Live data from Hacker News

Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

flatpanelshd.com

621–630 of 960 posts

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#621

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, marketing's my background so I get that. But you see small brands like Pine64 and System76 doing it for specific types of (often generalised OEM, "off the shelf") hardware. If they can pull it off for more sophisticated integrated solutions like phones, tablets and laptops, I'd have thought that a TV brand would be even easier. Surely buying a commodity panel off of an existing OEM would negate a lot of the l…

I feel like a pre-order or KickStarter type situation might work. Do a small batch initially, get good reviews, do another, larger batch next year, keep cycling until you have enough cash to maintain an inventory.

Yeah, or something like Drop.com for those interested as well.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#622

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.

> Just don't connect it to the Internet. Haha, just wait until 4g/5g will become so cheap that TVs will have them built in for doing software updates and sending telemetry when offline :)

> just wait until 4g/5g will become so cheap ...

One of the perks of living in Canada is I am sure this would never happen here in my lifetime.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#623
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.

Let's play a hypothetical game. Your TV attempts to literally control your life. And is ultra HD and really cheap. But you have to keep its front facing camera uncovered or it blares an alarm saying that its front camera is covered. The alarm also activates, but more quietly, if it loses its internet connection. Finally, there is a 30 second "sponsorship punishment" if it sees you have brought a product competing wit…

That is definitely going to also happen on brain-computer interfaces.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are numerous sites out there with long term tests on this subject and it comes down to, you have to go out of your way to harm the TV. As in, keep specific channels on 24x7 across a long period of time. Also, unplugging when not in use is not allowed.

Sorry? You can't unplug the TV when you aren't using it? Why? That's something new to me. My parents have a little box that automatically 'unplugs' their TV after extended periods of inactivity to prevent unnecessary power draw (the Australian government provided them for free at one point). That would somehow damage the TV?

> Why?

I've heard LG OLEDs run a pixel refresher when "off".

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#625
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that will just create a market opportunity. There was a company that made just a good tv, no smarts, but I can't find it right offhand. It think it was a european company

JVC does this for their video projector (which are also pretty damn good). I've seen people complain about that though so not sure how long that'll last.

Almost all projectors in "high end TV" price range and up have 0 "smart" features.

I've been running a BenQ w1070 since 2013 and couldn't be happier

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#626
post #614

Do you guys connect your TVs to internet? I know my TV has WiFi and Eth port, but I never thought about connecting it online, it's as useless as Euro Scart.

Yes. It would be highly inconvenient for me to connect it to my home PC which is in a different room, I don't want to buy or build a HTPC just to connect to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, I use my phone as a remote most of the time, and the tv wasn't too expensive.

Not to mention, the ads on the home screen are less intrusive and far less numerous than on Comcast's cable box.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#627

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 do digital signage as part of my job. We use Samsung TVs. They do work better, but they do run hotter. Much hotter. We use Yodeck Raspberry Pi players (4K) using HDMI, Ethernet. ADA now says TVs in public places have to be very close to the wall. This means that the players have to sit atop the TV, either in the small gap between the TV and wall or hook & loop to the TV. The older TVs (we replaced them this year) were OK. The new ones, because they run hotter, melted the glue off the back of the hook & loop and let the player slide down.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#628
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…

It would be great if it were just one middle level manager. But, this sort of behavior seems to permeate a their offerings. For me Samsung and all of it's products have gone from mildly annoying (bloatware with a couple cool features) to something I won't even consider when making a new electronics purchase. It was frustrating for a while, because I like the hardware, but I'm past it now.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#629
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 have an old (like 2015, not that old) Vizio TV with a built-in Chromecast, which was always handy. Saves me a couple bucks and an HDMI port.

The "home screen" of the TV (where it goes when you turn it on) was always the chromecast, which as I'm sure most people have seen, is rather nice; just endless pictures of art and landscapes, like a screensaver.

One day it updated without my consent, and that screen was replaced with Vizio's, I dont know, some piece of shit interface no human being on the planet wants. Ads for Crackle and other Vizio tvs mostly. Its so bad.

So, I'm never buying another Vizio TV.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#630
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And that the YouTube app forces its ads and shitty recommendations down your throat. A NUC running Kodi sounds nicer. (Yeah, yeah, pi-hole. It’s a bandaid, IMHO) Also, Apple‘s streaming services being ever more annoyingly shoved in your face on menu screens.

Pine and others have an opportunity to pair with Kodi, like Pine did with UBPorts and etc. to market a Kodi device.
Post reply on HN