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mafuyu
labster
Wait, you want a telescreen that doesn’t watch you back? Citizen, this is ungood crimethink. Plusungood crimethink!
Thankfully, it’s almost unpossible to buy a telescreen without telemetry (and always has been), so Big Brother will know what you are doing. But you should still stop by the local MiniLuv for reeducation, just in case.
mcbits
> Thankfully, it’s almost unpossible to buy a telescreen without telemetry (and always has been)
Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure I recall being able t&%@^0158
NNNNNNNN@*^&
NO CARRIER
newsclues
You can get the same panels as business signage displays (often) but you pay more for less features.
It should be illegal to make money selling a TV and data mining people without their informed consent.
nsb1
"MOM! HANG UP THE PHONE!"
thrwawy74
I emailed the LG CEO and some of the executive board and said (in colorful language) that the only reason I bought this TV was because the quality was unmatched. For the moment LG is the only vendor where I can get an OLED TV like this. But as soon as there are competitors I will remember never to buy LG again for the terrible ad and tv menu experience. I also said how annoying it was that you commit to a particular smart assistant (google or alexa), and the TV will nag you to set up Alexa. I made my choice leave me alone.
The analogy is Tesla is the only one making good electric cars. When there's competition, I will never buy Tesla because of the shitty experience.
Also for >$1k it should let you use the TV as an HDMI multiviewer. It has 4 HDMI ports on the back, let me view plug in my personal laptop on the port 1, work laptop on port 2, and divide the screen to give each laptop a "2nd monitor". Or even 2 monitors each.
boyter
What got me was when my LG tv updated itself. In doing so it broke the Ethernet connection which I was using because the wifi has an issue where it just stops all of a sudden for no reason.
I was able to resolve the wifi issue by resetting the region to another and back and turning off the auto setting for it, but frankly it’s appalling an update can go out that breaks something as basic as Ethernet.
imiric
This is one of the reasons why I've never connected mine to a network. All features thankfully work fine OOB, and I don't see any ads, but I fear that updating it would only harm the UX, not improve it.
The fact a premium TV shows ads is appalling. Does LG really need to sacrifice their brand reputation just to get that advertising revenue? Whoever is calling the shots for this decision should be fired.
aceazzameen
This is why I don't update my Sony TV. It's still on the original version of Android it shipped with. I think I'm missing out on DolbyVision, but I don't care. My TV is snappier and lacks ads that the newer software updates added to the same model.
Is it a security hole? Probably. I have it siloed away from my network on its own router with its own subnet.
kapilvt
I was really questioning the size of big monitors (40+) as a convergence to tv, but unusable as desktop monitor, but now it appears they are a good replacement for a tv, sans the ads tracking, spam, and crappy interface.
smolyeet
I just wish TVs were just the panel without all the smart features. I only use the Apple TV anyways.
daemin
Don't worry, Apple TV will soon get ads and the experience will be much the same as the "Smart" TVs.
I'm pretty sure the smart features were put into TVs so they could become the one entertainment device just like those external set top boxes in the early 2000's. All consumer media hardware is headed in this direction of having advertisements, even in paid/subscription services. I base this on the fact that Foxtel (effectively the one and only paid TV service in Australia) has more ads per hour than free to air TV as people that pay a subscription are considered to have a higher income than ones that don't.
cube2222
I'm using an apple tv with a fairly new LG OLED and never get any ads (I do let it update).
So I think it's just in the WebOS, which I don't really ever use.
In other words, you can use it as a stupid panel and not get ads.
cfn
There are LG (and other's) OLED monitors that do away with all the nonsense. They only go up to 48'' though.
rewgs
I just use a PC plugged into my TV, and a wireless keyboard/trackpad. I don’t see a reason to get an Apple TV or similar —- typing anything is such a pain, and the trend is that no matter what, you’re eventually gonna see some ads. Ublock Origin in a browser is still working great, though.
miah_
Google Dumb TV, there are still plenty of vendors selling them. They are frequently seen in Airports..
ianai
I wonder how difficult it would be to stand up a new panel manufacturer or just tv manufacturer? The current prices of TVs makes it seem cheaper than the past, but could be just locking out entrants.
dontknowwhyihn
Get a short throw projector. You can plug an apple tv into it and project whatever you want on the wall. It’s the perfect dumb screen.
holoduke
I got myself a 60 inch samsung monitor screen for a 1000 euros. Ok its 60hz and no fancy colors. But its more than enough for me.
amelius
This is why these companies should be broken up into companies that produce flatpanels and companies that produce TVs.
beezlewax
LG TVs constantly try to get you to install Alexa. To the point that it'll pop up and you'll accidentally install it when you were pressing buttons for something else. I've had to uninstall multiple times between me and visiting friends accidentally installing Alexa.
