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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

#101

Post by hedora »

midasuni wrote: post #75
smt88 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet Appallingly, this isn't enough to stop the ads. Many TVs will proactively scan for open networks and connect to them.

Do you have links to blogs that show this happening, I see plenty of hearsay, but I know my LG doesn’t attempt to my honeypot wifi, I’d love to see proof.

Samsung (Dacor) discloses this behavior in their fridge manual; it says it will mesh with Samsung TVs to better target ads.

I’m not about to buy a Samsung set to find out what it actually does in practice. The fridge has deep learning object classifiers and internal cameras; I assume that is a big part of its ad targeting capability.

Note that the fridge has demand response / energy use time shifting features that don’t work unless it is connected to the internet.

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

#102

Post by tenebrisalietum »

tpxl wrote: post #66
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…

> 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 credentials embedded in its OS and firmware, and I doubt Samsung has the ability to keep that totally secure.

Think about it. If you could get free, anonymous Internet with credentials in a Samsung TV, crackers would be all over that - they'd be searching every crook and nanny for exploits, desoldering NAND and sniffing busses for encryption keys, connecting with Chinese friends to get original datasheets, etc.

Even if Samsung embedded an LTE/5G SIM, eSIM, whatever, it would be hacked to bits. "Get model X of samsung TV, get free Internet with this Linux application". It's not realistic for there to be a network connection that you don't know about, pay for, and have your name attached to.

Of course the p2p network interface that shows up on the Netflix diagnostic screen is concerning, though.

Now if cellular providers start selling TVs, such as AT&T, Verizon, etc. bundling Internet with them, then it can happen.

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

#103

Post by petesergeant »

mattmanser wrote: post #87
mikestew wrote: post #31

Just give me my Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max,... All of which are available on an AppleTV, and I assume other less-intrusive devices. TFA comes to that conclusion in the last paragraph, but just in case anyone didn't make it that far. And then, as everyone on this page is going to say, never let that TV anywhere near a network connection. Why anyone would go to the effort of dicking with a pi-hole cat-and-…

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.

> One remote is inherently better than two remotes. It's objectively less hassle.

My Apple TV can turn my TV on and off though, so I rarely need to use the TV remote

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

#105

Post by TacticalCoder »

sgtfrankieboy wrote: post #61
agilob wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why even buy a TV then, why not a PC screen or a projector?

Because a 32" monitor is small for a TV? and a projector has tons of downsides? The solution is to buy a commercial TV used in retail environments.

> 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 of these are made to show slides and whatnots in corporate settings, ads are a big no-no.

I think more people should seriously consider that option.

EDIT: well I remember one issue... I decided to fix it and it took longer than the time it'd have take to hook a TV. But I did it exactly once, used some fishtape to pull HDMI cables in the system ceiling and family was good to go for years.

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

#106

Post by xienze »

harvey9 wrote: post #99
xienze wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So put it on a VLAN with no egress. Smart TVs are annoying but there’s ways around it.

Won't it need the egress to receive streaming video from the internet?

Sorry, you’re right. I was thinking of the TV itself. Yes for a box it’s a little more complicated. Personally I go with Apple TV. Much more polished UI than a Roku and certainly no being bombarded with ads.

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

#107

Post by gw99 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #100
gw99 wrote: post #71

I left my Tizen based Samsung with my ex wife when we got divorced. This was a subtle troll because I am finally free of the fucking thing and she's not. The last decade of ownership has been hell. Slow laggy equipment, HDCP problems, working but forcibly obsoleted hardware, bugs galore and ads stuffed in your face. I now no longer own a television and will never own one again.

Nobody deserves that, you awful awful person. ;)

Oh she deserved it. And the HP windows 10 laptop with 64Gb eMMC storage.

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

#108

Post by sgtnoodle »

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…

Firmware updates may resolve HDMI compatibilities, though, and in my mind it's always worth the risk even if there's a 10% chance of improvement because HDMI reliability is terrible.

When I mounted my TV, I embedded a single HDMI cable, a single cat5e cable, and a single optical cable in the wall. Conduit wasn't an option due to the age and construction of the wall, so changing it would require power tools and drywall mud.

I have a sound bar rather than a receiver because it makes my wife happy. The sound bar works best with ARC. Optical works too, but power and volume isn't synchronized.

I have an NVIDIA shield mounted behind the TV because the TV's software stack got too lethargic, and the TV's built-in decoder has silicon bugs that break video in Netflix, and break surround sound in everything but Netflix.

Surprisingly, everything works reliably about 95% of the time. It's unfortunate that I consider that a win. I just added a 4-1 HDMI splitter with ARC passthrough in order to get a Blu-ray player back in the mix, and it was boring!

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

#109

Post by domy »

mattmanser wrote: post #87
mikestew wrote: post #31

Just give me my Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max,... All of which are available on an AppleTV, and I assume other less-intrusive devices. TFA comes to that conclusion in the last paragraph, but just in case anyone didn't make it that far. And then, as everyone on this page is going to say, never let that TV anywhere near a network connection. Why anyone would go to the effort of dicking with a pi-hole cat-and-…

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.

I have an AppleTV connected to my Samsung TV, and almost never use the Samsung remote. The AppleTV remote's on/off button switches everything together (through CEC I believe) so in everyday usage I only ever need a single remote.

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

#110

Post by tssva »

mikestew wrote: post #31

Just give me my Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max,... All of which are available on an AppleTV, and I assume other less-intrusive devices. TFA comes to that conclusion in the last paragraph, but just in case anyone didn't make it that far. And then, as everyone on this page is going to say, never let that TV anywhere near a network connection. Why anyone would go to the effort of dicking with a pi-hole cat-and-…

", does anyone seriously think that using the duplicate app on the Samsung is going to be anywhere nearly as pleasant a UX as the AppleTV?"

I in general think the Apple UX experience is pretty awful across all their products with Apple TV being the worse of all. I have used the Samsung interface and it is bad but I still dislike the Apple TV more.

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