Well yeah, I mean do you think smart tv’s are smart out of the kindness of the shareholder’s hearts?
All these screen saver ads and pause menu ads are going to save lots of people lots of power.
Let’s see how well it will do when fed into the maw of the Pi hole
Advertising on TV and radio stations here in the Netherlands is heavily regulated so people aren’t constantly exposed to ads, while these manifacturers can do whatever they like. It is time to start regulating TV manifacturers on data collection and showing (personalized) ads. Shit’s getting Orwellian.
After my LG C3 started showing ads I disabled the smart TV part and now use external players only for all our TV’s. I don’t trust TV screen manifacturers the slightest bit.
Is it even possible to buy a tv nowadays that doesn’t have this crap?
Yes. You have to go and look for business display panels, e. g. those used for menus in restaurants, fast food chains, display stands etc.
And be ready to pay. And while the panels aren’t so bad don’t necessarily expect enthusiast-consumer grade features like local dimming zones and whatnot.
Better bet is to just buy the best TV regardless of the crap and never hook it up to the Internet. And amid reports that some even hook into open WiFi signals, maybe open the damn thing and unhook/cut the WiFi antennas.
Then use whatever you like.
Sceptre still makes dumb TVs (that are actually consumer TVs, not overpriced digital signage displays).
Never connect a smart TV to your WiFi, disable WiFi, connect an Android TV box via HDMI and use that. Debloat, root, or run a custom ROM on that box. Then run SmartTube, Jellyfin, Pi-hole, etc. to bring ad-free sanity to your living room. Obviously a dumb TV is best. But this is your best alternative, if you already have a “smart” TV.
