This future fucking sucks
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
Submitted 2 weeks ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
Draegur@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is the cyberpunk future that the 80s kids were so hyped for.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If anyone remembers the cyberpunk 80s TV show Max Headroom, then they know that TV was everywhere all the time in that universe. There was a scene in one episode where the police enter a suspect’s home and discover that she had an off switch on her TV. The cops react in shock to the fact, and one of them says “She’ll get twenty years for that.”
This universe also had “blipverts” which were a type of ad (advert…advertisement) that directly accessed your brain’s motivation to get you to buy something. The only problem was that blipverts also had a high chance of killing the people that watched it.
This was a TV show from almost 40 years ago now and it looks like these would be the things that are coming in the next few years from now.
a4ng3l@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As a 80s kid I don’t recall being hyped. If anything all sci-fi books were warnings for us. Younger generations embraced the black mirror shit thought.
xerxes@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Except a lot less fun. That one at least had cool lights, cool buildings, and flying cars. We got rotting infrastructure and Teslas.
MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I actually commented on that somewhere. Cyberpunk is a good example of authors warning us of dystopian possibilities, not glorifying them.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
I no longer get excited about new tech. For the most part, I feel like we peaked about 10 years ago. Medical advances are the outlier and represent real benefit, but consumer electronics are getting enshittified.
Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have a HiSense TV and use ADB AppControl to disable/remove the telemetry or forced updates, and Projectivy Launcher to get a home screen/launcher that doesn’t show adds. Both are free and work really well. I don’t see trash on my homescreen anymore.
SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Good call!
I’d also like to share another option for folks: Flauncher. I’ve been using it for a few years - it’s very clean and lightweight.
You can set it as the default using ADB commands, or install it directly from the Play Store.
gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
Paired with a button remapper and set as default, I honestly haven’t seen the stock Android interface in years. (Like you, I’ve also used ADB to disable telemetry)
PS: For the uninitiated, these are also worth installing:
Gives you ad-free YouTube and then some.
f-droid.org/packages/org.courville.nova/
Lets you connect a hard drive to your router and create your own local media streaming frontend ala Netflix (or plug your hard drive / USB directly into your TV; it doesn’t care).
While it lacks some of the polish, it’s simpler than Jellyfin or Plex.
Vakbrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Until sept 2026…
Do you really think Google will approve those APKs once they have fully lockdown android (that includes Google TV)?
That’s why this push from google to kill the APK installation without their blessing infuriates me!
Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh cool, I’ll have to checkout those other tools!
MunkysUnkEnz0@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Stremio is also an option.
Lawnman23@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I don’t have an Android tv but if that day ever comes, very glad options like these exist.
Janx@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
That’s great, but people who don’t already own one shouldn’t support this garbage company.
Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No doubt. The market is shriveling up for people who want a new tv that isn’t garbo. Outside of commercial displays which are like 3-4x as expensive and have lower image quality, I don’t know of anyone making dumb tvs in a 55" plus size. Yes, you can opt not to hook them up to the internet but in a house with non-tech people, its a huge hassle to get them to want to use anything other than the built in apps. Even diy set top boxes running on a pi or shield are not as user friendly for kids or grandparents.
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
changing the TV’s DNS servers or disconnecting it from the internet entirely.
Chiming in as an Australian budget VIDAA owner.
I spotted that this TV attempts to query 8.8.8.8, regardless of your DNS settings. I implemented a port 53 (DNS) redirect so those queries get resolved by my local server.
I also figured out which servers are serving up ads/tracking. I fired an email to Pete and got them added to his list. You’re welcome.
pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php
I didn’t install the latest update, and probably never will.
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
People like you help to make the internet a better place — which matters a lot to me, because one of my most desperately held beliefs is that it is possible to take the hopefulness of the early internet and combine it with the wisdom of the last few decades to produce a more robust kind of hope
French75@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
attempts to query 8.8.8.8, regardless of your DNS settings.
Streaming box / stream app makers have been working around local DNS for a long time. Sometimes of course they’re assholes that want to do shitty things and do this to make interdiction harder. But sometimes there are legitimate reasons. Ones I remember… users who don’t really understand what they’re doing can be overly aggressive with blocking and block things that are necessary for a particular service (causing support problems). Sometimes the ISPs DNS servers have shit performance, and using a well known commercial provider like cloudflare or google can improve performance at scale. It’s not always evil.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I fear the day these fucks figure out DOH or something. Not sure there’s any way to suppress or intercept that, short of just blocking all external traffic to the TV.
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You need plain DNS to resolve the DoH server. Just block that.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
For other readers here is a tutorial to do DNS capture into a pihole server or other DNS
patruelis@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thank you for this. I will check later today on my own tv to see what its pulling in the background.
