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Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

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Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#331

Post by jmcgough »

alerighi wrote: post #312

Smart TVs are shit. Especially the modern ones. They got worse rather than better! They are slow and laggy, even doing the most basic things like turning on or changing channel. It was faster the CRT that I used 20 years ago, and it had to warm up before displaying an image! But at least the audio started immediately... They are also not usable. The UI is crappy and you don't find the most common settings, for exampl…

What LG TV are you talking about? My old smart TV was "slow and laggy", but as soon as I upgraded to a mid-range model a lot of those complaints went away.

I can't imagine trying to use a dumb TV now. We have four streaming services in my house, the UI homepage quickly shows which series we're in the middle of and makes it easy to jump back in without navigating a lot of menus.

Even if plex were to do exactly what I want, it's more effort on my end when I just want to be able to easily pull up shows without issues. On top of that, you need a very new TV (with new HDMI 2.1 features) if you want to really experience the power of next-gen gaming consoles.

An older TV might work for your use cases, but I think you're increasingly in the minority. No one I know (except my parents) watches channels anymore, they all just stream Netflix/Hulu/Crunchyroll/Disney. If there's something really niche I want to watch, there's torrents and videostream.

Stay away from cheap Samsung TVs and get a good Sony TV. I love my Bravia x900h.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#332

Post by Sebb767 »

r00fus wrote: post #299
criddell wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Amazon sidewalk [1] has entered the chat. The article focuses on "neighbors" but I'm pretty sure the main use case is to enable smart TVs and other IOT to phone home despite being disallowed. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/amazon-devices-will-...

> I'm pretty sure the main use case is to enable smart TVs and other IOT to phone home despite being disallowed.

I highly doubt that. Rolling out this network is a lot of work and I'm nearly 100% certain this is to reduce claims of non-working devices caused by bad WiFi, plus maybe the option to sell network access on a wide range of devices.

Avoiding blocked network for TVs and other "smart" appliances is surely a nice benefit, but I doubt even 1% of people actually block network access (hell, most probably want it!). There's no way Amazon would pour that amount of effort into extracting that minuscule piece of tracking data.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#333

Post by beebeepka »

pessimizer wrote: post #325
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

> Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Also the real reason that they're popular: there are no non-smart TVs available.

There are. It's just you can't get the good stuff for anywhere near smart TV prices

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#334

Post by yesimahuman »

nsxwolf wrote: post #311
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

The software in the newer LG OLEDs is so good I haven't bothered hooking up any of my boxes to my new TVs. I'm sure in a few years the UI will start to feel sluggish and it will be time to plug something in, but for now its a great experience, far better than any smart TV I've used before.

Agreed, I was shocked that I stopped using my Apple TV and that a Smart TV app experience would be even remotely close to an Apple one.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#336

Post by PragmaticPulp »

arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

> This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble?

Smart TVs is one of those recurring HN topics where it’s clear that people made up their minds years ago, likely from a single bad experience. Now they can’t imagine that any progress has been made since then. There’s not much reason to buy a new TV these days if your old one still works (with an external TV box)

You can still find terrible smart TVs out there, of course, but the newer models from top tier vendors like LG are actually quite good.

I think it’s going to take many years before the angry HN smart TV comments catch up to modern reality.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#337

Post by echlebek »

dawnerd wrote: post #328
ccheney wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you even purchase a dumb but modern TV set? e.g. a dumb 4K OLED?

You can but they're really expensive and not designed for regular home users.

Gigabyte have a 48" 'monitor' now (an LG panel with Displayport 1.4 and no smart features)

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#338

Post by mattnewton »

arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

There are almost no tv manufacturers offering consumer TVs without the ability to connect to the internet to collect metrics, display ads, and run “apps” like Netflix. I don’t doubt it’s because the upsell is profitable and regular consumers would choose the TV with smart features over a similarly priced TV without, but it’s also possible no one has decided to compete on the “our TV is $40 cheaper, comes with a rebate for a roku you were going to buy anyways, and also we can’t push ads to you through it”

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#339

Post by Tijdreiziger »

dilippkumar wrote: post #41
cr3ative wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case it's helpful to you, you can ADB over the network to your Android TV and uninstall packages which are annoying to you. I'd wager there's one which this prompt comes from. I have disabled all but the essential apps (for HDMI-CEC function, etc) on my Sony Android TV. Alternatively, set it up once then ban it from the internet.

This hadn't ever crossed my mind! Thanks for the tip. I wonder if I can adb root into my tv via some USB port. Some hardware hacker probably has figured this out - time to go look.

Sad state of affairs when you have to hack a device you probably paid well over €1000 for...

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#340

Post by HelloMcFly »

nsxwolf wrote: post #311
arduinomancer wrote: post #287

This thread feels very...Hacker News Bubble? Why is everyone so confused that smart TVs are popular? Being able to just turn on your TV and open Netflix without messing around with inputs/other devices is a huge benefit for non-technological people. And it probably costs <$50 for the manufacturer to include whatever chip is running linux in the TV, its a no-brainer.

The software in the newer LG OLEDs is so good I haven't bothered hooking up any of my boxes to my new TVs. I'm sure in a few years the UI will start to feel sluggish and it will be time to plug something in, but for now its a great experience, far better than any smart TV I've used before.

The magic remote kind of ruins my LG TV for me. I like the UI, but hate that bumping my remote brings up that darn cursor that flies around the screen.
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