TheHappyOddish
FYI, if your TV is rooted (rootmy.tv, or if it's too new: https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io/issues/85#iss...), you can remap the remote: https://github.com/andrewfraley/magic_mapper
Hikikomori
Mine doesn't, I haven't accepted the user agreement that pops up when pressing the microphone button. Maybe it stops if don't accept it?
paulcole
But you did buy it?
-Jack Sparrow, LG CEO
cjbgkagh
Lol, I was thinking that. I’m pretty sure in maximizing profit it’s important to figure out the limit of abuse customers will take, telling them that you’ve reached your limit is almost like saying job well done.
PaulBGD_
You could get a Sony TV, they’ve been making OLED tvs since 2017. A lot of them (all? I had a hard time finding sources on some) use the exact same panels as LG.
iancmceachern
This lg monitor have let's you do that, agreed that they should extend the capability to their tvs.
LG 43UN700-B
thrwawy74
It annoys me to no end that they're more focused on ads than features that might bring a ton of work-from-home consumers to their store.
I remember looking all over for an "hdmi quadviewer" that had all of these things:
>= 120hz hdr / 10-bit color edid web admin to adjust layouts (or some other method)
I got close, but the biggest thing I can't find is higher framerate viewers. My TV should do this.
kxrm
Just be aware that some apps will bypass the local net DNS settings and hard code Google DNS or a third party DNS. I have a firewall rule in my router that redirects those queries to my pi-hole.
tomschlick
Now they are starting to use Dns over Https to get around those restrictions. Super scummy
at_a_remove
I have no idea how people are going to defeat DNS over HTTPS, as it seems to mean (and please correct me if I am wrong) that allowing this thing on my network, well, I will just never be able to know what it is doing or to whom it is talking.
rightbyte
I have this feeling Google et al. were pushing https from the get go to prevent us from snooping on their spying.
Encrypted DNS is more of the same.
chanandler_bong
If your router can do it, have it route all of your DNS queries to your (pi-hole|adguard|nextdns). Doesn't matter if they are hardcoded to 8.8.8.8, anything to port 53 goes through the blocker.
Asus Merlin firmware handles this nicely.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS
I do this on my OpenBSD router where I run unbound (with ad blocking lists).
Works great.
lencastre
Maybe not the best place to ask, but how does one do that with a UNIFI CK gen1, that is, using their Network OS?
I have a RaspPi working wonders but I suspect some devices have hardcoded connections which bypass the DNS request. Is there a simple way to forward to that RaspPi for correct “gate keeping”?
illiac786
this only works until the smart TVs get even smarter and use DoT|DoH to a hardcoded server, which I assume is a day not so far away.
lostlogin
This is the way (until encryption breaks it).
I have a nice script that does the same on an edgerouter, some variation on ‘if port 53 and not from Pihole, send to Pihole’.
mafuyu
Good point! I'll have to look into adding that.
BrandoElFollito
(#inlcude my typical rant about why in the US the consumers are not better protected against such ads, this is completely illegal in Europe)
I used to have an EdgeRouter which was a huge improvement to the ISP-provided crappy box but ultimately the configuration was so complicated and inconsistent that I switched to a small fanless debian box. I put Pi-Hole there, which also covered DHCP and DNS services (synchronized together).
It has been a blast and I have more confidence that I will understand what is happening (vs the ER magic)
KerrAvon
I have a PiHole, but I also disable networking on any TV in the house and use an AppleTV instead of the native TV apps. LG and Samsung will eventually route around ad blockers by bypassing DNS altogether.
powvans
Eventually they’ll just route around this by connecting to your neighbor’s Ring doorbell or your Nest thermostat or whatever random internet connected thing that it can reach out and pass packets through.
harshalizee
Most likely they will start coming with their own cellular network capabilities built in, bypassing any need for a network connection. They would also be able to screen capture and analyze whatever you watch, even on external devices like apple tv and inject ads directly as an overlay. The thought just sickens me.
satori99
...or just put a cellular modem on the BOM, and have the advertisers pay for it.
nmeagent
I imagine we'll eventually just have to start removing antennas.
jrnichols
Not if the TV is plugged in via ethernet to an old linksys router that just happens to be disconnected from the internet.
that's worked for me... so far..
gurchik
> Pi-hole also has a nice interface for pointing `.local` domains to local IP addresses, which is much easier than messing with dnsmasq settings on the EdgeRouter.
