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Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

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Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#102
post #2

Never stop recommending https://www.rtings.com/ They cover more and more gadgets but they still do the best TV reviews

Interestingly their "best LED TV" is a Samsung

Because by most measures they make some of the best TVs. The complaints are just about software which nobody does indepth reviews of.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not ok that your tv has a banner ad!

But actually it is ok. I've gotten used to it and don't notice. It doesn't harm me in any way

Despite paying hundreds or even thousands, you're okay with that?

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But actually it is ok. I've gotten used to it and don't notice. It doesn't harm me in any way

Despite paying hundreds or even thousands, you're okay with that?

Just because one tolerates something doesn’t mean they think it’s ok. Besides, what’s the other option? Any “smart” platform needs an internet connection, and will show ads because of that.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#105
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LG doesn't make phones

They do. https://www.lg.com/levant_en/mobile-phones No idea if it's good or bad.

They announced they were exiting smartphones last year: https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/4/22346084/lg-exits-smartpho...

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#106
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?

I suggest Bosch. Especially for dishwashers. My old apartment had one: 7 years with zero issues. My new house has one: zero issues, the design is a real pleasure to use, and it also happens to be the quietest dishwasher sold in the US, at least according to the Googling I did when I first ran it and could barely even tell it was on.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#107
I wrote Samsung off a few years ago. I was at my dad's house and noticed that his Samsung TV would do this strange thing at the end of commercials for movies. At the end of most movie commercials, there is an all black screen with white text. When this screen would show up, the TV's back-light would suddenly dim and then brighten back up on the when it went away. I went online and found a forum of other folks noticing and complaining about the phenomenon. Apparently, this line of Samsung TVs had an algorithm that would watch for scenes that had a lot of black. Since the TV did a poor job of displaying blacks, it would try to dim the back-lighting so the blacks would look more black and less washed out. In the case of my dad's TV, the cure was worse than the disease. I searched the settings hoping to be able to disable the "feature" to no avail. I eventually found another forum offering up hacked firmware you could install that claimed to disable the feature. Not going to try that on my dad's TV, but I did decide that if these types of shenanigans are in Samsung's repertoire, I would be steering clear. OP article seem to confirm that they're still up to their chicanery which is sad.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#108

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…

I have a QN90A, the ads are annoying but it's fine and it's a great TV overall. It's basically just a tiny banner ad at the bottom right of the home screen. Personally I take much bigger risks day to day by doing things like biking to work, so I'm okay with the risk of my TV sending data back to advertisers. BTW, I'm pretty sure the only Samsung TVs that are five figures are the 98" beasts. My 75" QN90A was $1600, an…

> Personally I take much bigger risks day to day by doing things like biking to work, so I'm okay with the risk of my TV sending data back to advertisers.

It's up to you how you feel about the privacy issue, of course, but that's not how risk works. It's additive. The fact that you take other risks, bigger or smaller, doesn't rationally change the value of this risk.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#109
post #2

Never stop recommending https://www.rtings.com/ They cover more and more gadgets but they still do the best TV reviews

Also Consumer Reports, who do highly scientific tests; have labs, engineers, etc.; and have decades of experience. Also, it's published by a non-profit established to serve consumers.

Re: Samsung Busted for Cheating TV Test Benchmarks

#110
post #74

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…

If Software Freedom Conservancy win their lawsuit against Vizio for GPL violations in their TVs, you will probably be able to install open source Linux distros with Kodi on any Vizio TV and soon afterwards lots of other smart TV vendors will be similar. Allowing the vendor operating system to remain on the device after you purchase it basically means spyware these days. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/v…

Having the kernel source won't really help with a locked bootloader.
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