This is definitely on the horizon and future generations won’t even be aware of a time when you didn’t pay a subscription for every aspect of life. (TikTok screencap)

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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    15 hours ago

    PiHole let’s the ad servers think they’re doing exactly that

    PiHole blocks the ads by manipulating the DNS entries of known ad servers. So, the ad servers don’t get any traffic. It’s the ad clients that are affected. The ad servers never get any traffic.

    Do the PiHole block lists work for TVs? Probably. But, the block lists are mostly built for web / app clients. It probably works if your TV uses Google TV. But, it’s possible that other TV operating systems like Tizen use a different source for its ads that isn’t on the blocklist. The worst case would be if the ads came from the same domain as the updates for the TV OS. You could block that domain, but then your TV couldn’t get updates. And some TVs, if they can’t get updates will start to complain and interfere with your use of them.

    I wouldn’t want to risk it, so I’d prefer to get a dumb TV that still had all the standard TV features: a TV tuner, multiple inputs, a high refresh rate, decent speakers, etc. But, failing that, I’d be OK with a smart TV that didn’t have ads built in. But, apparently neither of those things is easy to find anymore.