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I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

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Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#22
post #6

never, ever give a TV an internet connection, wifi password or dhcp lease. I realize there are ads on the homescreen of an xbox series x, ps4 pro, ps5, etc but I would much rather deal with those than whatever shoddy operating system TV manufacturers put on their thing. I have a thousand times more confidence that microsoft and sony will keep their OSes patched and up to date (they have a strong financial/self-intere…

my parents' TCL TV would blink a white light at the bottom of the front bezel unless we gave it access to the wifi... :(

Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#23
post #6

never, ever give a TV an internet connection, wifi password or dhcp lease. I realize there are ads on the homescreen of an xbox series x, ps4 pro, ps5, etc but I would much rather deal with those than whatever shoddy operating system TV manufacturers put on their thing. I have a thousand times more confidence that microsoft and sony will keep their OSes patched and up to date (they have a strong financial/self-intere…

One thing I hate is when things like input switching are part of the TV OS. It can turn something that should be fast and easy into something slow and glitchy.

Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#24
post #22
post #6

never, ever give a TV an internet connection, wifi password or dhcp lease. I realize there are ads on the homescreen of an xbox series x, ps4 pro, ps5, etc but I would much rather deal with those than whatever shoddy operating system TV manufacturers put on their thing. I have a thousand times more confidence that microsoft and sony will keep their OSes patched and up to date (they have a strong financial/self-intere…

my parents' TCL TV would blink a white light at the bottom of the front bezel unless we gave it access to the wifi... :(

Time for electrical tape or desoldering an LED…

Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#25
post #8

Corporate slogan of the 21st century: Why settle for some of your customer's money when you can get all of your customer's money (and monetize their data too)? Microtransactions, ads, selling customer usage data, up-front costs, PPV, subscriptions... I'm shocked we as customers can actually afford to obtain and use any of these devices anymore.

this is what happens when you let MBAs run amok

Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#26
post #2

I spent 3K on a 65" 4K conference room touchscreen monitor. Rather than having a built in smart TV function it has a dock for a SFF PC. It lacks a tuner and don't think it does HDR but it does have surprisingly good sound.

A tuner USB key is like $10. Plug that into the PC.

Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#28
post #6

never, ever give a TV an internet connection, wifi password or dhcp lease. I realize there are ads on the homescreen of an xbox series x, ps4 pro, ps5, etc but I would much rather deal with those than whatever shoddy operating system TV manufacturers put on their thing. I have a thousand times more confidence that microsoft and sony will keep their OSes patched and up to date (they have a strong financial/self-intere…

+1. I bought a samsung premiere projector, and it's a very good product. But the first thing it did was prompting me for the wifi, and hell no.

It's offline, plugged to a real computer that has internet access and I skip the projector home page as quickly as I can to get to the laptop mirrored displays.

Re: I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content

#29
post #9

I don't understand why anyone would like to connect such a thing to their WiFi. An external device gives you flexibility and control. The built-in firmware gives you ads and tracking.

Most people do that to use integrated streaming apps. This is less expensive than buying an Apple TV/Chromecast

I use my Vizio tv for integrated apps. YoutubeTV, Netflix, Paramount+ and Prime Video all work great, except Prime Video will buffer a lot lately but the other apps never do. It's also very easy to enable/disable Viewing Data and Advertising under Menu/Admin & Privacy.

My dad runs Apple TV since his screen is older, and it's marginally better than my Vizio because most of the time YoutubeTV continues where it left off when turning TV back on which is nice.

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