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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

#411

Post by setr »

coconut08 wrote: post #374
pessimizer wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Also the real reason that they're popular: there are no non-smart TVs available.

the next logical question is why are they the only tv's available? the reason is the same reason that phones are getting bigger and laptops are getting thinner. (hint it's not some grand conspiracy to ruin your life or to fuck the consumer) the answer is because that's what people buy.

Remember 3DTV’s? For like 5 years, all TV’s being sold had 3D support. Not because consumers wanted it — it was because the industry believed consumers would want it. Industries don’t turn on a dime..

Market forces don’t correct small issues in short timeframes — and smart TV’s are not problematic enough to meet their immediate demise (but sufficiently awful that they eventually will — alongside car infotainment systems)

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#412

Post by FridayoLeary »

yardie wrote: post #302
hellbannedguy wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most were up to a few years ago, but the big players went out of their way to make dependable ice makers--I thought. The last two refrigerators I bought had dependable ice makers. I just overheard an installer talking to a neighbor while installing his refrigerator. The tech said most modern refrigerations only last 10 years at best though.

10 years is actually quite good for major appliances. If you're warrantied for 3 and manage to get 10 years out if it you've exceeded the design parameters. Environmentally, replacing a broken fridge is usually the only time someone will even research something more energy efficient.

I thought fridges should last 15-20 years at least. 3 years is a joke.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#413

Post by rtkwe »

coconut08 wrote: post #374
pessimizer wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Also the real reason that they're popular: there are no non-smart TVs available.

the next logical question is why are they the only tv's available? the reason is the same reason that phones are getting bigger and laptops are getting thinner. (hint it's not some grand conspiracy to ruin your life or to fuck the consumer) the answer is because that's what people buy.

Sure but they're also juicy extra revenue streams for the manufacturers from ads and behavior/watch data even without the neigh conspiratorial spying people speculate about.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#415

Post by flanbiscuit »

slivanes wrote: post #177
flanbiscuit wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I'm never buying any kind of smart TV again. I currently have one those TCL TVs with Roku built in and it sucks. All of the apps on it are slow, the menu/home/OS is slow. This could just be a overall Roku thing but I'll never buy either a Roku or a "smart tv" again. I mainly use Apple TV and PS4 to access all of the streaming services. They are slick, fast, and responsive.

Sadly PS4 is pretty bad for streaming services. They don't show up on the main screen and often are buried in subsequent pages in the streaming menu. I haven't been able to figure how to "sticky" YT TV for example to either the main screen or early in the "Video" section.

Yeah it's not perfect, they shove everything into that TV & Video section[1] and then in there I sometimes I have to look for the app I want in another sub-screen. I want to just create a folder on the home screen with my streaming apps on it. I'm probably going to get another Apple TV in the end. But even with all of those annoyances I am still much happier using the PS4 than the built-in Roku.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBJxPkUUh4 <-- If anyone is curious, this is what PS4 does to your streaming apps and there's no way out of it. You are forced to go into this section to find the streaming app you want to use

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#416

Post by flanbiscuit »

Scramblejams wrote: post #217
flanbiscuit wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I'm never buying any kind of smart TV again. I currently have one those TCL TVs with Roku built in and it sucks. All of the apps on it are slow, the menu/home/OS is slow. This could just be a overall Roku thing but I'll never buy either a Roku or a "smart tv" again. I mainly use Apple TV and PS4 to access all of the streaming services. They are slick, fast, and responsive.

I have a Hisense with a built-in Roku, same experience, but it got a lot faster once I cut off its internet access. (It's still connected to the home network so I can use the iOS remote control app for it, but I set up a firewall rule to block it from WAN access.) Worth a try if you can live without it dialing out.

Interesting, I'll give this a shot. thanks for the tip!

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#417

Post by tfigment »

haunter wrote: post #406
pessimizer wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Also the real reason that they're popular: there are no non-smart TVs available.

There are, they are called monitors

Monitors generally don't have remote controls or speakers. The latter solved with soundbar but former is important use case.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#418

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #280
ok123456 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung's appliances have a pretty bad reputation in general, especially the refrigerators and side loading washing machines.

We bought a 1.5k refrigerator which died after 2 years (warranty expires exactly at that time in Europe). We had extended repair, it died again after another year. Never again!

Worth noting that in UK under the Consumer Rights Act there is no specific time limit for poor engineering causing a problem that the _seller_ must fix. The limitation is 2 years or how long I've would normally expect such a product to last. A fridge should easily last a decade and so in theory there's a 10 year "warranty" period. The seller can have things repaired, replace them, or offer a refund (refunds can be reduced to account for the use you did get from the product).

We need to use legislation and taxation to push for every longer-lived appliances.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#419

Post by matheusmoreira »

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.

We're not confused by their popularity. We understand perfectly why the average person would want technology that is perfectly converged and easy to use.

We're frustrated because our screens went from dumb panels that displayed signals to proprietary computing platforms with DRM, ads and a full surveillance capitalism suite complete with microphones and maybe even cameras, all of which do nothing but serve the business interests of corporate giants.

All that nice stuff that the average person wants? We want it as well. But we want it on our terms. I want to do things that will no doubt cost the manufacturer thousands of dollars: kill their ads, deny them any and all data, etc. The TV should obey.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#420

Post by haunter »

tfigment wrote: post #417
haunter wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are, they are called monitors

Monitors generally don't have remote controls or speakers. The latter solved with soundbar but former is important use case.

Well depends how do you use it. My DVR set top box has one and I control that to change channels, record etc
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