‘Your TV should do what you paid for’

If you’re sick of your smart TV being plastered with sponsored ads, slowed down with bloat, and infested with trackers, you’re not alone. But instead of putting up with the countless intrusions, some people are stripping the unwanted cruft from their TVs altogether — thanks to a little AI vibe coding.

As reported by TechCrunch, a number of developers have offered solutions in recent weeks. That includes one called dumbtv, which sets out its mission statement on its GitHub page: “Your TV should do what you paid for: your apps, your HDMI inputs, and nothing else. No ads from the TV itself, no watch tracking, no update you did not ask for.” To that end, dumbtv removes “Ads, telemetry, experiments and Alexa,” as well as any apps the user selects, from all manner of smart TVs.

Another option, this time called cleanyourtv, says it will “Strip the bloatware from any Android TV or Google TV over Wi-Fi, and replace the ad-filled home screen with a clean launcher that looks like an Apple TV. No root, no cable, nothing uninstalled, and a one-line restore if you change your mind.” Both projects claim to be fully reversible and say they do not touch the TV’s root directory.

AI meets user frustration

Image credit: Getty Images

At the other end of the spectrum from the simple solutions mentioned above is the ad-free Android TV setup created by a developer known as Cretezy. Instead of merely blocking advertising and tracking features in Android TV, it aims to replace many aspects of the operating system altogether. It includes an ad-free launch screen, a YouTube substitute, a media manager, and a remote control button remapper. Although it might sound complicated, Cretezy says that an AI agent can set the whole thing up for you and tailor it to your TV, demonstrating how AI can make removing bloat as simple as possible.

People have been getting their hands dirty with TVs for almost as long as they’ve existed. But what’s different this time is the power that AI has given people to quickly spin up a targeted solution in hours rather than days or weeks. That reduction in overhead has led to a proliferation of hacks and workarounds that remove annoying features many people would rather not have.

The timing plays a role in other ways. Right now, many consumers are growing frustrated with streaming TV providers, whose prices have risen and whose ads have become increasingly intrusive. Throw in rising awareness of the ways that Big Tech firms are tracking and monetizing their own customers, and you’ve got a recipe for answers like dumbtv and cleanyourtv.

So, if you’re sick of how slow and bloated your smart TV has become, all it takes to fix it is a simple AI prompt and a little tinkering. The days of ensh*ttified TVs could be numbered.

Featured image credit: Telly

(TechRadar)