Worth pointing out this isn’t any proper Android TV devices, but rather those cheap boxes that are often basically SBCs with AOSP installed on them which are predominantly sold as easy piracy boxes.
Edit: in fact, the article doesn’t currently have TV in the title
Leaving out the TV makes it less precise and more clickbaity because then it sounds like Android phones are affected.
I guess the problem is that “Android TV” is a specific thing that none of these devices actually are, they’re just dodgy boxes running Android that can be plugged into a TV.
For me it’s more clickbaity because Android TV isn’t actually involved here at all.
I’d say it would be more clickbaity if you just removed the “TV”, because it’d make you think of smartphones, and those would be much more concerning
Aren’t the boxes running “Android TV”, the set top box oriented flavor of Android, with e.g. the launcher designed to be operated with a TV remote and not a touch screen?
They are not themselves TVs, though, and I guess nowdays it might be most common for “Android TV” to run on the TV instead of on a separate device.
Why not just find a different website reporting the story with a better headline? Rather than sharing the one with the headline you fear is misleading?
Can you even get an actual Android TV device now that isn’t a Chromecast or an Nvidia shield? Other than a few TVs that mostly come with malware (tcl, Sony, Hisense) I can’t think of anything else that has actual Android TV you can buy as a consumer.
I miss having a dumb tv
If I don’t connect it to the internet they don’t get to sell ur data innit
Your viewing habits. Nature shows? Show this guy camping gear ads on his phone!
I’m annoyed that they don’t sell them and that even if you don’t connect a smart tv to wifi to keep it dumb it’ll still not just be a display and it’ll try to shove stuff in your face
I bought a Hisense and it had the option during setup to disable most smart features and leave it in “basic mode”. I was already going to put an Apple TV in it so I just left it there and I’ve been happy. Only thing a tv needs is settings and the ability to change inputs.
Walmart sells Sceptre 4k tvs which are dumb, sure they aren’t OLED or have amazing refresh rates but they are the perfect TV for most people, it’s much easier to chuck and buy a new $20 streaming device when updates make it crawl to a near stop than it is to do the same with a $600+ TV.
Whats the malware going to do?
Lock you out? Instant refund and negative review. Steal your info? Cant send info out without internet.
I have an old Toshiba LCD TV which is a bit thick in comparison to today’s devices but it’s so good and robust. Also no smart features what so ever. Comes with a bunch of inputs and has some features not found on modern devices. It also came with full schematic should it ever need servicing. Every now and then I’ll get the urge of getting oh so new and shiny OLED then remind myself about builtin expiration date and stupid “smart” features.
That’s why you should build your own media center from an old machine. Much safer and more private.
- Connect old PC to TV. Both can be 15 years old.
- (optional) For better performance, get a small SSD alongside the big HDD (a 64GB
/partition will do), maybe have a homemade NAS ready too - Install Lubuntu, Mint XFCE, Puppy Linux or any other distro of choice
- Set up KDE Connect, qBittorrent and VLC
- Enjoy
Cheers, I’m using this as a jump off point for a weekend project maybe. Would anything change if I was interested in casting content too?
OK I’ve tried in the past to make a decent streaming box from both windows media center edition and various Linux distros. But I need something that is simple, can be controlled entirely from a remote, and has the major streaming apps (Netflix, disney, etc). I haven’t really found any solution that’s easy enough for non techie people to use. I have a standalone roku box that works ok we also have a roku TV which is a giant piece of garbage, and I’m considering buying an external roku or nvidia shield as a streaming box instead, I do have a couple of raspberry pi 4s I could use one but again I’m faced with the same issues.
Look into Plex servers, that should keep you busy for the next six months till you get it up and running.
The problem is that YouTube app and F1 app are Android only so having a Linux media box won’t help. It needs to run Android to run Android apps.
Plus I like to use Chromecast, we use it all the time to send YouTube videos from our phones to the big screen.
Can’t control it from my phone. Would need a mouse. At least I’m tech minded. My wife isn’t and there is no way she would stand for using a mouse and browser on the TV.
I swear shit like this is why Lemmy is so incredibly out of touch with the real world. I can’t take the community seriously anymore.
So my home media center is not real world enough? I only expressed an opinion; you are free to ignore it. Also, there is nothing that keeps you here. Please kindly keep in mind that most Lemmy users right now are interested in technology, you can’t take that away from them and there is nothing wrong with it. If you want to stay away from “shit like this”, then, with all respect, you probably should not be in a technology sub in the first place.
Because something is not popular and not available in typical electronic store doesn’t mean it’s not real.
I know having a private life may seem unreal in recent ~10 years, but it surely can be done without giving up modern life. All it takes is a little time for research and saying “no” sometimes. The hardest part are always areas where more people like that are needed to say “no”.
People have been using old computers as media centres for decades at this point. Not sure what you’re on about.
but where does the media come from? and how do most folks get their media legally?
You’re going to build your own smart TV that can handle new HDMI and Displayport advancements too?
This is going to come as a shock to you, but HDMI has been a thing since 2004. You can find 15 year old dumb TVs with HDMI. If the TV had HDMI, it can handle any format that the screen can physically show and newer versions are backwards compatible.
Or you could just use a new tv with smart features and never connect it to your network. It’s what I’ve done with all the TVs in my house and I simply use an external device I trust to stream.
Pff sure. How hard can it be? Few resistor thingies and some capaci-whatsists, and Arduino, done.
The correct answer is usually Raspberry pi + github.
Although I have no idea what those mean
Wait, smart devices might not be secure?! I’m shocked!
Are non smart TVs even still a thing nowadays? I don’t own or watch any TV so I honestly don’t know how the market currently looks like.
Yes. They are sold for commercial use, e.g., McD’s menu, and are quite pricey.
Depends on your definition of “quite pricey.” There’s no equivalent of a $250 50" Insignia FireTV, but I’ve seen Samsung signage displays on Amazon for about a $75-$100 premium over their comparable Smart TVs. They also don’t come with a stand, so if you weren’t already buying a VESA mount you’ll need to add another $40-80. There is a significant premium, but it’s not necessarily orders of magnitude.
Apparently “smartness” has not invaded projectors…per a comment I read here on kbin a while back from a projector owner. This really encourages me to buy one.
It did though, last time I went to a tech store, there was a samsung smart projector that had all the capabilities of a smart tv
They’re harder to find, for sure. Especially if you want a large screen.
When I was shopping around a few years ago, the only 65" TV I could find without smart features was a Sceptre, which is Walmart’s electronics brand. Speakers so bad that I had to buy a sound bar, and the display isn’t that great, but it gets the job done and I don’t need to worry about it being an attack vector.
These are just generic Android TV devices that use Allwinner board. Allwinner made these kind of generic boards for Android TV and Android Auto head unit and sell them to OEMs. The OEMs then “customize” it by adding their APKs into the ROM provided by Allwinner. I doubt the malware come from Allwinner. Maybe it’s just one (or more) OEM that include whatever APK they found on the internet without checking.
