Get Ready for Targeted Ads on Your Smart TV

Megalith

Megalith

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Disney, Comcast, NBCUniversal, and other top media companies have teamed up with VIZIO for a new standard that will bring targeted ads to television viewers. VIZIO, which recently lost $2.2 million after being caught tracking and selling viewing data using software on its Smart TVs, claims targeted ads, which are “relevant” to the household, will “drastically enhance” the viewing experience.

The companies are calling themselves a consortium, and they've dubbed this "Project OAR," or Open Addressable Ready. Once developed, the new, open standard will make it possible for all connected TV companies to sell targeted ads in scheduled and on-demand programs. While this will theoretically make ads more successful and therefore more valuable, it also means viewers' data will be shared with third parties. That raises the usual data privacy concerns.
 
How do ad's of ANY kind "enhance the viewing experience"? I mean really. What kind of horse shit statement is this?

Also this is not new. Before I firewalled my 2012 Samsung TV from the internet and handful of times I got a popup (powered by the TV not by the incoming cable line) ad's matching the commercial playing on the TV at the time.
 
JargonGR said:
Can I have a "Dumb" TV please? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase! I just want the monitor aspect without the crap...for the rest I always like to hook up an HTPC and do whatever I like.
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You'll most likely get the standard response that you're free to not buy their TV if you don't want targeted ads. What they won't say is that there soon won't be a TV where you can avoid this.
 
Nytegard said:
You'll most likely get the standard response that you're free to not buy their TV if you don't want targeted ads. What they won't say is that there soon won't be a TV where you can avoid this.
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I’m just waiting for the day the Smart TVs won’t work at all until they are connected to Wifi.
 
If that's only during normal ads time (Like on cable TV or Hulu streaming) AND that there's an opt-out option (Which stop the gathering of info) AND a lower price tag on the TV, well seems fair. But yeah I live in a world with fairies lol. If this happen on top of Netflix, PS4, etc... Wow they're doomed.

NeoNemesis said:
I’m just waiting for the day the Smart TVs won’t work at all until they are connected to Wifi.
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I remember reading about a TOS from a TV maker that if you disagreed would shut off the TV. Guess what was in that TOS...
 
I guess I should start looking into DIY smart TV > dumb TV modding; it seems like I need to mod the hardware and/or software of nearly everything else to get it to work the way I want it to anyway.
 
"Open Addressable Ready"

We're not ready! We're not addressable! And we're not open to your data-mining tailings project!
 
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Skull_Angel said:
I guess I should start looking into DIY smart TV > dumb TV modding; it seems like I need to mod the hardware and/or software of nearly everything else to get it to work the way I want it to anyway.
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Or vote with your wallet and buy a dumb TV to start with.
 
ZodaEX said:
Or vote with your wallet and buy a dumb TV to start with.
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TVs with the best picture quality are going to be a smart TV. If not, then please show me a 65" or larger TV that's dumb, 4K resolution, good picture quality and has a fast enough refresh rate for gaming. I'm interested.

edit
Oh, it's gotta have 4:4:4 chroma sub sampling as well.
 
Skillz said:
TVs with the best picture quality are going to be a smart TV. If not, then please show me a 65" or larger TV that's dumb, 4K resolution, good picture quality and has a fast enough refresh rate for gaming. I'm interested.

edit
Oh, it's gotta have 4:4:4 chroma sub sampling as well.
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How fast of a refresh rate does a TV need to be for gaming? I've actually never encountered a TV before in my entire life (and i'm old) that was too low hertz for playing games. Any specific models that come to your mind?
 
Targeted ads equals time to turn on the adblocker to me.

The future is grand...
 
tremortj said:
Like what ZodaEX? Are there dumb tvs available that don't cost three times more bescause they're corporate slideshow displays?
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So you're saying dumb TVs cost more. So what? My PC cost more to build because of my specific requirements that I insisted on. That's life dude.
 
Ah yeah, my mistake. Fasda is correct. I meant input latency.

Though I do game on my 60hz 4k TV and some games I can't play because the refresh rate isn't fast enough, game is too "skippy" but older games are fine. (IE: not FPS shooter games)
 
ZodaEX said:
So you're saying dumb TVs cost more. So what? My PC cost more to build because of my specific requirements that I insisted on. That's life dude.
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That is not the same. The big corporate dumb sets would not work for gaming. They won't have the low latancy of good gaming TVs, they're not going to support high refresh rates, they won't have VRR support, they likely won't have a lot of input options, and so on. So you'd be spending double-triple (or more) the price for something worse.
 
Here's a thought: Don't connect your TV to the internet.

Voila!

I read through the article, and the article the article was about, and neither one mentioned the VIZIO TVs not working if it wasn't connected to the internet.
 
Derangel said:
That is not the same. The big corporate dumb sets would not work for gaming. They won't have the low latancy of good gaming TVs, they're not going to support high refresh rates, they won't have VRR support, they likely won't have a lot of input options, and so on. So you'd be spending double-triple (or more) the price for something worse.
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Wrong. My sister uses a big corporate dumb tv set exclusively for all of her gaming via her Wii and PS3. (and a cheap one at that) You obviously have no clue what you are talking about. Saying they can't be used for gaming is just a load of horseshit and a factually false.
 
ZodaEX said:
Wrong. My sister uses a big corporate dumb tv set exclusively for all of her gaming via her Wii and PS3. (and a cheap one at that) You obviously have no clue what you are talking about. Saying they can't be used for gaming is just a load of horseshit and a factually false.
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Wii and PS3 aren't exactly the pinnacle of modern gaming.
 
