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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

#601

Post by stainforth »

setr wrote: post #411
coconut08 wrote: post #374

Earlier 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.

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 syst…

Supply side is the first side in what exists

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#602

Post by vages »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #594
loonster wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The TVs track the content you’re watching by sampling a subset of the pixels. So yes.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#603

Post by MichaelGroves »

wombatmobile wrote: post #540
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #510

Earlier 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…

Smart TVs, Smart watches, Smart phones, Smart houses.. how did things become smart? As far as I can determine, the 'smart [thing]' linguistic construct started with 'smart bomb', a propaganda euphemism for guided bombs that emerged in the 70s. Does anybody have an earlier example?

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/26/archives/smart-bombs-and-...

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#604

Post by denni9th »

tsjq wrote: post #579
Igelau wrote: post #577

> Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared What the hell is TV license?

"In the British Islands, any household watching or recording live television transmissions at the same time they are being broadcast is required by law to hold a television licence. This applies regardless of transmission method, including terrestrial, satellite, cable, or for BBC iPlayer internet streaming. The television licence is the instrument used to raise revenue to fund the BBC; it is a form of taxation" http…

The TV license in the article is for a similar system in South Africa, which funds the local public broadcaster SABC

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#605

Post by fulafel »

kelnos wrote: post #508
echlebek wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gigabyte have a 48" 'monitor' now (an LG panel with Displayport 1.4 and no smart features)

Does it come with a remote control? I expect most panels sold as "monitors" don't.

Don't most things you'd want to use this with come with remote control mechanisms? Chromecast, Apple TV, whatever you run on your raspberry pi, etc.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#606

Post by beermonster »

hoov wrote: post #506
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.

There is also spyware running on them. They literally spy on what you're watching and send the info home, and the data gets sold to market to you. No thanks. Edit. They also connect to unprotected wifi networks to send data without your permission.

And in the case of Toshiba at least, use their own hardcoded DNS which doesn't honour the one handed up by local DHCP or even the one configured in the advanced settings where you can manually configure the DNS!

Just stick it in a VLAN to isolate and control.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#607

Post by cto_of_antifa »

ip26 wrote: post #598
akomtu wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

the "opposite" of science isnt ignorance, though. science is a type of practice for rendering meaning in the world.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#608

Post by denni9th »

nottorp wrote: post #220

So... I'm supposed to keep the receipt for the lifetime of the TV? Around here I don't even need it for the warranty in some places, they just look the item up by serial no. And what is a "valid TV license" ?

Some countries require a TV license to own a TV. Its a monthly license fee used to fund public broadcasters.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#609

Post by beermonster »

piyh wrote: post #102
dthul wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that it's hard to find any not-too-smart TVs with up to date technology (4k, OLED, HDR etc). Unless you spend a fortune on a luxury brand like Bang and Olufsen.

Why isn't the alternative to keep your TV off the network?

Or segregate it from the network (e.g. using a VLAN). Some folk might need the freeview/on-demand TV apps (if they're trying to avoid having other smart devices for these things (e.g. fire sticks and Apple TVs et al) and these require at least working outbound internet access.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#610

Post by sgtnoodle »

RulerOf wrote: post #499
Johnny555 wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never wanted one because I was afraid that one or the other would break, then it would be half-useless. My parents had one where the TV part stopped working, but the VCR still worked. It had video/audio out jacks so dad plugged it into their other TV, so they had a dead TV sitting next to their working TV for use as a VCR.

Smart TVs from at least the last 5 years have a similar problem. You update the software and they become excruciatingly slow, or you can't update the software and they gradually become useless. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But I can replace an old Roku for $39.

I hit that point with my 5 year old Sony android TV. I just plugged in an Nvidia Shield TV device, though, and now it's buttery smooth again with nearly perfect integration.
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