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Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

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Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#361

Post by mustacheemperor »

nsxwolf wrote: post #311
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

The software in the newer LG OLEDs is so good I haven't bothered hooking up any of my boxes to my new TVs. I'm sure in a few years the UI will start to feel sluggish and it will be time to plug something in, but for now its a great experience, far better than any smart TV I've used before.

I'll partly agree there, the OS is generally solid but the apps individually can leave a lot to be desired.

My go-to example on LG OLED is Spotify. It's so not OLED friendly, it's essentially OLED-hostile. The UI during playback is completely static and nearly seems designed to cause burn-in.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#363

Post by Silhouette »

jmcgough wrote: post #346
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Smart TVs is one of those recurring HN topics where it’s clear that people made up their minds years ago, likely from a single bad experience. Now they can’t imagine that any progress has been made since then. There’s not much reason to buy a new TV these days if your old one still works (with an external TV box) You can still find terrible smart TVs out there, of course…

Some of these comments have a real "old man yells at cloud" vibe. Modern, mid-range or better Smart TVs are great. They let me enjoy streaming content or gaming without wasting time trying to configure something, torrent something, fiddle with subtitles. The newest models offer unparalleled gaming experiences via HDMI 2.1 features. There's (justifiably) privacy and other concerns on HN, but no one else is aware of th…

The market has spoken.

Markets only speak when meaningful competition exists. Are you really suggesting that people actively prefer to buy TVs that, for example, suddenly start showing them ads months or years after purchase?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#364

Post by com2kid »

breakfastduck wrote: post #326
com2kid wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Front loading washing machines just seem like an all around more fragile design that is also less usable. I have an HE top loader. It uses just as little water, but it can wash a lot more clothes when needed. I can push a button and it stops being HE and can fill its tub up to wash blankets and comforters. Also front loaders just can't clean synthetic fabrics that water beads off of. I've seen fabrics come out of a f…

I've literally never ever seen a washing machine that isn't a 'front loader' here in the UK either in someones house or in a store, I didn't know you could still buy other ones!

UK yeah, you all have those washer/dryer combos that wash tiny loads, and almost set clothes on fire to dry them. (In my experience they also take forever to dry the clothes!) Can't be very good for synthetics, I have clothing that has gotten scorch marks from my American dryer's "medium heat" setting, I can't imagine what would have happened in a UK machine!

It should be noted that in many places in the US that hanging clothes outside is either not allowed, or impractical. Also I've had some really bad nights (baby) where I needed to wash and dry all my bedding twice over, so having a, rather fast, dryer was nice.

Seriously though, if you need to wash a large comforter, what do you do? I haven't seen a front loader large enough to fit a proper comforter in. Something like http://canyon-sports.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/91YEVCAn...

In America, you can buy top loaders or front loaders. Front loaders are popular in condos and apartments because you can stack them with a dryer.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#365

Post by sgrove »

Buttons840 wrote: post #94
BeefySwain wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works until every "smart" device has a cellular modem built in.

You can come up with other fun conspiracies by realizing that the HDMI spec can share internet connections. Plugging in your "fire cast", or whatever external television device you use, could provide your TV an internet connection, but it doesn't seem to be widely used yet.

This is, it seems, just untrue. It was posted before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24668736) and I was curious about this attack vector so looked it up [0]

Simply put, it seems that this never took off and would require the entire hdmi chain to support it (tv, cable, and device) - none of which do currently, so for the medium future it doesn't seem to be a concern.

Plenty of concern elsewhere, just not necessarily here.

[0] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/325215/appletv-eth...

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#366

Post by jaytaylor »

nsxwolf wrote: post #311
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

The software in the newer LG OLEDs is so good I haven't bothered hooking up any of my boxes to my new TVs. I'm sure in a few years the UI will start to feel sluggish and it will be time to plug something in, but for now its a great experience, far better than any smart TV I've used before.

It doesn't matter how good it is, LG already got paid and has little incentive to keep the software secure in the long-term.

I've never hooked mine into the network.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#367

Post by windexh8er »

nsxwolf wrote: post #311
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

The software in the newer LG OLEDs is so good I haven't bothered hooking up any of my boxes to my new TVs. I'm sure in a few years the UI will start to feel sluggish and it will be time to plug something in, but for now its a great experience, far better than any smart TV I've used before.

It is good, but it's gotten worse. I have an older LG LED TV that had the smart remote, it's about 7-8 years old now and I've replaced the main board once and just ordered another one as it's gone out again. In the mean time I decided to upgrade to a new LG C1 OLED and the picture is stellar in comparison - but the UI has gotten much worse. The remote is just as good as it's always been, however the amount of garbage content on the main screen now is horrendous. It's littered with content I don't want but am forced to look at given I want to use the native apps so I can move my NVidia Shield along with the older LG (since many streaming apps aren't available for the older LG units). My old LG I only connected to the network when I wanted to check for updates, this new one is cordoned off to an IOT device VLAN that only has access to the Internet and there are some holes popped over to Plex so that I can get content streaming to it locally. I also have a specific DNS filtering policy just for the LG TV to cut down on the noise it has access to.

I don't honestly think the experience is good, and I've done a lot to minimize what it has access to. I didn't pay a couple thousand dollars to have a digital billboard in my house. I'd pay a small premium if I could buy a unit that was stripped down and only ran apps and didn't have any other placeholders for content. But... Manufacturers are getting out of control with what they deem OK to do with a device that they claim I've purchased. If nothing else it feels like a prepaid rental at this point - they don't last all that long and they can't seem to help themselves from thinking it's a platform I'm going to shop directly from? Even if it is content - I can't imagine many people want yet another vendor to pay for media content. Especially not LG/Sony/Samsung/etc.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#368

Post by throw03172019 »

RKearney wrote: post #359
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

> Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Because almost all of them use internet connectivity to show you ads on home screens.

I disconnect from WiFi. It makes my “smart” tv a normal one that doesn’t serve my shitty ads, lag or turn on some random SamsungTV channel.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#369

Post by labster »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #336
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

> This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Smart TVs is one of those recurring HN topics where it’s clear that people made up their minds years ago, likely from a single bad experience. Now they can’t imagine that any progress has been made since then. There’s not much reason to buy a new TV these days if your old one still works (with an external TV box) You can still find terrible smart TVs out there, of course…

> people made up their minds years ago, likely from a single bad experience.

It’s true, I made up my mind in 1984.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#370

Post by TehCorwiz »

Smart TVs are an obvious cash grab from TV manufacturers. When a new [Roku|Apply TV|Fire Stick] comes out, a consumer only has to buy that device itself to get access to new features. They don't buy a new tv. In this way "Smart" TVs are a way for TV manufacturers to bond the two devices so that consumers will be locked out of new developments eventually where they'll obviously buy a new TV because they've been conditioned to and because they know the TVs UI and switching is harder.
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