Hey there,
I'm looking at 65 inch 4k Smart TV's at the moment and I've seen a lot of reddit posts etc of some companies including ads into the TV's operating system.
I was first looking at the Samsung Q80A combo that JB currently offers but the only way to turn off their ads is to apparently edit your DNS blacklist settings, fml.
Can anyone recommend a TV + Soundbar combo that works great and doesn't contain ads?
Thanks!
The latest LG TV's have banner ads.
What actual "ads"? Google TV gives tv/movie recommendations but I've never given them a 2nd thought
It's not like I'm being sold Viagra through my TV…
I've seen from photos that the OS Samsung TV's use has promoted apps and products on a segment of the home screen.
You can either look for TV quality/features (hdmi 2.1, oled etc), or you can focus on the gui. Most of the time you'd be using remote shortcut buttons to skip straight to the app etc that you want.
I'd rather I bought the TV with the best quality for my money, rather than focus on a small issue like that. Hell, you could buy a TV now just because it doesn't have ads, then 6 months later they pop up on a firmware update…
Yeah you raise a good point then, I guess if the ads did end up annoying me I could always just ignore the default OS and run a Chromecast or media box through it. Cheers!
@Wonderstache: I use a small android box and use none of the TV's smarts. The TV can serve ads, can see everything I'm doing, talk back to the mother ship about my habits - I never signed up for that when buying a telly, and as you say it can change any time. And who knows what other surprises (mic, cam) might be in some of these less known brands.
I'm pretty sure many smart tv prices these days are adjusted to include some ongoing ad revenue and data collection. So any cost for extra hardware needs to be considered in that light. Ie: it's not that much of an issue.
Haha I wonder if hes talking about commercials.
If ads aren't for you maybe don't own a TV?
No I'm talking about ads baked into the operating system.
Had Samsung TV's for many years, never take notice of the "ads" as it's not what I'm looking for when I open up the menu. It's one app icon that is actually the opposite way to which the icon bar works (or at least for me?) so you would deliberately have to scroll towards it.
I'm with spackbace, if you're sacrificing the quality of the TV just to remove a single app icon "ad", I think you've got your priorities wrong. They have no effect on the content you're watching.
Hey thanks for letting me know your experience, hmm yeah that doesn't sound too bad then! Thanks mate I'll reconsider them!
Maybe go in to JB/Harvey's/TGG and play around with the menu's on them
Yeah I was thinking about that earlier :) Cheers
Any recommended Smart TV + Soundbar bundles that DON'T have ads in the OS?
Just get a Google TV, Fire Stick or Nvidia shield etc…
Yeah I was hoping to avoid that if it's a smart TV but we'll see how it goes. Some of the other comments suggest it's not really that bad.
Yeah I was hoping to avoid that if it's a smart TV
You'll get better compatibility and quite likely better performance for a separate, dedicated device.
Some of the other comments suggest it's not really that bad.
Then just get the TV you like and then if you don't like the 'smart' features, get a separate device for streaming.
If you don't use/need integrated online functions then you don't have to connect your TV to wifi = no ads. Especially if you're leaning on a Chromecast/Google TV. This option is a non-starter if you want apps like ABC iView directly through your TV OS unfortunately.
Alternatively, us a Pihole to block ads network-wide, although this does take some experience to setup if you're not familiar with networking/linux etc
Thanks, yeah it looks like I've got some options from some of the previous comments. I could always just connect a Chromecast to the WiFi, rather than the TV itself. Pihole I'll only set up as a last resort if the ads become too annoying/worse in future OS updates.
Hisense and LG both don't include ads maybe its only Samsung