My TV started playing a video in full screen by itself. What happened?
264 comments
·March 30, 2025pmags
ninjin
Sure seems like a "wonderful" company. Their Wikipedia page lists the personal data collection lawsuit and them also likely being GPL violators at that with a court date in September this year:
zahlman
All that plus they expect to run JavaScript on my computer to show any of this page content.
systemswizard
To addon to this they are also owned by WalMart
tester756
That's actually normal
Server6
They're owned by Wal-Mart....so yeah. You get what you pay for.
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jorvi
To be honest, this is part of why TVs can be offered for so cheap these days. Same reason really cheap phones are stuffed with bloatware.
Luckily with TVs you can freeload: just never connect it to the internet and only apply updates via USB. Stick an Apple TV / Chromecast / console into it for playback. This might even become standard operating procedure considering Samsung is getting into the ad game, and LG and Sony likely to follow.
like_any_other
> To be honest, this is part of why TVs can be offered for so cheap these days
I spent $3,000 on a Samsung Smart TV -- and all I got were ads and unwanted content - https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/i-s...
It'll be a cold day in hell when I believe corporate lies that they're doing all of this for my benefit. Especially when they neither clearly disclose all the ads and spying before purchase, nor offer an option without it at any price.
foobarchu
Also when they add these "features" to TVs that were purchased without them.
Like how would it be received if the builder of your house could come in and put up ad murals on your walls without asking? Would we accept "it subsidizes costs" as an answer?
torh
I bought a Philips many years ago, and it was perfect until an update suddenly gave me a lot of crap (ads) on the home screen.
Ironically they also provided a button where I could "adjust what you see on the home screen", but it turned out I could only add more crap. Not take anything away.
It's annoying, because it is not the same product I bought. It's worse.
throwup238
I don’t know how much longer that will be possible with how cheap 5G is getting. Sooner or later they’ll be able to install a $10 part and make a deal with wireless carriers as backhaul for unconnected TVs. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has already made a deal with Spectrum or XFinity to use those open wifi networks that are open to customers via their account signin.
The best solution is commercial displays but those can be quite a bit more expensive and hard to pick out.
dreamcompiler
This idea doesn't bother me at all. I won't buy any TV for which I cannot disable the 5G antenna with basic tools by following a simple procedure described on some website.
If said TV won't work without 5G connectivity, it goes on my "Do Not Buy" list.
NoMoreNicksLeft
> I don’t know how much longer that will be possible with how cheap 5G is getting. Sooner or later they’ll be able to install a $10 part and make a deal with wireless carriers as backhaul for unconnected TVs.
I had a really snarky reply to this, about how I'd just crack it open and remove the sim card, warranty be damned. Then I realized that even sim cards are going away, that's all done in software on the latest phones (no doubt an option soon for everything). Sorta fucked, I wish you were wrong.
PeterStuer
Adding 5G today increases the BOM by 10$-30$ in volume production.
Keep in mind that the tv already has ethernet and wifi to ISP controlled networks. Basically almost every consumer ISP offer mandatory includes an ISP managed gateway, that can pre-certify your appliances or operate hidden ssid networks or "public" wifi access point to the ISP's network. So "smart" appliance operators only need deals with a few big ISPs to get this reach, no 5G required.
With less than a dozens deals you would cover most of the US and EU.
thakoppno
> I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has already made a deal with Spectrum or XFinity to use those open wifi networks that are open to customers via their account signin.
I’m skeptical an arrangement like this could work. The authentication mechanism would be interesting enough to attract security researchers and likely open anonymous Internet access that may undermine any potential benefit gained from viewer data. I could be wrong but I hope not.
throwaway48476
If they added 5G I'd buy one, just for the free service. Old Amazon kindles came with SIM cards you could put in your phone for free data service.
swat535
I think it’s only a matter of time until TVs refusing to work without internet or randomly interrupting your watching experience to ask you to connect to the internet. Heck, they can even learn from Microsoft now and demand a Vizio account, iPhone apps, etc.
Additionally they could start producing them without HDMI or other ports to prevent Apple TV or other similar devices from connecting.
