• merc@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    171
    ·
    2 months ago

    It’s not the real name for the crime, obviously. But, it’s true that section 1201 of the DMCA makes it illegal to bypass “access controls”, which are so loosely defined that just about anything qualifies. As a result, any device with “access controls” gets to define how you’re allowed to interact with it, and if you interact with it in the wrong way, even if you own it, you’re committing a felony.

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    150
    ·
    1 month ago

    Martin Luther King, Jr.'s comment in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail: “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

    I will follow Dr. King and jailbreak my TV.

      • Some cheaper brands, which are subsidized via ads, actively search for unsecured networks. Disabling the Wi-Fi as completely as possible might be worth the time, if you have such a model.

        • Kowowow@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          24
          ·
          2 months ago

          If it’s aggressive enough might have to damage what it uses for an antenna

        • evidences@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          1 month ago

          I don’t even think it’s limited to the cheaper brands. I thought I heard about Samsung (or some other similarly large vendor) TVs connecting to networks their servers knew about for updates and stuff all of course without your interaction/consent. I might have just read that as a possible future thing though it was a while back that I saw it.

      • nothingcorporate@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        38
        ·
        2 months ago

        I do this. It’s the best. You can buy used HP or Dell mini workstations on eBay for super cheap.

        Full Linux, full ad blocking, full access to every streaming service instead of just whoever makes an app for your particular TV.

        And with the enshittification of smart TVs injecting ads everywhere they can, keeping it disconnected is the only way to fly. Modern tech is like Skynet, you can’t let it connect or it’s the end of the world.

        • zarkony@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          ·
          2 months ago

          Only problem is streaming services like Amazon that purposefully limit the quality on Linux.

          • brown567@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            22
            ·
            1 month ago

            Get a browser spoofing add-on! I have google fiber, and I’ve found that my internet is faster if it thinks I’m using chrome 🤷‍♂️

            • fallingcats@discuss.tchncs.de
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              That doesn’t make sense, a “browser spoofing” addon most certainly doesn’t do anything that would be detectable by an ISP listening in on your encrypted connections.

              • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                1 month ago

                Amazon is not an ISP though…? In this scenario, Amazon Prime Video is a server that is receiving a series of HTTP requests. User agent spoofing absolutely would work in that scenario.

          • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            13
            ·
            1 month ago

            That is why I’m not subscribed to any of them. If they don’t want to offer me the same bare minimum, it’s on them. I mean why are they even doing that? To protect against piracy? Yeah, that seems to be doing absolutely nothing then.

          • Kaityy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            1 month ago

            This is the point where you download qbittorrent on the machine, and hop on your favorite torrent site to go get whatever show or movie you want for free, and play it on VLC. Just make sure to use a VPN if you live in a country that enforces piracy law. My reccomendation is Mullvad VPN ($5/month) if you care about privacy, and literally whatever’s the cheapest if you don’t.

          • bizarroland@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            1 month ago

            And it also depends on your version of Linux as sometimes they don’t play well with the copy protection software.

            I had a lot of issues getting some videos on Tubi to play just because I was playing it on a Linux.

            I was using mint cinnamon.

        • chad@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          If you’re just looking to get into modern torrenting, start here: https://trash-guides.info/

          If you’re ready to put it into action, you might want a network attached storage device (NAS) to run your *-arr stack and store your stuff. I recommend a Synology NAS with at least 4 drive bays and a redundant drive.

          You should do all of this behind a VPN. I recommend Proton.

          My rig is set up to run in containers with docker-compose. I automated it all to the point that I just have to boot up my NAS and the torrenting starts up automatically. It’s all managed through websites hosted in various containers on the NAS that I can access from any other device on my network. You can read the docker docs here: https://docs.docker.com/compose/

          LinuxServer.io is also a fantastic resource for docker containers: https://docs.linuxserver.io/


          Also, it’s a good idea to run pi-hole for a network-wide tracker-blocker and ad-blocker. You should have your pi-hole devices on your network as a separate device that doesn’t do anything else. I have 2 pi-hole devices on my network. The hardware they run on is just the smallest Raspberry Pi’s I could find at the time. I connected them to the network via WiFi and plugged them in behind a dresser in one bedroom and next to the wifi router in the other room.

    • cannedtuna@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      71
      ·
      2 months ago

      I feel like it’s becoming increasingly harder and harder to find TVs without smart crap built in.

    • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 month ago

      I went to buy a new TV and they were all smart tvs. I just never gave it my network info so it can’t connect to the internet and ive never had issues.

    • Einar@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 months ago

      Say I do that.

      Streaming can be done through the browser. Which frontend would I use to access the regular TV channels?

      • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Sorry, streaming from a browser on a Linux PC is limited to 540x860 due to an inability to establish an HDCP chain. Have you tried using the TV’s native Netflix app instead?

          • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 month ago

            I was reinforcing your point about using a monitor and a Linux PC not being able to replace all the things a smart TV can do. You said streaming would work, but regular TV channels wouldn’t, and I pointed out that even streaming would be limited as the major streaming services don’t allow full quality via a browser, especially on Linux where HDCP can’t work.

      • Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 months ago

        In france there’s an ISP,Free, that just gives you a .m3u playlist that you can use whenever you want. Maybe there such an ISP where you live…?

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 months ago

      Because I like to take advantage of subsidized pricing and I have yet to encounter a brand that’s been able to break through my pfSense box’s adblocking coupled with bimonthly reviews of traffic logs from suspect devices

  • Lydia_K@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    2 months ago

    What’s a good solution for a remote control and “TV like” interface for browsing accessing things? I really just want a good YouTube and jellyfin interface with a normal remote.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 months ago

      A PC. You can buy an n100 mini PC. There’s different interfaces and os’s for htpc’s. You can buy a remote that works with PC’s and those handheld keyboard/trackpad combo’s work pretty well.

      • burgersc12@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 months ago

        The 2.4ghz connector for those trackpad/keyboard combos never worked more than like 10 feet away so the couch wasn’t an option (until I got one that used BT)

        • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          I actually bought one of those corsair lapdog things when they were new (the keyboard+mousepad with built in USB hub) and it’s honestly fairly comfortable. Wired connection.

      • Lydia_K@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        I have an old laptop hooked up my tv already, but using the Bluetooth keyboard and TouchPad to navigate traditional desktop focused applications is such a cumbersome activity that both my husband and I never bother to use it, we just grab the remote and use the default tv interface.

        I was specifically asking about the remote control and more tv- like interface software. I’ve never managed to get kodi to be anything good, not sure what I’m missing with that but it’s always super clunky and bad to use.

        Someone else suggested plasma big screen, I’m going to install and try and get that configured up today, see how it goes.

        • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          There’s a couple of different OSs that are based around Linux and Kodi. You can use steam big picture mode and an Xbox controller. You can add non steam apps and browser links. You can install Android TV in Windows.

          • Lydia_K@startrek.website
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            Android TV is what I’m trying to escape 😀

            Thanks for the suggestions, I guess I’ll look around for a pre-configured Kodi setup, people say that can be good.

            I did give plasma bigscreen a try, but overall it seems to be not working well on straight x86 hardware, it’s intended for ARM devices mostly it seems.

      • Ellatsu@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 month ago

        I tried for hours to get this working and could not. Steam big picture can actually be used as a launcher if you use boilr to import flatpaks. Might be worth it to try steamOS as an HTPC.

        • Lumisal@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 month ago

          I think you can just launch Steam big picture directly.

          Maybe I should start selling little orange pis with with plasma big screen set up ready to go, also with Netflix etc ready

            • Lumisal@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              Orange Pi 3b with dietpi.

              I’ve had Big screen work before in Raspberry Pi 4 (even made a meme about back when I was tinkering around with different OS’s on it to see potential uses for my rpi), but Orange Pis are cheaper and the hardware is more open source, so I’m curious if I would get better responsiveness out of it. Plus the Orange Pi I have has 8gb too.

              I like your Steam Big picture idea too.

              Don’t know, have been thinking of making something easy to use for awhile for some of my family members anyway. But has to be really easy since they’re not the most tech literate (well may my mom and definitely dad. If he can use whatever I make, anyone can).

              • Ellatsu@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                1 month ago

                I’m trying big picture out on my 8th gen Intel mini PC with endeavouros and plasma and getting pretty bad performance. Probably missed something in configuration, but I’m just gonna try steamOS and see how that does.

                Edit: Realizing now that the steamOS download link redirects to steam deck recovery image, still waiting on non steam deck image. I’m gonna try chimeraOS instead.

  • QuentinQuiver@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    At least the Electronic Frontier Foundation will keep fighting for our rights. I support them :)