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

Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 204 posts

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#31

Post by ChrisLTD »

snarfy wrote: post #26

> Samsung explained that these sorts of ads were supposed to be opt-in only and was working with Yahoo to improve the system. No user would opt-in to commercials, ever. I don't believe for a second this system was designed with opt-in in mind. Whenever an ill conceived feature like this is brought to the light, it's always explained as a bug, glitch, or some screw up in engineering. Well, it's not a bug. It was speci…

Smart TVs are a good idea. Who doesn't want less crap plugged into their TV? However, TV manufacturers – for some reason – are ill-suited to developing the software that would make for a good experience.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#32

Post by spuz »

pfisch wrote: post #25
mpeg wrote: post #23

A bit disappointing that a hacker community's first reaction is to position against smart TVs. Smart TVs are awesome, we just need open source firmware for them in the same way that we have DDWRT/OpenWRT, XBMC and such. Imagine the control scheme using a wiimote-style pointer, built-in webcam, quad core CPU and an API to give you access to your viewing habits, or interface with other smart devices around your home. R…

They will never be awesome. It is like having built in navigation in your car vs an iPhone. Built in is proprietary bs that will always be out of date, and hardware refreshes will take like 5+ years because how often do you get a new tv. Right now my roku runs about 1000x faster than my smart tv and is really just superior in every way. Stand alone boxes will always be better because the software will be better and h…

That really doesn't make sense logically. The physical location of the computer doesn't affect whether it is proprietary or open source, or how frequently it will receive updates.

The navigation on your phone is probably better than the one in your car right now, but when Apple or Google take over the car system market you will have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in modern cars that have high quality software with fast update cycles. There is no reason why the same thing won't happen with TVs. In fact as mpeg, stated if you assume the firmware in your next Smart TV is open, it will be possible to run customer operating systems such as Android or XMBC giving you complete control without the external box or wires.

Edit: Though what you say about hardware refreshes is absolutely right.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#33

Post by snarfy »

mpeg wrote: post #23

A bit disappointing that a hacker community's first reaction is to position against smart TVs. Smart TVs are awesome, we just need open source firmware for them in the same way that we have DDWRT/OpenWRT, XBMC and such. Imagine the control scheme using a wiimote-style pointer, built-in webcam, quad core CPU and an API to give you access to your viewing habits, or interface with other smart devices around your home. R…

I was never a fan of TV/VCR combos. If one side broke you were stuck with a clunky chimera of a device. The same is true if it becomes outdated. I've seen plenty of old TV/VCR combos hooked up to DVD players.

I'm not a fan of TV/PC combos either. The PC side will be outdated before the screen.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#34

Post by userbinator »

lucaspiller wrote: post #22
Fundlab wrote: post #6

Personally a dumb tv/roku/media server has been my go to choice. This whole smartTV hype is still beyond me. Could someone please touch on the advantages of a smart TV offerings over my setup?

I purposely bought a Philips smart TV this year as the only stuff I really watch is Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube and my own ripped content. This TV advertised apps for all of that and DLNA support, so I figured I wouldn't need any other boxes. I have used XBMC before and that worked great, except there is still no Netflix support, so I figured I'd try something with it built in. Netflix works perfectly, and I really can…

This means even simple things such as pressing the 'Source' button to view the source list (you can't just press it to switch, you need to press this then select the new source from the menu) takes 30 seconds to load.

Is that an exaggeration? 30 seconds is far beyond what I would consider unusable, and a TV which takes that long to switch between sources would be quickly returned.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#35

Post by lultimouomo »

> By either selecting that I agree or by not selecting that I disagree, I agree to the Yahoo Connected TV Terms of Service

Written under the deselected "I Agree" checkbox, with no "I disagree" option visible.

This has to be some kind of record. And on a TV that you paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars, not in some spooky shareware download.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#36

Post by toxican »

tedunangst wrote: post #7
jsilence wrote: post #4

It is easy to opt-out of buying Samsung smart TVs.

From the sound of it, the ads only appear when using smart TV apps? So you could still use a "smart" TV but with normal inputs.

