The devices those users paid for? That should be illegal.
Not a lawyer, but 99.9999% sure this violates the CFAA. Correct me if I’m wrong? Would t even matter if they included it in EULA or something, ‘no reasonable person…’
This has class action lawsuit written all over it.
There will certainly be many lawsuits about it, no doubt. They e shot themselves in the foot for no reason here. What a dumb move.
There should be a law that any change of T&C after the purchase of a product gives the customer the option to refuse the terms and get a full refund of that product, no matter how old it is.
I have a smart light switch I can’t use anymore because they updated the app to force you to make an account to use it and I refused since it worked fine for the last 3 years without them needing to sell my data.
Especially for physical goods.
Well, my next tv won’t have a Roku in it. I was just about to buy one, and if anyone here has any advice on a dumb TV with no built-in smart features, I would really appreciate some suggestions. They’re surprisingly difficult to find nowadays. I’m looking for some thing 43 inches or smaller, 4K or 1080, and nothing special. Preferably very cheap.(I’m poor)
Maybe just buy a monitor, particularly if you only need streaming.
This may be the best advice, esp since I only need small and dumb.
I use my “smart” tv as a monitor to stream. It has never connected to the internet and it does not pester me.
Smart TVs are usually sold at a loss because they expect to make the money back through ads, so if you never connect one to the internet in the first place, you get a cheap decent TV and you cost these cockroaches money
I have heard that you can’t just choose to not connect it, you actually have to route it to a dead end like a pihole. Supposedly some of these smart TVs will make you think you were allowed to bypass completely but have just connected to the nearest unsecured network.
Not an issue for people who have no neighbors, but people who live in a suburb or city?
I’m not sure about generally, but on Roku specifically, the first step is to kick it off your network. I Mac address banned mine because it was connected to wireless. Then I could use the menus. I used them to factory reset the TV. During the reset process you hit “do this later” on anything that is trying to get you to connect to the Internet. Afterwards, you’ve got a plain dumb TV.
Thank you so much for this walk through.
I’ve heard that too. I’ve also verified that the only unsecured network in range is my own mobile hotspot, and never once seen my TV (or anyone else’s in my apartment building) connect to it. We really need to stop saying that this is a thing that’s happening when the only evidence for it is “someone somewhere said it once”
Well, if its that simple I won’t have to worry when I upgrade next year.
Definitely not at a loss. Just with a smaller margin.
My setup is a Samsung that doesn’t have WiFi setup. It supports HDMI CEC, as does my game console and streaming box, so I basically never touch the TV remote. It’s effectively a dumb monitor.
I mostly stream via my Xbox and AppleTV since they’re performant systems.
It’s effectively a dumb monitor.
I may be old-fashioned but that’s the only thing a TV is supposed to be. You choose how to use it by its periphery.
I know smart TVs get a lot of shit here, but I get the desire to have one remote, no need to configure a universal remote, and no need to manage inputs.
Personally, I think HDMI CEC is the best way to simplify remotes and input management, but I can understand why my folks would not even want to think about external devices and would want to buy one rectangle that has all the things in it already, including an app for their cable channels.
It’s an appealing user experience proposition, but it’s often executed poorly, and creates more e-waste.
Most LGs can be set up without internet at all.
My fucking Samsung Refrigerator refused to cool until I paired it to a mobile app. It wasn’t even one of those fancy tablet screen ones. It beeped at me for hours until I had the time to figure out wtf was wrong with it.
That’s insane. I know it’s a ball ache to move them but I’d have taken that thing right back and gotten a refund.
Yeah, I would have to if I had chosen it, but it was probably the cheapest stainless steel they carried in that size. Landlord replacement when the last fridge crapped out
He can pair it to the phone app or whatever on his device then; his fridge, his problem.
Scepter seems to be the well recommended budget option
How are they with longevity? Like, if they only last 2-3 years, is there a reliable date I can know they’ll die on? That’s good to know.