What I’m trying to say is that corporate greed is limitless and the only thing that can prevent abuse will be strict regulations at the end of day.
rkagerer
I hate this as much as you, but don't agree regulation is the only solution. In part because it tends to get things wrong, skew markets, favour incumbents and ultimately retard innovation by startup efforts like mine.
When a company treats its customers like crap, that opens an opportunity for someone else to come along and do better.
Corporations are copying each other's bad habits right now, the kind of behavior you've described is a trend and the ones partaking in this race to the bottom will fail. I'm looking forward to a "revolution" when one rediscovers there's actually a market for quality consumer electronics that treat you decently and are a joy to use (think Apple's earlier iPhone models, auto manufacturers going back to knobs and buttons, etc) and might pursue this myself if nobody else does.
To be clear, I'm not opposed to legislation enforcing some basic, much-needed principles (like privacy preservation, requiring opt-in consent, attaching more liability to collected user data even to the point of establishing fiduciary-like duty on the sensitive stuff, stricter transparency and better user controls promoting consumer choice). I just think you need to be careful about getting too prescriptive on the "how".
donohoe
No it’s not. The cost dropped because new tech became cheaper over time.
philsnow
(4 years ago) I guessed that Amazon was going to sell access to its Sidewalk network to tv manufacturers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27358758
If they do that, they’re not going to be very upfront about it.
SoftTalker
Or take the back off and remove the WiFi module
crawsome
Or just don't give it your Wifi password...
cma
> Luckily with TVs you can freeload: just never connect it to the internet and only apply updates via USB. Stick an Apple TV / Chromecast / console into it for playback
With things like Amazon sidewalk, Samsung smartthings network, etc. it can still get data out
blacksmith_tb
Wouldn't the data be a lot less useful to them? Instead of 'customer watched X show for Y minutes' it'd be 'customer X watched Y minutes of unknown on HDMI1'.
exe34
don't buy Chromecast, updates/resets will brick them.
nightski
You can however turn scenic mode off which I would do immediately. That said, probably would never consider a Vizio tv.
kulahan
Yeah, looks like all they’re saying is that you can’t use scenic mode without ads. They even promise it won’t turn itself back on after an update, which is a surprising yet refreshing thing to see.
chrismorgan
I simply don’t believe such a promise. Maybe that’s their intention now, but such companies subsequently change their minds all the time, and so not seem to feel any obligation to uphold former “promises”.
They even have a habit of blatting miscellaneous user preferences in updates by accident just because they’re careless.
robocat
> They even promise it won’t turn itself back on after an update
The cynic in me thinks that they've tried that and only after it backfired they created the promise (and they'll silently revoke their promise in the future)
ada1981
You could find their ad server and just do a rewrite in your router for that ip address.
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K0balt
It’s tempting sometimes. I recently bought a 43 inch 4K unit for 99 dollars, to use as a monitor for an Apple TV unit. I’m pretty sure it must be heavily subsidized. … but if it’s not, and tech has gotten that cheap, that’s actually pretty awesome! I’ve been working on a project with a hardware element and it is impressive how cheap commodity stuff can be when you buy it on the reel.
It never got hooked to the internet, and it never will. Hopefully network over hdmi doesn’t become a thing lol.
I am paranoid about these things starting to…(oh, wait, there is a great y combinator-able business idea in there that will make life suck a little bit more, never mind)
The inevitable wave of enshitification is real. We need to learn to surf.
barotalomey
> when it turned out they were monitoring your watching habit
I think every single smart tv manufacturer does this today.
At least I know LG, Samsung, Sony, Amazon, Philips, Sharp and Vizio does.
Since your smart TV is on your same domestic IP, there's a market for getting data on your watching habits to combine with your browser habits collected elsewhere.
The advertisers know more about you by now than you do.
That's why AppleTV is the best option for the moment.
cma
AppleTV is full of ads in its app store, is there any streaming device where it doesn't track you and doesn't put ads over your search intent?
deutschepost
Comparing full screen ads on systems like smart TVs with the ads you get on Apple TV seems like a long shot.
The time you spend installing apps is minuscule compared to using them. And after that it is Netflix or google tracking you. Not Apple.
3np
Sure, one you install your own OS on.
