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TELEVISIONS ARE JUST SCREENS
they dont need to be smart
make them dumb
make everything dumb immediately

23 comments
Mister Moo 🐮

@SarraceniaWilds I've never allowed a television to connect to the internet and I never will.

Dan Goodin

@MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

So y'all do without streaming then? What do you watch?

The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus

@dangoodin @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds DVDs and Blu-Rays, VHS tapes and LaserDiscs. Or build a Plex or Jellyfin server and make a Kodi or OSMC box, connect the two, and build your own library.

Need media? Reject modernity; embrace tradition! :pirate_flag:

Dan Goodin

@LambdaCalculus @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

So many things wrong with what y'all are advising:

1. Streaming with a namebrand smart TV is perfectly safe as long as you follow the guidance here:

consumerreports.org/electronic

1.

Do you use debit cards? if so, marketers are scooping up tons more data than from your purchases than they are from streaming.


2.

Telling folks that the only way they can be safe on online is to do with without major platforms that provide tons more viewing choices is not a good way to go. It makes security unnecessarily hard and depriving.


3.

There was a time when DVDs and completely booked the traditional means. Shaming people for using smart TVs is unnecessarily alarmist and not at all constructive.

@LambdaCalculus @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

So many things wrong with what y'all are advising:

1. Streaming with a namebrand smart TV is perfectly safe as long as you follow the guidance here:

consumerreports.org/electronic

The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus

@dangoodin @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds Hey, you asked what we would do without streaming. I gave you an answer. Jumping down my throat and calling me alarmist is not constructive to this conversation. If you don't like my answer, you can simply mute me and walk away and not carry this further.

No one is twisting your arm to do what we do. If you want to use a smart TV, go ahead. That's your prerogative; I ain't your parent to tell you what to do.

I personally do not want a smart TV. If I need a device for streaming, I would rather just buy a separate device for that, like a Roku or something. That way, if I really *don't* want any streaming at all, it's as easy as unplug the Roku and back in the box it goes. Even now, my Roku's major usage is just for Plex and a couple of additional bits like the SomaFM channel and New Ellijay's streaming TV channel. But if people ask for alternative means, then we should be able to share with them some alternative means of watching stuff. If people also want to watch physical media, who are we to tell them no?

Long and short, lay off people who present an alternative to the mainstream.

@dangoodin @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds Hey, you asked what we would do without streaming. I gave you an answer. Jumping down my throat and calling me alarmist is not constructive to this conversation. If you don't like my answer, you can simply mute me and walk away and not carry this further.

No one is twisting your arm to do what we do. If you want to use a smart TV, go ahead. That's your prerogative; I ain't your parent to tell you what to do.

:flan_reaper: - On Hiatus

@LambdaCalculus

My Jellyfin server has way more content I want to watch at this point than any streaming service since it contains... exclusively content that I want to watch.

@dangoodin @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus

@lordbowlich @dangoodin @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds And that's the best part. You make your own server with what you want, especially considering how so many streaming services keep yanking content at the worst times, dooming a lot of shows and movies to obscurity.

Dan Goodin

@LambdaCalculus @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

1.

Please re-read my reply. No one called you alarmist. It's the advice in this thread that is alarmist. Big difference.


2.

In what universe is it dangerous to hook a smartTV to the Internet, but using a Roku is safe?

daringfireball.net/linked/2021

Thinking Roku is safer than a smart TV is completely unfounded and a good example why the advice y'all are giving is antithetical to true security and privacy.

@LambdaCalculus @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

1.

Please re-read my reply. No one called you alarmist. It's the advice in this thread that is alarmist. Big difference.


2.

In what universe is it dangerous to hook a smartTV to the Internet, but using a Roku is safe?

Mister Moo 🐮

@dangoodin @LambdaCalculus @SarraceniaWilds I don't care for the advertising practices of smart TV vendors (theverge.com/tldr/2021/3/10/22), nor do I care to use apps built into my TV which will gradually get slower and lose compatibility over time, nor do I appreciate remote controls themselves being turned into ads for streaming providers. That doesn't mean I don't stream. I'm just more conscientious about what devices I use to stream.

Kartik Agaram

@dangoodin It's _using_ smart TVs that makes security hard. For example: consumerist.com/2017/01/06/ran

It's _responsible_ to educate people about the unanticipated and potentially severe consequences of their buying decisions. Particularly _before_ they make smart TVs a part of their habits/lives.

As a programmer, we've already let computers too far into our lives. It seems worth at least fighting a rearguard action against the parts we can still control.

@LambdaCalculus @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds

@dangoodin It's _using_ smart TVs that makes security hard. For example: consumerist.com/2017/01/06/ran

It's _responsible_ to educate people about the unanticipated and potentially severe consequences of their buying decisions. Particularly _before_ they make smart TVs a part of their habits/lives.

Rick O

@dangoodin @MisterMoo @SarraceniaWilds you hook up the tv to a device you have more control over and stream from there m

Pilsnerd
@SarraceniaWilds if my appliances start talking i will shoot them
Aman

@SarraceniaWilds i concur- i should be the smartest thing in the house!!

MrBadAxe

@SarraceniaWilds

I feel like someone could make bank with a Kickstarter whose pitch is, "It's a 55-inch 4K 120Hz screen with 4 HDMI-In's and the most barebones firmware possible. Oh, you want Netflix? Go buy a used PS4. They're, what, $100 these days?"

derHinek

@SarraceniaWilds I agree that smart TVs are a shit show, but saying that TVs are only screens is incorrect. What made them TVs is that they have a tuner to receive what they display, hence the name television (also speakers might be good). One could argue, that today a capability to receive a stream via the internet is just the modern way of a receiver.

Aaron Longchamps

@SarraceniaWilds agreed! I don't connect my TV to the network and stream everything on an Apple TV.

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