Like, a lot of TCLs have a hard 3-year life. It’s good to know what you’re buying.
I have a Sceptre tv. I use it as a TV and computer monitor. I don’t remember exactly when I bought it, but it has been at least several years-maybe a decade, and it works great.
The only issue is I think I damaged the screen slightly a year or two ago while cleaning. Most of the time the damage isn’t visible and is very small, so I don’t worry about it. Well…and I had to replace the remote once as some buttons stopped working properly. Otherwise I have been using it without problem.
Rtings is a good site for tv reviews across a wide range of price levels. I’ve used several their reviews to make purchases and have been satisfied thus far.
Wonder what their top dumb TV is besides their top budget models:
Hmm, even their monitor TVs seem to all be smart whether $300 or $1000.
Any TV is dumb, if you don’t connect it to the net
Unfortunately I’ve seen a few recent TVs that constantly pester you to connect it to the internet. TV makers are trying to crush that.
I tried to find one without Smart TV features and they do exist, just not at the mid tier and above and not from any mainline brands. Good news is, at the low tier you might have some luck. I’m personally getting an LG, but I heard WebOS is easy to root so I won’t have those Roku problems.
Commercial display TVs. They are dumb TVs with modern displays.
Shit happened to me yesterday. Pissed me off. Bought this TV years ago and suddenly I can’t use it until I accept their new arbitration shit. I’m building a stream box and disabling the internet on this thing. I’m sick of ads anyway.
Do it, its worth the effort
Build a Plex/Jellyfin server while you’re at it
When are the users taking them to court. These guys aren’t Nintendo so I expect them to have to fuck themselves.
I expect them to have to fuck themselves
Damn I love that for some reason. Thanks for a giggle
I have no idea how US contract law works. Even if you agree to something that says “we can alter the deal at any time”, when a change happens to the deal, don’t both sides have to benefit, rather than “agree to this change so that you can keep the same thing you had before”?
But don’t you see, the consumer surely benefits. After agreeing they get to continue using their tv under our new and wonderful terms of service. /s
So legally speaking, what happens if it was my 8 year old son, who clicks buttons with no regard for human life, that agreed to this BS TOS? How is that legally binding?
Yeah, this is really dumb. There’s no way they can prove the owner clicked on it and they can’t hold anyone else to the terms.
It isn’t, an 8 year old can’t be held to a contract like this. IANAL.
Yeah our special needs child didn’t have much to say about the new terms. He probably didn’t read the whole thing though
did you ASK him if he read the entire thing?
NO- you just assumed he didn’t. He’s probably up in his bedroom thinking about them terms right now
My kid consented. I think. Can she make binding contracts that she doesn’t tell me about because she’s looking for Blues Clues, or am I responsible for every OK she checks when I’m not present?
“Am I legally liable or is logic to be applied here”
Oh c’mon, apply some logic, you know logic won’t be applied, money will.
Removed by mod
You know what. Pirate everything.
With jod as my witness, I will download a tv.
There is no doubt I would download a tv/car/house if I could.
Enshittification continues. I used to evangelize roku bc I want a dumb TV. I guess that’s no longer valid.
Between this and Amazon’s recent nonsense with Firetv I think next time I’ll just buy a generic Android box or something, maybe even a mini PC.
Glad I never connected mine to the internet, I find the interface too laggy and clunky to use the built in streaming apps anyway. It shall remain offline until it dies which is hopefully a long way off.
Is there a FOSS option to turn something like a pi zero into streaming device? My assumption is a flavor of Android is required?
Edit: referring to streaming services such as Netflix. I’m aware of that home plex and jellyfin servers exist
I’ve been looking for a couple of days. It looks like Kodi is probably the way to go.
You can use any of a number of remote controls, or even a modern cell phone.
Unless your media server is up to the full task of transcoding it needs to have a little bit of horsepower to do transcoding on the client.
do you want to pir8 stuff or watch streaming apps (Netflix, Hulu, HBO max?)
streaming apps
Well that is terrible.
