I got a TCL last year and it wouldn’t let me use the TV until I set up the internet. After 4 factory resets I figured out how to put it in store demo mode, and plugged in a separate streaming device that connects to the internet. Now I realize I could have connected the TV to the internet and then blocked it at the network level.
I know they’re different manufacturers, but TCL tried this shit and I just factory reset and never setup the Internet on it. I use an android TV box for the smarts.
triptrapper@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Peffse@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
If you are using a network level block, make sure it’s a black hole and not just a DNS filter. I tried a DNS filter with a Roku and found that they bypass it with hardcoded values, even when the DNS server was statically assigned and DHCP assigned.
HumbleBragger@piefed.social 4 hours ago
What you mean by black hole and filter? I blocked a bunch of tcl domains on my pihole and made my router drop everything in port 53 coming from every other device that wasn’t pihole. It seems to have worked for now.. Is that a good solution?
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Pi-hole blocks the name resolution. TV wants to go to Hisense.com, asks your Pi-hole where that site is. Your Pi-hole sees that Hisense is on a block list, so it says back to your TV “sorry, no idea how to get to that site, it must be offline.”
If the manufacturer wants to get around this, they program a public DNS in, like 8.8.8.8, or they hardcore the static IP for their website into the TV. Now when it wants to go to Hisense, it never has to ask your Pi-Hole where that site is, and it doesn’t get blocked. Heck, it probably won’t even show up on your Pi-hole’s logs.
If you black hole the site, then any traffic going out there gets dropped, and the hard-coded addresses on the TV don’t matter for shit.
SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Yep, same issue with Firestick here.
rumba@lemmy.zip 5 hours ago
Wait till they start paying netflix to relay data for them :)
FG_3479@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Their Google TV models have a basic mode which lets you use it without internet with no bypassing.
reddig33@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
As do the Roku TCL models. I currently have mine disconnected and plan to keep it that way.
OR3X@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Unfortunately manufacturers are starting to get wise to this as well. I recently bought a new Vizio smart TV with no intentions of connecting it to the internet and during the initi setup it kept very persistently insisting that it needed to be connected and after setup it constantly bitches at me that it’s not connected.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
I did the same thing, their bullshit ad infested updates were the final straw,
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Unfortunately the firmware was the issue, not just OS software. So factory-resetting didn’t help us. But yeah, that definitely radicalized me to the “never connect it to the internet” camp for future TVs.
grue@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Buying the TV and then not connecting it still rewards the bad behavior.
We have to boycott these fucks and lobby to get the behavior outlawed.
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I mean, that’s great in theory. But the amount of manufacturers of non-smart TVs is tiny, and if you are interested in the best panels and display technology, refresh rates for gaming, etc (even removing affordability), it’s very very hard to just boycott if you want to have a modern TV at all.
moonshadow@slrpnk.net 5 hours ago
Getting the ad-subsidized tech without the ads sounds like a win to me
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
You are paying for features you don’t use (such as Internet access). That’s not a win.