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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

#191

Post by lucb1e »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #169
buro9 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Don't worry about it, some people want everything for free, if they want to cite you they should plan that the internet is temporary and there is no guarantee that content will be there in the next 15 minutes let alone a few years. Keep deleting your stuff and don't worry about the people who think you should do this or do that with the way you handle your internets.

Downvoted for not contributing to the conversation. It's basically a personal attack on me and others sharing my opinion: saying we want everything for free, that we should not assume Twitter to be there in 15 minutes (when there is all the reason to assume the contrary), calling OP out to keep doing what I said I thought was not a good idea (without explaining yourself further) and not to worry about people like us. This isn't a logical argument and doesn't help the conversation, and that's besides the fact that you make it sound very personal.

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

#192

Post by paulie_a »

kungtotte wrote: post #84
josephg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been looking at getting a new washing machine lately. One of the "hot new features" some new washing machines have is the ability to "download new washing programs via our app!". Really? The 40+ different pre-programmed wash cycle options aren't enough and you expect to think of new washing machine routines over the next year or two? Its like ... DLC but for washing my clothes. Who thinks this is a good idea? I…

You think botnets don't already include all these smart devices? We recently bought a new fridge and freezer with that functionality but there's no way they are getting hooked up to any network.

You can apparently request the source code for many of those devices. Ive done it for my Samsung fridge and got a reasonable response.

I scanned the code and don't find any egregious problems like hard coded passwords but I just assume the codebase is a complete shit show with flaws.

I will not connect those devices to my wifi.

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

#193

Post by skrebbel »

fabian2k wrote: post #188
skrebbel wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right! Ok this makes sense. Any clue on why content owners do this? It seems a bit arbitrary. Fortunately I'm the opposite of a videophile - I don't even know how High the Definition of our TV is. But I see your point, so indeed, a 4k dumb TV won't be able to show most Netflix content in 4k, correct? That's a major shame and pretty ridiculous. edit : I just noticed that Netflix actually supports UHD on the Windows 10…

The 4K quality is tied to some pretty specific hardware and drivers as far as I remember. And 1080p is also different in my experience in the Windows 10 App and in Edge. I was able to get 1080p for some content in Edge, but not everything. The only way to consistently get 1080p quality was to use the rather crappy App. The search and filter features were worse than the website in my experience, and I ran into quite a…

Drifting off topic, but fwiw their Windows app got a bit better lately. I think there's finally a team on it again.

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

#194

Post by mariusmg »

skrebbel wrote: post #175
buro9 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content owners dictate in contractual terms the availability of their content in high definition (UHD, 4k, etc) be determined by the app securing access to the content. The result is that the higher quality content is only available on apps on closed platforms. So if you got a dumb panel and wanted high definition content, you'd still need to hook up something like the Nvidia Shield... essentially a closed platform (…

Right! Ok this makes sense. Any clue on why content owners do this? It seems a bit arbitrary. Fortunately I'm the opposite of a videophile - I don't even know how High the Definition of our TV is. But I see your point, so indeed, a 4k dumb TV won't be able to show most Netflix content in 4k, correct? That's a major shame and pretty ridiculous. edit : I just noticed that Netflix actually supports UHD on the Windows 10…

>a 4k dumb TV

Is there even such a thing ? Honest question, because i looked for a "dumb" 4K with HDR10 support TV and i haven't found anything.

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

#195

Post by kaybe »

pjc50 wrote: post #183
skrebbel wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right! Ok this makes sense. Any clue on why content owners do this? It seems a bit arbitrary. Fortunately I'm the opposite of a videophile - I don't even know how High the Definition of our TV is. But I see your point, so indeed, a 4k dumb TV won't be able to show most Netflix content in 4k, correct? That's a major shame and pretty ridiculous. edit : I just noticed that Netflix actually supports UHD on the Windows 10…

> Netflix actually supports UHD on the Windows 10 app and on Microsoft Edge Still a closed platform :) It's the DRM problem. They insist on these limitations as an anti-piracy measure. Fundamentally the only way to decode 4k in real time is to pass it fairly-unmodified to the video hardware, and at that point in a non-closed system a driver could steal it. Or just record it off the screen from the inside.

Sadly it just drives people to piracy instead when they cannot watch what they paid for.

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

#196

Post by zamalek »

buro9 wrote: post #60
buro9 wrote: post #55

I'm the author and linking to my tweets is a bad idea because they auto-delete after 14 days. For future HN context, as the author I'm reproducing them here in full: My @Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app from https://samba.tv and boy oh boy... this is worse than recent @facebook stuff. From their own privacy policy: https://samba.tv/legal/privacy-policy/ … they track what you w…

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…

Weren't Sony caught spying with the TV camera a few years back? I keep well away from Smart TVs.

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

#197

Post by beached_whale »

Johnny555 wrote: post #151
beached_whale wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-smart 4k tv's exist and can be found for relatively inexpensive prices. I just got one, an off brand Technicolor TC5580-UHD.

And, which make/model is it?

It's a technicolor tc5580-uhd. Not expensive at all. It's the same company as curtis and rca.

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

#198

Post by magnetic »

mariusmg wrote: post #194
skrebbel wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right! Ok this makes sense. Any clue on why content owners do this? It seems a bit arbitrary. Fortunately I'm the opposite of a videophile - I don't even know how High the Definition of our TV is. But I see your point, so indeed, a 4k dumb TV won't be able to show most Netflix content in 4k, correct? That's a major shame and pretty ridiculous. edit : I just noticed that Netflix actually supports UHD on the Windows 10…

>a 4k dumb TV Is there even such a thing ? Honest question, because i looked for a "dumb" 4K with HDR10 support TV and i haven't found anything.

There's a lot of projectors that support 4K (see http://www.projectorcentral.com ) You can usually turn a smart TV into a dumb TV by not setting up the internet.

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

#199

Post by beached_whale »

teh_klev wrote: post #155
beached_whale wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-smart 4k tv's exist and can be found for relatively inexpensive prices. I just got one, an off brand Technicolor TC5580-UHD.

Where did you find one?

On sale at Shoppers Drug mart in Canada. But Costco sells models like it too

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

#200

Post by lern_too_spel »

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.)

Android tracks you less than iOS. You don't even need to create an account to use an Android TV or an Android phone.
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