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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

#271

Post by staticman2 »

asdfk-12 wrote: post #84
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…

This is good advice. I kept my 4k Vizio offline until updating the firmware on a whim. The update broke the ability to run 1080p@60hz from my PC, making it effectively useless for normal use. The annoying part about the panel is that it was advertised as 4k but only works at 30hz at that resolution. Cheap, so should have figured.

I'd check reddit and avsforum.com to see if anyone has encountered that issue with your model and come up with a fix.

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

#272

Post by vkou »

reaperducer wrote: post #232
vkou wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

It's a thing of the past in residential areas And by "residential areas," I assume you mean "the very specific residential area where I live in my neighborhood, in my city, in my county, in my state, in my nation" since there is simply no way for you to have made a detailed assessment of the availability of open wifi for the entirety of the rest of the planet, or even for the small subset of its people who are on HN.…

I'm sure there's something in the water that's driving my neighbours towards protected-by-default wifi, and not the defaults with which their ISP-provided routers are shipped with.

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

#273

Post by NaturalPhallacy »

dleslie wrote: post #43
potatototoo99 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of plain TVs around though, just like there are plain operating systems, plain phones, etc but consumers still give their money to Samsung, Microsoft, Google, etc. Most people don't care, you are not the target audience.

Got any Amazon/BestBuy/Costco links for a 65" 4k "plain" TV that lacks advertisements?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=commercial+di...

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=commercial+display

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

#274

Post by adastra22 »

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…

Why does your sound bar connect to the TV?

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

#275

Post by Waterluvian »

gw99 wrote: post #107
Waterluvian wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody deserves that, you awful awful person. ;)

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

God it’s like the LaCroix of laptops.

Memories of Memories of Laptop.

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

#276

Post by brokenmachine »

hedora wrote: post #101
midasuni wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 do…

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

I don't understand. What extra info does it need from the internet to keep the food at the right temperature, other than just the current temperature inside the fridge?

if (Fridge is too hot) then { cool }.

That's it. You don't need internet for that.

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

#277

Post by AtlasBarfed »

xerox13ster wrote: post #254
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there are long wifi IoT networks supported by proof-of-coverage cryptocurrencies.

...... what ? Do you mean as in there is a cryptocurrency that pays out for creating wireless signal coverage or maintaining a node/repeater?

Yes, AFAIK Helium was designed to do this.

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

#278

Post by gamesbrainiac »

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!

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

#279

Post by beej71 »

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.

> The solution is to buy a commercial TV

How ironic. ;)

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

#280

Post by imglorp »

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

You can chain routers. disable the isp router's wifi, or just ignore it. Then place your router of choice on the LAN side of the ISP's router as the its Ethernet client. Make up a new subnet of your choice on your router's LAN side and use its wifi and DHCP.
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