It’s wild just how much they’re trying to shove AI down our throats.
Incredible. What a shit idea.
Anyways, kids, remember: never let your smart devices talk to the internet. We actually love our LG OLED - it’s fantastic hardware. But it has not once, and never will, get the chance to phone home.
Totally worth mentioning, some LG OLED TVs are able to be jailbroken and run homebrew software!
It can block firmware updates and telemetry, so no spying and no surprise “feature” additions.
But what do you use instead? The onboard apps work well and having two remotes always sucked.
Thanks to HDMI-CEC you can control additional media players with your TV’s remote. Sometimes it might not be perfect for things like long presses and stuff, but for basic controls it works.
That’s my experience with an Nvidia Shield and a Raspberry with KODI. I wouldn’t really recommend the Raspberry though.
So long as the GabeCube is at a decent price it is going to be my TV’s media center. My old plan of building a new main rig and repurposing my old rig with an arc B580 upgrade went out the window for my budget when ram prices went through the roof.
Just consider that Netfliix and Co. don’t offer higher resolutions than 720p (?) on browsers that are not Edge (or does Chrome support it by now?). I really forgot the details because it’s such a mess using them on Linux. But maybe you use other sources for movies anyways. Also if you need to use your browser for media streaming you might lose some benefits from CEC because you still control things with mouse and keyboard.
Just consider that Netfliix and Co. don’t offer higher resolutions than 720p (?) on browsers that are not Edge
- Specifically, on browsers that are not Edge on Windows. And yeah, I genuinely don’t know the reasoning is behind specifically requiring Edge on Windows, when I’m sure Chrome on Windows supports the same DRM. Does Edge have some additional Windows-specific DRM on top of Widevine that’s connected to TPM2 and VBS that the streaming services use for authentication or something?
This is a fascinating article. As someone who has never owned an apple device in my life out of principle, this is actually making me consider one.
At some point we’d have to start importing TVs from the other side of the Great Chinese Firewall to avoid unwanted US tech. It’s getting ridiculous.
Or get a laptop or some other device so the TV has no choice but work as a simple display. We’ve come full circle
The new problem is AI running on the TV taking the images sent to it and processing those separately from everything else, and using that to see what you’re doing and watching.
Just use a DNS blocker ffs.
Sadly not a magic fix
Why not? That plus a good router forcing all DNS queries to you server of choice (e.g., Asus+Merlin) is the way to go.
I take it you never heard of hard coded IP adresses and DoH/DoT.
sighs… I take you never heard that hard coded IP addresses can’t bypass you router (using iptables/notables) forcing queries only on port 53 of your server of choice and that DoH/DoT servers can be blocked by a simple DNS blocklist (a feature in both ControlD and NextDNS, for instance).
Never connect your TV to your wireless and wired internet, even on initial purchase. Use a USB when updating your TV.
and why would that be any different? do they offer special usb-stick no-malware upgrade or what?
Don’t upgrade it past the day you set it up. Set it up with something like Nvidia shield or a fire stick so when it goes fucky on you, swap it with a better product. I went from a Chromecast first gen to Nvidia shield, love both products. Never connect the TV to a network where it can update and change the terms of agreement after the fact, like adding ads, adding apps, etc. avoid Roku for this as well. Changing product terms after purchase should be highly illegal.
