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Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing

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triptrapper@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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.

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Peffse@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨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.

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- HumbleBragger@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨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?
  
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  - Bytemeister@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ 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.
    
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    HumbleBragger@piefed.social ⁨54⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    I don’t think my tcl TV has it hardcoded because my pihole is always blocking tcl domains
    
    ![(https://media.piefed.social/posts/tU/o1/tUo1JxYy1qjG7g4.jpg)]
    
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    HumbleBragger@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    Fool! Thanks!
    
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- SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yep, same issue with Firestick here.
  
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- rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Wait till they start paying netflix to relay data for them :)
  
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FG_3479@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Their Google TV models have a basic mode which lets you use it without internet with no bypassing.

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- reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  As do the Roku TCL models. I currently have mine disconnected and plan to keep it that way.
  
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