"The functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase *and a valid TV license* is shared"
What.
Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
711–720 of 727 posts
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#712Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cheap gigabyte cards are fine. I’ve got a bottom end 1660 and it has been good. But I only use the stock nvidia drivers with it. Just the power supplies are dog crap.
The card is fine, but if you want to control the oh so annoying lighting... Fortunately Afterburner will let you take control of the fan etc with a custom profile.
I had a problem with the lighting in my Logitech mouse. I desoldered all the LEDs :)
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#713Earlier quoted context omitted.
New Zealand has a bit of legislation called the Consumer Guarantees Act, and it specifies something to the effect of ‘the thing should have a lifespan commensurate with the price, free of defects or faults’. It’s really great - the downside is that we pay more for things than people overseas do. I vastly prefer that we have it.
Would be interesting to know if big manufacturers then only sell their most dependable models in the NZ market, in order to avoid the costs that they can avoid in more business-friendly markets like the US. It would be a good way to decide which products to buy. Is this (equivalent) model sold in New Zealand? If so, it's probably known by the manufacturer to be solid. If not, avoid it at all costs.
What happens is that big companies try to trick consumers (as most consumers are not aware of their legal rights).
Common tactics are:
* It will cost x to fix this, as a gesture we will share the inflated repair cost with you 50/50.
* We don't make this model anymore but we have an identical model with a different serial number, we can offer you that at a "discount".
* We found the item had water damage and this is not covered in our warranty, even when we advertised these items being used in water.
* We are happy to repair the item but first we need to have the item inspected by a repair agent to see how the fault occurred. Please be aware if we find the fault is caused by you, then you agree to pay x dollar value amount even if we do not repair item (because you were at fault)
* Item spends many weeks being assessed for repair. Doesn't get repaired, sent back. Repeat.
.. and many more.
Only when you stand firm and start spouting the legal requirements do they suddenly resolve the situation VERY quickly.
I dealt with dodgy Samsung fridges and they tried to "share" the repair cost with me. I politely declined, then sent them an email citing my legal rights. Samsung then repaired the fridge promptly and no longer tried to talk with me about sharing costs of repair.
Most consumers fall for the tricks above or give up and buy a new item.
I don't think international companies care too much, they are adept selling to the masses. Those that cite the rules to get a repair are likely to be a tiny minority.
There is another aspect of the law which is less known. It is not actually Samsung or large manufacturer on the hook for consumer guarantee. It is the retailer. The retailer has to remedy the situation. If Samsung packs up operations, the retailer still needs to stand by the product it sold. This means that the retailer has an incentive to work with more reliable manufacturers and suppliers and will promptly ditch troublesome suppliers.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#714I 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.
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 .
I'd rather expect they'll soon start putting cell chips inside of them for telemetry and ads, kind of like cars do nowadays.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#715This 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.
smart TV is a brand (silly because it’s a generic term). But eg roku Xbox and fire tv are not smart TVs.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#716Smart TVs are shit. Especially the modern ones. They got worse rather than better! They are slow and laggy, even doing the most basic things like turning on or changing channel. It was faster the CRT that I used 20 years ago, and it had to warm up before displaying an image! But at least the audio started immediately... They are also not usable. The UI is crappy and you don't find the most common settings, for exampl…
What LG TV are you talking about? My old smart TV was "slow and laggy", but as soon as I upgraded to a mid-range model a lot of those complaints went away. I can't imagine trying to use a dumb TV now. We have four streaming services in my house, the UI homepage quickly shows which series we're in the middle of and makes it easy to jump back in without navigating a lot of menus. Even if plex were to do exactly what I…
I don't want streaming services inside the TV. I have a media center PC for that purposes, that is faster than using the UI of the TV, and lets me play all the file formats that I want.
> No one I know (except my parents) watches channels anymore, they all just stream Netflix/Hulu/Crunchyroll/Disney. If there's something really niche I want to watch, there's torrents and videostream.
I watch TV channels in multiple occasions, form watching the news, to watching live sports events (that you don't find in streaming or you find with a lag), to watch all other good programs that still make on TV channels, at least in my country.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#717Smart TVs are shit. Especially the modern ones. They got worse rather than better! They are slow and laggy, even doing the most basic things like turning on or changing channel. It was faster the CRT that I used 20 years ago, and it had to warm up before displaying an image! But at least the audio started immediately... They are also not usable. The UI is crappy and you don't find the most common settings, for exampl…
Gigabyte's latest OLED monitor looks appealing. LG OLED without the smart features. Recently featured in a LTT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBE9DL7MlG0
That can be good for a user like me, because I can easily deal with an external set-top-box to watch TV channels (in fact I already have one, that also lets me record TV channels and even stream them on my LAN and outside with a VPN, that is cool since not every channel you find in streaming and also inside the house I don't consume my bandwidth).
But there are a ton of users, like my grandparents, that wants a TV that if they press the button 5 on the remote turn on on channel 5, without fancy menu and other stuff. That kind of TV is more and more difficult to find.
Next year they change to DVB T2 in my country (but in all Europe the transition is planed to make room for 5G) and thus we must change all the televisions or at least buy a decoder. I'm in difficult finding a TV for my grandmother, that is as simple as the one that has today, and without smart features, that are complicated and also useless (of course she don't even have an internet connection).
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#718Earlier quoted context omitted.
My washing machine can fit in one of those 'comforters' (duvet as It would seem to other UK folk!) easily with more to boot. Maybe our front loaders are larger than the ones available in the US?
The front loaders in the US tend to be of the High Efficiency variety, which means they spray just a little bit of water on the clothing and then "tumble" it around to get the clothes clean. If the machine is stuffed full this doesn't work, the water gets caught in some fold of the clothing and you end up with 1 damp spot and an otherwise dry duvet. I Air BnB'd my way around the UK, the washing machines in the places…
Definitely a symptom of AirBNB. Every single one I've stayed in has the cheapest most laughably small washing machine. Considerably smaller than the ones most people would purchase for their own home.
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#719Earlier quoted context omitted.
Front loading washing machines just seem like an all around more fragile design that is also less usable. I have an HE top loader. It uses just as little water, but it can wash a lot more clothes when needed. I can push a button and it stops being HE and can fill its tub up to wash blankets and comforters. Also front loaders just can't clean synthetic fabrics that water beads off of. I've seen fabrics come out of a f…
My wife says front loaders are more gentle, so do less damage to delicate clothes. Maybe due to the lack of the central agitator (do new top loaders still have that)? The big reason I prefer them though: I can put a counter top above them for folding laundry and things. They are an absolute pain in the ass to keep clean and odor free though.
Higher end top loaders don't have the giant doom spiral in the middle that rips fabrics apart. :)
Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse
#720Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think so. I think regardless of how good they are... a lot of people don't want to sell their viewing habits in exchange for using an app that you have to pay for to watch shows.
I mean, most people just use Netflix and Hulu and Plex from their smart TV anyways. The former 2 are already collecting your viewing habits, and the latter is uncollectable since it's just streaming from your own server.
Sure, but Netflix is collecting my viewing habits about what I watch on Netflix. That makes sense to me. But Netflix isn't collecting my Hulu and Plex habits. The TV is aggregating all of those, which they have no business doing, and selling that. Though now that I think about it, all 3 probably sell your viewing habit data.