It's Saturday night and I have some leftovers.Let's heat them up and consciously relax for a bit.
Boot up the 65" TCL. Mind you, I had to factory reset it a couple months ago after first getting it because Google TV was full of ads. Now, it's disconnected from the internet entirely.
The default HDMI input is my Apple TV 4K. For all its faults, Apple hasn't been user hostile and the UI is relatively nice. It's great when I quickly want to play music through the soundbar or casting something from my laptop.
The first app is HBO Max. There's a "Continue Watching" section with Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a classic, and Euphoria. I don't watch Euphoria. I did not ask for this. I did not start watching nor am I continuing to watch Euphoria. No one is signed in to this account elsewhere.
Hovering over Apple Music, an Alex Warren video plays in the background. I do n'o know Alex Warren. This is not my music. There is no toggle to turn it off as far as I can tell.
I could start a movie. I open Letterboxd on my phone. It's a fun way to track things to watch and see what your friends are watching. Hell, I even paid for a year of Letterboxd Pro so I could easily see what movies are on what services. The Game for a while and apparently it's on Amazon Prime. Let's try that.
I open Amazon Prime. Once I skim past the featured content, I finally get to the movie. Click play. Lo and behold, 2 minutes of unskippable ads unless I upgrade for a few dollars a month. No, thanks. Exit.
Let's try Netflix. I heard there's a new Hulk Hogan documentary that sounds entertaining. Anddddd I'm signed out again. I could ask my family for the login but it's not worth the hassle. This used to work fine years ago. Need to please the shareholders.
Let's reconsider HBO, the home of classics. I think I'm still signed in? Flip over. My soundbar and subwoofer start blasting a trailer for Half Man automatically on open. I frantically search for my remote to press the mute button. Silence. That's nice. At least HBO had a setting to disable Autoplay, default enabled for whatever reason.
You may have noticed YouTube is not in this list. My watch history is off to avoid "the latest videos tailored to you". No, I don't wan to watch shorts.
At this point, I'm surprised there's not an LLM interface in any of these apps.
My dinner is cold. I shut off the TV and start writing this.
Maybe I should switch to cable.