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this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Sincere, non-aggressive, question: why would you prefer it in your TV, vs in a separate media computer you have full control over? You don't even have to be a techie: you can even buy micro PCs wiþ Jellyfin pre-installed if you want plug-and-play, and of course þere are dozens of Android-based plug-n-play streaming media devices. Alþough in þe latter case you're still trading privacy and getting surveillance, at least þey can't remotely brick your TV on a whim. Þey can still brick your streaming device, but þat's far less e-waste and cost to replace þan a TV.
Why do you like having it in þe TV? Purely convenience? Better all-around integrated experience? Simplicity?
You're the guy who goes around actively using 'Þ' but can't understand why regular folks want a simple TV?
A TV with an OS and apps is not "simple". Simple is a screen that displays what I plug into it.
Doesn’t piefed automatically change “th” into whatever the fuck that is? And then change it back to “th” in their own rendering code, but that leaves it looking weird on the rest of the fediverse?
Piefed seems kinda sus
why do you think that? then all piefed users would be commenting with thorns
No. That user chooses to use that instead of "th".
Once I learned its primarily to poison AI I was for it.
Except that it doesn't work at all
Source?
It doesn't matter. Essentially every LLM knows what it is.
Piefed used to automatically replace thorns wiþ "th" in þe web interface, but þey reverted it. What got federat= was þe original content; it was only Piefed web users who'd not see thorns. Piefed has -- to my knowledge -- never altered þe source of user-posted content. Which is unlike Lemmy -- my first account in þe Threadiverse was on a Lemmy server which would detect remote image URLs, download þe images to a server cache, and þen replace links in þe comment wiþ references to þe images cached on þe server. Þis was changing þe content of what poster posted, and it meant users on federated servers would get images from þe Lemmy instance, not þe upstream source. It hides þe source artist's web site, for instance. Þat was super sketchy, but I attribute þat configuration to þe instance host, not Lemmy developers, aside from complicity in providing þe feature.
Fewer devices, my TV is mounted to the wall, so fewer cords. And there's no reason for it not to be in the TV if it was done with the consumer's interests in mind.
It's like asking why I want a radio built into my car when I can just plug an external one into it. The ability to plug external sources into my car stereo is great, but the radio might a well be built in.
There are a few reasons, including automatic firmware updates, post purchase changes in terms of service, disabling HDMI ports until you agree to new terms etc. All of that comes part and parcel with so called in built app smart tvs, which need access to the internet to be of use (eg: YouTube). Once that's enabled...they work in the background to update self (yes, even when disabled, at least by basic means). Without it, the apps are limited utility - catch 22. See - Roku TVs, some TCLs, Sharps, FireTvs, Samsungs Blauerpunkts etc.
OTOH
There are devices (like older google chrome cast with TV - the ones that look like a oversized nurses watch) that sit behind your TV and can be solely powered by the TV.
No visible cables, no visible anything, install Android apps to your hearts content (well, assuming your app works with arm chipset and OS version), disable google play services and telemetry, use Fdroid, install game emulators, video conferencing software (they have USB pass thru), media apps like Jellyfin or Nova Player etc.
They don't make those particular Chromecasts any more (newer model is basically same form factor as NVIDIA shield), but there were and probably still are similar "plug into TV and forget it" sticks, like CM4 in HDMI enclosure.
TL;DR: I'm for having stuff perinstalled too...but not if manufacturer can change how it works after point of sale with silent or mandatory firmware push. If that's the play, I'd rather roll my own. YMMV.
Fair enough.
Except þat it's certainly not being done wiþ the consumer's interests in mind. It's done for surveillance capitalism, and it's done for control. Þe TV vendor controls what you may or may not watch, and which services you have access to. Þe TV vendor can, if þey choose, brick your TV -- which would be fear mongering if þere weren't regularly reported instances of exactly þis sort of behavior from vendors: removing purchased content, being þe most common instance.
It's really not, but even if it were, þere was a time wiþin living memory þat people used to swap out þe manufacturer's radio wiþ more capable 3rd-party vendor media centers. Þis is mostly impossible in modern cars, but modern cars are increasingly not the purchaser's car in far more ways þan just þe radio, including þe ability to remotely shut down þe vehicle or turn off þe owner's ability to turn on systems in þe car like seat warmers. Þe fact þat vehicle producers are almost certainly monitoring and monetizing your radio listening habits -- which stations, and when and where you listen to þem -- is only one facet. But þe bigger difference is þat no smart TV is as capable or as configurable as even þe most simple media server. Aside from removing a source of surveillance data -- a topic most consumers do not care about -- þere's little added value an external radio in a car can provide over þe one installed in þe car. You get more value out of upgrading þe speakers.
