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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

#241
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By definition, if they are actually accepted by their customers, then yes, they are. And since customers continue to buy PS4s it appears that they are (accepted).

It's a classic bait and switch. The buyer didn't agree to get a bunch of stupid bullshit ads after they purchased it.

So I assume you turned on the PS4, saw the ads, and returned it?

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

#242
post #122

> 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.

A few times at home with my parents, I've used the 'chrome-cast' functionality to view Youtube controlled from my laptop, without any cable hassle. The same thing with Plex worked, but finicky. Somewhere between linux, plex and the TV, there is some compatibility problem.

That 'cast' functionality has improved and enhanced my life more than I expected. It saves significant time, hassle and stress to be able to connect to either of the two main screens in my house from my laptop when I want to show someone what's on my screen (remote desktop in reverse is how I think of it). No redundant searching, or going to the trouble of sending someone a link. Just cast and it's there.

However, it works best for images and text-- video or graphics tend to have more issues, and there is definitely a lot of lag, as with remote desktop.

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

#243

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…

The Windows 10 Netflix "app" is utterly abysmal

I had it running on my second monitor as background noise while I was working on a project

Every time I'd use Alt+Tab, the entire window would go black. Presumably as part of its inane DRM

Unfortunately, the only way to get it to work again was to close and relaunch the entire app!

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

#244
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.

GDPR only increases engineering and compliance costs. It doesn’t have any consumer-side impact since to a first approximation, zero consumers take advantage of data privacy laws.

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

#246
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…

I just want to understand how people believed all these services worked previously for example, did you know that when you purchase an ebook using kindle software amazon knows exactly what page you've read to and how long you've stayed on each page. They also know exactly what books you have purchased. Or Did you know that whenever you use a smart tv app that every time you "hover" over a tv show an event is logged t…

I already paid for my TV and it wasnt cheap. It doesnt NEED to spy on me to make extra buck, but sure it can so it DOES.

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

#248
post #70
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…

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.

> Solution: don't ever purchase a smart TV.

Not much of a solution since it will never happen. The best TV's are "smart", and people like nice things, myself included. You're much better of simply never connecting them to the internet. They get the same message and you don't limit yourself to a small set of poor options.

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

#249

I would like to see a TV with the following attributes: 1. 8 Inputs, with at least four HDMI and one HDMI accessible from the front panel. The remaining inputs would have at least two composite inputs. There would be no cable input since most cable companies, around here anyway, require a set-top box anyway. 2. An optical audio output, for those who wish to hook up a proper audio system. Those who don’t would get ok-…

Alternatively, I got a completely dumb panel and an audio receiver for my speakers which meets most of those requirements. The receiver only passes through video, and handles the audio itself. It's more or less the same in the end, but then the TV only needs one input.

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

#250
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 (…

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.

I don’t have much experience with 4K but I’ve had to disable some motion enhancing features on 120hz screens because the movements seemed too fast and it was weird.
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