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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

#751

Post by cheeze »

olorton wrote: post #14

I've had my Samsung TV for 3-4 years, it works just as well as well today as the first day that I bought it. I've never connected it to the internet and get streaming capabilities using 3rd party devices. Dumb TVs are much better than shit ones.

I had my ks8000 for 2 years before it hit the dreaded green lines which seem to be common on Reddit. 1500 dollar top of the line TV that hardly lasted.

Luckily, Samsung was awesome about it and I was able to RMA through Best Buy, who just gave me my money back. I took that cash, put a bit on top, and bought an LG OLED. Best decision ever. OLED is absolutely dominant in TVs these days.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#752

Post by lightswitch05 »

victor9000 wrote: post #724
Phillips126 wrote: post #707

I purchased a Samsung TV about two years ago for $1,200. It was my first 4K TV and I loved it. I made the purchase around the same time I dropped my cable subscription, I just couldn't stand the advertisements anymore. The panel was thin (with almost no bezels), the picture quality was superb and I was sold on the "Smart TV" features like having built in access to Netflix, etc. For a while it was great, then I notice…

You could try using a pi-hole as your DNS server on your local network to block ads across all connected devices. https://pi-hole.net/

The pihole is nice, but isn’t a silver bullet. I have a roku tv, I hate it, but I think I hate it less then I would hate another smart tv like Samsung or LG. No cameras or built in microphone- although the remote does have a microphone, but I imagine it would kill the batteries quickly if it was listening when it’s not supposed to. Anyways, to add some context, the roku has ads too, the external roku devices do too. The fire sticks also have ads. I run a little hosts blocklist project [0] and recently had a interesting ticket about blocking the roku ads [1]. What it boiled down to is blocking a couple more domains and setting up your home firewall to prevent the TV from bypassing your pihole and talking directly with 8.8.8.8. Given DoH, who knows how long this option will be viable. I don’t watch TV, but my next big Entertainment purchase will probably be an Apple TV and I’ll remove the TV from the network completely. There are no open wifi connections in my area, so not too worried about it connecting to another network.

[0] https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/

[1] https://github.com/lightswitch05/hosts/issues/230

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#753

Post by lern_too_spel »

mtw wrote: post #546
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…

Well you see Google selling Pixels which is supposed to be an idiot box to reproduce voice signals but it turns out it's loaded with ads and trackers. Samsung probably followed along the lines that Google pioneered

All of that is disableable, so the user can make it as "dumb" or as "smart" as they want, unlike the iPhone, which has tons of data collection that you can't turn off and survives in the face of much better competition only through luxury marketing or tricking people into believing it has reasonable privacy.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#754

Post by gamblor956 »

Anther wrote: post #364
marcosdumay wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, yes, brand awareness is a real thing. For example, a lot of people will avoid Samsung TVs right now.

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

While I love my LG tvs, they have had ads on their smart tvs for nearly a decade.

The difference from Samsung is that the ads on the LGs are in the same place they've always been (on the smart tv menu overlay), they've never been obtrusive, and they're always in some way connected to video content (usually VOD movies that you can purchase through one of the streaming apps, or adds for streaming apps you can install on the TV).

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#755

Post by derekp7 »

zzleeper wrote: post #709
derekp7 wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a chain of supermarkets around here that are the size of a Super Walmart, but all groceries. They carry for example 15 flavors or more of PopTarts, just to give one example. And they have low prices, and have seemed to figure it out (they were even apparently mostly immune from the TP shortages earlier this summer). I wonder how they manage, yet other chains don't (not that they have a lot of stores in their…

What chain is that?? Sounds amazing..

It's called Woodman's Market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodman%27s_Markets. Mostly in souteastern Wisconsin, and some in northeastern Illinois. My favorite part of it is the fact that you don't have to take the food out of your cart, put it on the belt, then take the bagged groceries and put it back in your cart again. The front of the cart flips down, and it gets pulled up in front of the cashier who can either bag it after ringing up the items, or typically there is a dedicated bagger.

It is really fun to take someone there who has never been in one before, and watch as they get overwhelmed. Just the fact that there are 3 aisles of frozen pizzas... and the cheese coolers run at least half way down the width of the store.

Oh, and the employees are friendly -- I wonder if the fact that it is employee owned helps there (or how the employee ownership works).

Edit: do a video search for Woodman's, someone has posted a video of traveling the store on a scooter, you can get a good idea of the size of it.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#756

Post by karmakaze »

I've found that I prefer LG products over Samsung. I've had a number of LG phones and monitors that get down to business without too many bells, whistles, and other extras of questionable value. Samsung phones tend to be more 'customized'. I don't have specific/recent experience with either brands' TVs but seems to be in line with expectations.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#757

Post by markbnj »

None of our monitors are connected to the Internet. We use them as dumb hdmi displays and that's it, for this and a lot of other reasons. On a side note, I'm just generally growing very dissatisfied with Samsung's business practices, and we've been pretty good customers of theirs. We have a Samsung fridge, and Samsung washer/dryer combo (all three of which are excellent products tbh). I'm on my fourth or fifth Samsung phone, but after several years of them trying to shove Bixby down my gullet along with a bunch of other stuff I don't want I think it will be my last.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#758

Post by covercash »

antsar wrote: post #152
covercash wrote: post #63

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.

I think a simple Youtube-dl + web based front end that can run on a Raspberry Pi would be a great way to help lots of people bypass YouTube.com/apps, make it as simple as PiHole for users to get going. Have it organize files in a way that would allow clients like Plex to easily access that content. Easy 4k + ad-free content on any device.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#759

Post by neura »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #417
reaperducer wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There are a ton of dark patterns in web design about this. - same color background - in the wrong corner (users expect the "X" in the upper right hand corner). I've seen the "X" in the wrong corner and some other icon in the right hand corner. People reflexive will click in the upper right hand corner and open the ad by mistake - I've seen where you have to click on text instead of the "X", clicking on the "X" just o…

> Also very small, 1-2 pixel "X" so literally one pixel off and you've opened the ad

Fact check. You cannot make an X with anything less than 3 pixels. ;)

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#760

Post by ArchOversight »

glennpratt wrote: post #606
quit32 wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't connect it to the internet. Also great solution for cheap subsidized TVs where they are banking on your connecting to your network so only charge $100. Plug in an apple TV and you are set.

> Plug in an apple TV and you are set. https://tidbits.com/2020/01/16/why-is-the-apple-tv-constantl...

Those "ads" are not nearly as intrusive as the ones being displayed in the article, second I have found them to be mostly useful in that I've found a couple new shows because of those "ads".

Disabling them is also fairly easy, and if you don't use the TV app, they go away entirely.

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