This is why I have Pi-hole set up as well. I wanted to have custom DNS records so I can resolve multiple named services to the single IP they're hosted on. With my Ubiquiti Security Gateway you have to do this by SSHing in and modifying the dnsmasq settings. It's much easier for me to manage this on Pi-hole. The DNS request metrics and blocking are just a bonus for me.
6ak74rfy
I bought an LG OLED TV couple of months ago during the Cyber Monday sale.
> but the TV was absolutely packed with ads via the home screen and pop-up toasts. To add insult to injury, the home screen would lag for several seconds at boot while it pulled down all those ads.
I was shocked to read this. I've been running AdGuard Home for awhile now and had no idea that my TV was capable of showing me so many ads. Even my spouse breathed a sigh of relief (and possibly admired my setup just a little!) when I read her these lines.
sgtnoodle
I got an LG C2 and immediately plugged a Roku into it. I've spent less than 5 minutes total looking at WebOS. I also have OpenWRT's ad block setup enabled on my router. If there are ads on its home screen, I am blind to them.
kevin_thibedeau
You may as well get a RokuTV and avoid the remote juggling for volume control.
laurencei
I love my LG TVs.
The problem is, for anyone who wants a smart TV, every brand is just as bad. Samsung, Sony etc.
I know some people say "get a dumb TV" and use chromecast etc - but I just want an all in one integration etc.
mafuyu
I've heard that the high end Sony Bravia TVs are better in this regard, but haven't confirmed it myself. They are quite a bit more expensive than the other OLED TVs on the market, however.
One thing I've been feeling lately with internet-connected home devices is that I'm being pushed towards products from big tech companies like Google. Google might mine my data still, but at least they'll ostensibly do it competently and securely. Not a great feeling. Despite not really being in the Google ecosystem, maybe my next TV will be one with Android TV support. On the smart home side, I did get into self-hosting Home Assistant recently. I didn't expect much from it at first, but it's remarkable how liberating and useful it feels compared to the one-size-fits-all approach of Google Home or HomeKit. I'm actually excited to try and get some more smart home devices now, beyond just a few lightbulbs.
Garrrrrr
Anon gathered around and hacked Sony back in 2011 (mainly) because of the absorbent information they were gathering from everyone's PlayStation 3 consoles. They never stopped gathering an obscene amount of information from their users, and nether did any other mid-major technology company.
Google knows everything about you/us if you use their services. It's really bad, we know. For some of us that's inescapable because of our careers/jobs, or if we use Google search on our own devices on our networks compared to alternative platforms. Even your smart lightbulbs are gathering data on you. Android (AND Android TV) is Google:
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/android-sends-20x-mo...
brk
I have an LG TV (bedroom), one of the higher end Sony's (main TV), and the Sony is much better, IMO. The LG is constantly nagging for software upgrades, and once there is an available option it puts up a nag screen EVERY time you turn it on, making it very difficult to ignore. The LG also seems to be constantly removing apps and features, or just needlessly altering things. The Sony software updates have seemed less frequent and more logical.
100% would not buy another LG TV.
whydoyoucare
There are no dumb tvs' sold on the market anymore.
braingenious
https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.htm...
I believe this company still sells them.
muppetman
I used to use pi-hole. Then I replaced it with adguard home. Adguard home is a single go binary, and it properly supports HTTPS and secure DNS out of the box. Pi-hole is great, Adguard home is greater I think. At the end of the day though they both provide the same service. But I like that with adguard home I can have TLS DNS so I can have my mobile phone use private DNS via it even when it's not at home.
t0bia_s
You cannot ad blocklist in batch in AdGuard. Also developers are from Russia with headquarter in Cyprus.
leokennis
This always makes me conflicted about AdGuard. I don’t mind they’re Russians, they cannot help “their” president being a tool. But the shadiness and opaqueness doesn’t jive well with me for a company that can basically see all my internet traffic.
