The DVD screensaver was perfect: unobtrusive and did what it was supposed to do: prevent your CRT screen from burning-in an image. On top of that, it gave you something to look forward to when it would perfectly hit a corner (which some people thought was a myth; sadly the GIF version does not).
Now, any screen in your home is fair game for intrusive ads. Why make something simple, elegant, functional, and unobtrusive when that otherwise idle (or even in-use!) screen can be crammed with ads.
I was watching something on a Roku TV through HDMI, when an ad came up at the bottom of the screen for watching the same thing through some streaming service. What the actual fuck??? I’m already watching it!!
I highly recommend unplugging all network cables from your smartTV, disabling its wifi, and using a cheap PC as a streaming box. Adblockers, media ripping (is possible), it can do more than smart tV, you can play games on it.
It’s like getting emails from Amazon advertising products you’ve already bought. It’s like it’s running on the same algorithm that Youtube is. This guy just watched a video about neutron stars. I’ll recommend another video about neutron stars. That makes sense with video content, but not really with a lot of consumer goods. Sure Amazon, the first toilet seat was delicious, I think I’ll eat another.
Showing an ad for a game on a gaming website? Hell no. You bought some pants so here’s an ad for more pants.
TVs were not made to be connected to the internet. If you use the internet to serve ads, you get the block from the router