Eww
I would rather deal with the LG ads.
Classic Apple. "Don't you dare buy our hardware unless you're ready to go all in and buy all of our ecosystem!". Does the Apple TV have similarly bad UX as an iPad, in that if for some reason it can't install an app it just spins a wheel forever, without any feedback about what's wrong? I had that when trying to install Apple TV+ (yes, they suck at naming things) on an iPad, it was failing because I had no payment method set up, but graciously refused to tell me why. Similarly, Apple TV+ has a fun bug that if you try to download too many things at the same time (say, you're at the airport and want to download a season of a series before a flight), after 2-3 it fails with "download failed" and the only solution is a full restart of the iPad.
For all of those, there were years' old forum posts describing the bugs and the "solutions".
Need to register an already bought Mac to your MDM? Have to buy an iPhone to install Apple Configurator for that.
Need to register an already bought iPhone/iPad to your MDM? Have to buy a Mac to install Apple Configurator for that.
Example: https://github.com/AdrianCX/pico_hole
That way you can still use the TV and not have it spy on you, that part is more worrying then the ads:
> It has a partnership with Nielsen that sends automatic content-recognition data gathered from LG TVs to Nielsen
Trying to block things in this way ends up being a whack-a-mole situation, and you're also suck monitoring it forever as the vendor deploys things to bypass any blocks, or adds/changes things.
I've done it in the past though it really is an annoying thing to monitor and keep up with. I guess you can use public block lists that can take care of some of it for you.
Just a note, for the linked item I haven't change anything in 2 years and it's still working fine.
That's because it's an allow list, nothing gets through unless it's specifically towards netflix domains and addresses.
It's much easier to manage then the reverse as you noted.
Sure, it could be defeated with effort but it would be visible (updates available or ads or similar), and at that point you start investigating.
It also requires some initial effort to set up if you want anything else from the TV (say youtube or amazon prime and so on)
The way I see it, there really isn't a perfect solution for any of this: you can't just go out and buy devices that do exactly what you want them to, because vendors don't want to sell those to you (unless you're a billionaire perhaps, and willing to pay truly absurd prices for bespoke custom solutions): vendors want to make a profit, and they've found they can do that more easily these days by selling stuff to consumers at razor-thin (or below-cost even) margins, and then making money after the sale with advertising and spying. It's like the Gillette razor-and-blade model. So it's up to us (consumers, collectively) to come up with workarounds and modifications and other technological solutions and share them with each other.
Unfortunately, if I were to replace I'm not even sure I can find something that doesn't or won't do this in the future.
So perhaps we'll start seeing consumer routers with this blocking built in. (would be a nice logical add on to help sell them)
"Just."
Are you willing to configure such a setup for my mom and Aunt Millie? And provide ongoing technical support?
Steps are pretty simple:
- build and dump image on a 7$ raspberry pi pico, put that on the network.
- Configure TV DNS server to point to the pico.
- Configure router to block DNS traffic entirely from TV.
- Test
If it works, then it should work a long time. TV won't get any updates, netflix doesn't seem to cycle or add new domains.
I... don't think that's correct. I bought and set up an Apple TV less than a year ago, and I've never owned an iPhone or iPad. I don't remember having to do anything unusual to download apps.
(I did happen to have a pre-existing Apple account from back when I owned a click-wheel iPod, and I used that during set-up. Maybe that's the difference?)
Yes, this is the difference. I was only able to accept the terms and conditions after we got the popup on the iPad. Until then tvOS Apps just did not download without any error message.
But OP's advice still stands: don't connect your TV to the internet.
I needed a small HDMI monitor so bought a small Samsung TV at Big Box Store.
It would not function without an Internet connection, could not get past the first power up screen. I returned it to the store.
Note: You do _need_ an iPad or an iPhone to accept the terms and condition to download apps. I had to go through the trouble to logout my iPad account and then to login my uncles new apple account on my iPad, just so he could use his new Apple TV.