I’m currently happily using https://nextdns.io/ but I don’t thing you can install that on a Raspberry Pi.
muppetman
What do you mean add blocklist in batch? Do you mean assign a particular blocklist to a particular client? If so then yes, this is the one feature missing from Adguard home. Its other features more than make up for it.
t0bia_s
I just want to add multiple blocklist urls. I cannot. I need to copy paste url, name it (optional) and confirm for every single blicklist.
machinekob
But code is open source so r*ussians who cares?
DavideNL
It's kind of suspicious though, that you cannot find any info on for example who the Adguard CEO is, on their website.
Most companies have an "about us" section with info where at least you can see who the people/management are.
Instead, they provide a vague page: https://adguard.com/en/contacts.html
le-mark
Is anyone compiling from source or are most all installing precompiled binaries? How does one verify a binary matches the source with no additional code? This is a rhetorical question meant as an excercise for the reader.
moontear
I agree. Also better DNS rewrite support for split DNS scenarios. I do like the dashboard and analysis possibilities of Pi-Hole better
javchz
I use to be anti AdBlock, as a lot of the creators I follow get food over the table thanks to ads... But man, things got out of control, the industry have gone so hostile, where a typical site went from 30% ads 70% content to the inverse and worse.
What I hate the most it's how the try to scam no savvy tech people, like grandparents and for those scenarios pi hole it's a tool made in heaven (specially as there are not global adblocks extensions for mobile devices)
I still don't use for my personal network, but for my senior family members that use tech only for video streaming or reading the news, this it's an amazing gift.
knodi123
> What I hate the most it's how the try to scam no savvy tech people, like grandparents and
Oh, that's my utter bane. My mom knows better, I've taught her how the manipulations work, and then she'll show me a pertinent article on her tablet, and see an utterly outrageous clickbait link from Outbrain or Taboola or the like, like "This mom found out her kids were smoking WHAT?!" and pictures of some bugs or whatever.
And she'll get a guilty and tortured expression and say "Oh, I know they're probably manipulating me, but I have to find out what this is about." No!!! You really don't have to!
I tried to sneakily install ublock, but I made ONE mistake when trying to add a custom filter on a site she regularly visits, which broke her user experience for 3 minutes before I fixed it, and she demanded I immediately uninstall the "hacker programs".
pontilanda
The sad thing about clickbait is that it works wonders, and you'll never guess what happens next!
knodi123
Shoot, I know you're probably being silly, but I have to ask, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!?!?
Mountain_Skies
My grandmother was like that with the National Enquirer and Weekly World News. She knew it was fake garbage but she couldn't resist reading it and you could tell some of it did end up sinking into her mind as being true on some level. But at least those tabloids weren't tracking her. She bought them at the grocery store each week so they didn't even have her on a mailing list. I do believe they had some scammy ads in the back of each issue but I don't recall that ever being a problem for her. Granddad had no interest and just kept to his Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines, both of which at times had articles and ads of questionable quality but were far better than the tabloids and modern online clickbait.
makestuff
I’m in adtech, and it always frustrates me that the product managers make all of their projects around how can we squeeze out more demand out of existing listeners/viewers. One would think it would be a better experience for all to see fewer, but higher quality/higher CPM ads.
Viewers see less ads, but probably wouldn’t resort to ad blockers if they only saw one ad on a website instead of 10. Advertisers would get better click through rates because you aren’t competing with as many ads. The downside is advertisers have a higher CPM, and maybe the data shows high CPM campaigns don’t work.
Regardless, after working in it for awhile I see how we got where we are. I don’t foresee a world with no ads since the vast majority of people don’t want to subscribe to every website they visit, but maybe there will be a better model in the future.
dismalpedigree
I hope you can be our savior and burn it all down from the inside.
lloydatkinson
I even wrote an article on a related topic: push notifications acting as a way to deliver malware to devices by relying on non-technical users being scared into clicking allow.
https://www.lloydatkinson.net/posts/2022/consider-disabling-...
ge96
Jim Browning fights the good fight
Yeah a lot of sites (articles) there's an ad between every paragraph or they scroll you to the bottom which has those garbage sites as you try to leave.
sodality2
A truly better alternative to pi-hole while still self hosted is AdGuardHome: https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome#comparison-pi-hol...
djhworld
I looked at this and played with it a little.
