changing the TV’s DNS servers or disconnecting it from the internet entirely.
Chiming in as an Australian budget VIDAA owner.
I spotted that this TV attempts to query 8.8.8.8, regardless of your DNS settings. I implemented a port 53 (DNS) redirect so those queries get resolved by my local server.
I also figured out which servers are serving up ads/tracking. I fired an email to Pete and got them added to his list. You’re welcome. I’m guessing a pi-hole would work with it.
https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php
I didn’t install the latest update, and probably never will. My TV contacts the unruly ACR servers, but the later firmware probably contacts nexxen.
I find myself wondering just how complicated TVS could actually be before it’s no longer possible to hijack the display signal that’s fed to the display
Unlike with cars, TVS seem simple enough that a sufficiently motivated novice could modify a cheap TV to circumvent these bullshit features. If they ever started requiring internet connections to start or use these, i think enough people would be bothered by it that there would probably be a secondary market of modified hardware
As with most enshitifications, the question will ultimately be one of complacency of the average consumer.
Fuck that. heh.
I use a TV for my computer monitor and it’s perfect. I do not use any of the TV features. And it pisses me off when something happens to lose my signal and it switches over into TV mode because it autoplays some free channel that spouts fascist nonsense. I have to poke around for the remote (which is always around but never close because I only need it every month or few months) so I can cut that shit off as soon as possible. heh
Any video I need to watch happens via my computer, thanks, where I’m in control.
Time to tear the thing apart and patch the firmware.
They can’t force me if I don’t connect it to the internet
I can imagine future TVs refusing to work without an always-on internet connection.
It’s going right back to the shop, if that’s the case. Not accepting an HDMI input means it’s not fit for purpose.
I saw an unboxing for a TV for a Chinese market and it refused to start until the owner paired it with a Chinese phone otp for “age verification” 😉
I can imagine them shipping TVs with built in cellular data just for ads
SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP don’t let them hear this!
…what am I saying? And idea like that they’ve had, just waiting for the price to be right. heh
We need openWrt for TVs :(
This. Have played with similar devices in the past and I was surprised how many of these devices are running standard Linux kernel with some custom engineered distros. Projects like Buildroot, OpenWRT, Busybox and a few others are what the vendors use to roll their own builds.
A few of them agressively lock down the bootloaders in an attempt to (try to) prevent people from owning the device they’ve paid retail price for. Many don’t really bother. The good news is, that such measures are relatively easy for experts to circumvent and break down. This, of course, is not cheap, but needs to happen only once, often for more than a single model. Some kind of bounty-based system could provide incentive and financing for such efforts.
I believe some custom firmware for TVs exist, the issue is that they are relatively new pieces of tech, while routers have existed for a comparatively long time.
cfw on smart TVs would be difficult in the first place due to the TVs’ heavily TiVo-ized nature (pun not intended)
I had a 65" Hisense TV for just over a year, and a firmware update bricked it. It was stone dead, and Hisense wouldn’t even try to repair it. So I spent a little extra money and got a Samsung instead. And once it was set up, I turned off its wifi…just in case.
Hisense can eat a bag o’ dicks.
They are cheap for a reason…
It’s true that things are worse on a cheap tv but even if you buy a $5000+ flagship model it will still have advertising baked into the os
Most of the “commercial” TVs, the ones intended for businesses, don’t have this. They also don’t have streaming services and whatnot not built in. They’re just a display with a few inputs, and maybe a tuner.
that’s true but they’re more expensive, sometimes prohibitively so. If you want an oled panel they’re basically unfeasible, especially if you want a larger panel >55”
I bought my last TV about 7 years ago. I got a “small” 38" TV. As I was checking out, the cashier asked me if I’d rather upgrade to a larger model from the same brand with smart features for 10 dollars less. I flat out told him ‘no’ and that was probably the best decision I made that year.
If you don’t connect a smart TV to the internet, it’s functionally the same as a dumb TV.
Sadly more and more TV’s will now require you to connect to the Internet, even when you just use HDMI
My new LG didn’t require it, but the settings menu and ‘home’ screen nag about lack of connectivity.
“Why did you buy a smart TV if you didn’t want the smart features” brother, it was the best tv in that price range and few true dumb ones exist in that range. IMO the smart features should be considered optional but I guess these companies don’t agree
Well that’s just a day one return then and an openbox discount for the next person
Which cause I haven’t come across any that do that.
Ive had LG, Vizio, TCL, and Samsung TVs (still have all but Vizio) and haven’t ran into one that requires internet yet, not to say that some manufacturers haven’t/wouldn’t do this at some point.
I have a Hisense that I bought late last year and have never connected it to the internet (I stream everything through my PS5) and boyhowdy does that TV take every chance it gets to let me know I’m not connected lol
IF YOU BUY ANY TV, DO NOT CONNECT IT TO THE INTERNET.
Televisions were never meant to be smart devices. There’s no reason your screen should have software of its own. That would be like your face having a mind of its own.
Ummm, <eldrich horror rant text>
Cell modems are getting cheaper and cheaper, it’s only a matter of time before cheap smart TVs will flood the market with always-on telemetry and intrusive personalized ads.
That sounds like a great reason to return it and buy used lol
Until a few years later when all the used TVs have cell modems. The same thing is already happening in the used car market, it’s getting harder and harder to find a reliable vehicle that doesn’t have a cell modem and a long T&C that let’s them spy on you.
Well then I guess I make the room a giant faraday cage.
Like the other comment said, if you drive a car made after 2014, don’t bother. You drive a rolling tracking beacon regardless of what you do with your smart devices…
I haven’t experience this myself but I’ve read that some newer TV’s are forcing you to connect to the internet before you can do anything else.
Not to mention it seems like the apps on a smart tv get ignored when it comes to updates.
My face’s mind sits right behind my face.
i don’t know why i didn’t expect hisense to do it.
Would it not make sense for them to? Since they make budget televisions, they have to subsidise the cost somehow.
Either that, or because they’re so budget, you’d expect them to cheap out on the electronics and not bother with anything that sophisticated compared to a bare-minimum chip.
The TVs absolutely have automated content recognition. They use Unruly and nexxen.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250122111405/https://unruly.co/vidaa-partnership/
https://nexxen.com/nexxen-vidaa/
I also stumbled across a diagram lately that showed how this data eventually flowed into displaying ads for medical products. The size of this platform behind the scenes would be huge.
Oh they are that cheap.
Right, i have a hisense fridge i bought 12 years ago after my second hand fridge broke, destroying all my food. I had saved up enough money to go away for the weekend but got home from work to the broken one. Had cancel my trip and use the money to buy the fridge thinking it won’t last long.
That fridge now sits outside with drinks in it and its never missed a beat.
I also have a deep freezer of theirs I’ve had for 8 years with no issues apart from having to replace the door seal.
I would resort to violence, Holy shit.
Bought a new TV and this is precisely the reason why it will never be connected to the Internet. I miss out on the built-in AirPlay which is annoying but I’ll live.
I don’t have this issue with my higher end hi sense, but the article states it’s for the lower end models. So this proves that companies are lowering the costs of TV’s and offsetting it by selling your data and forcing you to watch ads they get paid for.
Mine is connected to the internet and no issues. If they ever do this to my TV, internet is off and i’m buying a shield pro.
Why wait? Streaming services are only getting worse, and we can only really fight back one way. Yo ho!
