

        If its never been connected to the internet…wtf are they gonna do if they hack it? what are they going to get? it will have no credit card information, no personal information of any kind.

        • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          11 months ago

          The problem is that because the hardware is there, a determined person with physical access can change the settings to join a network you don’t control.

          Ideally, you can open the TV and remove the wifi modules but I suspect that might be beyond the skills of most TV owners.

          Tbh, I stopped owning a TV since college. I watch everything on my computer or phone now.

          • EdibleFriend@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            11 months ago

            Wait…so the fear here is that they will take my tv, that i don’t have connected to the internet and…connect it to a network i don’t have? Whats the point of going through that trouble? Whats the gain?

        • 9point6@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          Those radios may have a flaw that allows someone to connect to them without direct physical access, wardriving is a similar idea. Particularly the Bluetooth stack, since modern TVs often use Bluetooth for their remotes, so it’s always going to be powered and active.

          Then you’ve got to remember a lot of TVs have shit like cameras and mics now days. Even without that, if an attacker can take control of something with a WiFi radio, it can become a jumping point to exploit other devices near your TV. I mean it doesn’t even need to be an exploit, e.g. if your phone disappears from WiFi range, maybe you’ve gone out—that’s a good time to rob you.

          Sure it’s all pretty unlikely, but it’s a non zero threat. Particularly when you consider that TV OS software is often like swiss cheese when it comes to security.

    • EmergMemeHologram@startrek.websiteEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      Are you serious?

      My LG you had to scroll down (with no scroll indicator) below the screen to find the hidden option to not connect it to the internet on set up.

      If I the TV nagged me every start up I’d get rid of it.

    • Jay@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Thankfully mine (about two yrs old now) only whined for the first couple weeks then gave up on me.

      Now the only issue I have is the time it takes for android to boot. It’s like having to wait for your tv to warm up all over again except without the high pitched noise old tv sets had.

    • daisyKutter@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      I think newish tvs offer advanced image quality features like HDR and Dolby Vision through their own apps rather than through web browser; if you don’t have a new generation console in your house and wanna enjoy your new TV full capabilities you will need to connect the damn thing to the internet

      • PinkPanther@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Wait, what? I’m thinking about getting the LG C2/3, and wasn’t going to connect it to the internet.

        Guess I’ll have to get myself a PiHole and figure out how to block tracking.

        • daisyKutter@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          I have an LG C3 and that thing is amazing; the issue with HDR/Dolby Vision/etc is not because LG, but rather that you need a system that has an app that supports those capabilities, like if you have a subscription to Apple TV and don’t wanna connect your TV to the internet you need an Nvidia Shield/Apple TV/PS5/Xbox series X because just a HTPC won’t do it because the web browsing app doesn’t offers HDR and the Apple TV Windows app is trash

    • zeekaran@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      I have mine connected so I can control it from Home Assistant. It’s blocked from WAN though.

  • Kethal@lemmy.worldEnglish
    68·
    11 months ago

    You like this episode of Futurama. Would you also like to watch this episode of Futurama?

  • pseudo@jlai.luEnglish
    62·
    11 months ago

    We need a Lemmy community dedicated to find, repair and exchange dumb TV. These are become increasingly rare and increasingly needed.