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Comment by com2kid | Hacker News Reader

The Sony tax is because ads on Sony TVs can all be turned off. Plenty of TVs have their price subsidized by ads, where as when going through initial setup, I've had Sony TVs with ads disabled by default and questions asking if you want to turn them on.

Sadly disabling "recommended content" on the Google TV launcher also disabled voice search from the remote, but I am pretty sure that is a Google problem and not something Sony chose.

(Also my Sony TV cannot stay connected to my WiFi network for more than half an hour before I have to toggle WiFi on and off again...)

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It took me several tries to find it but the Projectivy launcher ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.pro... ) is a great replacement for the Android/Google TV launcher like it used to be, with no "suggestions" -- just your content.

But definitely use the "override current launcher" setting. The description implies this is a "only if you're having problems" option, but I find it makes a variety of subtle things work the way they should.

All TVs can have ads disabled: unplug the Ethernet.

Given that 100% of my TV usage falls into these categories:

1. Controlling Spotify 2. YouTube videos 3. Photo Albums from Google Photos

No network connectivity would render my TV completely useless.

Though I think I could show photo from a thumb drive, so I'd have that going for me I guess.

Chromecast, Apple TV, Fire Sticks, Rokus, etc. could all help out here too. I connect a few of those but never my TV.

Fire Stick and Roku are worse for ads than what Sony ships.

To clarify, my TV shows a list of apps, and that is it, aside from a single "suggested channel" at top I cannot get rid of.

No content previews, no "watch now!" no special promos, just a list of apps.

To explain a bit more what I said up above, Sony TVs cost more than other TVs with identical specs, ~$200-$300 USD more, but compared to a mid-range LG or Samsung, Sony opts you out of advertising by default (the initial setup is hilarious, for the most part you'd have to manually select a bunch of checkboxes to opt into tracking!).

This is all good to know because I am in the market for a new TV. I am not a fan of anything LG has ever made. I always jokingly repeat the joke that LG stands for "Low Grade." I have had good success with LG monitors, but laptops, phones, and other electronics in the past were nightmares.

So, my choices are really between Sony and Samsung, and I think I might just bite the bullet on the Sony and pay the extra amount.

Thank you.

To get the list of just apps UI you need to enable an option in settings that will disable all content recommendations, if you want to go that far. It also turns off all the "continue watching" UI elements. I forget what the setting is called, but I do remember it is setting for the Google TV launcher.

That behavior follows, given that Google is an ad company.

> Sadly disabling "recommended content" on the Google TV launcher also disabled voice search from the remote

WTF.

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