Atlas_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
IF YOU BUY ANY TV, DO NOT CONNECT IT TO THE INTERNET.
Televisions were never meant to be smart devices. There’s no reason your screen should have software of its own. That would be like your face having a mind of its own.
Ummm, <eldrich horror rant text>
Ajen@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Cell modems are getting cheaper and cheaper, it’s only a matter of time before cheap smart TVs will flood the market with always-on telemetry and intrusive personalized ads.
billwashere@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well then I guess I make the room a giant faraday cage.
Atlas_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That sounds like a great reason to return it and buy used lol
ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I haven’t experience this myself but I’ve read that some newer TV’s are forcing you to connect to the internet before you can do anything else.
billwashere@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Not to mention it seems like the apps on a smart tv get ignored when it comes to updates.
scala@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
But why not give AI to the TV???
HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Applies anything too “smart” for its own good. Too many cases of those having obvious backdoors like trying to reverse ssh home, not to mention stupidest vulnerabilities imaginable nobody fixes
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
My face’s mind sits right behind my face.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Okay, so strike Hisense products from the list of brand I’ll ever buy from
tidderuuf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The list is getting pretty big.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is why, for years, I’ve been trying to point out that “if you don’t like it, just don’t buy it” isn’t good enough. Boycotts aren’t enough; we have to force the law to change to prohibit the abusive corporate behavior.
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
At this rate it is easier to do a whitelist than a blacklist
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Yeah
It’s going to get really interesting to find a new TV once I want to buy one.
A y brands left that won’t fuck me over with ads and what not?
VM_Abrantes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Don’t let your TV be on the internet.
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Never buy Hisense, got it.
Lighttrails@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I got a Hisense tv in November and never connected it to the internet. Now I am extremely pleased that I never connected it.
FrChazzz@lemmus.org 2 weeks ago
I have a Hisense that I bought late last year and have never connected it to the internet (I stream everything through my PS5) and boyhowdy does that TV take every chance it gets to let me know I’m not connected lol
glitchdx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d like to let people know that Sceptre still makes dumb tvs and they’re pretty good.
Canconda@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
There’s literally no reason to buy a smart TV so long as TV’s have multiple HDMI inputs
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
there’s literally no reason to buy a smart TV so long as TVs have multiple Hdmi inputs
Stop tempting them. I’m already down to 2 HDMIs on most of the TVs I’ve touched in the last decade. Some 3, one with 4. That’s anything from a cheap 32"Roku to a high end LG LED 70". I expect to find a 1xHDMI soon enough.
87Six@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The high usb’s
ByteJunk@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We need openWrt for TVs :(
fierysparrow89@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This. Have played with similar devices in the past and I was surprised how many of these devices are running standard Linux kernel with some custom engineered distros. Projects like Buildroot, OpenWRT, Busybox and a few others are what the vendors use to roll their own builds.
A few of them agressively lock down the bootloaders in an attempt to (try to) prevent people from owning the device they’ve paid retail price for. Many don’t really bother. The good news is, that such measures are relatively easy for experts to circumvent and break down. This, of course, is not cheap, but needs to happen only once, often for more than a single model. Some kind of bounty-based system could provide incentive and financing for such efforts.
Atlas_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Retail price or rental price lol
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I believe some custom firmware for TVs exist, the issue is that they are relatively new pieces of tech, while routers have existed for a comparatively long time.
fierysparrow89@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Based on the limited experience with a few devices (LG), the SoC in TVs are not new pieces of tech. At all. They seem old and underpowered crap. Similar to DVB-T sticks available for the price of 2 pizzas and a pack of gum on AliExpress.
HexaBack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
cfw on smart TVs would be difficult in the first place due to the TVs’ heavily TiVo-ized nature (pun not intended)
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
What could have go wrong by connecting a screen to internet!?
floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The human race.
ClydapusGotwald@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They can’t force me if I don’t connect it to the internet
festus@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I can imagine future TVs refusing to work without an always-on internet connection.
johnyreeferseed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I can imagine them shipping TVs with built in cellular data just for ads
Cryxtalix@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Bet there are children that need protecting!
cambodia@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How hard is it for companies to just make a good screen screen with the necessary ports any nothing else.
We are all losing our minds.
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Anyone has a list of TV manufacturers that don’t suck yet?
Shoogle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I had a 65" Hisense TV for just over a year, and a firmware update bricked it. It was stone dead, and Hisense wouldn’t even try to repair it. So I spent a little extra money and got a Samsung instead. And once it was set up, I turned off its wifi…just in case.
Hisense can eat a bag o’ dicks.
Creegz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Anybody have un-enshittified 4k tv recommendations?
