Amazon TV now unmutes your TV during Ads

[srz2]

Not my situation but just insane

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/s/ViOVGXSVp5

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/s/QpeUh5nCXi

[Ha-Satan]

Yeah, stuff like this is why I never use the "smart" features of my smart TV. I just have my PC plugged into it and use that, where I can use adblockers and stream my own stuff from Jellyfin. I never even connected my TV to the wifi.

[Sant_HH]

I miss those days where a TV was basically a monitor with a tuner and speakers. Plug it in, turn it on, and it just works. No ads forced down your throat. No waiting for it to load an os. No waiting for it to detect what type of device you have plugged in.

[YoungBlade]

I tried to get a non-smart TV for this exact reason, but they just don't exist anymore. My only choice would have been to get a used TV. The companies figured out that they can get continuous revenue through advertisements and bundling software deals, and now they refuse to make regular TVs.

 

Frankly, I would have paid more money for my TV if it wasn't smart. I'd happily have given them $100 to remove that stuff. But I'm sure they'd never take it, because they make more than that over the lift of the product. It just shows you how valuable personal information and advertisements are to these companies.

[TetraSky]

Don't use "smart" features on your TV. Never even activate wifi on it.

Buy a Roku or some other Android set up box or an HTPC that you can plug on the TV and use that as the "smart" hub instead.

 

Not just for ads, but also because they can brick your TV with an update later down the line. Like my roommate's LG TV that just randomly "died" within an hour of activating wifi for the first time in a few years to do an update. Fishy AF.

[porina]

I don't want a "smart" TV either so to make mine "dumb" it is not internet connected.

[circeseye]

the only reason i hook up wifi to my tv is for tv updates. otherwise nothing

[johnt]

I learnt my lesson a long time ago. No internet for my tv. Apple TV STB only. 

[OhioYJ]

On 1/9/2025 at 4:32 PM, circeseye said:

the only reason i hook up wifi to my tv is for tv updates. otherwise nothing

Why do you need to update your TV?

 

My mom has actually lost two TVs now to bad firmware updates. Both were replaced under warranty luckily.

 

None of my TVs are ever hooked to the internet. Every TV in the house has an HTPC conncted to it.

[MarkPol88]

11 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

Why do you need to update your TV?

Sometimes it is necessary - Sony TV's a while back would not properly display 4K 120Hz signal - picture would be garbled or not working at all and sound would disappear if you were using eARC.

Updates fixed that issue.

[OhioYJ]

5 hours ago, MarkPol88 said:

Updates fixed that issue.

Luckily I've never needed to. I know occasionally you'll see those rare stories about updates gone wrong, or messing up TVs. My mom has actually had two of those TVs. Both got replaced under warranty luckily.

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/9/2025 at 6:52 PM, Sant_HH said:

No ads forced down your throat.

that literally never was not a thing... xD 

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/9/2025 at 6:40 PM, Ha-Satan said:

I just have my PC plugged into it and use that, where I can use adblockers and stream my own stuff from Jellyfin.

at that point why use a tv at all? monitors offer same or better performance at lower cost, usually? 

what gets me is that there are no remotes for pcs, would be nice to switch between youtube tabs, or just literally "programs", yk?

 

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/11/2025 at 4:17 PM, OhioYJ said:

Luckily I've never needed to. I know occasionally you'll see those rare stories about updates gone wrong, or messing up TVs. My mom has actually had two of those TVs. Both got replaced under warranty luckily.

my msi monitor can neither do 165hz properly nor "gsync"... its all buggy and laggy as hell... i think it needs an update, but idk, what if it makes it worse? (no mention of buggy gsync etc on msi website either) 

 

one day.... ill get one of those HD high refresh CRT Sony monitors, the holy grale... seriously i would probably love it, no lag, no washed out colors, no gsync, hdr, oled artifacts, etc...

[MarkPol88]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

at that point why use a tv at all?

Size... Always the size

 

But on the more serious note - big monitors do exist but price is usually quite off-putting, f.e. ASUS ROG Swift PG65UQ

[Ha-Satan]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

at that point why use a tv at all? monitors offer same or better performance at lower cost, usually? 

what gets me is that there are no remotes for pcs, would be nice to switch between youtube tabs, or just literally "programs", yk?

 

Yeah, like @MarkPol88 said the size is fundamentally the issue. I currently have a 43" TV, and while there are monitors in that size range, the options are pretty limited - and some of them, like the Gigabyte S55U and Samsung M70B, come with the very "smart TV" features that I'd want to avoid!

 

As a side note, I want to take a moment to rant about the fact that the market for these mid-size displays (by which I mean large monitors or small TVs in the 43-50 inch range) really sucks. I live in an old house where there is no practical place to put a 60+ inch TV, and my current 43" model is plenty large for the space it's in. But it's an older 1080p/60Hz TV without modern features like VRR, so I'll probably want to replace it sooner rather than later.

 

But unfortunately the vast majority of displays in this size range just suck. They're "cheap" because of the size, but manufacturers seem to think that means they can be cheap in terms of everything else, like brightness, colors, response times, etc. Dammit, I want the features and quality from a decent midrange 55-65 inch TV, but in a smaller form factor. Why doesn't this exist? I would pay extra for it.

 

I could possibly just barely squeeze in a 55" display in the space where I have my TV, and I might need to do that if I want all the features I'm looking for.

[Ha-Satan]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

what gets me is that there are no remotes for pcs, would be nice to switch between youtube tabs, or just literally "programs", yk?

Honestly I just use a regular keyboard and mouse with my "HTPC" - it was a little weird at first but we've been doing it so long that it's what we're used to. I actually suggested to my wife that we could get a Shield TV or something of that nature so that we could use a remote and she said that she actually prefers the keyboard and mouse now.

 

As long as you set the display scaling in Windows to make things readable it's just fine.