Yes, Roku is full of all that. The ads are minimal so far: they don't pop up while I'm watching things.
I am adverse to a smart TV because it just adds unnecessary setup, GUIs, remotes, and cognitive load. A TV should be a monitor, not a fancy hub with in your face content.
I deduced the path because an ad showed up that was for a recent film on the setup page. I don't have cable. It could not have been planted in the TV's storage, unless the TV was very new. The only way it could have shown an ad for a film is if it had access to the internet, which I had not set up. I didn't bother checking traffic with WireShark. I asked HN and that's how I found out (old alt account from years ago, don't remember and my stylometric match isn't high enough to find it). I returned the TV the next day because it was too small: I had tried to downsize from a 58" to a 30-something-inch but it was too hard to watch. I could be wrong, but that was my report. Encyclopedia Brown and The Case of the Mysterious Movie Ad.
I am adverse to a smart TV because it just adds unnecessary setup, GUIs, remotes, and cognitive load. A TV should be a monitor, not a fancy hub with in your face content.
I deduced the path because an ad showed up that was for a recent film on the setup page. I don't have cable. It could not have been planted in the TV's storage, unless the TV was very new. The only way it could have shown an ad for a film is if it had access to the internet, which I had not set up. I didn't bother checking traffic with WireShark. I asked HN and that's how I found out (old alt account from years ago, don't remember and my stylometric match isn't high enough to find it). I returned the TV the next day because it was too small: I had tried to downsize from a 58" to a 30-something-inch but it was too hard to watch. I could be wrong, but that was my report. Encyclopedia Brown and The Case of the Mysterious Movie Ad.