The Telly TV is a real product!

[Brandolorian]

It showed and they did not lie about the weight it’s 70 pounds and not nearly as intrusive as I thought, it’s also not using a lot of network traffic it did initially display as Chinese robotics company though when it connected to the network so I’m not sure where they sourced parts. It’s using what I think is a Samsung QLED panel and like most startups is full of good ideas. If you guys wanna hit me questions feel free because I do think this thing is unique 

[whispous]

Quite frankly, this is a disgusting vision of the inevitable future for anyone who isn't rich.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits

[Pistachio]

15 minutes ago, whispous said:

Quite frankly, this is a disgusting vision of the inevitable future for anyone who isn't rich.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits

Agreed. I can't imagine ever willingly getting one of these, even if they are "free" (they're not); especially when you can go down to Walmart and get a decent TV for 250$. These things are dystopian as hell lmao.

[Brandolorian]

23 minutes ago, Pistachio said:

Agreed. I can't imagine ever willingly getting one of these, even if they are "free" (they're not); especially when you can go down to Walmart and get a decent TV for 250$. These things are dystopian as hell lmao.

Those 250$ Roku tvs can also preserve ads to you now before you even get to use them among rokus other sins as a brand, and to escape monetization is impossible someone is always going to want your eyeballs on their product and I think this thing is neat for what it is considering the custom job they did getting it all to work seamlessly.

[Ha-Satan]

Nah man, this is the absolute worst shit:

 

 

[Pistachio]

1 minute ago, Brandolorian said:

Those 250$ Roku tvs can also preserve ads to you now before you even get to use them among rokus other sins as a brand, and to escape monetization is impossible someone is always going to want your eyeballs on their product and I think this thing is neat for what it is considering the custom job they did getting it all to work seamlessly.

All you have to do is not connect it to the internet. It's not just about the ads though, it seems like the product is way too invasive all around. More power to you if you enjoy it, all I'm saying is that it's *really* sketchy.

[Brandolorian]

2 minutes ago, Pistachio said:

All you have to do is not connect it to the internet. It's not just about the ads though, it seems like the product is way too invasive all around. More power to you if you enjoy it, all I'm saying is that it's *really* sketchy.

You also have to sacrifice any and all updates if you do that, it’s all around bad in the TV space unfortunately. I keep in monitored and see where the traffic goes it’s mostly just google adsense like the rest to be honest I don’t know how they make a profit. 

[OhioYJ]

Ok so maybe if you didn't get ads on the main screen? However ads on a little screen and the main screen, yeah this doesn't make any sense.

[Brandolorian]

6 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

Ok so maybe if you didn't get ads on the main screen? However ads on a little screen and the main screen, yeah this doesn't make any sense.

That’s just the Home Screen when I switch to input exclusively small screen

[Cramig88]

21 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

Ok so maybe if you didn't get ads on the main screen? However ads on a little screen and the main screen, yeah this doesn't make any sense.

Is this like picture-in-picture?

man, those were the days where an extra cable box for ur big screen was justified lol

[OhioYJ]

25 minutes ago, Brandolorian said:

That’s just the Home Screen when I switch to input exclusively small screen

Doesn't the main screen work as a normal TV, meaning you still get the "over the air" commercials? To me that's still double the ads. You know have two screens in your house that are displaying advertisements, no thanks.

[Cramig88]

Did a little homework on this. I’d pass myself, seems too invasive.

wont be long before they do a terms of service revision your forced to accept and you lose a kidney

[Brandolorian]

1 hour ago, OhioYJ said:

Doesn't the main screen work as a normal TV, meaning you still get the "over the air" commercials? To me that's still double the ads. You know have two screens in your house that are displaying advertisements, no thanks.