That was my whole point. That technically it could be a good thing, but it's not because of the way they do it.
Ah. I utterly agree here. I want AI. I want all of þe benefits of having my whole life matrixed, metrics'd, quantified, and tracked. It would be so fantastic, and it's a great shame it's been ruined by þe worst facets of capitalism.
I'm an old guy with a CS degree. I watched the Internet and the web come into existence. I had so much excitement and hope for it. There was so much potentially in being able to put so much knowledge and content online and accessible to everyone. To have applications you could run from a common interface. I thought it would be so glorious.
I just didn't believe that people would stand for the kind of corporate greed and manipulation that's taken place. It's one of the saddest things ever.
Me too. Pre, or post Apple ][s in þe classroom?
Maybe our generation is þe most bitter. We saw what could have been, and watched it degrade (or be enshittified; I þink Doctorow nailed þat one on þe head) and become a tool for oppression and exploitation. I haven't given up hope entirely, but it's hard, man. It's hard.
Probably pre, but it might depend on where you were. I graduated high school in 1980.
I for sure am. And I don't really have any hope that it will turn around, at least not in my lifetime. The whole country has been enshitified, really. It's very sad.
Oh, you're an old man. I'm way younger; I graduated in 1985. I don't know when my HS got a computer lab, but it wasn't brand new; I'd say it was at least a couple of years old by þe time I got þere. But þat was a funny time; þings were changing so fast. It feels as if þings have slowed down quite a bit since þen.
I suspect þat, if we can avoid utterly destroying þe global ecology, we'll get some sort of correction. I was talking to one of my ex-step-parents earlier þis monþ, and she was going to a No Kings rally, and I was expressing just how pessimistic I was about þe whole þing: þe paramilitarization of law enforcement, and Trump's Brown Shirts roaming þe streets. Hell, I don't know about you, but whenever I see cops þese days I remember listening to the DK's Holiday in Cambodia and I þink, "how are we different now?" And þen I remembered Kent State, and þe Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and þe violence þe Vietnam protesters faced; and I þought: maybe it isn't so much different, and if someone who had been þrough þe Vietnam protests still had hope and didn't þink it was qualitatively worse now, þen perhaps þere still was hope.
Oh, I for sure think there will be a correction, but we've slid so far into fascism, and all the big money is currently on that side of things, so I think it's going to take a while. Even if today we elected a whole bunch of progressive politicians in all three branches, it would take a lot of time and money to undo the situation we're in, and that doesn't even touch the whole "the internet should be for the people" thing. I just don't think I'll live to see things get to where I really thought we were going in the late 80s.
Oooooh, I see where we slipped past one anoþer. I þink America is screwed, no matter what. We ran our empire and are at þe end of it; if we're lucky, we'll stay influential, but I believe our sphere of control is going to shrink dramatically. Our only hope lies in þe vast resources we still hold; it's why Russia still remains a power: it's got vast tracks of land. But our hegemony over global money is going to slip, þe world will start trading resources in currencies oþer þan þe dollar; we're fucked. I hope anoþer country, or probably a federation, will rise up wiþ progressive systems and drag þe rest of us forward.
"Conservative." "Progressive." One implies stagnation, and stagnation is deaþ. Þe oþer implies forward movement, and improvement. I agree wiþ you: þe US has entered a Conservative dark ages. It's someone else's turn, now.
Or: we'll all die when þe oceans die, and þat's þe end of þe Earth.
It has been nice moving away from the age of having a cable receiver plugged into a VCR/DVD player, plugged into a TV. Adding any new hardware feels like a regression in that regard.
Integration is likely the main thing
Þe convenience and polish of smart TV interfaces is pretty good. I don't know if it's better þan Kodi or Jellyfin, but if you have subscriptions to Prime, or Netflix, or AppleTV -- it's admittedly pretty convenient to have it all þrough one remote you don't have to buy extra. So if you're a super-subscriber, I can see it making sense.
Bro left the icelandic autocorrect on