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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

#781

Post by Phillips126 »

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/

I actually had an old Pi laying around. Just setup pi-hole and giving it a try now. Thanks for the tip!

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#782

Post by leokennis »

program wrote: post #421

You can disable ads but the checkbox is deeply buried in the support menu page. Also the preference is reset every time Samsung update the T&C (more or less once a month). I added 6 Samsung domains to my Pi-Hole blacklist [1], domains that are queried dozens of times a day. [1] https://gist.github.com/zaerl/e3c24a9c21e5c15138e92a43ccd534...

For lazier or less technically inclined people: https://NextDNS.io.

One click and no more ads:

https://kennis.cc/public_uploads/d22bcaaf.jpeg

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#783

Post by simpss »

jbay808 wrote: post #635
dooglius wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the two of you may be "harbinger customers", the interesting economic phenomenon of people who tend to like products that flop.

That's exactly me! The reason I know that everyone else has bad taste is because all of my favourite products end up failing in the marketplace and getting pulled off the shelves. - Sent from my Xperia Compact

oh god, I just broke my last xperia compact that stayed with me for years(x compact) and it's impossible to find something small again, not even getting into android updates and a cleanish android experience.

well. I'm a nokia 5.3 owner now. It's big, but ticks all the other boxes & is cheap...

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#784

Post by hyperbovine »

criddell wrote: post #508
auggierose wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Q3: Can I remove these suggestions?

> A3: No, the suggestions cannot be removed.

I keep hoping someone will file a class action over this. These dumbfuck ads just appeared one day on my Bravia X900E, about a year after purchase. I didn't opt in to this and I wouldn't have bought the damn thing if this "feature" existed at the time. Sign me up for the class!

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#785

Post by Mandatum »

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…

Sony support within my region (Asia Pacific) is 10x better than any of their competitors too. They ship new TV's when there's a minor defect, and they price match directly so you don't have to worry about the retailer going out of business if your TV breaks. Admittedly I've yet to use Sony support personally - nothing has broken.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#786

Post by nucleardog »

jhfdbkofdcho wrote: post #160
hnlmorg wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is one of the reasons I paid the premium and went for a Sony instead. They haven't done anything stupid like this yet Oh they have. Many times over. Two instances affected me[1][2] and that was enough to swear me off all Sony products for the last 10 years. Only now am I contemplating buying from Sony again (a PS5). I don't think any multinational company is above trading their customers needs for a few extra…

I just bought a Sony and it’s running google android TV and it has suddenly got ads for “staff picks” now. “Free” movies on YouTube. https://streamingclarity.com/android-tv-staff-pick-highlight...

Not sure if it changed, but my 1-2 year old Sony with Android TV was fine with not being connected to the internet at all.

No idea if it's full of some sort of baked in ads because, after the initial setup, I've used it exclusively as... a TV. It turns on, shows me things I give it over HDMI, and turns off. I haven't actually seen the menu/apps/whatever after the first day.

It's not optimal, I'd rather it just be a dumb TV obviously, but in a sea of bad options it's been... fine.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#787

Post by thelastdev »

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 own a 250$ 4k TV that doesn't do this. Samsung does this shit with their cell phones too. Rocking a cheaper brand Android phone now. Also helps I'm not being forced to keep Facebook installed

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#788

Post by sedatk »

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 have an LG Smart TV. I didn't consent to any of the tracking features and haven't seen a single ad for years. I strongly recommend it as an alternative to Sony.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#789

Post by shuntress »

zanderz wrote: post #725
Nextgrid wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that a large part of this ad- and marketing-driven economy is based on this. The reason they predict their revenue will go up (which it will, at least in the short term until the market adjusts) is because they have a lot of customers already lined up to pay them to show ads on their TVs. Those customers' marketing departments decided to pay money to include their ads on TVs because a similar process was fo…

I worked on a very popular free desktop product (BitTorrent/uTorrent) when a major revenue stream was the bundling of crapware in the install path, depending on people clicking the dialogs without reading them. I remember an executive announcing in a meeting that "search engine replacement" (reconfiguring your browser and/or system to a shadier alternative that made us money) was viable because the telemetry data sho…

There is a sizable middle ground between "basic intuition" and "black art".

I think anyone with some experience in that type of software would intuitively understand the negative user experience described here.

Seems like a pretty straightforward case of the classic "Unless their salary depends on not understanding" rather than some opaque wall of unknowable unpredictable consequences.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#790

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

lostlogin wrote: post #673
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just disconnect it from your network (change the wifi password or remove the Ethernet cable) and it will be unable to auto-update. You may want to get an external device (Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV, or other media server) and plug that into your HDMI if you use the network from apps on the TV.

But if some apps are used that isn’t possible. I’d suggest a few all rule forcing all port 53 traffic through a Pihole, then block Samsung traffic.

Then...don't use the apps?

What can the apps on your TV do that a $40 Amazon Fire stick ($50 if you want 4K) can't?

I'd rather hook up an old laptop to my TV and use that to watch media than use the apps on my TV and deal with all the bullshit that TV manufacturers are doing when you connect the TV to the network.

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