Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse • Hacker News Board

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#101

Post by aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

bellyfullofbac wrote: post #40

I guess this will just greatly inconvenience people who bought the TV from the bandits. But well, if this press release is well-distributed among the public, then they will know to avoid buying Samsung TVs from the backs of vans, and the thieves will avoid Samsung warehouses. Alternatively maybe Samsung should just offer the innocent buyers a e.g. 5% discount to "legitimize" their TVs, so if they bought the TV from t…

> greatly inconvenience people who bought the TV from the bandits

It’s stolen property. The subsequent buyers cannot legally own it.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#102

Post by piyh » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

dthul wrote: post #48

wait_a_minute wrote: post #36

I bought one of Samsung's smart televisions a couple years ago. I think I paid $1500 for it. Anyway, it started showing me ads and the TV eventually became sluggish less than a month after owning it. Returned it as defective. Ever since that experience, I swore of all smart televisions and will never buy another Samsung television or smartphone again if I can help it.

The issue is that it's hard to find any not-too-smart TVs with up to date technology (4k, OLED, HDR etc). Unless you spend a fortune on a luxury brand like Bang and Olufsen.

Why isn't the alternative to keep your TV off the network?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#103

Post by thenayr » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

I own a (legitimately) purchased Samsung TV (upwards of $3k) from ~2016 or so. It's been a fantastic television up until it suddenly stopped working about a month ago. I figured it would be easy enough to get it serviced and first tried purchasing the suspected bad part (the external HDMI "smart connect" box) directly through Samsung. Discontinued. Ok....I tried the manufacturer service center which routed me to a local repair shop with literally 2 stars on yelp and absolutely terrible reviews.

I ended up contacting a 3rd party repair company that specializes in Samsung TV's in San Francisco. I told him the model and he basically laughed and said the part is completely discontinued and he can't purchase it from any of his suppliers and that I was basically SOOL.

Spent about two weeks searching online and finally came across a SINGLE listing on EBAY for the model I needed. It seems to possibly be the last of its kind in existence.

The TV works again...until this part or another fails. So yeah, that's my Samsung anecdote.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#104

Post by nyjah » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

dilippkumar wrote: post #9

> The blocking will come into effect when the user of a stolen television connects to the internet, in order to operate the television I purchased a Sony TV in 2019 after giving up on looking for 70" "dumb" television sets that would only connect to my PlayStation and act as a screen. I decided that I would buy a smart tv but never connect it to the internet. Every few days when I start my TV, I get an annoying "set…

Cr3ative's comment is interesting and I am definitely going to look into that.

I fixed my issues with Sony popping up the android crap by allowing the device I am turning on to control HDMI.

I'm not the biggest fan of that setting being on, but I turned it off and started getting those android pop ups. It took me awhile to figure out why that was happening as my TV isn't on the internet. I use a Sony television connected to Apple TV with internet fwiw.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#105

Post by cptskippy » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #19

"Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared to serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for more information" Fuck off. This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

> This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

Why does the TV have to be smart? Having the smarts integrated into the TV requires that 2 components be replaced if either no longer meets the user's needs.

Lets make a really nice large format display with no smarts or connectivity and then let the user choose an Apple TV, Roku, Fire, Android, or whatever.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#106

Post by ok123456 » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

drewg123 wrote: post #57

wait_a_minute wrote: post #36

I bought one of Samsung's smart televisions a couple years ago. I think I paid $1500 for it. Anyway, it started showing me ads and the TV eventually became sluggish less than a month after owning it. Returned it as defective. Ever since that experience, I swore of all smart televisions and will never buy another Samsung television or smartphone again if I can help it.

I bought a high-end Samsung 4K tv in 2015 or so for about $3000. I picked it after a week of research that showed it had the highest quality panel. After taking delivery of the TV, we noticed it had bright lower left and right corners that we later found out were due to new packaging that pinched the TV and caused most of the TVs in that batch to be ruined. Samsung claimed that the corners were "in spec" and refused…

Samsung's appliances have a pretty bad reputation in general, especially the refrigerators and side loading washing machines.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#107

Post by imglorp » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

notyourwork wrote: post #100

I'm on the fence here, I sort of like the premise that looters don't get their booty. I do agree though I don't like the idea that a corporation can remotely disable a piece of hardware I bought.

Really? How about this?

    Your social media $POST critical of $PARTY is incompatible with Samsung's
    vision of community. We have therefore disabled your $PHONE, $WATCH, $TV,
    $DISHWASHER, and $PC. Contact serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for
    more information"

Does that possibility change your position?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#108

Post by gruez » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

kodah wrote: post #54

itsyaboi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that smart TVs are a cancer, I'm confused by your take. Do you have the same opinion towards locking stolen iPhones? If not, why? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-is-reportedly-disabl...

I think it depends on who initiates the lock. If a company can choose to arbitrarily lock my device then inevitably it will be misused. In the case of phones it is usually the customer initiating a lock, either from Find My Phone style apps or through the carrier itself. My TV phoning home doesn't really seem like it accomplishes much, and will likely be misused in the future, not to mention is an entire layer to vec…

>I think it depends on who initiates the lock. If a company can choose to arbitrarily lock my device then inevitably it will be misused. In the case of phones it is usually the customer initiating a lock, either from Find My Phone style apps or through the carrier itself.

why does this matter? In either case the entity responsible for handling the lock request is the company itself.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#109

Post by piyh » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

CedarMadness wrote: post #10

post_break wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My samsung TV was never connected to the internet. I didnt even accept the user agreement, it still works just fine.

Just wait until they include Amazon Sidewalk, so the TV can connect using your neighbor's internet connection to download the latest ads.

There's the missing link to make the living room mounted telescreen a reality.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#110

Post by criddell » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

piyh wrote: post #102

dthul wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that it's hard to find any not-too-smart TVs with up to date technology (4k, OLED, HDR etc). Unless you spend a fortune on a luxury brand like Bang and Olufsen.

Why isn't the alternative to keep your TV off the network?

For now, that works.

It's easy to imagine a time when the TV includes it's own 5G modem or that Samsung would make a deal with Amazon or Comcast for access to their wifi mesh networks so the TV can get online without user intervention.