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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

#301

Post by CalRobert »

skrebbel wrote: post #156
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…

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…

You have just hit upon why HDMI is stupid.

If you used a DVI cable you could indeed do that. But HDMI was pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed despite no real benefit (having sound and video separate is an ADVANTAGE if you want to easily handle sound with different hardware..)

and now, well, you can't.

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

#302

Post by Washuu »

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?

LG does this too. I had to black hole its MAC address in my router.

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

#303

Post by MisterTea »

I own two dumb Sony TVs and a really old Westinghouse that I gave to my mother. 1080 tvs and high enough resolution for me. I consider 2k and above to be excessive and unneeded (I even think the smooth motion of today's TVs take away from the programming and turn those garbage dsp things off). I enjoy TV shows and I prefer to keep things simple. I prefer a dumb TV, in fact if be happy with a monitor. Just give me an TV with a few inputs and I'm happy. I prefer to buy a low cost media player, currently older fire sticks. That's all I'll ever want or need. Don't need apps on a TV. In fact, I think the idea is absurd.

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

#304

Post by jakobegger »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #116

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-…

Regarding point 3: Most USB ports don't provide enough power for a Raspberry. You're going to need a separate power supply.

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

#306

Post by Washuu »

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…

Right, but a HDCP 2.2 capable graphics device is required which currently is only nVidia GTX 10 series and newer Intel graphics.

Which the insane video card prices recently getting 4K output is an expensive issue.

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

#307

Post by kbenson »

lucb1e wrote: post #189
braythwayt wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Twitter is not exactly a walled garden, though. AFAIK it's perfectly indexable.

Doesn't Twitter gate high volume access behind contracts for money?

In any case, if Twitter allows posy deletion, then it's standard. You may consider deleting bad form, but that's just another case of someone's perception of a platform not matching reality.

The internet makes it hard to definitively remove something, but a large percentage has already been lost to churn and bit rot due to lack of care.

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

#308

Post by dreamcompiler »

josephg wrote: post #72
paulie_a wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why Samsung bothers too make great products that have shitty software. My refrigerator shouldn't need to reboot. Or at one point get into an endless reboot cycle. This "smart" but mediocre age needs to go away

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…

Reminds of when microwave ovens were a new thing. There were a ton of cookbooks about how you could throw away your range and conventional oven and cook all your meals in the microwave. Consumers very quickly realized this was nonsense, but to this day it's still impossible to buy a microwave without a dozen buttons, only two of which ever get used ("popcorn" and "add 30 sec").

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

#309

Post by pvaldes »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #119

You can't really buy a high quality TV anymore without having em try to shove extra garbage down your throat. I own an old Samsung TV, and it has terrible UX. Giving it a chance to connect to the internet was a horrible mistake. My TV is around +5 years old, and I don't see myself buying a new one any time soon. During the last 2 or so years I've drastically changed the kinds of media I consume. Now my primary source…

> Books don't include any tracking bullshit.

Most books aren't specially interesting. The history of the books that you borrow in the public library is registered with your library customer card, address and name. Some local libraries or universities will ask you to write your name in a card when you take the book and let the card in the shelf. Therefore anybody could read the names of the former five or ten people that borrow the book before, and how many days they have it.

The complete history for some "person of interest" shouldn't be much complicated to obtain for authorities. Maybe anybody borrowing a lot of controversial texts in a short time and a small village would trigger some alerts. Who knows. Let suppose that this is a library specialized in history and the book title written in the public card is "mein kampf", for example.

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

#310

Post by saganus »

beached_whale wrote: post #137
buro9 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Could you offer a brand/model or some link?

I also haven't been able to find a decent non-smart tv to no avail :(

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