How to break free from smart TV ads and tracking
58 comments
·December 12, 2025valleyer
csdreamer7
This is really poor research on their part.
bityard
And Emerson has for a LONG time been just an American brand on the cheapest Chinese electronics your money can buy.
The whole article is pretty terrible.
jqpabc123
How I break free from Smart TVs ("smart" for the manufacturer but very dumb for the user).
Buy a cheap smart TV and run it in "store mode".
Brightness and saturation will probably be maxed out but with a cheap TV, it looks more like "normal" on a more expensive model. Hint: The main difference between cheap and expensive in some cases --- the color adjustment range is limited by software on the cheaper models.
Currently using a Hisense 4k model from Costco connected to a small mini PC --- Windows or Linux, your preference. The TV functions as nothing but a dumb display.
Use a small "air mouse" for control. On screen keyboard as needed.
Use a Hauppauge USB tuner for local digital broadcasts.
I use software called DVB Viewer to view local channels and IPTV. A browser with VPN for streaming in some cases.
In every case, I maintain full control of my data and the ability to block ads as I see fit.
gear54rus
> Buy a cheap smart TV
Why does it have to be cheap? What if I want a killer panel without all the bs?
> Use a small "air mouse" for control
An alternative is something like 'unified remote' on it, then you can even type from your phone without any pain.
> A browser with VPN for streaming in some cases.
There is a missing piece for me here. A magic 'send my PC browser tab to this other PC connected to the TV' button. Not sure if something like this exists. It would be ideal to send all the browser context with cookies etc so that you are logged in too and can just start playing whatever you found on PC.
Any for of cast is not an option, rendering has to happen on the TV PC box.
sandbach
> A magic 'send my PC browser tab to this other PC connected to the TV' button
You can send a tab to another device on Firefox. It doesn't come with all the browser context, but it's pretty handy.
jqpabc123
Why does it have to be cheap?
It doesn't have to be --- but you may be wasting your money if you run in "store mode".
As noted above, "store mode" will usually max out the brightness, saturation and contrast while removing user control. This looks pretty "normal" with cheaper models. More expensive ones can become overbearing.
It appears to me that in some cases, the difference between cheap and more expensive is mainly the color adjustments.
In order to take advantage of economies of scale, they may use the same screen panel but limit the cheaper model in software so it doesn't look as "bright" and "eye catching" in the store as their more expensive "killer" model.
AshamedCaptain
Spoiler: this is Ars Technica. Obviously they suggest you to instead get an Apple TV so that you send your data to Apple and watch Apple ads instead (with the only argument being that "so far they do less ads").
shlip
Yup, from the Apple TV article linked in the article[1]:
> According to its privacy policy, the company gathers usage data, such as “data about your activity on and use of” Apple offerings, including “app launches within our services…; browsing history; search history; [and] product interaction.” [...] transaction information, account information (“including email address, devices registered, account status, and age”), device information (including serial number and browser type), contact information (including physical address and phone number), and payment information (including bank details).
Yeah, sure, that's privacy, Ars.
[1]https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/all-the-ways-apple-t...
raw_anon_1111
Let’s see where to start?
1. Email address - you have to use an email address to have an Apple account. How are they not going to have your email?
2. Devices registered - you mean when you log into your device, they keep track of your logged in devices!
3. Transaction history - they keep track of what you bought from them!
Must I continue? Every single piece of data that you named is required to do business with them.
AshamedCaptain
Every series you've ever watched with the Apple TV -- of course, they keep track of what you watched with them!
(/s).
flux3125
Funny how the article itself is an ad
gear54rus
At least we can gather and post an actual solution in the top comment.
amundskm
I have had an old PC hooked up to the hdmi port of an old TV for years and it works exactly as I want. I have full control and don't have to deal with smart tv ads.
aquir
Don’t ever connect your TV to the internet?
M95D
They nag.
dfxm12
Some brands are better than others. I bought a Sony Bravia TV less than a year ago. The nags are infrequent (maybe every fifth time I turn it on) and unobtrusive (a toast notification pops up in the upper right corner of the screen for a few seconds; it's gone by the time the Fire Stick UI comes up).
nickthegreek
Maybe some brands do (feel free to name them). My Samsung does not.
raw_anon_1111
I’ve had plenty of RokuTVs and my previous home had wired gig e Internet in every room. I plugged the TV to the Ethernet to get software updates, unplugged it, set the TV to always switch to the HDMI port with my AppleTV connected and never thought about the Roku again.
The AppleTV supports CEC and controls the power and the volume.
No nagging
guerrilla
My Phillips 65" doesn't. I just have it connected to my old PC via HDMI. Don't need any smart features.
anonym29
This must be a very new or not universal feature. I have an Element E4AA70R 70" 4K UHD HDR10 Roku TV I picked up in mid-2023 for well below $1000. It has never once been connected to the internet, and it doesn't nag me.
M95D
I rented an apartment that had an LG. It showed a FOMO-inducing popup every week.
AlecSchueler
Don't bring one into your house?
null
teeray
TV Manufacturers: “oh no!” *proceeds to remove all dumb TVs from the market*
wkjagt
The article goes into that option.
shlip
Other options than the suggested Apple TV route, include pihole (adblock), kodi, openelec (opensource media players).
DrPhish
Just use a commercial signage display
amundskm
I looked into this. If I am remembering correctly the price was higher. It is just easier to connect a mini PC to an hdmi port and bypass all of the built in TV functionality.
amelius
Unfortunately cars are becoming like smart TVs in this respect.
anonym29
It's not feasible for everyone, but between grocery delivery services, telehealth, etc - if you work remotely anyway, it may be surprisingly feasible to get rid of your car altogether and only Uber/Lyft as needed, at least until robotaxis expand into your area at a fraction of the price of traditional ride-hailing apps.
raw_anon_1111
I work remotely, my gym is downstairs as well as a convenience store with some fresh (overpriced) items, a bar and an (overpriced) restaurant.
My barber and grocery store is a $9 Uber Ride each way. So I could get away with a car easily where I live now. My wife and I have been down to one car since Covid.
But when I was in the burbs if metro Atlanta where everything wasn’t so close, it would have been over $100 easy going from one side to the other or basically anywhere besides the grocery store.
My car insurance is only $176 a month for my wife and I. It doesn’t make sense not to have a car, even if you include the minor maintenance on a car that would be hardly ever driven. Even at a theoretical $400 car payment + $176 in insurance, it still easy to come out ahead.
maurits
"We, and our 226 partners use cookies and similar methods to recognize visitors"
mrweasel
How can you as a publisher not look at that an not go: "Seems a bit much".
Fine that you need to run ads and maybe partner with someone to sell those ads, but 226 of them?
deafpolygon
It’s just a modern-day MLM scam.
pandemic_region
This
lucasRW
Aren't private DNS or PiHoles a good enough compromise ?
HiroProtagonist
Pi-hole
mr_mitm
I have a fire tv and run adguard, which does the same thing as pihole, and I can barely tell it's on. It may block some tracking, but I get an increasing amount of ads in the fire tv GUI, not to speak of YouTube ads.
Sometimes I wonder if the people recommending pihole actually tried it. You get much better value out of ublock, smarttube, and so on.
Sceptre is not in fact "a Wal-Mart brand" but rather an independent company.
https://www.sceptre.com
Westinghouse TVs are made by a company licensing the brand, not a "Pittsburgh-headquartered company".
These seem like easy mistakes to avoid.