I imagine one could replace the hardware with something else to drive the display portion. It’d take knowledge and a soldering iron, but I’m sure it’s doable.
Probably they have some sort of sensor behind the lower screen that can tell if it’s covered. I wonder how sophisticated that is. Perhaps, rather than covering it completely, it could be obscured behind a crystal pattern plastic sheet, like is used for privacy. It would still let the light through, but it would just be an incoherent light pattern. Build a box to enclose the bottom half, and hold the sheet out a few inches in front of the panel.
EDIT: The correct way to deal with it is to disable the backlight on the bottom display. Found a reddit post about it. It’s cheap and easy enough to do if you have a soldering iron.
EDIT 2: Apparently it does not have a way to detect if the bottom screen is blocked. Fools. Just build a box around the bottom part, and you’re done. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qD-jaukv85U
I would have no objections to literally spray painting that lower screen Tremclad Black. Is that all the tv can do though? I would imagine it’s also stealing as much data of yours as it can and possibly even listening in. Also what if there’s ad sound…?
The thing is, screens are cheap and there’s no real reason to replace unless you’re chasing top of the line which this isn’t.
Save ~$100 now to always have an ad playing isn’t a great deal
I read their TOS when this first was announced and they had something like they’ll bill you the full cost of the TV if you tamper or obscure it and they deemed the cost of the TV as $1k USD.
Advertising is a curse on humanity
And a free tv.
Just mount the soundbar on top of that shit.
It’s as popular as the Fire Phone!
