How do I free my television?
Technically yes, you’d have to find an exploit for your TV that allows for installing your own OS.
It’s not super feasible but it’s technically possible.
Also cars. I want a custom, privacy respecting OS for an EV please
Why has no one mentioned Projectivy?
It’s a regular app, doesn’t require root (though it benefits from it). It’s free unless you want complicated parental controls (I pay for it but otherwise have no relation to it).
I have a Bravia TV, and with it I no longer have ads, I can change exactly what apps show up, including hiding Sony apps, and can totally customize the whole window.
Finding it was a huge relief for me, as there’s no point setting up parental controls for a small child when ads showing horror products show up anyway.
Hope that helps.
if it’s an app, it’s not n OS, and does not replace an OS.
People want to replace the OS to get rid of forced data mining, forced updates, other limitations, and to be able to install other kinds of apps
You aren’t wrong, that’s all true. But also there are a lot of reasons to want to “free your TV”. The literal answer is that rooting your TV is difficult or impossible depending on the brand, and the technically true answer is that you can at least get away from the horrible manipulative interface pushed on you by the manufacturer without doing anything difficult. Better than nothing, IMO.
It is still possible to buy “dumb” TV’s. Tons of businesses need them for display purposes (like at fast food restaurants and corporate expos, etc, etc), but you need to search for commercial displays. Like this one.
It’s similar to console hacking. If there is no known exploit, the device is not yours. LG patched the exploit that made that possible for my smart TV and know I need to wait for another to be doscovered. Unfortunately the Smart TV hacking community is not that active.
https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io
https://xdaforums.com/t/getmein-one-time-rooting-jailbreaking-tool-for-webos-lg-tvs.3887904/
Nvidia shields with an alternate home screen have been a good solution for me? TV isn’t connected to the network directly, just to the shield.
I’ve got RetroArch, Plex, Spotify on each of them - that sort of stuff.
bingo. never put the tv on the network, just budget for adding something else. tvs have been known to update after a year and start injecting ads outside return policy LOL. fucking scam’s man. my shield fucks up, it get flashed. or traded out.
Do people actually use their TV without a console or computer of some sorts connected? That’s absolutely feral behavior. Like boomers avoiding self checkout cause it’s too complicated.
(as a millennial, I avoid self checkout because massive corporations are eliminating jobs without reducing prices and I think that’s bullshit)
Your smart TV is a computer of some sorts. You can do shit like watching Netflix with it. If that is all you want to do, why should you use another device with it, that brings no benefits but uses more power?
Because Xbox and PlayStation exist? Also, the ergonomics of the TV remote vs a controller are night and day different.
Yes, the differences are night and day. Every time I want to watch one of the few movies I own on Blu-ray, I turn my old PS4 on and remember how shitty a controller is for media playback and I download the movie and watch it on my Raspberry Pi with Kodi and a proper media remote.
So again: if I just want to watch Netflix, why should I add a console that has no advantages, but uses more power and forces me to use a controller that is nice for many games but shit for watching movies?
if it’s such a problem, then don’t use anything, let your tv be open to the Internet and browser hacks. that’s your prerogative. but we’re telling why it’s a bad idea, that’s all.
Yes, the differences are night and day. Every time I want to watch one of the few movies I own on Blu-ray, I turn my old PS4 on and remember how shitty a controller is for media playback and I download the movie and watch it on my Raspberry Pi with Kodi and a proper media remote.
- lol no you don’t.
So again: if I just want to watch Netflix, why should I add a console that has no advantages, but uses more power and forces me to use a controller that is nice for many games but shit for watching movies?
-You aren’t raw dogging your TV apps…youre using a console of sorts to run your media vs letting the TV do it. Which was what I was asking in the root comment in this thread.
So what I originally said…and what I’m replying to now are the same sentiment. You’re being a contrarian.
i already said why. there are stories where an update now injects ads into the tv, more than were there when you bought it. so after you can’t return it, well, now it’s “updated” and can’t take the piece of shit back.
using a 3rd party device still leaves you in some sort of control. i use an nvidia shield, which definitely does add better functionality, but if it starts acting stupid, i flash it back to defaults/roll back any updates or i replace it, tv unchanged.
and power usage is negligible at best.
here is one story - https://choice.community/t/samsung-now-injecting-ads-into-your-smart-tv/26124
spying - https://money.cnn.com/2015/02/09/technology/security/samsung-smart-tv-privacy/index.html
phone updates can do the same - https://old.reddit.com/r/ShittyDesign/comments/1fqy9rh/samsung_wants_to_turn_my_charging_screen_into_ads/
bottom line, if you don’t control the device, you have no say in what gets update/installed/“upgraded” to support more ads. on an external device, i know how to wipe it/block updates. on the tv, best i could do is factory reset it, im IT, not TV.
