Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

news.samsung.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 727 posts

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#631

Post by basisword »

com2kid wrote: post #364
breakfastduck wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hang…

I’ve seen one of those combo things in my entire life. They’re awful but certainly not common. The front loading machines allow you to have the machine inset under a kitchen counter which is a common place for them in the UK. Separate “laundry rooms” aren’t common and neither are basements so the machine needs to fit in other use environments. I used top loading machines for a while when living in Canada and had constant problems with the detergent staining clothes.

Regarding the sizing again, I’ve never had a problem. I’ve also never heard of anybody washing a comforter (although I don’t call it a comforter so maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean). A comforter (or duvet) has a cover on it and you wash the cover.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#632

Post by rezic »

lyx0 wrote: post #89
wait_a_minute wrote: post #36

I bought one of Samsung's smart televisions a couple years ago. I think I paid $1500 for it. Anyway, it started showing me ads and the TV eventually became sluggish less than a month after owning it. Returned it as defective. Ever since that experience, I swore of all smart televisions and will never buy another Samsung television or smartphone again if I can help it.

Same here, I bought a Samsung TV around 5-6 years ago and a year ago it started to show me ads all of a sudden in that 'Media Bar' (I have no idea what's it called, where you select the apps you want to use). A day later I factory reset it and gave it no access to the internet anymore and only stream to it from my PlayStation. This made me swear off Samsung forever. Don't mess with my stuff I bought years ago.

Make sure your HDMI cable doesn't support ethernet... I've seen people comment about their TVs updating through HDMI when connected to peripherals like consoles.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#633

Post by MichaelGroves »

Y_Y wrote: post #626
MichaelGroves wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

I had a quick look through this page for examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:PrefixIndex/smart There were "smart cards" in 1974, "smart casual" dress codes in 1924, and "Smart Set" magazine in 1900. A more careful look will surely find older and more relevant examples. Amusingly "smart money" and "smart tickets" existed in the 18th century, referring to the results of injuries ("ow, that smarts!"). See: h…

I don't think any of these are examples of it. Smart cards in 1974 postdate smart bombs. "Smart casual" fashion is smart in the "Good-looking; well dressed; fine; fashionable" sense, while smart bomb/phone are being used in this sense: "(often in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology)."

Smart bombs weren't called smart for being fashionably well dressed. The term was applied to guided bombs with fire-and-forget capabilities, which were first used during the Vietnam War.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#634

Post by detaro »

nitrogen wrote: post #441
sgrove wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 nece…

It's definitely real. A/V receivers are the typical devices to support HEC, so you can run one Ethernet cable to the receiver and use a smart TV with the HDMI audio return channel, with one HDMI cable.

> A/V receivers are the typical devices to support HEC

Then you surely can name a few models that support Ethernet over HDMI? (Somehow people keep claiming that this is totally a thing, but nobody ever can confirm a single device)

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#635

Post by account42 »

the_biot wrote: post #614
zucker42 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few people feel strongly that a chip running Linux makes a TV worse. What they object to is when the manufacturer controls the TV rather than the owner of the TV. Modern smart TVs override the users' desired by, for example, showing ads. It's even possible these chips will eventually be responsible for copyright verification. This would be fixed if it was possible to modify the chip's software and easy to install alt…

There's a very real opportunity here for an open source project that takes on the task of doing an alternate kernel/distribution/applications for smart TVs. Big job, and likely to take a while before getting caught up with newer SoCs etc. But it's totally doable -- it worked for e.g. OpenWRT on SOHO routers, sat receivers, etc. (what is an OS bulb?)

> But it's totally doable

Unless the manafacturers have locked down the device to only boot software signed with their keys, which they likely have.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#636

Post by anshumankmr »

mminer237 wrote: post #195
anshumankmr wrote: post #4

I am quite ambivalent to this feature. On one hand, if someone steals your TV, you can deactivate it. But now there is also a benefit to having a dumb TV. Imagine if you have too old of a model, so Samsung decides to remotely disable your TV.

Then the millions of old TV owners sue Samsung for trespass to chattels? That would be a horrible decision both financially and publicity-wise. The benefit this gives to having a dumb TV is that it makes it more attractive to thieves.

I don't know how exactly consumer behaviour works in America when it comes to televisions but in India, most people hold on to their TVs for at least a decade. So yeah this would not fly in a place like India. But in America, if the average consumer changes their television far quicker than here, it is likely very few will remain holding onto TVs older than 10 years. So the complaints of people will fall onto deaf ears.

This is one possible outcome only. But I feel this is quite likely.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#637

Post by detaro »

rgoulter wrote: post #548
grosswait wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about never connecting it to a network?

I've seen comments report that it gets ethernet over HDMI if they plug in their internet-connected gaming console.

This is one of these things were people once heard that it's in the standard and then are convinced its happening, but nobody can ever name a single device that supports it. (Happy to be proven wrong though, but for now this seems to be pretty much FUD)

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#638

Post by mschuster91 »

cik wrote: post #630
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.

It's more than that. Ultimately at a certain point TVs are blank slates, and become identical. At that point it's a race to the bottom on price, as opposed to features. TVs might have multiple inputs and outputs - but if they don't, honestly that's a $10 problem so there's a lack of reasonable differentiation. Enter "Smart TVs". Consumers can theoretically choose one based on built-in applications, versions of Androi…

You have to search for Digital Signage monitors, these usually don't have smart crap, a wider selection of inputs, and are built to higher quality standards.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#639

Post by lxgr »

wait_a_minute wrote: post #36

I bought one of Samsung's smart televisions a couple years ago. I think I paid $1500 for it. Anyway, it started showing me ads and the TV eventually became sluggish less than a month after owning it. Returned it as defective. Ever since that experience, I swore of all smart televisions and will never buy another Samsung television or smartphone again if I can help it.

Have you tried another brand? Seems like you are jumping from "I had a bad experience with one smart TV" right to "smart TVs are to be avoided".

I have a smart TV (of another brand) that I am very happy with, and while I don't really use the built-in apps, they are quite decent and – importantly – don't get in the way of me using the TV as a HDMI sink exclusively.

It even got native AirPlay support via a software update three years after its original market launch, something I'd absolutely not expect and was quite pleasantly surprised by.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#640

Post by [deleted] »

crackercrews wrote: post #572
iso1210 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Convert HDMI to SDI and back, but you'll need a HDMI-to-SDI converter that ignores HDCP (i.e. either pages of forms explaining how you've got a legitimate reason for doing it and an expensive converter, or a cheap Chinese one)

If it ignores HDCP, doesn't that prevent you from using it to play Netflix and Amazon Prime content?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN