Comment on Thousands of Android TV devices come with unkillable backdoor preinstalled
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months agoIt doesn’t really matter, just don’t connect them to the internet. Our TV just has a 14 year old computer that plays media perfectly, and is completely cut off from the internet.
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If they allow you to do that without any loss in functionality.
wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 8 months ago
It takes some research if youve never done anything like it before, but you can drip feed it the internet via a pihole, and starve it specifically of ads and data collection. Keep the functionality, kill the leech.
Google smart tv pihole, theres a few guides, for anyone interested.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
But why? It doesn’t need that for anything. Just plug an old computer in via HDMI and bookmark movie-web.app or download/stream stuff from anywhere. Much better quality, interface, and no jank.
wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 8 months ago
Just depends on what you need it for, and what youre trying to plug into it.
For example, some people dont have spare computers to turn into a mini server, but do have $60 and the time to fiddle with a raspberry pi.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Curious, what functionality would I lose? All it needs to do is turn on and display video through an HDMI port.
lemann@lemmy.one 8 months ago
Samsung historically has had a habit of poaching features from their Smart TVs as they age, eventually leaving you with a not so smart TV after a decade or so. Not sure if other manufacturers do the same
Asudox@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What a realistic approach! A thing getting dumber as it ages, what a great idea!
/s
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Aha! Yeah that’s okay with me, since we just disable their internet hook computers up, to use them as dumb monitors.