Mainly want good picture quality for movies + high refresh rate for games.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I bought my last TV about 7 years ago. I got a “small” 38" TV. As I was checking out, the cashier asked me if I’d rather upgrade to a larger model from the same brand with smart features for 10 dollars less. I flat out told him ‘no’ and that was probably the best decision I made that year.
buddascrayon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are cheap for a reason…
eager_eagle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I bought mine a few years ago, never connected to the internet, never had a problem.
Now I’m definitely never connecting it.
SlippiHUD@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I would resort to violence, Holy shit.
hOrni@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Damn. Just bought a Hisense fridge last week. I hope I won’t have to watch an ad before it lets me get the mayo.
Mwa@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
i don’t know why i didn’t expect hisense to do it.
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
I’m feeling a lot less crazy having my strict rule on AV equipment:
It should work out the box without connecting to the internet, and it shouldn’t be connected without a damned good reason.
To the point that I insisted on setting up the PS5 and playing a game on it before connecting, just to be sure.GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“Brand denies wrongdoing”
Of course. “Use is consent to the user agreement.”
They could get you to swear eternal fealty to Lord Xenu, Alien God of the Universe in the user agreement that you consent to by connecting the TV to the internet.
reksas@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
i wish people were less tolerating about this shit. most likely users of those tvs will grumble a little at first and then just accept and eventually disparage anyone for speaking against it.
people should get way more angry about this publicly.
just think about how things used to be 50 or 100 years ago. Having a huge scandal could actually end someones career or put down a company. Now there is nothing shitty people and companies can’t do because everyone is so apathetic they wouldnt care if they themselves are the victim.
daychilde@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Fuck that. heh.
I use a TV for my computer monitor and it’s perfect. I do not use any of the TV features. And it pisses me off when something happens to lose my signal and it switches over into TV mode because it autoplays some free channel that spouts fascist nonsense. I have to poke around for the remote (which is always around but never close because I only need it every month or few months) so I can cut that shit off as soon as possible. heh
Any video I need to watch happens via my computer, thanks, where I’m in control.
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Relatedly, Hisense also forces updates and disables use of the TV if you do not accept the update (via a full screen non-cancelable prompt).
I learned this the hard way after Hisense broke my TV’s via an update that I didn’t want and then refused to fix it even after 6 months of escalations and emails.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
They’re not alone, either. I had to downgrade my Visio just to use the features that it shipped with. I’m sure this is illegal, but no one cares unless you’re rich.
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I outright told them it’s illegal, since they are unilaterally altering the terms of any T&C agreements when we started using the TV and materially interfering with our ownership and use of the TV we purchased. They didn’t care. I then sent it to our state attorney general and nothing happened.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 weeks 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.
triptrapper@lemmy.world 2 weeks 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.
OR3X@lemmy.world 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago
I did the same thing, their bullshit ad infested updates were the final straw,
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
My mom has a Hisense TV (because my parents invariably buy the very cheapest they can. They’d get a B&W if they could), and it just started something new - on start up, it now shows a static page of color wash, then you choose a channel. It doesn’t start on the same channel you turned off last night. Must be a new update came through. She let it sit on the screensaver all day, because it never occurred to her to try to change the channel.
Not a big deal, but weird, and NOBODY asked for this.
frongt@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Chargeback?
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Would have loved to. It was just over one year (right after the warranty ended as well), though.
leoj@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
Was gonna say, LG does the same thing.
So far my only TV that hasn’t forced things in an absurd way has been my Sony… Guess what Sony just did? (Sold their Bravia TV line to TCL…)
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’ve never connected my LG TVs to the internet and they work pretty well.
I hear you can jailbreak them, which is appealing to me.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sony offloaded manufacturing to TLC. They made a joint venture and TLC gets to manufacture and distribute them, Sony does development. Sony still has control. What we may see in the future is build quality decline. I doubt it’s gonna effect the software much.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Um…no they don’t?
midas22@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
Hisense are also selling their TVs with different specs on different markets which is really annoying. In the United States you get Google TV but in Europe you get the awful Vidaa OS where you can’t install Google Play Store. And the big national TV streaming apps are missing in their own app store where I live.
I talked to a retail seller and he said that they ultimately had to stop selling them because they got so many complaints and returns. Maybe it’s a licensing issue or something but it’s just such a braindead decision that is damaging the brand.
amorpheus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My Hisense got worse in some ways after an update, support provided a file to get the previous firmware back and told me to disable updates. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Funny story, they actually did this to me before this all happened, and I was on a “I’m never going to update again” beta firmware that they gave me a link to, when the forced-update happened that broke my wifi. I didn’t disable any ADB-level processes, and I don’t think the system let me disable updates.