3eb7988a1663
I believe a Roku does the same kind of TV fingerprinting, and probably so do the other streaming hardware devices. So, not sure there is any relief anywhere? You can run your own linux HPC, but those get locked to 720p quality.
mystraline
> You can run your own linux HPC, but those get locked to 720p quality.
That is demonstrably not true.
If you run Jellyfin and pirate using thepiratebay and yandex searches, you can get 4k 7.1 audio shows.
kelvinjps10
It's not the OS but the streamimg sites, like netflix and others are locked to 720p.
porridgeraisin
Come on, they are obviously talking about streaming services. Everybody knows you can pirate anything at any quality.
alemanek
Apple TV is pretty good and not very pricey. It’s a good value
nozzlegear
Apple TV has to be one of my favorite purchases over the last five years. It just does what it says on the tin and gets the hell out of the way otherwise. I've bought three of them and disconnected all our tvs from wifi in favor of using these devices.
toast0
Starting at $130 is kind of pricey. A Roku Ultra isn't as capable, but is $80, and a Roku Express 4K+ (no wired ethernet, no dolby atmos) is $30. Roku likes to snoop and push ads too, of course.
And how usable are they if you're outside of the Apple ecosystem (i think I saw an article recently that someone was stuck and needed to use a mac or an iPhone to get unstuck).
Nectar0516
The bigger problem with running on a PC is UI. No longer will it work well with a simple remote that only needs 10 buttons.
qwerpy
It's definitely less ergonomic but I successfully trained my extremely non-technical wife to use a VNC client on her phone to control the media center PC so she can watch streaming/youtube with an adblocking browser.
If you go to the trouble of setting up a media server and Kodi/Plex on the TV, and install a barebones launcher that avoids all the ads on the official launcher, the remote still works well. I don't know whether to blame Sony or Google but every system update brought bigger and bigger ads to the point that I took an afternoon off to sideload an extremely plain ad-free launcher.
dharmab
I had a media center PC that was usable with a remote control in 2008.
kotaKat
Bonus points: users are reporting that the ads it starts playing include political nonsense.
"I left the tv idle while I went to the other room to play with my dog. After about a half an hour, I started hearing Kristi Noem praising Trump and telling immigrants to get out of America, over and over.
I went in to check, and caught this video looping 3 more times before it went back to the nature clips."
https://old.reddit.com/r/ABoringDystopia/comments/1jkwcbx/if...
caymanjim
There's a reason their TVs are basically free.
gorjusborg
I will leave them to those interested in trading their attention in lieu of money.
Apocryphon
It’s funny because I always remember the one time Vizio tried to become the Apple of PCs
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4123166
(the actual Verge link needs to have mobile. removed or changed to www.)
nosrepa
And possibly why this got posted:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ABoringDystopia/comments/1jkwcbx/if...
zoklet-enjoyer
I used to feel bad for South Dakotans. Now I feel bad for all of us.
leereeves
I feel like ads are taking over everything. I fear the world will soon resemble Minority Report.
vitus
Soon?
Sure, we don't have billboards that scan the biometrics of whoever's walking past in order to deliver customized ads, but instead we have conditioned everyone to glue themselves to their own personal miniaturized billboards.
low_tech_love
I wonder if there is any point where this just doesn’t pay anymore? Like, ads can’t be an infinite source of money right? I have no idea of the economy behind ads but could it be that these people could somehow be convinced that ads are a waste of money?
lIl-IIIl
Or "My Flamboyant Grandson": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/01/28/my-flamboyant-...
afavour
God that’s another level of dystopian. Not just ads but political propaganda.
valgaze
Those are probably part of this ad campaign: https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/kristi-noem-announces...
Those idle tv moments are probably bought as an ad slot
netsharc
[flagged]
robocat
> Orwell
There's a little about Eric's son here:
"George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father": https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/george-orwell-...
anal_reactor
This is too funny not to be true
xqcgrek2
[flagged]
jasinjames
If you have a "smart" TV you'd like to avoid connecting to the internet for reasons like this, you can try disconnecting the wireless module entirely. I had a Sony Bravia TV I didn't trust, and after popping off the back I disconnected the wireless module's ribbon cable. The android-TV OS handled it gracefully, and now I don't have to worry about it attempting to smuggle data through any other WLANs in my apartment building.
ffsm8
I have an 6 yo LG OLED and bought a Xbox series x on release. I've had the firmware update disabled too, because I couldn't think of a reason why I would want it to update. I'm not using it as a smart device after all.
