Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

zdnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 398 posts

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

#331

Post by michaelmrose »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #102
tpxl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> perhaps in the near future we'll have public wifi or free Google community wifi, and the new firmware will have the smarts to use that and bypass your wifi. Xfinity WiFi has been around for at least 8 years. Amazon sidewalk has been around for over a year. Wanna bet those are or will be used by your smart TV producers to connect them to the internet via wifi?

What makes me think this will never happen is that - Open Wi-Fi networks are a thing of the past. There hasn't been any around me in a residential area for a long time now. Businesses and workplace lobbies, more likely, though. - No one is going to just give Samsung free Internet except the hapless consumer by supplying Wi-Fi credentials. - Samsung might make a deal with providers, but it would have to have unique cr…

Your connection could be limited to receiving ads and firmware updates, incredibly slow,and be limited to a key stored in hardware both near impossible to retrieve and nearly worthless if you retrieved it. This connection would only be used if a primary connection was unavailable.

You could basically use 10MB per 10 customers per year and the only question is do you make more ensuring everyone gets ads to justify the peanuts paid to people like comcast or at worst the cost of a chip that has a cellular modem vs just wifi.

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

#332

Post by brokenmachine »

_8j50 wrote: post #244
cantrevealname wrote: post #35

The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet and instead use a digital media player or external streaming device. I wholeheartedly agree. But then several people mentioned wanting to update the firmware. If you'll never connect it to the Internet, then you should never update the firmware either. It goes against conventional wisdom, but updating the firmware in this situation is more likely to…

I have an untrusted segment of my network I connect my tv to. If I streamed from something else, I would have to put that device also in an untrusted segment and dedicate it to that task but that means more time spent admining a device that no one is paying me to admin.

I have my router set to disallow any connection from the TV to WAN.

That way I can still use its inbuilt apps to play from my NAS, but it can't talk to outside.

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

#333

Post by brokenmachine »

cgriswald wrote: post #146
TacticalCoder wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and a projector has tons of downsides? I'm not so sure. I've been using a projector as a TV for something like four years straight: no TV at home, only a projector. As a bonus the living room becomes a home cinema. I didn't see much downsides. Zero issue. No ads. Cheaper than a TV for a much wider diagonal and a more "cinema'ish" picture too (I hate it when movies look like cheap sitcoms on modern TVs). And as many…

I've been using a projector in my bedroom because I do occasionally want to watch something while laying in bed, but don't generally like a TV in the room. Potential problems, all fixable: Can't see it during the day or when using the lights. Had to run power and data to the ceiling. Lower resolution for the price. Can't use the wall for anything else or need to install a screen; paint choice a potential issue (bad c…

Another con is that I hate the fan noise.

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

#335

Post by TMWNN »

jiggawatts wrote: post #248
mattmanser wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One remote is inherently better than two remotes. It's objectively less hassle. The apps are actually mostly identical from experience. I actually use a PS4 at the moment, and it occasionally forces me to update before I can use the TV app, so even more hassle.

> The apps are actually mostly identical from experience. What's bizarre is that the YouTube app on a Google Android TV is markedly worse than YouTube on the Apple TV. For example, switching Google accounts doesn't work properly and takes more clicks even when it works! Similarly, subtitles in several apps in Google Android TV have eye-searing maximum HDR white brightness, and this cannot be altered. The NetFlix app…

>What's bizarre is that the YouTube app on a Google Android TV is markedly worse than YouTube on the Apple TV.

It's a longstanding thing with Google that its iOS apps are better than its Android apps. Google Voice for iOS, for example, got certain functionality years before Android did.

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

#336

Post by myrandomcomment »

owenwil wrote: post #164
warble wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, never once ever had an issue with HDMI, although I only go 4K at most. I never even considered it a possibility.