One crucial thing I use my pihole for is to forward traffic going to the .lan top level domain to my reverse proxy (traefik), I couldn't figure out how to do this in the pihole UI so I just added a custom config file to /etc/dnsmasq.d which works perfectly.
I'm not sure what adguard uses but would be interested to here if it's possible!
EDIT: just seen it supports DNS rewrites, which seems to do a similar job. Nice! I might give this a shot for a while
inamberclad
I had a pi-hole set up for quite a little while, but my partner complained that they could no longer click on google shopping links. It boggled my mind that anyone actually clicked on these, but now I have to find a way to whitelist their devices.
winstonprivacy
We implemented a web extension specifically to allow this. It basically worked by giving the user a warning that they would be tracked if they proceeded, then gave them a button to proceed anyway. This was a top feature request for our first year of business, driven mostly by our users' wives.
It was actually a pretty tricky bit of technology to build, as it had to work not only for the original link, but all of the associated trackers which were triggered by the event (otherwise the ad might not load).
LilBytes
As others have stated I worked around it by setting up a wifi connection with different DNS servers and adding '- No Adblock' to the SSID.
Not all routers have this functionality and if it doesn't you should be able to flash Tomato or similar, or use PfSense. Depending how home baked you want to go.
addandsubtract
Using Google Shopping is a cheat code to getting cheaper prices. Companies will mark their products down way more than any other coupon that can be found online, just to appear at the top of the results. It's amazing at saving money, if you already know what you want to buy.
muppetman
Look at the oisd blocklist. It's very comprehensive (I removed all other Blocklist) and it ensures that it doesn't break any users experiences.
westhom
Exact same reason I stopped using pi-hole. It bugged out Google shopping and my partner complained. And the whitelisting / access control is annoying UX imo so I went back to normal DNS. Might return to it eventually but not enable it for every dhcp client.
Edit: and her iPhone changes its MAC address randomly so the access control was tricky to maintain.
monotux
The Mac randomization can easily be disabled per Wi-Fi, so it’s only disabled at home.
Not sure it can be done on android.
ignoramous
Can be disabled on Android per wifi, too.
jrnichols
a lot of these issues are why we joke about the WAF .. the "Wife Acceptance Factor."
it's also telling me that a lot of tech products are not tested with women customers at all.
impish9208
You can create a group of devices for which the DNS filtering doesn’t apply to.
thrdbndndn
I don't use Google shoppings, but I click Amazon shopping ads on some indie/personal sites all the time.
For example, one of the them is a music database website. Its ad shows the links to buy the CDs (it's in Japan, FWIW). I find it very continent; I often just go Amazon to check info even if I don't want to buy.
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vk6flab
My Pi-hole has been running in a Docker container on my main workstation for several years. I tend to refresh it once a month or so with a simple configuration as shown in the example files.
docker pull pihole/pihole:latest
docker run -d \
--name pihole \
--restart=unless-stopped \
-p 192.168.1.1:53:53/tcp \
-p 192.168.1.1:53:53/udp \
-p 80:80 \
-e TZ="Australia/Perth" \
-e PIHOLE_DNS_="1.1.1.1\;1.0.0.1" \
-e WEBPASSWORD="{redacted}" \
-e DNSMASQ_LISTENING=all \
pihole/pihole:latestcloudking
AdGuard on Home Assistant is another good solution, has some additional filtering options too like enforcing safe search on Google and YouTube https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/adguard/
ck2
Not quite as good but a free fallback
https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html#addresses
Also ublock-origin works on Firefox mobile.
nipperkinfeet
I found out recently Adguard DNS also hides placeholders of blocked elements inside Android apps. I don't need MinMinGuard anymore.
ignoramous
It may or may not matter, but: MinMinGuard is FOSS, AdGuard for Android is not.
nipperkinfeet
The issue is that MinMinGuard hasn't received an update in a while and has ceased functioning for me on Android 12.
mackrevinack
kiwi is another mobile (chrome) browser that supports extensions as well
djhworld
Been using this software for years, it's excellent. It's really eye opening when you have it turned off as well, like suddenly the filters are lifted and you see what the reality is for most people.