Well, when I got the Xbox, it worked. But a few months after, it wouldn't receive any signal on my TV. After some googling, it turned out that the Xbox had a firmware update which now made them incompatible. Incompatible, yes. HDMI. And incompatible.
So I updated the firmware on the TV for the first time and it worked again. A few months later, the same happened again and I was forced to update another time.
So, just as a cautionary message: if your TV has appliances which need to be updated connected to it they might become unusable/essentially bricked if you decide to do that.
genocidicbunny
I wonder if the incompatibility was due to something like HDCP, and needing new keys or something similar. The Xbox is fairly strict on enforcing DRM, and that might be why it wouldn't output to the TV after a while.
I recall that when I was doing console gamedev stuff, some monitors would not work if you set the console devkits into 'retail' mode, especially some of the old cheap LCDs that IT had stashed away to use as temporary loaners if someone's monitor was broken.
sshine
I avoided firmware updates on my Samsung TV and removed as many built-in apps as possible. It used to start in quiet mode looking for a source. Then my renter updated the firmware because of a popup. Now I’m forced to start one of the commercial flow tv channels. Somehow I’m allowed to play the same episode of Baywatch, progressing 10-15 seconds before I start whatever app I actually want to use. David Hasselhoff hasn’t left the beach yet.
This is because some idiot introduced KPIs like “minutes streamed”. Can’t you just be a dumb device?
I imagine that in ten years, every electric appliance is infested with chatbot-level sentience and constantly wants to engage in conversation. EU will introduce laws that force electronics to STFU.
RandomBacon
> Then my renter updated the firmware because of a popup.
And this is why all of those people who say "just don't connect it to the Internet" are wrong.
You can decide not to connect, but are you going to tell every single guest not to, and have them think you're a crazy person because they don't understand the problem?
For those that say, I just won't tell them the WiFi password. I have news for you: many phones have hotspot and data plans where streaming to the TV won't be an issue.
mastercheif
You can remove Samsung TV Plus by long pressing on the icon on the Home Screen > remove > disable. Your TV will go back to its old behavior.
anal_reactor
I connect my TV because the remote doesn't have a button for changing brightness, but there's a PC app for that
gloxkiqcza
TVs should have brightness controls the same way they have volume controls on remotes. It’s great having a >1000 nits display, just like it’s great having a 500W subwoofer, but it doesn’t mean I want to blast it full power all the time and changing it shouldn’t require digging into slow menus.
What’s the PC app please?
anal_reactor
My dad's old Sanyo from early 90's did have brightness control buttons.
https://github.com/JPersson77/LGTVCompanion
I have a few extra buttons on my gayming keyboard that I pretty much never use, so I assigned three of them to a script that uses the above app to change brightness between 30/50/100.
paradite
You can turn it off. This is just a poorly worded FAQ.
At the beginning, there is an FAQ that says you can't turn off ads in scenic mode.
Q: Can I turn Scenic Mode ads off?
A: No, not at this time...
Q: Can I change any settings for Scenic Mode?
A: Yes. To use Scenic Mode with or without volume, navigate to the left side menu on the VIZIO Home screen, click Settings > Extras > Home Page Settings > Scenic Mode. Once you’re in the Scenic Mode section of Settings, scroll down and select either Volume On or Volume Off. You will see a checkmark appear, noting that you’ve correctly selected your setting. If you want to turn off Scenic Mode completely, follow the same instructions to get to the Scenic Mode section of Settings and select Disable.42772827
"Poorly worded" makes it sound like incompetence. This was deceptively worded.
cortesoft
Why would they want to make it seem like they are forcing you to watch ads? They tell you in other sections you can turn the functionality off, they aren't hiding it.
I don't get why they would try to make themselves sound worse than they are.
DecentShoes
So people think they can't turn it off and then don't
42772827
>Why would they want to make it seem like they are forcing you to watch ads?
