[swanson]

I really hated SmartTVs and would actively avoid them, but I recently got one of the Roku branded TVs and it's actually quite good. Roku has always been great for me in terms of software updates, availability of streaming services, and good-enough UI that everyone in the family can use it.

[heyitsme]

Aren't roku devices notorious for gathering data on how you use their hardware and what you watch? In fact as far as I know you can't even use their TVs without actually creating an account with them. If this is still true, it's completely NUTS!

[unwiredben]

When you set up a Roku TV, you have the option to never connect to the Internet and use it as a dumb TV. In that mode, no WiFi or Ethernet connection is active and there's no connection to a Roku account.

If you've already connected the TV, you can factory reset it to an unconnected state.

[quaffapint]

Roku does like to log all your actions, but just use something like pi-hole and it's nicely blocked.

[gruez]

You're placing too much trust into the effectiveness of pi-hole and its associated filter lists. Here are some failure modes I can think of:

* using fallback hardcoded IPs when DNS fails

* using DoH so it's impossible to tamper with the response

* using the same domain for spying as other critical functions

* new domains might not show up on the filter lists right away, and if the TV keeps a backlog of failed requests, all your viewing history might be uploaded when that happens

[robocat]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21011313

Apparently Roku sends audio and/or video fingerprints of frames (not frames themselves).

[afavour]

I got a Roku device too, and just didn't connect it to the internet. Works fine for me. I'd still prefer an unconnected option, but this will do.