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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

#571

Post by choward »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #375
undebuggable wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and that's exactly why my TV will never have an internet connection. That's increasingly difficult, e.g. HDMI offers ethernet communication. I also don't think salespeople care to be informed well enough on this feature. It seems that the last resort is digging through the user manuals found on the internet before the purchase.

You can always hook up a computer and use the TV as a monitor.

How do you know they aren't tracking that either? Your TV has a computer inside that has the capability of watching whatever is being displayed on your screen.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#572

Post by Kipters »

pixxel wrote: post #507
Kipters wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

PS5 is hardly the only console on the market though, both Microsoft and Nintendo offerings are quite compelling.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#573

Post by mikestew »

jmiserez wrote: post #418
Swenrekcah wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one thing Apple TV has so backwards that I can't even. Text input. All the letters lined alphabetically with only left-right movement allowed. Takes ages to input anything. Also no corrections allowed. I actually exit appleTV and use the built in TV apps for when I need youtube and the like, because their input mechanism is not insane. I know there is a remote app for iPhones, but you do provide an actual re…

Just FYI the remote app is baked into iOS. Whenever there's text input on the AppleTV the iPhone will show a notification in the drawer that can be used for text input. It's very convenient and works well.

Good thing to point out and the Remote app is worlds better than the hardware remote, but...not everyone that buys an AppleTV owns an iPhone. When I watch TV, I want to leave my phone on the desk. But most of all, Apple can make the fucking remote UI work properly rather than rely on me having a $400 device lying around. Especially if Apple is going to make me use that crap piece of hardware they call a "remote".

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#574

Post by choward »

rootusrootus wrote: post #541
qz2 wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well fuck. I didn’t know that. I was just about to buy a nice new 50” 4K Samsung smart TV. Purchase cancelled. Will keep my dumb Samsung 32” ass end model.

At this point I don't think any Samsung TVs have cellular connections built in. So just stay away from the 'smart' features. I recently bought a 70" Samsung "smart" TV but the only interaction we have with it is to switch to the Apple TV input. The TV has no network configuration, and it never will.

How do you know it's not using open wifi networks?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#575

Post by joombaga »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #464
SteveGerencser wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, do people actually know that when they purchase? If it were clearly stated anywhere on the box/sales copy that "you will see ads on this device" while the other one says "we won't shove ads on your device" I would wager the $10 more would be a bargain to nearly everyone. But that information is never available at the point of purchase so most people get the surprise of see ads when they had no idea that was even…

I’d have less of a problem with this if they went about it the way Amazon sells ads on their Kindle e-readers: - You can buy the device for $X, and it’s marked as being sold “with special offers” (a euphemism for ads that would be more explicit in an ideal world) - You can buy the device for $X + $Y, and it’s marked as being sold “without special offers” - You can buy the device for $X “with special offers” today, bu…

One more option that was at least available on older Kindles

- You can buy the device for $X “with special offers” today, then hack it and remove the "special offers".

I don't know how prevalent this is, but wonder if it's a consideration in deciding on the "money to disable ads" strategy.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#576

Post by tremon »

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…

went for a Sony instead. They haven't done anything stupid like this yet

True, not like this. But they've done worse things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit

After all, most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#577

Post by C1sc0cat »

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…

Exactly!, our down stairs Samsung's TV UI looks like it was designed by a group of toddlers who over dosed on E supplements and decided to use all the crayons in the box

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#578

Post by canucker2016 »

huhtenberg wrote: post #79
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…

> 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.

not an option for some recent samsung TVs - if you don't connect the TV to a WiFi AP, the TV "grows up" and will try and connect to any open WiFi APs itself.

see https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choo...

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#579

Post by nitrogen »

mjburgess wrote: post #486
EForEndeavour wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes for understanding business and the modern world in general: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." —Upton Sinclair https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair

I think a better (less cynical) way of interpreting that is this: Jobs which require a belief to perform sincerely, select people who hold that belief sincerely. This principle should undo a lot of cynicism. Yes, eg., people in marketing often "really believe" their efforts are a net-positive, and no it isn't often, "mere cynicism" on their part. Rather, what has happened, is that most who view marketing cynically, d…

I've met marketers and product people of both kinds. The cynical ones seemed to half hate their jobs, and justify the SOP clickbait as keeping up with the negative sum game they have to play. The less cynical ones seemed to be kind of detached from externalities, and described their marketing copy as "standard marketing puffery" to justify it to legal.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#580

Post by canucker2016 »

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…

Some Samsung TVs already try and connect to open WiFi networks if you don't connect them yourself.

see https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choo...

My next idea - Faraday cages for smart TVs

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