Defaults are powerful. They want people to believe that's just how their TV works now, because it's a hassle to buy a new TV.
mystified5016
They have a direct financial incentive to prevent you from turning off ads.
That's it, that's the entire story.
Finnucane
I read it as you can turn off Scenic Mode, but you can't turn off ads when Scenic Mode is on. It is poorly worded.
reactordev
I refuse to buy any “smart tv”. If that means going without a TV, then I’m going without one and will use the largest monitor I can use with a small beelink Linux box.
We’re prey for their bottom line as they can’t sell TV’s for a profit without running ads all over it. I’m done. I’m out. Back to books, vinyl, fresh press, gnu, board games, and going outside.
kulahan
I’m pretty sure you can buy “industrial” TVs from standard vendors which might fit the bill for you. They’re much pricier though, if I’m remembering correctly.
reaperducer
I once priced a generic panel from B&H and it wasn't very much more than paying for a smart TV with nearly the same specs.
That's why I don't buy the "but ads make it cheaper" lie.
genocidicbunny
The ads _do_ make it cheaper though. Just not for the consumer.
azundo
We bought a projector. Would definitely recommend this if you have a wall that works for it. No unsettling frame smoothing, a minute or two warm up that adds just enough friction and no smart functions or ads.
reactordev
I have too much light but otherwise, great suggestion. Short throw laser projectors are the brightest I have seen but even they get washed out in this Florida sun.
jasinjames
I second this. Great for movie parties and sporting events. I got a reasonable quality one as surplus from a high-school IT department on fb marketplace.
gruez
Why not buy a smart TV and don't connect it to wifi?
yaur
After a house guest decided to accept the EULA and connect my smart tv to the internet it took me years to figure out how to get it to function without being connected to the internet.
LeoPanthera
Some smart TV don't enable all features until you've connected them once and done a firmware update. And I don't even mean smart features, sometimes it's things like HDMI input formats.
Of course you could just do the one update and then unplug it.
viraptor
You still reward the company and there's a chance you'll resell it to someone in the future, who will not understand the dark patterns. If you really disagree with the approach, just don't touch them at all.
genocidicbunny
As noted in another reply, some smart TVs require an initial internet connection. I suspect we'll see more and more of them also refuse to work without a persistent connection. After all, if you're already just using streaming apps on the TV, then you're probably also connected to the internet, so the whole 'no TV without internet' thing won't bother most consumers.
And even if you don't connect it to your wifi, do you trust that everyone who uses your TV will remember to not do that?
There's also speculation that some manufacturers were looking into ways to piggyback ads and tracking onto public Wifi. For example, if you're in the US and you're near anyone who has Xfinity/Comcast service and haven't disabled the open hotspot, if that is even possible nowadays, there's a possibility that the TV might try to connect to the open hotspot. I don't know what the state of this is, but it's not that far-fetched that smart TVs could do that.
For the latter problem, you could potentially open up the TV, disconnect the wifi module if it's discrete, but then you're hoping that it is discrete, and that the TV will still function without that module.
garfield_light
It's technically still "smart" in the sense that it can be connected to the internet, but the samsung digital signage TVs don't have weird shit or ads.
mbac32768
I wonder if smart TVs are even profitable if you buy them but then prevent them from ever placing a single ad...
jmward01
Sadly people keep buying these types of devices. Every time I walk by modern devices all I can think is how I wish I could buy them without the fear of what they will do once I turn them on. I don't want a new car because of the spying it does. I don't want a new TV because of the spying and advertising it does. I don't want any part of the current crop of smart speakers because of the spying/advertising they do. The problem is I will eventually have to buy some of this junk as my old stuff slowly breaks. If I am forced to buy something spying on me because there is no alternative, is it illegal to poison the data sent back in some way? Is it time to go on the offensive?
drivingmenuts
There are workarounds for a lot of those things, though, and some of them work out to be pretty cheap in the long run. You will have to get used to using older equipment in a lot of cases and doing some of your own maintenance.
mystified5016
It's because these devices are the only ones being sold.
ortusdux
I've said it here before, but I wish a consumer focused org would create a 'DUMB' certification. "Don't Upload My Bits"
gennarro
This is truly dystopian.