Then why not just save yourself some money and get a "dumb" TV? I can only imagine they jack the price up a hundred or two for the "smart"

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#37

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

mpeg wrote: post #29
pfisch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will never be awesome. It is like having built in navigation in your car vs an iPhone. Built in is proprietary bs that will always be out of date, and hardware refreshes will take like 5+ years because how often do you get a new tv. Right now my roku runs about 1000x faster than my smart tv and is really just superior in every way. Stand alone boxes will always be better because the software will be better and h…

I have a few set top boxes too, but I'd like deeper integration with the tv firmware itself, and that's something that they can't do unless the firmware was open. In which case, we could have the same regular updates you get with a roku.

There are smart TV's with open firmware?

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#38

Post by 13 »

userbinator wrote: post #34
lucaspiller wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I purposely bought a Philips smart TV this year as the only stuff I really watch is Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube and my own ripped content. This TV advertised apps for all of that and DLNA support, so I figured I wouldn't need any other boxes. I have used XBMC before and that worked great, except there is still no Netflix support, so I figured I'd try something with it built in. Netflix works perfectly, and I really can…

This means even simple things such as pressing the 'Source' button to view the source list (you can't just press it to switch, you need to press this then select the new source from the menu) takes 30 seconds to load. Is that an exaggeration? 30 seconds is far beyond what I would consider unusable, and a TV which takes that long to switch between sources would be quickly returned.

No, I've used a Samsung Smart TV a few times and this is hardly hyperbole. When you "start" the TV it's in some sort of lite mode, actually going to one of the menus requires booting up the secondary operating system which can take a few minutes. Every menu is painfully slow to navigate, the interfaces are displayed at a few frames a second, and the wifi built in is beyond useless. Trouble is, it's almost impossible to buy a dumb TV as far as I can tell. You're stuck with a stupidly buggy, outdated and vulnerable system that snoops on you if you connect it to a network. Fantastic stuff.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#39

Post by actsasbuffoon »

pfisch wrote: post #25
mpeg wrote: post #23

A bit disappointing that a hacker community's first reaction is to position against smart TVs. Smart TVs are awesome, we just need open source firmware for them in the same way that we have DDWRT/OpenWRT, XBMC and such. Imagine the control scheme using a wiimote-style pointer, built-in webcam, quad core CPU and an API to give you access to your viewing habits, or interface with other smart devices around your home. R…

They will never be awesome. It is like having built in navigation in your car vs an iPhone. Built in is proprietary bs that will always be out of date, and hardware refreshes will take like 5+ years because how often do you get a new tv. Right now my roku runs about 1000x faster than my smart tv and is really just superior in every way. Stand alone boxes will always be better because the software will be better and h…

I agree with your general point, but my Sony TV automatically downloads firmware updates on a regular basis. The apps (Netflix, YouTube, etc.) are updated regularly, though the changes aren't always improvements.

That said, the apps on my TV are surprisingly serviceable. I can even stream video files directly to it (though an Apple TV does this with better reliability and video quality).

The only unforgivable failure is that it doesn't have a Twitch app, but neither does the Apple TV, XBox One, PS4 (it doesn't count if I can only watch PS4 games being streamed), or Wii U.

Re: Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

#40

Post by ohaal »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #31
snarfy wrote: post #26

> Samsung explained that these sorts of ads were supposed to be opt-in only and was working with Yahoo to improve the system. No user would opt-in to commercials, ever. I don't believe for a second this system was designed with opt-in in mind. Whenever an ill conceived feature like this is brought to the light, it's always explained as a bug, glitch, or some screw up in engineering. Well, it's not a bug. It was speci…

Smart TVs are a good idea. Who doesn't want less crap plugged into their TV? However, TV manufacturers – for some reason – are ill-suited to developing the software that would make for a good experience.

Smart TVs being a good idea, all depends on who you are.

It's good for TV manufacturers, because old TVs get older faster (outdated processor / software and so on).

For consumers however, having a separate box for the "smart" part of your TV is much better, because it makes it easier to upgrade.

Personally, I prefer the dumbest possible TV. Most of the time, I don't need a new panel, all I need is an upgrade of whatever smartbox I'm using at the moment. So far my Chromecast is carrying me quite well. The biggest upgrade of my TV I'll be doing in the near future will be an upgrade to 4K and/or maybe OLED down the line.

Post reply on HN