I don’t use cable and I don’t get ads other than those if you know what I mean but I see your point 

[Brandolorian]

48 minutes ago, Cramig88 said:

Did a little homework on this. I’d pass myself, seems too invasive.

wont be long before they do a terms of service revision your forced to accept and you lose a kidney

That’s the best part I can always send it back free of charge it’s just a neat thing to have around for now until I either don’t like it or they die as a business and I get to keep it 

[Stahlmann]

I'd say most people aren't desperate enough to actually use such a product. Any bread and butter electronics store offers a selection of TVs for cheap. I'd rather not sell me soul and watch ads 24/7. In fact, I pay a few subscriptions to not see ads on the different services I use. Obviously, I'm not the target audience.

 

As always, if something is free, then you're the product.

[Brandolorian]

3 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

I'd say most people aren't desperate enough to actually use such a product. Any bread and butter electronics store offers a selection of TVs for cheap. I'd rather not sell me soul and watch ads 24/7. In fact, I pay a few subscriptions to not see ads on the different services I use. Obviously, I'm not the target audience.

 

As always, if something is free, then you're the product.

100% hard agree but from where they are just using generic google ad sense they can’t be making a profit with all the custom work that goes into these, and for me it wasn’t desperation I wanted the form factor of having the TV and soundbar just be one unit is perfect. As much as I hate the ad pocolypse this thing serves my occasional TV needs better than my older TV but if you use your TV more often I could see how you’d be more uncomfortable! 

[Ha-Satan]

1 hour ago, Brandolorian said:

As much as I hate the ad pocolypse this thing serves my occasional TV needs better than my older TV but if you use your TV more often I could see how you’d be more uncomfortable! 

The ads aren't the real problem, though. It's the abusive TOS and the invasive spying that the TV does with its camera. Like, I dunno if you watched the video I posted, but the terms of service state that you MUST use this as your primary TV in your household, and you MUST keep it connected to the internet at all times, or they will charge you $1,000 to the account you made when you signed up.

 

And they will know if you stop using it as your primary TV, because they can literally watch you through the camera and know where you put it!

 

This TV is a dystopian nightmare and you should get rid of it immediately.

[Brandolorian]

58 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

The ads aren't the real problem, though. It's the abusive TOS and the invasive spying that the TV does with its camera. Like, I dunno if you watched the video I posted, but the terms of service state that you MUST use this as your primary TV in your household, and you MUST keep it connected to the internet at all times, or they will charge you $1,000 to the account you made when you signed up.

 

And they will know if you stop using it as your primary TV, because they can literally watch you through the camera and know where you put it!

 

This TV is a dystopian nightmare and you should get rid of it immediately.

@. The camera has a shutter that is closed.  I haven’t been using it as a primary TV and have not been charged I also get the option to return it for free before they charge me. You didn’t read the TOS and you let someone on YouTube tell you a version of it. There’s also been cases where people have been gone for three weeks and not been charged. If the situation gets more dystopian I can always return the device it’s not like google doesn’t already know all the information anyways trying to live secluded in today’s world is almost impossible. 

[Pistachio]

6 hours ago, Ha-Satan said:

The ads aren't the real problem, though. It's the abusive TOS and the invasive spying that the TV does with its camera. Like, I dunno if you watched the video I posted, but the terms of service state that you MUST use this as your primary TV in your household, and you MUST keep it connected to the internet at all times, or they will charge you $1,000 to the account you made when you signed up.

 

And they will know if you stop using it as your primary TV, because they can literally watch you through the camera and know where you put it!

 

This TV is a dystopian nightmare and you should get rid of it immediately.

Yeah, reading that stuff in the TOS is what really concerned me. The ads are bad enough, but I can't imagine accepting that TOS for some mediocre television.

[Brandolorian]

2 hours ago, Pistachio said:

Yeah, reading that stuff in the TOS is what really concerned me. The ads are bad enough, but I can't imagine accepting that TOS for some mediocre television.