Also this sad excuse for an FAQ:
Q: Is payment required to receive Scenic Mode? A: No. Scenic Mode does not require payment and is part of VIZIO’s mission to continually make your Smart TV better than when you bought it.
Smart TVs are really and truly awful.
tiltowait
That answer is a laugh. I quite liked my Vizio when I bought it. After a few updates, I vowed never to buy Vizio again and to recommend against them to anyone who asked.
Now, it constantly nags me to buy a new remote, aggressively changes to an ad screen the moment you disconnect an input, and runs more slowly than before. Great job, Vizio!
CamperBob2
It's like getting an unending dystopian sci-fi series, free with your TV. Guaranteed to be renewed every season. No risk of writers' strikes, cancellation, or preemption by sporting events.
"Scenic Mode does not require payment and is part of our mission to continually make your Smart TV better than when you bought it."
That'll teach me to buy a TV from Lumon Industries...
neilv
When my very nice Sony Bravia vintage dumb-TV did something like this last year, it was due to a streaming service running on my PS5, which service I canceled, with extreme prejudice.
(Right now, the ad-free Netflix that I pay for is testing limits sometimes, of how much they try to control my experience for their own whims, but it's tolerable, and there's potential obnoxious things that they tastefully haven't done.) (Though they did briefly give me two creepy categories, for about a day, but then maybe someone realized their mistake, or got the Netflix fired-fast.)
autoexec
Unless there is massive push back from consumers and people outright refuse to buy these TVs Vizio wont be the last company to do this. Roku also pushes less intrusive ads at you when the TV is idle depending on your settings.
As much as I complain a lot about roku for their spying and ads (they deserve it and I'll never buy one) I do give them some credit for not filling that fish show they have with ads. I know people who have had those fish (or some version of them) on their screens for many years and it's a decent little virtual fish tank.
lutusp
The good news: large-panel TV sets are inexpensive for their performance.
The bad news: like many modern products, and as freely confessed in the linked article, you don't own the TV, it owns you.
The remedy: Connect the TV to your computer as a dumb monitor -- make it show only content you directly control. And disable the TV's network connection -- without that connection, it can't show ads.
My large-panel TV serves only as a computer monitor. My Linux computer runs the Brave browser and has a frequently updated ad-block list in /etc/hosts. This means no "Scenic Mode" ads and no YouTube corporate ads, only ads embedded by video content creators, which I skip over with a pointing device because the video is being controlled by a browser, not a TV.
The FBI recommends use of ad blockers to guard against fraud and malware (https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-recommends-installing-an-ad-b...). On the other hand, some sites refuse to function if an ad blocker is in use. Those sites don't deserve access to my eyeballs.
If all this fails, I pick up a book. Books don't have ads ... so far.
account42
> This means no "Scenic Mode" ads and no YouTube corporate ads, only ads embedded by video content creators, which I skip over with a pointing device because the video is being controlled by a browser, not a TV.
You skip over the ones that are obvious, but not the ones that are more stealthily integrated into the content. IMO if a video creator sells out and adds sponsored content of any kind they are no longer to be trusted to not be manipulative in other ways.
lutusp
This is a YouTube version of the well-established principle that consumers, while being trained to buy specific products, are also being trained ... to buy products, to expect consumer goods to solve existential dilemmas. And I agree, it's true -- deplorable and true.
I seem to recall that Vizio was added to my "do not buy" list quite a long time ago, when it turned out they were monitoring your watching habit (https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/7/14527360/vizio-smart-tv-tr...).
This seems to be more of the same I guess. Choice text from the link above:
Q: Why did I see an ad in Scenic Mode?
A: After Scenic Mode launches to full screen, you may see ads. We offer free, scenic content by supporting it with ads. These ads allow VIZIO to offer enhanced, built-in Smart TV features, 300+ live channels, and 15,000+ movies and shows at no cost through WatchFree+ while also helping keep the price of our TVs accessible and competitive.
Q: Can I turn Scenic Mode ads off?
A: No, not at this time. These ads allow VIZIO to offer enhanced, built-in Smart TV features, 300+ live channels, and 15,000+ movies and shows at no cost through WatchFree+ while also helping keep the price of our TVs accessible and competitive.