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Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

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Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#341

Post by ClumsyPilot »

cced wrote: post #300
huhtenberg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

All starts with us accepting the idea that the device you paid for still isn't your property, and if tomorrow samsung decides to show porn on all samsung TV's, there is nothing you can do.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#342

Post by kalleboo »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #150
mulmen wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you? Manufacturers can easily require an Internet connection to make the device work. They can also include their own radios and modems. All in the name of being user friendly!

Are there really TVs that won't work until connected?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24626364

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#343

Post by qwertox »

I'm glad my TV isn't smart enough to display ads. Should I ever decide to buy a new TV (my current one is an old 32"), it should be as dumb as possible. Smart enough to react to a WOL packet, be remote-controllable via TCP and be happy to live blocked behind a firewall.

I leave the intelligence to other devices which I connect to the TV.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#344

Post by adriancr »

rrobukef wrote: post #213
huhtenberg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

My TV needed a firmware upgrade to get HDMI working. You need to accept EULA's before connecting and updating.

return it?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#345

Post by walleeee »

tangjurine wrote: post #167
avian wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

We're in the middle of transitioning from making decisions based on pure intuition to being purely logical and data-driven... I wonder if that's such a good idea. There was this article a while back I read that talked about how native peoples made poisonous foods edible. Some processes were extremely convoluted and unreasonable, but it worked, and efforts by a "reasonable" man to make the process more efficient would…

So long as a human remains in the loop somewhere no decision is "purely logical and data-driven", although you make a good point about the risks of chasing efficiency over all else

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#346

Post by cm2187 »

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…

Would be interesting to see how many of the people in that room would buy a Samsung TV for themselves.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#347

Post by chadlavi »

mFixman wrote: post #306
FooHentai wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever has the best panel for the best price, then strap an apple TV (or your choice of NUC) onto it and completely ignore whatever on-board smarts exist.

Any reason why an Apple TV and not a Roku or a Chromecast?

Roku and Chromecast do the same BS as smart TVs

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#348

Post by flerchin »

Like probably most folks here, I block ads at the pihole, and rarely ever see them. I actually pay for YouTube so that they don't show my kids any ads when they're not on my network.

I don't think I'm buying things based on ads, at all, but the adtech guys would surely disagree. I also find it hard to square the near universal loathing of ads with the draw of Times Square. I too enjoyed the lights of the ads.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#349

Post by brulard »

auggierose wrote: post #172
foepys wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also bought a Sony Android TV for this reason. Then last month Google pushed an update for the "Android TV Home" app and now there are many people complaining about ads on the home screen [1]. This is not really Sony's fault but rather Google's but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth… https://9to5google.com/2020/08/18/android-tv-homescreen-ads-...

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

I have ads on my Apple TV, don't you? Some movie trailers running in the background that I really don't want to see. And every time I miss-swipe somehow the Apple TV remote in an application, I get to that "home" screen watching another movie trailer :|

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#350

Post by fxtentacle »

huhtenberg wrote: post #151
fxtentacle wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then I'll start selling a little $50 box to emulate internet and route all update / advertisement requests to /dev/null :) Or maybe we (the tech community) just agree on one model and produce an open source firmware. If you look at MagicLantern for Canon, you'll see how amazingly far people will go to control their hardware.

That won't last long either if at all. They will just require an SSL connectivity to their servers with a custom CA root. The end.

You're assuming a level of technical skill on the side of TV manufacturers that it almost sounds like a joke to me.

In any case, all you need is one model with a decent screen and broken certificate pinning and I'm good for the 3-5 years that the TV will last.

And until then, I'd assume that Nvidia sees the market demand for big TV-like PC screens and outcompetes the TV manufacturers.

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