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Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

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Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#31
Every time this comes up I feel obligated to add the following:

1) Samsung televisions spy on your mercilessly. They collect everything they can, including screenshots at regular intervals and send them back to Samsung so that they can sell this to "partners". They are not a FAANG and don't have anywhere near their level of security expertise. I have second-hand but reliable information about their security approach, and "laughable" doesn't begin to describe it. Assume that whatever you watch on a Samsung TV is being relayed to multiple state-level spy agencies.

Ref: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/resources/tv-...

2) Even if you buy a flagship Samsung television for five figures, it's virtually guaranteed that within a year or two they will release an update the slows it down to molasses. These things have controller boards with miniscule amounts of RAM in them, and they use the same firmware across all models. When a new model with more RAM is released, they add more features, causing all older models that self update to start swapping to the pagefile. I've seen several Samsung televisions across several model years and price points get slowed down until response times are up to 2 seconds for most actions. This is "unusable garbage" quality, for crazy money.

NEVER buy a Samsung television, ever. You're treated as the product, not the customer, despite paying them a lot of money.

PS: This isn't even the only display calibration cheating that they do! Practically all Samsung models use a "shop mode" that cranks up brightness to 11 and oversaturates the colours. Even in "normal" mode Samsung televisions have forced "enhancements" that can't be turned off. There is no "calibrated mode", because it would look like trash on these over-priced televisions.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#32

Every time this comes up I feel obligated to add the following: 1) Samsung televisions spy on your mercilessly . They collect everything they can, including screenshots at regular intervals and send them back to Samsung so that they can sell this to "partners". They are not a FAANG and don't have anywhere near their level of security expertise. I have second-hand but reliable information about their security approach…

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#34

Every time this comes up I feel obligated to add the following: 1) Samsung televisions spy on your mercilessly . They collect everything they can, including screenshots at regular intervals and send them back to Samsung so that they can sell this to "partners". They are not a FAANG and don't have anywhere near their level of security expertise. I have second-hand but reliable information about their security approach…

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

Well yes, but then you're basically buying an expensive monitor and will need a second device to be the "smarts".

I personally use an Apple TV for this, but in general this can be frustrating for users that just want their Smart TV to work without spying on them or implementing centrally triggered scheduled obsolescence.

This is a bit like saying you should "never" turn on your new car's engine and should immediately swap it out for a third-party one, because every knows Manufacturer X leaves ticking time bombs in their engines.

This is why consumer protection agencies are created by governments!

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#35

Every time this comes up I feel obligated to add the following: 1) Samsung televisions spy on your mercilessly . They collect everything they can, including screenshots at regular intervals and send them back to Samsung so that they can sell this to "partners". They are not a FAANG and don't have anywhere near their level of security expertise. I have second-hand but reliable information about their security approach…

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

HDMI can carry ethernet, so not connecting to wifi isn't a 100% fix.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#36

Every time this comes up I feel obligated to add the following: 1) Samsung televisions spy on your mercilessly . They collect everything they can, including screenshots at regular intervals and send them back to Samsung so that they can sell this to "partners". They are not a FAANG and don't have anywhere near their level of security expertise. I have second-hand but reliable information about their security approach…

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

They could connect to nearby open wifi if they really wanted :/

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

HDMI can carry ethernet, so not connecting to wifi isn't a 100% fix.

At least with an Apple TV and a Samsung 900r, it is unable to network between the two.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#38

Every time this comes up I feel obligated to add the following: 1) Samsung televisions spy on your mercilessly . They collect everything they can, including screenshots at regular intervals and send them back to Samsung so that they can sell this to "partners". They are not a FAANG and don't have anywhere near their level of security expertise. I have second-hand but reliable information about their security approach…

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

Every thread dozens of people say, "just don't connect!" They can connect to open networks such as Amazon sidewalk and other deliberate corporate IoT sabotage, and soon I'm sure we'll see the first televisions that require connection to even pass a signal from the HDMI port.

The best thing to do is not support this immoral garbage through apathy or ignorance.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#39
post #26

I'm totally done with Samsung. Their TVs are overpriced and bad, their phones add undeletable bloatware, remove useful stuff like headphone/mic jack, have low battery life and capacity and they force you to buy the flagship model, if you don't you'll receive a really small battery that even in the flagship model is not large enough. If you don't buy Galaxy series you won't even be able to mirror output via USB. And s…

Many of us share your distaste for the issues your mentioned. The challenge is finding better alternatives. Do you have any recommendations?

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never allow a TV or monitor to connect to your Wi-Fi network and you'll be able to avoid these two issues

HDMI can carry ethernet, so not connecting to wifi isn't a 100% fix.

Gotta make a HDMI firewall.
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