I mean, that sucks but I run pihole on my network and don’t have any injected ads on my Samsung displays, and all base functionality I need works without issue.
I have pihole setup too. I’d still never need to connect my tv. but you’re free to do as you want
Yeah I use a GoogleTV and don’t let the set itself connect to the internet. I held onto an HTPC as long as I could but it just got too troublesome to coax high quality streams out of it after a while.
Yes, something like that would work. The stock OS would still be on the TV but as long as you don’t connect the TV to WiFi it should be fine.
i’m in the EU. if i order a screen/panel that can do tv or is smart i pay more on import taxes. so the obvious is to buy the dumbest panel you can get and slap some SBC on it yourself. still want to use cable and sat? tv headend is just great for that amd more as you can mix cable, sat and ip tv. your sbc (or nuc etc) can run stuff like kodi and you’re good to go. you still want android apps for a tv? go add some cheap fire tv stick. i dont know of any droid app i still would need. used to have “pluto” but turns out thats just boring too.
What I did was bought a “commercial” television that’s intended to either be put in a waiting room and tuned to Fox News all day, OR used as digital signage. It’s not quite an Arby’s menu board because it’s still obviously a television, has a tuner and such, but it has no “smart” TV in it and the backlight isn’t as “won’t survive a run of Breath of the Wild” like the TCL televisions my parents own. Then I slapped a Raspberry Pi 4 on the back with OSMC on it. Meanwhile I did replace my small form factor desktop gaming rig, so I have a Ryzen 3600/GTX1080 rig sitting unplugged under that television waiting for me to build up the gumption to switch over to it.
you can yes but it is hard
yes and no, but mostly no
If you have a samsung tv there would be stuff like: https://www.samygo.tv/
webos has an open source version: https://www.webosose.org/
but anything else is even fewer and farther inbetweenI’d think most people woud go for a cheap used ultra Small Form Factor pc or raspberry pi set up as an htpc. Plug in to either tv screen (via hdmi ) or monitor / projector directly. Never connect the tv to the internet - or even to your LAN if you’re really paranoid. You can arse around with a remote control a bit bodgy, or just use wireless Keyboard/mouse.
I cant imagine spending the time to jailbreak a tv to get less functionality for more hassle - but i’m sure some crazy will have done it - good luck finding them though.
Install pi hole at home, force the TV to use that for dns, block some shit but not all, build on that, report back
Seriously, buy an AppleTV. It works standalone without the need for other apple products. Has a fast processor, ability to disable telemetry, good track record of software update support etc. and NO.ADS.IN.THE.OPERATING.SYSTEM.
Using an Android box will result in the same issues you’re trying to get away from with SmartTVs.
If you’re technically capable enough you can build your own HTPC, but due to DRM you’re going to run into issues streaming 4K content from streaming services. And PC and Linux HDR and Dolby Vision support is a rabbit hole.
Except you have needed to have an iPhone to use an Apple TV, and to get around it required a workaround that wasn’t disclosed. It’s happened before, it can happen again.
Apple also telemetries the hell out of your data. The best they offer against this is to prevent them from using it for “targeted” marketing, but that doesn’t really mean much as Apple clearly states:
We provide some non-personal data to our advertisers and strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple’s behalf to display on the App Store and Apple News and Stocks.
Seriously, this myth of “Apple = Privacy/no ads” needs to go away.
That’s the privacy policy for the AppleTV app. Here’s the specific information on AppleTV device settings:
https://support.apple.com/en-tm/guide/tv/atvb66239fa1/tvos
You can share analytics data with Apple or app developers in order to improve their software. Sharing this data is completely optional
The Apple TV runs the Apple TV app.
It’s not a hardware issue that tracks you, it’s every app baked into it which has its own privacy policies.
Yes, it’s called jailbreaking. That said it basically never happens because TV’s are pretty much shitty monitors with cheap digital encoders, and you can buy an encoder and a good monitor for way way cheaper than rewriting an OS.
