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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

#501

Post by ice3 »

joking wrote: post #422
izacus wrote: post #49

One tip I've found useful - most TVs have a so-called "Hotel mode" (or a Service mode) where they can have most of their smart features disabled and can be locked to a single HDMI input (e.g. AppleTV / ShieldTV / Chromecast). That makes them into rather dumb panels that usually also disable those ads. At least I know it's possible on all Sony AndroidTV models and most Samsung models (not sure about their latest Tizen…

samsung (and most brands) sell specific model for hospitality, those have hotel mode, so i doubt you can configure it on domestic ones.

Hotel mode can be activated on most (all?) Samsung TVs. You just have to access the hidden services menu.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#502

Post by ocdtrekkie »

zadler wrote: post #473
Anther wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought an LG. I’m so glad I dodged this bullet. I would be furious.

How do you know LG won’t update the software later to include ads?

LG's already also have ads. They're not super obtrusive though, and I'm sure I shut personalization off.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#503

Post by ashtonkem »

strken wrote: post #312
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, that's how the free market should work; in practice, it's very hard for a new player on the market to get brand recognition and a share of the market. It can be done, I think, but it has to be VERY well funded - you need to send salespeople / lobbyists to the various on- and offline shops selling TVs, you need "SEO experts" to try and beat the competition's "SEO experts" on the internet and e.g. Amazon's s…

In practice, there are already people who need dumb screens - airlines, railways, offices, and so on. Those people will pay a premium to get "industrial grade" products, but it's not always an enormous premium, and most people on HN could afford to pay it.

Cheaper to get a smart panel and blacklist it from the network. The HN crowd knows how to do that too.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#504

Post by butterfi »

zadler wrote: post #473
Anther wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought an LG. I’m so glad I dodged this bullet. I would be furious.

How do you know LG won’t update the software later to include ads?

Why would I bother updating software for a TV if the TV is already working? Whats the motivation?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#505

Post by ericd »

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…

I’m pretty sure the up-front price is at least somewhat subsidized by the ad revenue.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#506

Post by ta8964586 »

paulus_magnus2 wrote: post #293
ta8964586 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't own one, I looked into it the last time I purchased a TV and just couldn't justify the price over the sale price of a regular "smart" TV. The more feature rich digital signage (from Samsung at least) with HDR10+, HDMI CEC, etc. is much more expensive than a consumer TV, i think 3-4x. It didn't fit my valuation so I just have a normal Samsung TV with no networking configured.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#507

Post by pixxel »

Kipters wrote: post #443
pixxel wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re. point 3. Have you streamed yet or it’s just an option right now? Something I’m considering but I’ve not looked into. Wondering about lag, and if I have to run upstairs to my pc to start games etc.

Tried just once (the whole setup is rather new). I tried the first part of Hellblade running on my PC, which is in the same room, at 1440p & High settings. I played for about half an hour, with no noticeable glitches or lag. Both the PC and the Shield are connected using cables (each to a different switch, both switches go directly to the router). I hope I have time to try it more before the weekend, but the results…

Interesting, thanks for the reply. I’ll research for sure.

With the PS5 controller having a microphone array built in, I won’t be purchasing, which makes me sad as I’ve been gaming since the ZX Spectrum. Also Sony injecting their ads into the PS4 home-screen which will no doubt carry over to the PS5. Gah. But on a positive note, those new AMD offerings...

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#508

Post by criddell »

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.

That doesn't seem like an acceptable solution. The ads weren't there when I bought the TV.

I found the support article from Sony on this:

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00225587

If this is a TV that is used by very young children, ads with blood splatter as shown in their example seem pretty tasteless.

Google's page on the introduction of ads has the same thing - an ad for Sesame Street followed up with the ad containing blood splatter.

https://blog.google/products/android-tv/find-new-faves-faste...

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#509

Post by Kaze404 »

I've only ever bought one Samsung product. It's a smart TV presumably meant to be used for Steam Link purposes. When it arrived and I turned it on, I found out that not only the Steam Link app was not available for my model, but it also had no Bluetooth support for controllers (only for audio devices???). I double checked the product page and it very clearly shows, to this date, steam Link and controller support. Obviously their customer support team didn't care.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#510

Post by dvtrn »

summitsummit wrote: post #412
reaperducer wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or make the X button almost the same color as the background. TuneIn does this.

The best method I've found to increase positive engagement is actually to just have a fake 'x' such that clicking it just triggers the ad. I've noticed this more frequently on the web nowadays, and based on the click through rates, the target demographic is absolutely _obsessed_ over this feature.

Don't get me started on dialog boxes that put the "cancel" button on the wrong side. Much like toilet paper, there is one way to display it, all other methods are heresy worthy of nothing less than immediate exterminatus.

(partially kidding, but only partially.)

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