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My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

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Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#101

Post by spacehome »

ge0rg wrote: post #73
pwg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solution: don't ever purchase a smart TV. Preferably, no one would ever purchase a smart TV. When smart TV sales go to zero, the makers would get the message. Sadly, too many folks don't know, or if they do know, they don't care.

Or, the "smart" TV is cheaper than a technically comparable flat screen that just comes with HDMI-In.

How is the current situation possible? Shouldn't some company be able to buy the same panel, put minimal electronics and casing around it and sell it cheaper?

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#102

Post by buro9 »

lukeschlather wrote: post #99
buro9 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN replying to myself with some context outside of the tweets. I actually trust stock Android over Samsung, Sony, etc Android. Hence my "if we're going to have Android TV perhaps Google could supply it without the forced add-ons". I see this similar to installing Windows yourself rather than having "Windows with added vendor crap"... like if you know you want Windows, a stock one is better and same with Android. I'm…

Why Android over Linux or MacOS? It feels like at this point, Android and Windows are surveillance systems. If you don't want a surveillance system, you need to go with Linux or MacOS (or iOS.)

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Mubi, BBC iPlayer... in Hi-Res, UHD or 4k mode.

The apps with rich capabilities are restricted to the platform.

Android is the one with them all.

(caveat on Amazon vs Google stupidity)

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#103

Post by Sharlin »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #82
Merad wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it even possible to buy a non-smart TV today (not counting PC monitors)? I bought my TV in 2015 and even then it seemed like most of the non-smart options were overpriced older models with worse image quality, etc.

You have to get commercial or hospitality versions made for hotels.

Aren’t hotel TVs pretty much all smart these days? Honestly, it even makes sense as you can use it as a media center (Spotify etc), movie ”channels” are easier to implement etc.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#104

Post by satysin »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #82
Merad wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it even possible to buy a non-smart TV today (not counting PC monitors)? I bought my TV in 2015 and even then it seemed like most of the non-smart options were overpriced older models with worse image quality, etc.

You have to get commercial or hospitality versions made for hotels.

Sadly the panels used in such models are almost always crap compared to high-end consumer models. Even models which are supposedly identical to some consumer model are usually not identical. The software often lacks features such as Game Mode and such.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#105

Post by braythwayt »

andybak wrote: post #94
buro9 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bio space is too short. Meh, I can delete if I want to :)

Much as I hate linkrot I'm not sure we should be using Twitter as a archival source. But people do and you're not making future historians happy. ;-) So - why are you using Twitter at all if you want to delete stuff so quickly? You sound the kind of chap who would much prefer their own platform. Heard of these things called "blogs"?

Many years ago I used Posterous as my blog, in good HN fashion.

Aaaaand it went away.

Walled gardens are always going to be a massive vulnerability for link rot.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#106

Post by raziel2p »

tome wrote: post #13
sparkling wrote: post #12

This is the problem with putting logic into the TV. Keep it Unix-y. Do one thing, but do it right. A TV should be just a panel, nothing more. A $50 player box does everything better than the built-in player hardware and software.

> A TV should be just a panel, nothing more. Don't we have such things, called "monitors"?

I looked at monitors 35" and larger and the cheapest I could find are at least twice as expensive as the corresponding TVs.

Maybe it's just a marketing thing but there are definitely differences which make monitors a hard sell to be used in place of TVs (e.g. in a living room, opposite to the sofa).

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#107

Post by Sharlin »

diafygi wrote: post #49

> From their own privacy policy: https://samba.tv/legal/privacy-policy/ they track what you watch, when you watch it, your location, your interactions with other apps. And they share this with... well, everyone basically. I wonder how the GDPR will affect companies like Samba's business model. Also, isn't this effectively true of all internet connected TVs since they will never receive security patches and become par…

GDPR will hopefully make companies that do things like this really sweat. The EU doesn’t seem to be fucking around with that one.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#108

Post by ManlyBread »

nickhalfasleep wrote: post #62
djrogers wrote: post #27

> Ideally you run a TV on a different VLAN. Why let it ‘run’ on your network or the internet at all? I’ve never connected my newest TV to my WiFi, and can’t ever foresee a reason to do so. All of the apps I want are running on a connected box I trust to maintain a degree of privacy that I’d never assume from Sony, Samsung, or the like. It’s not as if Netflix or Hulu actually force you to use the embedded TV apps.

I plug my "smart" TV into ethernet now and then to get firmware updates, then unplug it the rest of the time.

2008: plug the TV into the power outlet and you're done

2018: your TV needs internet access because updates

What the hell happened? This is ridiculous.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#109

Post by mprev »

gruez wrote: post #67
Zigurd wrote: post #38

This is an example of a strategic bind: Google wants Android to be "cleaner," to better compete with Apple. This means no underhanded service modules or system extensions, and no intrusive or otherwise low quality privileged apps. Android phones are inexpensive because Google doesn't make money directly from licensing the OS. Barriers to entry are low, competition is fierce, and hardware differentiation is only possi…

>as Microsoft learned decades ago, standing between a low margin OEM and a few extra dollars per unit is a difficult position. Once a product ships, policing updates is even harder. What is this about? Afaik windows (desktop) and windows phone all get 5+ years of patches.

Presumably, it’s about all the junk that OEMs install on Windows in exchange for a few cents or dollars per machine.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#110

Post by spacehome »

dijit wrote: post #44
bsenftner wrote: post #36

I just picked up a 55" TV, and the troubles I had explaining I did not want any "Smart" features was like explaining to morons that smoking is bad for you. The store had no commission on the sale, but the sales people, all of them, could not understand why I'd not want TV apps and Internet.

Same story, but one more caveat: When I'm playing a game a nice "Youtube encountered an error and needs to be close [ok] [report]" dialog pops up in the dead center of the screen. Why is youtube running? Apparently the TV is an Android base, but I have no information on how to flash it because if I could turn it into something not Sony produced I'd be a lot happier. -- Another annoyance is that it /really/ wants me t…

You think it has no mic.
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