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

671–680 of 727 posts

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#671

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #555
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you eliminated all copyright right now, people would still mostly choose to stream rather than deal with the hassle of managing a media library. It's a huge pain in the ass.

If there was popular media that could be legally stored locally and played then there would be a market for it. I imagine it would be possible for a company to sell a NAS with all 80s movies, and 90s movies, music, games, or whatever. Right now there is no incentive to selling devices that can locally distribute content within your home because there is no content to distribute in the first place. So the target marke…

You make a very good point. Right now the only DRM free media I can acquire is music (qobuz, hdtracks). There is no legal way to acquire DRM free movies or TV shows as far as I know.

I like the idea of a post-copyright world where you could buy a NAS preloaded with content. Unfortunately we seem to be headed for a future where you cannot even buy most media, you must subscribe to a service to stream it.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#672

Post by hulitu »

alacritas0 wrote: post #458
lp0_on_fire wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Color TVs superseded black and white because it was objectively an improvement for the customer.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…

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.

> The average customer doesn't even know what spyware or telemetry is.

The average customer doesn't know what telemetry is. They usually know what spyware is, and, if they don't, they will find out very quickly. Of course there are exceptions like your favourite Smart TVs or Google (MS, Apple) products.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#673

Post by dotancohen »

jsjohnst wrote: post #218
walrus01 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a high-end Samsung smart TV in 2017 and simply never gave it the wifi password and never connected it to ethernet. I use it as a dumb screen connected to two consoles and a living room PC for movies. Thankfully we're not yet at the point where my xbox one or PS4 will give it a DHCP lease, NAT and default route/gateway outbound and 100Mbps ethernet over the HDMI cable .

> simply never gave it the wifi password and never connected it to ethernet I worked on the team who built Samsung’s initial smart TV experience back in 2009 and yet I’m the exact same as you with every TV I own. If I could get the same quality panel and video processing without “smart TV” functionality for a reasonable price, I would, but they generally are much more expensive. My choice of panel is intended to last…

Surely there's a wire to snip or PCB trace to cut to disable IP-over-HDMI.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#674

Post by hulitu »

idonotknowwhy wrote: post #554
oxfeed65261 wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had to choose between a color TV that could only show live broadcasts or a B&W TV that could stream Netflix, etc., I would certainly choose B&W streaming. This obviously doesn’t require a smart TV—I personally use a Roku and rejected all of my Smart TV’s EULAs—but I consider streaming to be a much bigger objective improvement than color.

I watch Netflix on a CRT TV in 2021 lol. Hook up a ps3 via component and it's a great way to watch older 4:3 content like anime

Are there any conpanies which sell CRTs TV?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#675

Post by deadbunny »

fy20 wrote: post #576
darawk wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of the market does not even know about telemetry and spyware. And then about 90% of the 1% who does does not actually care. Smart TVs are popular because they offer a far better user experience for the average person. It really is that simple.

This is why I got a smart TV. We watch Netflix, YouTube and Plex. We don't even have our TV connected to an antenna (and it reminds me that every time I turn it on). Compared to the alternative of getting a non-smart TV and plugging in some kind of dongle I think this was the better choice because: - When I got the TV 4K was only just becoming mainstream and most dongles didn't support it. My TV natively supports 4K,…

> My TV is 5 years old. The manufacturer (LG) hasn't introduced any new features that shove more ads down your throat, and all of the original features still work.

And on the flip side your TV probably isn't receiving security updates anymore either.

Hope you have it segregated from the rest of your devices.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#676

Post by capitainenemo »

wwn_se wrote: post #612
capitainenemo wrote: post #457

Earlier 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.

If you don't give it your wifi password it will not be smart? Its not like they come with a sim card... I would however love a smart tv with an open stack where I can control the software.

Personally I didn't want passive collection phoning home if, at any point, anyone connected it to anything, and there is also the possibility of connecting to open access points.

And, well, saw no reason for leaving around untrusted unreliable crud I couldn't remove. It was worth a modest markup to get rid of it.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#677

Post by hilbert42 »

wwn_se wrote: post #611
hilbert42 wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution to get a new dumb TV is simple. I don't want and would never own a smart TV so I use a standard monitor with a PVR/STB (Set Top Box). It works perfectly - I've used that solution for years. The real problem is that governments have allowed the free-to-air (dumb) TV service to be bastardized, there's no regulation to protect it. A very simple solution that would end the practice immediately would be for go…

I usually just connect the "smart tv" to the internet once a year and update the firmware (after checking the change log for useful fixes). Then I disconnect it again and use my chromecast to stream.

Good idea, but before I'd update I'd doubly check the net to see there are no new/hidden gotchas as some have reported (like the way some manufacturers have coded around Pi-hole, etc.).

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#678

Post by GoblinSlayer »

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 antonym is baloney.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#679

Post by GoblinSlayer »

savant_penguin wrote: post #381
throw03172019 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just because you disconnected it from wifi does not mean they cannot connect it through lte without your knowledge

Wrap it in tinfoil.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#680

Post by GoblinSlayer »

tshaddox wrote: post #425
savant_penguin wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you disconnected it from wifi does not mean they cannot connect it through lte without your knowledge

It's also true (by definition) that literally any device that you own could be connecting through LTE without your knowledge.

Is LTE a synonym for free internet? Who pays for connection?
Post reply on HN