I wish I was in your shoes! I also had no issues with HDMI until recent years--but HDMI-eARC is so buggy on Samsung TVs, especially when being used with surround sound or a sound bar. I had no problems before I moved to a surround system/beyond ARC, but with eARC I need to reboot the TV at the wall once every two weeks or it will "forget" it's plugged into a sound system, it's very annoying. It was far worse when I f…

I have a 5 year old samsung 4k with a samsung sound bar. ARC does not work reliably. It did but just stops working. I have to power cycle the TV. Change HDMI cables etc. All the normal I am an engineer, made check list, swapped parts in controlled manor stuff. Even tried another soundbar that works fine on another set. Googling tells me other have this issue and samsung does not care as it is to old (it is likely sw issue). TV is going to be replaced with much more expensive Sony as they still seem to take pride in their product quality. Oh as to the ads, never hook TV up to internet. I use an AppleTV and it just works.

I want ARC/CEC to work as I want a single remote. You loose that when using optical.

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

#337

Post by myrandomcomment »

PeterisP wrote: post #131
bhelkey wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every TV ships with a unique secret key. Secret keys that are used to do anything other than connect to an Ads server are disabled.

Every TV ships with a non-unique secret key and an agreement with some major internet service provider which specifies that accounts using that key will gain network access but only to a specific list of IP addresses that host or proxy firmware updates and advertising content. [edit - to be clear, I'm not saying that this is what Samsung is doing, I'm just describing a plausible way how this might get done]

Everyone has said stuff like this but there has been zero proof of TVs connecting to wifi like this on their own. If you have that proof please share it.

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

#338

Post by myrandomcomment »

deamanto wrote: post #242
rewtraw wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't really imagine what you believe is so bad about the Apple TV UX. It's a basic grid of available apps and videos, with an easy swipe to access video settings (subtitles, language, etc). Not complicated at all. Most streaming boxes have the same basic interface... my usual issue is when one is laggy (e.g. TV built-in, Roku, Chromecast, etc). The Apple TV is buttery smooth, fast to scrub through videos, and neve…

I like Apple TV. The one thing that consistently frustrates me is pressing the mic button at the wrong "screen" will take you out of your current app and bring you to the Apple TV+ search container. Yes, it's not hard to navigate back to where you were but it's quite simple to accidentally press the mic button at the wrong screen.

IIRC you can change what that button does. Its in the settings menu someplace.

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

#339

Post by michaelmrose »

vkou wrote: post #170
reaperducer wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open Wi-Fi networks are a thing of the past. I've been to two medical facilities and a large regional hospital in the last week where there were open wifi networks with no portals. My apartment building operates an open wifi network for guests so we don't have to bother giving out passwords to visitors. An airport I visited last month has wide open wifi. A see ads on transit buses all the time stating that the bus ha…

It's a thing of the past in residential areas. There are ~80 wifi networks that I can detect from my apartment, and not a single one of them is open .

Fully open wifi that didn't require posting to an http or https endpoint was never common in the first place.

Consumer routers are now shipped pre-configured with a password on the network so random joe who bought his router at best buy or got it from his ISP doesn't accidentally provide free wifi to his 20 closest neighbors.

Meanwhile out of the box every single xfinity provided modem/router combo provides by default an open network with no password that allows any other xfinity subscriber to access the internet via your device. They have 18 million such hotspots throughout the US. Give the expected usage of a few MB per year this would seem to be an easy ask and easily sold the end user as a feature not a cost.

Likewise nearly every major business that serves customers food refreshments or produces to buy on site provides wifi that requires only that you push a simple response to open it up. This can be and in fact is already automated on your phone for example.

Instead of referring to open wifi I would redirect the discussion to negotiable connections and they are everywhere.

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

#340

Post by atom058 »

sen wrote: post #182

Meanwhile the OP post is so full of ads you’re basically scrolling past a full-screen (on mobile) ad for every paragraph. Then when I came across a chunk of text without ads and thought it was over, an ad got dynamically loaded into the middle of the text pushing what I was reading down off the screen. Yes in this case I didn’t pay to read the content so they need ads, but the user-hostility of ads everywhere is just…

Even with ad blockers and NoScript, the website layout is awful due to the constant blank spaces where the ads used to go, paired with a miniscule viewport for the actual text.

I've started to use Reader Mode a lot more lately, and it has been surprising how much more pleasant the Web is when consuming articles this way.

Maybe we should Invent a protocol for marking up text documents and sending them over the Internet or something? Maybe call it Actual Text Markup Language?

Post reply on HN