It’s a QLED Samsung panel with front firing speakers I use on the weekends occasionally and the wife plays splatoon on it’s not deep what this things being used for. They have a Wii motion bar to track room movement which is what I’m assuming earns them the big bucks because they can prove who’s watching the ads but like said in previous posts it’s literally just google adsense ads. 
there has been no one that I’ve found yet that has actually been charged and you are free to send it back and not be charged and personally I used my credit card so I can dispute it if they try and hold onto the money. You guys have points about how they wanna serve you ads no matter what but as this thing stands it’s a poor attempt with a great out of box experience with actual risk being taken in the design. I do wish LTT would disassemble one though that was the only part of the ToS I was disappointed in 

[spacepickle]

12 hours ago, Ha-Satan said:

the terms of service state that you MUST use this as your primary TV in your household, and you MUST keep it connected to the internet at all times, or they will charge you $1,000 to the account you made when you signed up.

Small correction, they only charge you if you don’t send the TV back when they find that you aren’t keeping it online or as the primary TV. Which seems fair enough, the whole

point is that the TV is free if you’re willing to watch ads, so if you’re not watching ads on it they don’t have to give you a free TV. According to their privacy policy, they don’t use the camera for surveillance, it’s intended as a user feature for Zoom calls and whatnot. They have a motion sensor bar , but they only use that to determine how many people are watching for their advertising partners. That video makes it seem bad, dystopian even, but apart from the second screen intended for ads the TV isn’t all that draconian considering literally every other TV on the market is collecting the same information. The “unauthorized peripherals” clause is a bit concerning but if OP’s wife is playing Splatoon without repercussions chances are it’s not as bad as it sounds. 

[spacepickle]

4 hours ago, Brandolorian said:

 I do wish LTT would disassemble one though that was the only part of the ToS I was disappointed in 

If they actually buy one (pay the thousand bucks so that they actually own it) they can do whatever they want with it. Right to repair, baby

[Brandolorian]

19 hours ago, spacepickle said:

Small correction, they only charge you if you don’t send the TV back when they find that you aren’t keeping it online or as the primary TV. Which seems fair enough, the whole

point is that the TV is free if you’re willing to watch ads, so if you’re not watching ads on it they don’t have to give you a free TV. According to their privacy policy, they don’t use the camera for surveillance, it’s intended as a user feature for Zoom calls and whatnot. They have a motion sensor bar , but they only use that to determine how many people are watching for their advertising partners. That video makes it seem bad, dystopian even, but apart from the second screen intended for ads the TV isn’t all that draconian considering literally every other TV on the market is collecting the same information. The “unauthorized peripherals” clause is a bit concerning but if OP’s wife is playing Splatoon without repercussions chances are it’s not as bad as it sounds. 

It’s not they also include like a Wii sports Game Center using the motion bar, and the form factor TV with soundbar attached plus a second screen for all the UI and a live feed for the weather is something I would pay money for but no one makes one. It’s the ease of it all being one system united and done pretty well. I do have a gripe with the remotes battery life though it’s extremely short but it’s a beta product.

[Cowabummr]

I've got one of these and took one for the team and did a teardown, TOS be darned. 

 

Takeaways: It uses AUO panels, which are decent but not great.  Motherboard is made by SEI Robotics. Has an Amlogic SoC. Camera is blocked with a motorized shutter that is closed unless in Zoom or one of the other apps that uses it. The black bar on top only contains the mic array. The motion sensor is the same kind of UWB radar that things like the Nest thermostat use for presence detection, but it's not granular enough to count how many people are watching. Lots of exposed UART interfaces just waiting for hacking...

 

[spacepickle]

On 5/1/2025 at 9:42 AM, Cowabummr said:

I've got one of these and took one for the team and did a teardown, TOS be darned. 

 

Takeaways: It uses AUO panels, which are decent but not great.  Motherboard is made by SEI Robotics. Has an Amlogic SoC. Camera is blocked with a motorized shutter that is closed unless in Zoom or one of the other apps that uses it. The black bar on top only contains the mic array. The motion sensor is the same kind of UWB radar that things like the Nest thermostat use for presence detection, but it's not granular enough to count how many people are watching. Lots of exposed UART interfaces just waiting for hacking...

 

Wait, the privacy policy says that they use the motion sensor bar to detect how many people are watching. You’re telling me that isn’t possible?