A study found smart TVs secretly analyze audio from HDMI inputs to target ads across your devices.
The episode begins with hosts introducing a TV test covering six models from different operating systems: Samsung Tizen, LG WebOS, Google TV, Philips Titan OS, TCL, and Hisense. They discuss how the OS dictates functionality, noting Google TV's feature richness versus Tizen's user-friendliness. The conversation covers practical features like voice search and pause recording via USB. Image quality assessment is a major theme, with the hosts evaluating OLED and LCD technologies. They note that in the ~€1000 price range, Chinese brands Hisense and TCL offer impressive local dimming with many zones, providing good contrast. A cheaper OLED exhibited a green tint when viewed from the side, challenging the assumption OLED always wins. The hosts explain local dimming and contrast its zone-based approach with OLED's per-pixel control. A significant segment focuses on smart TV data collection, citing a study where Samsung and LG TVs analyzed audio hashes from HDMI inputs every 500ms to identify content and target ads across networked devices. They note this is done by third-party services, is openly communicated, but can be disabled in settings. The discussion shifts to streaming services, highlighting the proliferation of ad-supported tiers. Netflix reported over half of new German subscriptions are ad-supported. The hosts note ad-supported plans lack premium features like Dolby Vision and are becoming cheaper, while ad-free plans grow more expensive. They discuss consumer strategies like subscription cycling and bundling offers from providers like Magenta TV. The episode concludes with concerns about market fragmentation, rising costs potentially driving piracy, and the sustainability of the streaming model.
