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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

#381

Post by kingrazor »

cassianoleal wrote: post #356
humanistbot wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many smart TVs, when you press the input button, it doesn't immediately pop up a mini OSD. It loads a program that can take as long as it does to load a streaming service's app. This program shows you ads, sometimes even inserts ads for streaming services in between the input sources you have to click over. This is before the time it actually takes for the input to change. With my TV, if I am on TV/Antenna, it tak…

> In many smart TVs But not all. So, clearly it doesn't have to be below the OS level. I agree it needs to be quick, responsive and reliable, but that doesn't preclude it from being implemented in the OS.

To be fair I used the word "should", as in I believe that it would be best practice, at least from the perspective of user experience, to operate below the OS. If that were the case, input switching wouldn't be dependent on the speed or reliability of the OS. As you point out, it's not strictly necessary if the OS is responsive enough and reliable enough to begin with.

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

#382

Post by myrandomcomment »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #342
myrandomcomment wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If optical works reliably, you could possibly leave both HDMI and optical plugged in to the sound bar. CEC volume control and power seems to still work with my sound bar when set to the optical input. My setup currently has an audio drop out every few minutes. It seems to happen over both ARC and optical, though, so it's presumably just the Nvidia Shield being buggy. The UI bugs out too lately. I've had various forms…

Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried it and it did not work, but it was worth a try!

Cheers!

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

#383

Post by nwiswell »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #365
nwiswell wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one is going to just give Samsung free Internet except the hapless consumer by supplying Wi-Fi credentials. I think it's implied that Samsung would pay Amazon for Sidewalk access. > Samsung might make a deal with providers, but it would have to have unique credentials embedded in its OS and firmware, and I doubt Samsung has the ability to keep that totally secure. I don't think this is as hard a problem as you'r…

So if I can spoof communication with that serial number on another device, I get free Internet. Same concept as MAC filtering not being really secure because I can just change MAC addresses in my packets.

How do you get the private key?

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

#384

Post by tzs »

A few people have mentioned ARC problems. If you are having problems with plain ARC, as opposed to eARC, try using an HDMI cable with ethernet.

Plain ARC is supposed to work over any HDMI cable so you should only need an HDMI with ethernet for eARC, but after years of never being able get ARC to work with my Denon receiver which is from 2013 I happened to notice that in the manual it said that for ARC to use a “Standard HDMI cable with Ethernet” or “High Speed HDMI cable with Ethernet”. I switched to a "with Ethernet" cable and ARC worked.

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

#385

Post by BizarroLand »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #324
fomine3 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still video from STB is needed to be routed to TV, STB->soundbar->TV via HDMI with CEC.

My soundbar only has one HDMI port, though, so that doesn't really work.

Me too. I just put a digital TOSLink cable between my TV and the soundbar. Works a treat and it's funky knowing that audio that was produced, recorded digitally, sent across the internet, decoded by my computer, pumped to a TV and then re-encoded into laser light before being turned back into a digital electrical signal and then converted into an analog electrical signal and then played through speakers is pretty amazing.

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

#386

Post by pseudosavant »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #143
pseudosavant wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously most users won't be able to do this, but this is exactly the type of reason I use OpenWRT on my RPi-based router. I have a firewall rule that prevents the TV from communicating with anything in the WAN zone. I can still have the TV on the Wi-Fi and still use features like Airplay. I disable the firewall rule if I want to try updating the TV firmware.

QQ: how do you replace the ISP router - my cable provider clT out refused to give me the PPP / etc details or I have to go find an RPi with adsl io. I guess I can solve it but any pointers gratefully rec d

Add a second router and put it in your ISP router’s DMZ. You shouldn’t have trouble with double nat since all traffic will get forwarded on to your “real” router.

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

#387

Post by tremon »

gumby wrote: post #268
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QQ: how do you replace the ISP router - my cable provider clT out refused to give me the PPP / etc details or I have to go find an RPi with adsl io. I guess I can solve it but any pointers gratefully rec d

> my cable provider clT out refused to give me the PPP / etc details or I have to go find an RPi with adsl io. In the USA and perhaps other countries the cable provider is required to let you use your own DOCSIS modem. The list of modems that work with their system has to be on their web site. They don't want to do this because they are all shitheads and also because they want to charge you "rent". But TBF I imagine…

It's mandated in the EU as well under the Network Neutrality rules: https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/routers.en.html

Sadly, enforcement of this directive is up to each country's own regulator, and as the map in the above link shows, only a few countries have actually enshrined this in their national laws.

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

#388

Post by tremon »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #37
walrus01 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is what happens when you let MBAs run amok

Can't wait for business schools to discover that concepts like "consumer loyalty" and "user experience" are quite intermingled.

The vaccine against consumer loyalty is supply-chain monopoly. You'll never have to worry about it again.

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

#389

Post by sudo_chmod777 »

gamesbrainiac wrote: post #278
jiggawatts wrote: post #241

I just got a Sony flagship television with Google Android TV. I'm fully expecting it to be automatically broken by a software update about 1-3 months after the warranty expires and the new models are released. I plan to disable updates around 1 year in to mitigate this risk. Think about what it says about the entire industry that this is what customers expect : multi-thousand-dollar products being purposefully remote…

I've had mine for 2 years. They barely update the software, and things still work!

Same boat. Sony has great embedded software engineering power but they are just not that good at these upper layer applications. Look at PS Store web, it's a hot mess. PS App is also terrible. Xperia has some fancy photography/videography apps and that's it. But that also means you get zero of the LG/Samsung nonsense.

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

#390

Post by Graziano_M »

walterbell wrote: post #127

https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io > RootMyTV is a user-friendly exploit for rooting/jailbreaking LG webOS smart TV. It bootstraps the installation of the webOS Homebrew Channel ... At the time of writing (RootMyTV v2 - 2022-01-05), all webOS versions between 4.x and 6.2+ we tested (TVs released between early-2018 and late-2021) are supported by the new exploit chain.

I had been deferring my firmware update for MONTHS and then I had some girl over and she just clicked "OK" and now I am pretty sure I can't jailbreak.
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