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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

#221

Post by dictum »

BoorishBears wrote: post #201
NelsonMinar wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there's almost no profit in selling a dumb screen. SmartTVs are all about the TV manufacturer trying to get a cut of subscription services.

There is if you slap the term gamer on there and put a 200% markup on mediocre panels... so they’re coming soon: https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/bfgd-big-format-g...

> don’t be tempted by the buzzwords and shiny tech

> the Big Format Gaming Display (BFGD)

The only way this would be more delightful is if it were styled "BigFormat Gaming Display".

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

#222

Post by ams6110 »

buro9 wrote: post #168
skrebbel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone explain this tweet to me? > But when @netflix and other content providers decline the use of their apps outside of integrated devices this is the hell we live in. I don't understand. I can just open a web browser on a little media center PC, connect it by HDMI, point it to Netflix and play a movie, right? (Admittedly I haven't tried because our Panasonic has Netflix and no ads or spy apps that I've notice…

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 (…

This is totally subjective but I find UHD/4K to be painful to look at on a large screen. The contrast is too high, everything is too focused. I don't need to see skin pores from across the room.

1080p is by far "good enough" to watch anything on TV, IMO.

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

#223

Post by jghn »

tass wrote: post #205
jghn wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I take it back, that is what kept changing location. They'd have an opt out but bury it in increasingly arcane places, and of course since it was "different" I was opted back in. Then I started disabling my wifi and that kept magically re-enabling. And that's the point I took the nuclear option.

What brand of TV?

Samsung, from about 4 years ago I think

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

#224

Post by ajkjk »

Maybe, if you buy a product from a company which they are capable of later updating (read: breaking), they should receive your money in installments as long as the product still works, and if they upload a change that breaks it, you're in your rights to stop paying.

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

#225

Post by makomk »

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"?

If you think this will upset future historians, just wait until you find out that this is something that journalists like to do with their Twitter accounts too, and I would be entirely unsurprised if there's an overlap between the journalists who do this and the ones that start dubious but widely believed viral claims using their Twitter accounts.

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

#226

Post by guest »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #138
buro9 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Every so often I just delete all my tweets. It's not automated, because I do it when I feel like it. The first ever twitter app I made was a delete-all-tweets app just for myself to use. I purge content from my law firm website all the time. I completely trash and start over my personal website every few years, too, and I've never kept anything in a purge. I have personal archives of it, and the various archiving sit…

"I like to purge my real life too. De-cluttering is fun. My zen would be to have nothing left."

There is a huge difference in not valueing material property as high and not having anything left. I would figure out that difference before reaching the goal.

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

#227

Post by cle »

colanderman wrote: post #56
Waterluvian wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box. What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is. Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What…

Google does this too with Android. Maps now pops up ads for local businesses every time I open it. I paid money for a phone which did not have ads on it, and now they have added ads via a software update. It's infuriating.

You bought a phone from an advertising company. What did you expect?

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

#228

Post by userbinator »

buro9 wrote: post #76
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.

Try it. I did. I couldn't find a non-smart TV. They are everywhere. If you want the 4k, then you have a smart TV. The best alternatives were super large monitors (way over the price of a TV, and with no decent sound built in), or corporate display panels (for advertising, signage, etc) whose prices are also way above a TV and include no sound system at all.

The best alternatives were super large monitors (way over the price of a TV, and with no decent sound built in), or corporate display panels (for advertising, signage, etc) whose prices are also way above a TV and include no sound system at all.

I wonder how big the market is for "dumb" TVs priced lower than smart ones --- given that the development costs, if any, for one would be much lower since you're basically just asking an OEM to combine existing parts (panels and electrics), perhaps it could be a startup opportunity to sell "the TV you watch" --- essentially big monitors with speakers and tuners and nothing else. Some things they could advertise:

    - absolutely no data collection
    - zero boot-up time
    - near-instant control response
    - no software requiring constant upgrades or maintenance

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

#229

Post by ddalex »

zeep wrote: post #172
TheCoreh wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just don't connect them to the network?

Any of them automatically connect to open wifi networks or maybe cellular networks?

> maybe cellular networks

Now you're getting me paranoid.

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

#230

Post by maksimum »

mitchty wrote: post #206
dawnerd wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nvidia shield is pretty much what you’re looking for. I just don’t hook my tv to the network and just rely on my shield for everything. Works great. Learned my lesson a few years ago when my 3,000+ Samsung tv decided one day they were going to spam advertisements for GameStop in the notifications. Of course they deny that ever happened but I have proof on my twitter. Too lazy to look it up right now though.

Ha, I have the same setup, samsung tv and a shield. The tv's never been updated since I bought it, never configured wifi and there isn't any open wifi around for it to try to connect to. Smart tv's aren't smart enough to come with their own internet connection... yet. God I hope they don't put something like cellular connections in these things, then I'd have to find the damn radio and desolder the antennae.

Inb4 "your TV failed to turn on because of a timeout while trying to access manufacturer.com for checksum verification."
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