Sadly the cat and mouse game between ad vendors and systems like this is, the DNS sinkholing method is either being circumvented thanks to rapidly changing/randomised hostnames outpacing the adlist authors, or ads are rendered server side.
I've never been able to get it to work as the primary DNS source on the router though, so I always have to configure my devices to statically point to the IP of the pihole, but that's just a minor inconvienience (although annoying when devices like TVs don't allow you to configure DNS, or override it secretly for their own stuff)
jmakov
Also Nextdns. Hapoy user.
activatedgeek
Opened the comments to put in a recommendation for NextDNS. The free plan allows 300k DNS queries and is more than enough for me across three devices (Mac/iPhone/iPad).
I have not needed an ad-blocker for the past 2 years and hardly see any websites breaking. Often syndicate links break, which is not a big deal for me.
chanandler_bong
+100 for NextDNS. Happy paying customer here.
Aside from it just working, their mobile client is a fantastic thing. When I am off wifi, my phone routes DNS to NextDNS and I get the same adblocking when I am on cellular data.
hbcondo714
Me too, my Android / Samsung phone has a "Private DNS"[1] setting where I specify my NextDNS instead of using their mobile app.
nehal3m
For those who prefer Pi-Hole, I set up a VPN server on my PfSense so my devices can use the DNS server in my home network when I'm out. The fact that traffic is encrypted is a nice bonus.
I do this on a symmetrical 500Mbit fiber line, YMMV.
mixmastamyk
Sounds good, are they selling your queries?
ignoramous
Don't think they are, but if you're after privacy, of course it isn't strictly better than self-hosting AdGuard Home or Pi-Hole.
As one ex, not me but some may be uncomfortable with their use of BigCloud (AWS/GCP/Cloudflare) infrastructure.
stranded22
Nextdns here too!
I gave pihole a shot but an update went wrong and I had to muck around getting it to work again (it was also my dhcp, so was a pain whilst working from home!)
Back to nextdns and it’s smooth. I have different profiles set up - a home one (for everything that can’t take DoH, including my work laptop), one for my son (his iPad), one for my wife (no logging, minimal ad blocking, allowing Facebook) and one for my devices (lots of different blockers).
It also works outside of my network too.
I pay the £17/year as I feel allo of this is worth supporting.
kstenerud
I used it at home and liked it... for 10 days, after which it stopped working because I'd hit some limit. For 1 computer, 1 Amazon TV stick, and 1 phone that I barely use, 10 days max is pretty bad.
So I uninstalled it and went with adguard, which doesn't arbitrarily stop working.
mritzmann
> because I'd hit some limit (..) 10 days max is pretty bad
The free(!) plan includes 300,000 queries per month. That is transparent everywhere. On the website, pricing page and in the dashboard. You can even see how much you have already used. That's pretty fair for a free service for which you pay nothing. For me, that's enough for a whole month.
> (..) which doesn't arbitrarily stop working
1. NextDNS sends an email before the limit is reached
2. Once the limit is reached, no more ads are blocked, but dns continues to work
kstenerud
Hey if it works for you, great. It didn't work for me. 10 days casual use for 1 person and then "pay me" is not a positive experience, so I found another solution.
blakeburch
I currently use a pi-hole. In a home of 2, we have 74k queries per day. That would effectively be a 4 day trial... so I can understand the other person's frustration.
cpressland
The only feature NextDNS is missing that I’d love (and am tempted to switch to Pi-Hole / Adguard to get) is Custom DNS records. I really don’t wana run my own DNS Server forwarding to NextDNS just to do this.
Edit: I just discovered this is a thing “Settings > Rewrite”
cramjabsyn
Hapoy hapoy jpy jpy
benhurmarcel
It's good but unfortunately their Windows and Linux clients are fairly buggy.
JFKKFJ
[dead]
account-5
I'm thinking of getting a hi-res projector instead of a smart TV.
I had a Samsung smart TV but got rid of it last year because of the ads, slow start up, bad sound, and just all-round bad anti-user crapware that was on it. Reverted back to my old (10 year old) dumb Samsung and it's much better hooked up to a streaming stick.
I long for the days when all you had to consider when getting a new TV was color, resolution, picture quality, frame rate, etc. Instead of what OS it's running, how long you'll get update, how bad the advertisings going to be, as well as the above.
