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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

#61

Post by flohofwoe »

walrus01 wrote: post #43
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…

Imagine thinking that sony is in any way a more ethical company... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk... https://www.networkworld.com/article/2998251/sony-bmg-rootki... https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/11/sonys_drm_roo...

"Ethical decisons" from a company made out of thousands of individuals caught up in the rat race is a bit much to expect.

For users it doesn't really matter why an annoying feature hasn't been implemented, they don't have a say in that anyway. Most likely Sony is just lagging behind a few months or years in that regard. Enjoy while it lasts ;)

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#62

Post by mulmen »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #54
izacus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never buy a consumer product that expects an Internet connection. This is a nice trite trope, but getting an affordable TV without these features might be nearly impossible for most people these days.

True, but even if you're paying for a network-capable device, you still have the option of not plugging it in.

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!

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#63

Post by covercash »

FooHentai wrote: post #24
jmull3n wrote: post #19

Curious to see what HN users believe is the best smart TV to buy in terms of OS functionality, privacy and user experience?

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.

The biggest drawback to this is the lack of support for 4K in the YouTube app on Apple TV.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#64

Post by MaxikCZ »

vanderZwan wrote: post #48
izacus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never buy a consumer product that expects an Internet connection. This is a nice trite trope, but getting an affordable TV without these features might be nearly impossible for most people these days.

How ridiculous is it that it's harder to get a product without extra nonsense added?

That extra nonsense is generating revenue to the manufacturer of the product

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#65

Post by cmckn »

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…

Totally agree, my Bravia was worth every (numerous) penny. I do update to get features like Airplay, but have never seen an ad. The $400 Samsung in my bedroom, however, starts streaming an ad-laden TV Guide equivalent automatically when I turn it on. Beyond awful.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#67

Post by ChrisRR »

izacus wrote: post #42
bleepblorp wrote: post #3

Just as the 's' in 'IoT' stands for 'security', the 'f' in 'IoT' stands for 'fairness to users.' Never buy a consumer product that expects an Internet connection.

> Never buy a consumer product that expects an Internet connection. This is a nice trite trope, but getting an affordable TV without these features might be nearly impossible for most people these days.

Exactly, we bought my 75ish year old father in law a new TV because he was using a small SD flat panel and his eyesight is going.

But he hates it because there's a million buttons and menus to navigate, when all he wants is to type in the channel numbers.

It even needed a firmware update out of the box and he didn't have a clue why a TV would need new software and immediately panicked and refused to use the thing until we drove 150 miles to accept the update for him

We just wanted a TV that receives terrestrial TV and has a couple of HDMI ports for his DVR which he knows how to use without over complex menus, is that so much to ask?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#69

Post by signal11 »

A reminder that increasingly intrusive ads are one part of the problem. The other, and potentially bigger, part is automatic content recognition (ACR), which has been covered on HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21899491 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21657930

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#70

Post by can16358p »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #50
adamparsons wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They retrospectively updated panels going back to 2016 to "improve" the experience. Truly evil shit.

Do they have the right to do that? Do customers in any country have a right to demand a product's firmware be restored to factory-state (on the grounds that what they received isn't what they were sold)?

Even though if customers do have that right, I'd like to see how many % of the regular users actually demand it.
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