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

Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

flatpanelshd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 960 posts

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#291

Post by tzs »

vanderZwan wrote: post #48
izacus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never buy a consumer product that expects an Internet connection. This is a nice trite trope, but getting an affordable TV without these features might be nearly impossible for most people these days.

How ridiculous is it that it's harder to get a product without extra nonsense added?

In the case of TVs I think it also has to do with there being no real hardware difference between a fancy Smart TV and a dumb TV. A dumb TV nowadays is going to be implemented as essentially a computer and monitor running a set of TV applications, just like a Smart TV. The only difference will be that fewer programs will be loaded onto the dumb TV.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#293

Post by paulus_magnus2 »

ta8964586 wrote: post #275
deergomoo wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to do this, but dumb TVs pretty much top out at the upper-mid range. If you want a high end panel you're getting all the bullshit too, unfortunately.

Look at "digital signage" TVs built for business are available that don't have the consumer software. They are of course more expensive and optimized more for continuous usage (16hr/day 7days/week for samsung), but as of now I don't believe they get ads pushed to them. https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd...

Do you actually own one? If so, can you please clarify my doubts [1] about viability of digital signage as TV?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24626743

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#294

Post by Swenrekcah »

jiggawatts wrote: post #247
auggierose wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just buy an Apple TV, and then whatever TV you like.

I just got one today. It's so much better than the "Smart" Samsung TV it is plugged into that it's not even funny. The remote control has touch. I can use my phone to type text input. It's fast . It's elegant and slick. It has no ads. It has options that I care about. It doesn't waste my time with options I don't care about. The Samsung TV on the other hand was a flagship model. Top of the line. Best of the best. Jus…

There is one thing Apple TV has so backwards that I can't even.

Text input.

All the letters lined alphabetically with only left-right movement allowed. Takes ages to input anything. Also no corrections allowed. I actually exit appleTV and use the built in TV apps for when I need youtube and the like, because their input mechanism is not insane.

I know there is a remote app for iPhones, but you do provide an actual remote, make it work ffs.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#295

Post by loughnane »

I switched over my router the other day and while I was debugging some minor issues I briefly had internet without Pi-Hole.

I was stunned by the prominence and intrusiveness by the ads on my Roku, even with already knowing it calls home several times a minute.

Once everything was back up and running things were back to normal. My setup is a dumb Spectre with a great screen with a Roku connected for Netflix and Plex/Jellyfin. Combined with a pi-hole it makes for a pretty clean experience.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#296

Post by mizzack »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #260
cmckn wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What TV’s fall into the “dumb” category these days? I can’t go back from OLED and I don’t think anything at that price point will lack the “smart” features, unless it’s a commercial offering.

TCL Roku is pretty "dumbish". You can install it without an account, plug in an antenna and go to town. You can even connect it to wifi then use Youtube or Netflix. Haven't seen any funky ads. My only peeve is that the controller doesn't have a full number pad which makes it a little derpy for the older generation.

My only annoyance with TCL is that once you connect it to the internet, and then disconnect it, the activity light (a quite bright, white light on mine) will flash constantly. Forever.

Solvable by tape, but doing that blocks the IR sensor.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#297

Post by nickthegreek »

random_visitor wrote: post #119
flucivja wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just thinking what would happen if I block connection to Ads services in my router...

That's pretty much what a pi-hole is. According to my friends who use a pi-hole to filter their connection, it makes almost everything ad-free

my samsung tv always tops the charts on most blocked connections on my pi-hole, its not even close. it is disgusting.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#298

Post by kalleboo »

avian wrote: post #122
neya wrote: post #31

Fuck the guy who wanted to suck up to the management in some stupid meeting projecting estimated revenue out of this to ask for a raise later because he "contributed to a revenue increase" to the company. There's absolutely no after thought to this decision - If I paid 1000s of dollars for an "idiot box" that's supposed to reproduce faithfully the signal that I pass it, showing ads is unacceptable, no matter what the…

In some stupid meeting somewhere: A: ...and in conclusion, it's a win-win situation. Users will benefit from ads and our revenue will go up. B: People don't like ads on their TV. A: But they do. I refer you to slides 18 through 25 where you can see engagement metrics for our ad rollout on the old model. If people wouldn't like ads they wouldn't be clicking on them so much . B: I don't like ads. Do you like ads on you…

Well it's more like "people hate ads, but next time they buy a new TV, the ads will make our TV $10 cheaper than the other guy and they'll buy it anyway"

It's the same thing in the airline industry - people will complain all day long about legroom and being treated as cattle, but the next time they buy a ticket they vote with their wallets when they sort the flight list by price and choose the cheapest option.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#299

Post by ta8964586 »

JohnBooty wrote: post #194
bleepblorp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large form factor monitor hooked up to a PC. Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes. They're less likely to spew advertising than consumer Smart TVs, but are probably less likely to stay clean than a monitor with no Internet connectivity. I use a Linux PC as a media decode device. It works, but I have no interest in 4K (hardware vi…

Commercial TVs aimed at the digital signage market are an alternative option to a large monitor, especially at larger sizes Do you have experience running one of these? I'm very curious about the pros and cons. I've seen it mentioned that they tend to lack features like HDR and may not have remote controls. Any other downsides? I would be fine with the lack of a remote, and probably even HDR. I would also be willing…

No experience running them, but looking at samsung digital signage, HDR looks to be a feature of their high end models and extremely expensive. ~$4,500 for a 55" 4K TV [0]. The more competitively priced displays[1] (~$1300 for 70" 4K) don't seem to offer it.

[0]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/pro-tv...

[1]: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/4k-uhd...

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#300

Post by cced »

huhtenberg wrote: post #79
neya wrote: post #31

Fuck the guy who wanted to suck up to the management in some stupid meeting projecting estimated revenue out of this to ask for a raise later because he "contributed to a revenue increase" to the company. There's absolutely no after thought to this decision - If I paid 1000s of dollars for an "idiot box" that's supposed to reproduce faithfully the signal that I pass it, showing ads is unacceptable, no matter what the…

> If I paid 1000s of dollars for an "idiot box" that's supposed to reproduce faithfully the signal that I pass it Just don't connect it to the Internet. The bigger problem is that at some point there will not be any "idiot box" models at all. The TVs will refuse to work if they aren't seeing the Internet. Then we'll be truly fucked.

This is not the solution. Adding a PiHole to your network is not the solution. Disabling features in other places of your network is not the solution.

What if Samsung decides that it will try to connect to open networks for updates or what not? What then? Ask your neighbour to install PiHole on his network? No. This is an example of a game of cat and mouse that shouldn't exist - you pay money for a TV and that's not enough? You giving them your money is not enough and so they decide to shove ads down your throat because profits.

Simple solution would be just not to buy Samsung.

Post reply on HN