ZodaEX said:
So you're saying dumb TVs cost more. So what? My PC cost more to build because of my specific requirements that I insisted on. That's life dude.
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So what? So you're paying MORE to be free of the crap that is consumerism now. It SHOULD be less, but the attitude is to just deal with it. Facebook, Google, whoever, are all harvesting data to manipulate us into buying shit we don't want or need. They're subsidizing you giving away your freedom and choice. And I agree, your PC cost more to get what you wanted, but you still have a pretty good option to build it how you want. How many dumb TVs are one the market? How many people know that they're data is being harvested just watching a rerun of Friends? It's not the same.
 
Nytegard said:
You'll most likely get the standard response that you're free to not buy their TV if you don't want targeted ads. What they won't say is that there soon won't be a TV where you can avoid this.
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There have yet to invent a TV that would force me to connect it to the Internet.
 
tremortj said:
So what? So you're paying MORE to be free of the crap that is consumerism now. It SHOULD be less, but the attitude is to just deal with it. Facebook, Google, whoever, are all harvesting data to manipulate us into buying shit we don't want or need. They're subsidizing you giving away your freedom and choice. And I agree, your PC cost more to get what you wanted, but you still have a pretty good option to build it how you want. How many dumb TVs are one the market? How many people know that they're data is being harvested just watching a rerun of Friends? It's not the same.
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Honestly, I am really not trying to express the attitude of "deal with it", but the perspective that you should be voting with your wallet and not giving corporations your hard earned cash for products that you don't believe in and don't want to exist. You're fueling the fire by doing so, even if it's saving money. In my opinion it's not worth it. I have made sacrifices in order to support my ideals many times, and you are capable of doing it too.
 
ZodaEX said:
Honestly, I am really not trying to express the attitude of "deal with it", but the perspective that you should be voting with your wallet and not giving corporations your hard earned cash for products that you don't believe in and don't want to exist. You're fueling the fire by doing so, even if it's saving money. In my opinion it's not worth it. I have made sacrifices in order to support my ideals many times, and you are capable of doing it too.
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Ok, you win this one! :) I 100% agree with you. Sounds like we're completely sharing the same boat on a vendetta against being taken advantage of. Mark the calendars folks, two people agreed on a forum!
 
So, what I usually do, well it's 90% of the time is head over to my fav site RARBG. :D Disney, Netflix etc, etc. Ads, do no affect me. I just torrent all TV / Movies, / Games. Very few blu rays I buy andf only a few PC / Switch games. They can do their worst, and I will do my worst :D But in the end I win. Even if torrent sites get somehow banned, there are always the good old Newsgroups :D
 
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If they give me a free TV and free streaming service then I might be inclined to accept.

I have all dumb TVs in my house. Two with Roku devices and one with a RaspberryPi connecting to my server via emby and kodi, respectively. I see no reason for me to change anytime soon.
 
So how exactly does one defeat this, assuming you would want to use the internet features on your TV anyway? Piehole?

I love my Roku's and could give a rats ass about built in "smart" functions. But a lot of people use them.... my mother in law for example...
 
Burticus said:
So how exactly does one defeat this, assuming you would want to use the internet features on your TV anyway? Piehole?

I love my Roku's and could give a rats ass about built in "smart" functions. But a lot of people use them.... my mother in law for example...
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I'd still keep the smart functions in a separate box and get the tv based on other priorities (latency, reliability, wake-up time)

Those "smart" thingies will need replacement a lot faster than the screen (due to outdated software) , better to replace just that small box (at a fraction of the cost) instead of an entire tv. Even mothers in law should be able to get that ~_^
 
I remember reading an article, centuries ago, where someone interviewed a rep from DELL and asked about selling laptops without webcams and the response was like 'our customers all want it'. Fast forward to today... I'm at a cybersecurity conference and like everyone has either taped, bandaided, or stickered their laptop webcam. They even have made plastic thingies that stick around the camera and you can slide a cover over it. These companies (PC, TV, etc) have made technologies that don't give the user control or command over it. They push the technology onto people without letting people have a say. I guess it's just cheaper that way, for them.

Who wants SMART TVs? I'm interested in DUMB TVs.
 
emphy said:
I'd still keep the smart functions in a separate box and get the tv based on other priorities (latency, reliability, wake-up time)

Those "smart" thingies will need replacement a lot faster than the screen (due to outdated software) , better to replace just that small box (at a fraction of the cost) instead of an entire tv. Even mothers in law should be able to get that ~_^
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This is true.
I have a Sony bravia from 2011. It had smart features. It no longer supports Youtube, Hulu, and I'm sure Netflix won't be support much longer.
All of the other apps are also no longer supported, or, have very limited functionality.

I haven't had it hooked up to the internet for a few years. It functions just fine without smart/connected features.

My next tv (if I do get another one) will not be connected to the internet.
 
JargonGR said:
Can I have a "Dumb" TV please? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase! I just want the monitor aspect without the crap...for the rest I always like to hook up an HTPC and do whatever I like.
Click to expand...

Just don't connect them to your network. I connect all of my TV's (all Visios) to my network through external computers that I control. I am a nerd so I had a number of old computers just waiting for something to do. The only reason I have smart TV's is that they were as cheap or cheaper than the dumb TV's.
 
Wonder how many smart TVs automagically connected to the neighbor's open WiFi? Could make for some entertaining targeted ads. Neighbor watches a lot of adult pay channels. Smart TV owner comes home to see the kiddos viewing a targeted ad for the next exciting episode of Carmen Creams Cincinnati.
 
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