Surgeons generally initial their incision site pre op; one of the general docs I worked with had the initials "HA", and would do laparoscopic surgeries with 3 port sites... so our patients would roll in with "HA HA HA" written across their abdomen. Always got a kick out of it! ^_^
I haven't had a tv in years, and every time I get tempted by the screen size I have to remind myself about this shit. It's just me, 30 inches is enough, and I haven't seen an ad within my own home since 2012 (not entirely true, I've changed browsers a few times and had to re-setup adblockers).
I use an adblocking DNS on my router (pihole can also work), and I haven't seen any ads on my 2023 Samsung TV (the TV interface itself).
Edit: Also wanted to add that a quick search can get you a list of samsung domains to block on your router/pihole to stop ads and tracking. I have around 10 samsung domains on my block list. Note that it might break the samsung tv function.
Why do people buy Samsung bullshit? Honestly. Weren't the multiple products known to catch on fire enough? No, you need more than "products might catch fire" and "everything they make is enshittified to the max"?
Ever since my Samsung Galaxy S5 got an update that fucked it in every single way, I decided that there are no exceptions to the shittiness they work into their products.
Fuck Samsung. Stop buying their awful, overpriced, bloated, half-functional, fuck-ass engineered e-waste. They might even be worse than apple and that's saying something.
The hardware they use on these TVs is complete shit* anyway, so your actually better off not using them for anything other than a TV. Buy an android box or one of those mini PCs instead.
*every time I saw the specs of these "smart" TVs a few years back, I would internally scream. I don't know if it has improved since, but I highly doubt it.
If you need an internet connection for some reason, run a network-wide DNS filtering solution like Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home, and make sure to set it as the default DNS server in your router
This has to be something that's only legal in the US because I've never had ads on any TV that I've owned. Never even thought about it, I just get a random big TV and it doesn't have ads.
Admittedly I haven't actually bought a TV in about 10 years so it is possible that the ones I'm getting from family members and friends are just very well researched, but I doubt it knowing them. They will have just got whatever is biggest.
I did a network analysis of outgoing traffic/connections from my Samsung TV. I don't have the results anymore, but with the TV sitting idle, the amount of connections was.... Staggering. Just, a lot of different connections, and I have no idea why.
Unfortunately, we use our TVs smart features so we don't have a lot of options for keeping it from doing these things.
I'm still pretty salty that it's basically special order to get a non-smart TV. You basically need to buy a commercial model to get one that doesn't have or need an internet connection to do what you need it to. I don't have that kind of money, and I don't have enough money to just throw away a TV because of this shit.
I dread the coming day I'll need to buy a new tv, amd wonder if by then there will be guides (get this brand, download this xda tool exfiltrated from the oem, jailbreak that, cut this circuit-trace, etc.).