That's a real shame. It is so frustrating that every entrant into the smart TV market has decided to go the route of subsidizing hardware with advertising; its like everyone saw Amazon pull it off on kindle/tablets and decided it was gospel.<p>I think the HN community is a little more insulated from this because we have the knowledge, desire, and initiative to try modding, or investigating other options.<p>For people like my parents, however, this just becomes another piece of mental friction they have getting in the way of their content.<p>If the entertainment industry isn't wise, they may see a lot of people just using big-format smart products less and less. Think cordcutting, part deux: internet blocking (at least, on non-PC hardware).<p>-----<p>Edit: it seems this is apparently more on the shoulders of TV manufacturers, who make deals with roku to enable this on integrated roku products (i.e. roku TVs): <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/s5ik5y/welp_this_is_the_last_time_i_purchase_or/hsxu28n/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/s5ik5y/welp_th...</a>
"If it's free, then you're the product" has long been obsolete. Time to replace it with "If you can't control it, then you're the product".
I keep hoping for something like OpenWRT for smart TVs. I have a Roku TV that I'd love to de-Roku even just so it would switch between inputs more quickly.
I wouldn't mind this if this was clearly advertised as a "ad-supported" TV to lower the price, (similar to a ad-supported Kindle) but sadly this does not appear to be the case.