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

My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 448 posts

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#361

Post by RaleyField »

NoNotTheDuo wrote: post #115
ManlyBread wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2008: plug the TV into the power outlet and you're done 2018: your TV needs internet access because updates What the hell happened? This is ridiculous.

2008: Manufacturer finds a defect in the firmware code that causes excessive processor usage, thus causing the internal electronics to fail earlier than anticipated. No fix available. 2018: defect in firmware found. New version deployed to internet connected devices and lifespan extended. Both of those are made up scenarios, but I would argue that there are legitimate reasons for devices to be connected to the intern…

Why do you think most Android phones stop receiving months after release and flag carrying ones one or two years after release? And what firmware in a HDMI decoder is supposed to be fallible? And why can't updates be supplied via USB stick.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#362

Post by petepete »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #41
nip wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any good tv recommendation, if not Sony?

Not Samsung. I've been reasonably happy with my Panasonic.

Panasonic Viera TVs used to have adverts in the EPG. It's an industry-wide shitshow

http://gonedigital.net/wp-content/uploads/PanasonicEPG.jpg

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#363

Post by RaleyField »

robotmay wrote: post #220
exabrial wrote: post #111

On a similar note, Samsung updated a bunch of apps on my dad's s7 and pushed a bunch of notifications to him, trying to get him to join some Samsung rewards club and suspended use of his phone until he clicked next. He's 67 guys. The madness needs to stop.

I just got ahold of an S8 Edge and by god is it full of shite. I won't be buying any Samsung hardware, and I'll definitely recommend my friends/family don't; it might be the least user-friendly device I've ever used. The first 2 days you have to spend disabling so many things, or getting daft popups all over the place explaining things you don't care about.

Buy Nokia if you need Android, you get only first-party shite that Google provides. And it receives updates.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#364

Post by fencepost »

dorkwood wrote: post #69
Waterluvian wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box. What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is. Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What…

Windows 10 has so far served me ads on the lock screen and in the start menu. If I try to search my computer for a file, it also sends that search query to Bing. This OS should be free.

I recommend looking into "O&O ShutUp10" and running it at least once - possibly after major updates to Windows as well.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#365

Post by fencepost »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #129
djrogers wrote: post #27

> Ideally you run a TV on a different VLAN. Why let it ‘run’ on your network or the internet at all? I’ve never connected my newest TV to my WiFi, and can’t ever foresee a reason to do so. All of the apps I want are running on a connected box I trust to maintain a degree of privacy that I’d never assume from Sony, Samsung, or the like. It’s not as if Netflix or Hulu actually force you to use the embedded TV apps.

How much longer do you think it will be possible to buy a TV that works without Internet access? I assume at some point soon they will demand connectivity to even display images coming in on the HDMI port. Internet services is the future profit center for screen manufacturers; also it's easier to build a system if you assume it has Internet connectivity always. (For, say, HDCP updates.) I also don't allow my screens…

If I purchased a TV and only found out after the fact that it required internet access I'd be returning it to the store as defective. If I can't use it for movies with a DVD player in my fishing cabin, it's clearly not a TV.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#366

Post by Fnoord »

buro9 wrote: post #131
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any concern with a smart TV that isn't connected to the Internet (using a chromecast to connect to netflix)?

Depends how disconnected it really is. If it's doing some kind of "always scan WiFi in the background" shenanigans then it's still a computer slowly going out of date without security updates and occasionally exposing itself to the local area. I wish I could take a "smart" TV and flip a switch and have it gracefully fall back to "dumb" TV where the Android device is physically disabled.

My Philips start TV can connect wired or wireless. Using Netflix native on it, goes quicker than via Chromecast. The EPG data contains an ad (!!!). I cannot even pay to remove it. So I just use my settopbox to watch & record. Advantage to that is that I am allowed to skip ads on local recordings (if I use remote recordings though, only on public broadcast TV, and they only last for a week).

Chromecast is basically a smart TV on a stick, controlled with a remote from smartphone (and partly, even the remote control of the TV). You can run a Chromecast wired as well. Same with Steam Link. It can run over wireless or wired.

I find on all of these wired far more reliable, and I keep more bandwidth for my wireless applications. Even my printer is wired. Then again, I got a 8 port gbit switch for connectivity and barely any wires visible.

The caveat is that my smart devices, although wired, are currently NOT on a VLAN, and that Chromecast is a data resource for Google, and as I mentioned the EPG data on the TV contains commercials. Instead of the Steam Link I could even just run a HDMI cable straight from computer. I can also plug in a Bluetooth USB adapter on my USB hub to listen via Bluetooth on the couch to the TV.

Other than that, its a great TV for its price. Make sure your TV has enough HDMI ports. You might also wanna have a look at Chromecast alternatives such as Miracast devices or Amazon Fire Stick (the ethernet adapter came free with Chromecast Ultra but for the other Chromecasts it costs 20 EUR extra).

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#367

Post by megablast »

buro9 wrote: post #55

I'm the author and linking to my tweets is a bad idea because they auto-delete after 14 days. For future HN context, as the author I'm reproducing them here in full: My @Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app from https://samba.tv and boy oh boy... this is worse than recent @facebook stuff. From their own privacy policy: https://samba.tv/legal/privacy-policy/ … they track what you w…

> My @Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app from https://samba.tv and boy oh boy... this is worse than recent @facebook stuff.

In what way do they force you to use it?

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#368

Post by ryandrake »

It’s funny sitting here on HN reading about this, with many HN readers outraged and disappointed that a company would do such anti-user stuff in their products. HN readers, quite a few of whom, are likely complicit software engineers at companies doing similar anti-user things.

You ask when these practices are going to end? They will not end while we quietly implement them! You look for who to blame? As a profession we need to look in the mirror.

These surveillance boxes masquerading as consumer electronics don’t build themselves.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#369

Post by paganel »

ams6110 wrote: post #222
buro9 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content owners dictate in contractual terms the availability of their content in high definition (UHD, 4k, etc) be determined by the app securing access to the content. The result is that the higher quality content is only available on apps on closed platforms. So if you got a dumb panel and wanted high definition content, you'd still need to hook up something like the Nvidia Shield... essentially a closed platform (…

This is totally subjective but I find UHD/4K to be painful to look at on a large screen. The contrast is too high, everything is too focused. I don't need to see skin pores from across the room. 1080p is by far "good enough" to watch anything on TV, IMO.

> The contrast is too high, everything is too focused. I don't need to see skin pores from across the room.

I re-watched a couple of episodes of "Friends" recently (apparently the series is now available on Netflix) at a couple of friends' house, on a huge tv set, and I had a totally different experience compared to what I remembered from last watching the episodes ~15 years ago because I could only focus on looking at the actresses' faces, asking myself: "Did Monica's face really looked like that? Did Phoebe's?". I'll stick with 1080 or even with 780 from now on.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#370

Post by mr_toad »

buro9 wrote: post #131
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any concern with a smart TV that isn't connected to the Internet (using a chromecast to connect to netflix)?

Depends how disconnected it really is. If it's doing some kind of "always scan WiFi in the background" shenanigans then it's still a computer slowly going out of date without security updates and occasionally exposing itself to the local area. I wish I could take a "smart" TV and flip a switch and have it gracefully fall back to "dumb" TV where the Android device is physically disabled.

Don’t give it the Wifi password?
Post reply on HN