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

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

#391

Post by duncan_bayne »

johnhenry wrote: post #381
ouid wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement >"Infringement may occur when one party, the 'infringer', uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers" this basically means that in order to have an infringement case, you need to show tha…

Might be along shot, but both seem to be relevant in the whole "watching digital video" space. (I'm imagining an a scenario in which an elderly version of myself becomes confused... Me: "Honey, I think we should watch a movie over the samba!". My elderly wife: "Did you mean the samba on the smart TV, or the samba on the PC?" Me: Dag Nabbit!)

That's exactly the scenario I was thinking of. I've run samba in a household with a (non-smart) TV, back in the day. There's definitely some overlap there.

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

#392

Post by Chirael »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #282
buro9 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try it. I did. I couldn't find a non-smart TV. They are everywhere. If you want the 4k, then you have a smart TV. The best alternatives were super large monitors (way over the price of a TV, and with no decent sound built in), or corporate display panels (for advertising, signage, etc) whose prices are also way above a TV and include no sound system at all.

I bought a Vizio P65-C1, excited to have found a modern TV without smart features. Then, a couple months later, an OTA update made it smart. I had to read the fine print to realize that this came with some bullshit "feature" where Vizio auto recognizes whatever I'm watching. I disabled it deep within some totally nonintuitive menu.

I did this by following the instructions I found at https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smar...

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

#393

Post by terrantech »

ouid wrote: post #373
duncan_bayne wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered a cease and desist? I think the name is sufficiently similar to cause confusion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement >"Infringement may occur when one party, the 'infringer', uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers" this basically means that in order to have an infringement case, you need to show tha…

When I first read this, I assumed Samba had started a file streaming service/app for Android TV to stream movies from Samba shares.

Admittedly, a few seconds of thinking made me realise they'd never do that... but it's easy to see why people are getting confused, which is EXACTLY where Trademark stuff comes in.

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

#394

Post by bognition »

userbinator wrote: post #228
buro9 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try it. I did. I couldn't find a non-smart TV. They are everywhere. If you want the 4k, then you have a smart TV. The best alternatives were super large monitors (way over the price of a TV, and with no decent sound built in), or corporate display panels (for advertising, signage, etc) whose prices are also way above a TV and include no sound system at all.

The best alternatives were super large monitors (way over the price of a TV, and with no decent sound built in), or corporate display panels (for advertising, signage, etc) whose prices are also way above a TV and include no sound system at all. I wonder how big the market is for "dumb" TVs priced lower than smart ones --- given that the development costs, if any, for one would be much lower since you're basically ju…

Why would a dumb tv cost less than a smart one? Presumably the manufacturers are making money on each sale because of the ad tech. So wouldn't TV's without the tech cost more?

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

#395

Post by Fnoord »

johnchristopher wrote: post #215
buro9 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN replying to myself with some context outside of the tweets. I actually trust stock Android over Samsung, Sony, etc Android. Hence my "if we're going to have Android TV perhaps Google could supply it without the forced add-ons". I see this similar to installing Windows yourself rather than having "Windows with added vendor crap"... like if you know you want Windows, a stock one is better and same with Android. I'm…

Considering this: > Ideally you run a TV on a different VLAN. Why don't you go with a pi instead of a shield ?

An RPi can handle 720p at best, and no Netflix/Prime. Certainly not at 4k with HDR.

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

#396

Post by pault »

eilyra wrote: post #376
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, exactly. Living room monitors need to become a thing.

They kind of are a thing, there's the LG 43UD79-B[1] which is a 43" UHD monitor. Not the biggest screen, but decently sized and it advertises a 5ms GTG response time which should be adquate for monitor like use. [1] http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-43UD79-B-4k-uhd-led-monitor

Be careful to check of those things support HDPC or whatever it's called. I have the Dell 42.5 inch monitor and it won't play 4k content.

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

#397

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#398

Post by barbs »

cup-of-tea wrote: post #190
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #116

I would like to see a TV with the following attributes: 1. 8 Inputs, with at least four HDMI and one HDMI accessible from the front panel. The remaining inputs would have at least two composite inputs. There would be no cable input since most cable companies, around here anyway, require a set-top box anyway. 2. An optical audio output, for those who wish to hook up a proper audio system. Those who don’t would get ok-…

What you're describing is a monitor. A big, good looking monitor. That's all I want too. The interface on my (non smart) TV is unbearably slow and I don't want to use it. Unbelievably, the interface on the last "smart" TV I tried, which costs 5x as much, is even slower. I cannot stand using tools that can't keep up with how fast I think.

True, except I've always felt a monitor doesn't contain built-in speakers.

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

#399

Post by duncan_bayne »

CrystalLangUser wrote: post #383
ouid wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement >"Infringement may occur when one party, the 'infringer', uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers" this basically means that in order to have an infringement case, you need to show tha…

I was sorely confused as I thought Samba was legitimately doing this at first. It's literally Samba's name with .tv appended, and one can play files using sambda + VLC..

Yeah, ditto.

"Oooooh, some sort of media centre software based on samba? Count me in. Oh, wait ... :("

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

#400

Post by EpicEng »

pwg wrote: post #297
EpicEng wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Solution: don't ever purchase a smart TV. Not much of a solution since it will never happen. The best TV's are "smart", and people like nice things, myself included. You're much better of simply never connecting them to the internet. They get the same message and you don't limit yourself to a small set of poor options.

> They get the same message If by "they" you mean the manufacturers, no they don't get the "same message". The message they (makers) got was: "A smart TV sold". They interpret that to mean "purchaser wanted a smart TV".

And if you never connect you're device the message they get is "the consumer wanted our TV, but not our software." What's hard to understand about that?
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