Any recommendations for a decent projector?
t0bia_s
I dont have smart TV, however I have BenQ MH550 over 3 years. Just for Kodi and pictures. It's great. Since then I'm barely go to cinema, except film festivals. And I'm partly work in film industry.
Look for DLP projectors if you want watch primally films. They can adjust frequency to FPS of played media and colour reproduction is more pleasant to watch. Avoid LCD projectors. They are great for presentations and graphic in bright environment, not for film reproduction in dark room.
kriz9
I am currently testing out Epson ls500 as a tv replacement. It has been great so far. Only downside is the ugly "periscope" on top and the throw distance being a bit too far so it takes too much space away from the living room. Epson ls800 looks like the perfect projector but is still a bit pricey. Ls800 has a much shorter throw distance and looks much better in the living room.
beagle3
My main problem with projectors is noise. How are these ones fairing?
kriz9
LS500 is quite noisy on full brightness (100% 4000 lumens) but almost silent in eco mode (50% brightness). But at 50% I would not call it a tv replacement anymore because the brightness is not great for daytime viewing. Not sure about the LS800.
theshrike79
Projector is good if you only use a Tv for Watching Movies or Playing Games. Capitalised for importance But if you just want to have the TV on and browse your phone while glancing at it or channel/stream surf, it's not that practical.
I lived with a projector only for a good decade, when I had no kids and very few hobbies outside of TV/Movies/Games. It was amazing to have a 120" screen with a pretty minimal investment. Fully darkened room and two proper recliners for me and the SO. Great stuff.
Then we had kids. And when the rugrats want to watch Pocoyo or Octonauts or whatever is in fashion at the time, then having the projector on seems just wrong. Never mind that you can't see crap if you have the lights on at the same time.
Yes, you can get modern projectors that have amazing brightness and short-throw projectors that can just be put on a table. But still a 60-70" 4k HDR TV is more practical unless you have a separate theater room.
cpuguy83
I ran into too many problems with pihole breaking sites so I just turned it off.
muppetman
You should look at the oisd blacklist. It's curated to ensure that it doesn't break anything and in my testing The last 3 months, it lives up to its name very well. I haven't had any sites break or any reports from the kids about things not working. Prior to that the block list I use would sometimes stop the Apple store from working and those sorts of things, it was very annoying.
DavideNL
Or perhaps https://v.firebog.net/hosts/lists.php?type=tick
via https://v.firebog.net/hosts/lists.php which also describes 'Whitelisting Suggestions'.
Alternative: https://github.com/jacklul/pihole-updatelists
muppetman
There's lots of other solutions, but I've had zero problems since swithcing to osid and I pipe a lot of things (Nintendo Switch, kids iPads, my Google phones, my laptops) through it and it hasn't given me a single issue.
It certainly DOES let through a few more trackers, but that's the cost of a list that doesn't cause problems.
chanandler_bong
That's like saying your seatbelt is uncomfortable so you don't wear it while you're driving. Don't take it off, find a solution to make it work.
Use a better block list (OISD has been mentioned already), or use NextDNS. Neither of those cause breaks in most sites and stop the most bothersome/prevalent ads.
highdeserthackr
True, more and more sites get broken, even page content for our DMV website. I've gotten used to activating the pi-hole Disable for N seconds/minutes feature regularly.
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What finally got me to setup pi-hole on an old Raspberry Pi was getting an LG OLED TV. The webOS apps for YouTube and Plex are pretty convenient, but the TV was absolutely packed with ads via the home screen and pop-up toasts. To add insult to injury, the home screen would lag for several seconds at boot while it pulled down all those ads. And then I discovered that even after opting out of all the telemetry options, it was making DNS queries for _several_ data mining services that analyze what's being shown on the TV. I didn't Wireshark it to see what API calls it was making, but clearly opting out in the menu wasn't enough. After some passes of scanning the pi-hole logs and adding to the blacklist, my TV is snappier and ad-free. :) Definitely will not be going with LG for my next TV, though. It's mind blowing to me that this is the user experience on a TV that costs over $1k.
As for the pi-hole setup itself, it's working great. It's a great backup to locally installed adblockers, and I have my EdgeRouter as the primary DHCP DNS server, which makes requests to pi-hole. Both the router and pi-hole have caching, and my DNS query latencies are good. Pi-hole also has a nice interface for pointing `.local` domains to local IP addresses, which is much easier than messing with dnsmasq settings on the EdgeRouter.