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Comment by mark_l_watson | Hacker News Reader

Most smart TVs have advertisements and spyware that yields additional profits. Same with some electronic devices: Apple devices and Windows laptops sold directly by Microsoft have less advertising and spyware, but at a higher price.

Years ago I got so fed up with the smart TV experience that I bought a $200 dumb TV at Walmart, only had one HDMI input and terminals for a local antenna - hooked an Apple TV into it and had such a good experience.

It is easy to lose sight of how much money is made by collecting data on people and advertising.

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The simplest answer is to buy a quality TV and not hook it up to WiFi, and use another smart platform. HDMI CEC works pretty well to discard the garbage TV "smarts" and replace it with something Android-based, Apple TV, or something else HTPC/free open like Jellyfin or Emby.

I have a Sony Bravia with an Android stick and Samsung QLED with an Apple TV. Less ads-ish and spying, but not totally out of the walled gardens. Already have a Plex lifetime and shoved stuff on a RAID10 NAS, so I'm okay with it as-is. I like that remote UPnP-basted casting works, at least with my login. Maybe Jellyfin or Emby have slight advantages in some areas, but it's the devil you know™.

Does Android TV not come with spyware?

Depends what flavor you get. Much like Android itself different manufacturers bundle different crap with their hardware. I used to have an Nvidia Shield and it was a wonderful vanilla implementation. But I've since switched to Apple TV.

Computer monitors have been getting a lot better while being cheaper, with no ads or services. You can get a high resresh rate 4K ips for about $200 nowadays. Display tech is just advancing faster than other tech at the moment

How does this work with respect to using a remote? I know something like a Roku remote would work display-wise, but you usually program it to use the signal that the your brand of TV responds to. That way you can use the Roku/whatever remote to turn on the actual TV and control audio. Speaking of, how does audio work for this set up?

HDMI standards allow plugged in devices to control the power state of the TV. e.g. my Apple TV will turn the TV on when I press a button on the aTV remote and will turn the TV off when I turn the Apple TV off.

Audio is a separate challenge, I'm not sure what you'd do there. Do computer monitors have eARC outputs? None of the ones I have do. Again if you had an Apple TV you could pair it with a HomePod (or pair of them) to avoid the issue but that's a niche solution.

Samsung already makes a bunch of "smart monitors", putting there the same software they use on TVs. Not sure about other manufacturers, but would be surprised if they don't catch up soon.

Huh, interesting. My experience has always been that computer monitors have been more expensive than TVs, even when panels are ostensibly the same. I've attributed it to comparative volume in TV consumers and desktop computer consumers.

At this point (as opposed to a decade ago) there's arguably no difference between a TV and a monitor anymore outside of packaging and the bundling of a remote and input defaults.

Many laptops with Windows preinstalled came with all kind of bloatware to 'enhance' the user with software they 'need'. Desktops too, but with laptops (and smartphones) it is more noticeable due to battery.

> Most smart TVs have advertisements and spyware that yields additional profits.

Something I just realized is TV companies can very accurately put a price point on a specific buyer - household size, TV watch time, content being watched, TV lifetime usage, etc and calculate how much the buyer is worth in their eyes.

profit_tv = sale_cost + lifespan_tv*ad_revenue_per_household - production_cost

> Windows laptops sold directly by Microsoft have less advertising and spyware

Really? It’s a little hard to believe. I’d think the easier thing to do is to put the same adware everywhere instead of segmenting out the MSStore-sold devices. Do you have a citation for this?

Manufacturers add ‘apps’ and other spyware. My understanding is Microsoft direct sales don’t have the extra apps, etc. That said, I have not been a Windows user for over 15 years.

Non-MS manufacturers get offers from e.g. McAfee to pre-install a nagware version of their software for a kickback. I have an ASUS ROG laptop, and even if I run a full Windows Reset, I get a prompt to install McAfee during OOBE setup, right after being prompted to subscribe to office/copilot/365/onedrive/game pass/etc.

Apple devices having advertising and spyware - that’s, you know, not true. You would stretch that tv has it, but that’s part of optional tv app.

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