<story><title>I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content</title><url>https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/i-spent-3000-on-a-samsung-smart-tv-and-all-i-got-were-ads-and-unwanted-content/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikestew</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Just give me my Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max,...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;All of which are available on an AppleTV, and I assume other less-intrusive devices. TFA comes to that conclusion in the last paragraph, but just in case anyone didn&amp;#x27;t make it that far. And then, as everyone on this page is going to say, never let that TV anywhere near a network connection. Why anyone would go to the effort of dicking with a pi-hole cat-and-mouse game is beyond me. Plug in a box, remove network access to the TV, watch your shows.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;...even if it duplicates all the streaming app functionality in the TV itself.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know, Samsung&amp;#x27;s fuckery aside, does anyone seriously think that using the duplicate app on the Samsung is going to be anywhere nearly as pleasant a UX as the AppleTV? IOW, use the AppleTV (or Roku, or whatever) regardless just for the better experience.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>autoexec</author><text>&amp;gt; IOW, use the AppleTV (or Roku, or whatever) regardless just for the better experience.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve never used AppleTV. Does it come with ads and a bunch of data collection too? Roku collects massive amounts of data and has ads. For example:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Roughly twice per second, a Roku TV captures video “snapshots” in 4K resolution. These snapshots are scanned through a database of content and ads, which allows the exposure to be matched to what is airing. For example, if a streamer is watching an NFL football game and sees an ad for a hard seltzer, Roku’s ACR will know that the ad has appeared on the TV being watched at that time. In this way, the content on screen is automatically recognized, as the technology’s name indicates. The data then is paired with user profile data to link the account watching with the content they’re watching.&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;advertising.roku.com&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;insights-analysis&amp;#x2F;acr-the-future-of-tv-and-audience-data&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;advertising.roku.com&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;insights-analysi...&lt;/a&gt;)</text></comment>
<story><title>I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content</title><url>https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/i-spent-3000-on-a-samsung-smart-tv-and-all-i-got-were-ads-and-unwanted-content/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikestew</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Just give me my Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max,...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;All of which are available on an AppleTV, and I assume other less-intrusive devices. TFA comes to that conclusion in the last paragraph, but just in case anyone didn&amp;#x27;t make it that far. And then, as everyone on this page is going to say, never let that TV anywhere near a network connection. Why anyone would go to the effort of dicking with a pi-hole cat-and-mouse game is beyond me. Plug in a box, remove network access to the TV, watch your shows.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;...even if it duplicates all the streaming app functionality in the TV itself.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know, Samsung&amp;#x27;s fuckery aside, does anyone seriously think that using the duplicate app on the Samsung is going to be anywhere nearly as pleasant a UX as the AppleTV? IOW, use the AppleTV (or Roku, or whatever) regardless just for the better experience.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mattmanser</author><text>One remote is inherently better than two remotes. It&amp;#x27;s objectively less hassle.&lt;p&gt;The apps are actually mostly identical from experience.&lt;p&gt;I actually use a PS4 at the moment, and it occasionally forces me to update before I can use the TV app, so even more hassle.</text></comment>