forget smart TVs, I want somebody to just make a decent dumb TV. Same thing goes for cars, I feel like there is a huge market for "dumb" products. Manufacturers feel the need to keep adding features for some reason
HDMI monitor anyone?
Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
591–600 of 727 posts
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#592Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The last TV I purchased I had to spend a $10-$20 premium over the smart model with similar specs (from a slightly more reputable manufacturer at that) just to get a non-smart model. The data mining definitely plays a huge part.
Care to share which model? Last time I checked, the few dumb TVs I could find were at least 30% more expensive than a similar smart one.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#593Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Why is everyone confused that smart TVs are popular?" TBH, Im more confused by the parent comment. (Although this is a very typical type of HN comment, passive-aggressive denigration of anything "not popular".) These type of comments make me wonder why would anyone, other than the companies benefitting, care if some HN commenters do not love so-called smart TVs. This is not a mainstream audience. Moreover, I see no…
> "Why is everyone confused that smart TVs are popular?" In his Appendix, Orwell explains the syntactical arrangement and the etymology of the Newspeak. A living language, such as English, one that has the capability of diverse expression, has the tendency to gain words and therefore broaden the awareness and knowledge of its speakers. Newspeak, on the other hand, loses words, by removing words that represent opposin…
"Unscientific" is a good example.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#594Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't give it network, and use it as a dumb terminal connected via hdmi to a secure pc
Eventually they will all likely have cellular modems.
But if you are using an external video source and the tv as a dumb display via hdmi, what is that cellular modem going to transmit? Screenshots?
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#595Earlier quoted context omitted.
It stretches credulity to suggest that the lack of non-smart TVs on the market causes the popularity of smart TVs. Would you also suggest that the lack of black and white TVs on the market causes the popularity of color TVs?
Color TVs superseded black and white because it was objectively an improvement for the customer. There wasn't any benefit to the manufacturer besides selling a new unit. the "Smart" TVs of today are riddled with spyware and telemetry that provides a second revenue stream to the manufacture since 95% of the population is too lazy or uninformed or doesn't have the time to turn it off. Yes, there benefits to the consume…
Yes, there benefits to the consumer in the form of convenience but it's not a paradigm shift like the switch from color to b & w
Not having to procure or mess around with external devices and cables is a huge plus for most people. People who buy new TVs want great image quality, and are mostly concerned with where it will fit and whether they want 8k or are happy with 4k.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#596Earlier 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.
Anecdotal, the last "unsmart" TV I found was hobbled to the point of not even having a power indicator LED. It wasn't used much until putting a "good smart" device behind it...in this case a Roku. Orwellian prophecy in real life, the Roku sends data back to the company about anything you watch using that device. The only difference between this setup and a "plus good smart" TV is that anything else displayed on the T…
>Anecdotal, the last "unsmart" TV I found was hobbled to the point of not even having a power indicator LED.
Please, tell me which model was that! I hate it when shiny LEDs ruin my movie experience.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#597Earlier quoted context omitted.
The last TV I purchased I had to spend a $10-$20 premium over the smart model with similar specs (from a slightly more reputable manufacturer at that) just to get a non-smart model. The data mining definitely plays a huge part.
Care to share which model? Last time I checked, the few dumb TVs I could find were at least 30% more expensive than a similar smart one.
I've had the TV for about 5 years now so no information I could share would be too helpful. It's got a 1920x1080 resolution and seems to work well with the living room PC, that's good enough for me.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#598Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Why is everyone confused that smart TVs are popular?" In his Appendix, Orwell explains the syntactical arrangement and the etymology of the Newspeak. A living language, such as English, one that has the capability of diverse expression, has the tendency to gain words and therefore broaden the awareness and knowledge of its speakers. Newspeak, on the other hand, loses words, by removing words that represent opposin…
"Unscientific" is a good example.
That isn't the hand of government at work. The term "scientist" is itself only ~200 years old. For centuries it was called things like "natural philosophy".
We just haven't figured out a good antonym yet. Unfortunately, with the Latin root scientia meaning knowledge, the natural choice might be ignorantia. But ignorance is already in widespread use. Just try accusing someone unscientific of being ignorantific & see how that goes!
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#599Earlier quoted context omitted.
The average customer doesn't even know what spyware or telemetry is. I'd even argue that broadcast TV is dying making some form of video streaming service necessary which the smart TV accomplishes in a nice form factor.
What do the smart ones in possession of a smart TV do? Because I constantly bleed time fine tuning pi-hole to limit telemetry and retain functionality…
I removed the WiFi card from mine.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#600This technology was used for good this time, but there's nothing stopping it from being used for evil next time. The fact that Samsung is even capable of doing this means you don't have control over your Samsung TV even if you do own it legally.
What good was served here? The products are still stolen and are still going on the books as a loss. Since they can't be used, they're likely going in a dumpster. And none of this apparently led the arrest of any perpetrators. Hard to imagine what purpose was served here, other than Samsung broadcasting what kind of power they have over devices you own.
I struggle to believe you don’t understand how “stolen goods don’t work” affects society.