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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

#831

Post by m1gu3l »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #254
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…

The truth is noone buys anything from any ads... however brand awareness is a real thing. If you see a fancy ad from a company, they must be a profitable company that has a great product so you might be inclined to buy it or suggest it next time you're looking for this category of products.

ordinarily would agree but i am about to buy an standing desk. never saw it before it popped up as an ad somewhere.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#832

Post by blahyawnblah »

undebuggable wrote: post #195
fxtentacle wrote: post #84

... and that's exactly why my TV will never have an internet connection. By now, it doesn't really matter which brand you use. I have analyzed Samsung, Sony, LG and Philips and ALL of them send data about your usage to NetEase in China and ALL of them have ToS that say that they might record your voice and store it for improving their AI or whatever. Plus all of them shove suggested apps in your face, so I'd say it i…

> 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.

Just block it in your router. Everything has to go through it eventually.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#833

Post by tobyhinloopen »

avian wrote: post #122
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…

In some stupid meeting somewhere: A: ...and in conclusion, it's a win-win situation. Users will benefit from ads and our revenue will go up. B: People don't like ads on their TV. A: But they do. I refer you to slides 18 through 25 where you can see engagement metrics for our ad rollout on the old model. If people wouldn't like ads they wouldn't be clicking on them so much . B: I don't like ads. Do you like ads on you…

This is too real. I had discussions like this about a big fat cookie wall we needed to track users.

“Why do we need to track users?” “To give them recommendations!” “But this wall you’re using takes 4 seconds to load. Do you think this improves user experience?” “Yes, because the content is adjusted for the user. Besides, we did a test and 96% clicks accept, so the users don’t mind” “Where is the decline button?” “...” “There is no other option. You have accept, or you have to hse settings with 100 checkboxes. I’m surprised 4% even bothered to check these!” “Yeah but most just accept, so they don’t mind, and users really want the targeted content”

If I have to add it, I’ll at least make sure it won’t take freaking 4 seconds to load.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#834

Post by TeMPOraL »

chongli wrote: post #497
hibikir wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supermarkets also need to stay open so they can sell you your beloved products, and you'd not believe how thin the margins of some supermarkets are: Having 8 kinds of lemon yogurt, each someone's favorite, while disposing of the products past the expiration date leads to either some of the highest prices in town, or closing down. Profitability in very small supermarket chains is small. Now, the models that the somewh…

Supermarkets also need to stay open so they can sell you your beloved products, and you'd not believe how thin the margins of some supermarkets are Oh, no doubt. I'm not saying the spreadsheet guys aren't needed. They clearly are because competition is so stiff. So the reason store A needs spreadsheet guys is because store B has them. All of the spreadsheet guys, collectively, lock the grocery stores into a race to t…

Some technologies would be better off not existing, but I think the root problem is just unrestricted market competition. Without something to keep the bottom from falling out ( regulations), a competitive market is a fearsome optimization force. It will suck out all joy and happiness from any activity, as everyone gets increasingly more creative and willing to sacrifice to squeeze out just a little more marginal profit, for however brief a moment before the competitors catch up.

You've linked to SSC; Scott Alexander has a whole other essay on precisely this family of problems: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#835

Post by epanchin »

jiggawatts wrote: post #247
auggierose wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just buy an Apple TV, and then whatever TV you like.

I just got one today. It's so much better than the "Smart" Samsung TV it is plugged into that it's not even funny. The remote control has touch. I can use my phone to type text input. It's fast . It's elegant and slick. It has no ads. It has options that I care about. It doesn't waste my time with options I don't care about. The Samsung TV on the other hand was a flagship model. Top of the line. Best of the best. Jus…

I am not a fan of that remote control at all. I constantly sit on it, skipping through shows; and I don't get the purpose of the touchpad vs a d-pad.

No one uses the trackpad on their playstation controllers, why did apple run with the same idea?

I'm a big fan of the Roku boxes.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#837

Post by VHRanger »

disown wrote: post #806
burtonator wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NEVER buy a Samsung TV... they're horrible. They have the same contempt for software that they do on their phones. They NEVER update their firmware. It's amazingly slow and latent. When they DO occasionally update they usually break things that were working or remote features you used. About 2 years ago they implemented some weird/stupid popover commercial thing which you could eventually disable but they hid the fea…

> NEVER buy a Samsung TV... they're horrible. NEVER buy a TV. Even better. They are all horrible. I thought that TVs would be a thing of the past like landline phones, but looks like I was wrong. It's incredible that the gullible are swarming to "smart" TVs.

I mean you can get a TV much like you get a computer monitor except bigger.

That screen has no business connecting to the internet.

Even better is a home projector.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#838

Post by bashinator »

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.

I'm extremely happy with my HiSense - it runs Roku, so the "smart" stuff is actually maintained by a company that does a pretty good job of it. The only thing you could call ads are promos for shows. I think their revenue is kickbacks from subscriptions people get through Roku, rather than direct advertising.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#839

Post by TeMPOraL »

taneq wrote: post #385
chongli wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this the essay you were referring to [1]? I think you’re bang on with this comparison. My dad and I have long complained how (for example) grocery stores seem to constantly cancel our favourite products. We know it’s not the manufacturer because the product is still on their website. My dad and I even have a term for the people in the head office who make the decision to phase out our favourite products: spreadsh…

Hmm. I feel like there's a spiritual connection between your spreadsheet guys and the apocryphal product expert at Campbell's Soups or wherever that tried to focus-test "the perfect soup" that would optimize sales. In the story, they realized that there's no one "perfect soup" and they had to create different varieties. Likewise, there's no such thing as "the best product" at a supermarket. Everyone has their own spr…

> Likewise, there's no such thing as "the best product" at a supermarket.

I think the core observation behind the job of the spreadsheet guys is that, at scale, the choices within a family of products will approximate a normal distribution - so there will be a "best product" within each family; with a limited shelf space and a lot of different products to sell, this gives them a clear way to optimize for maximum revenue.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#840

Post by TeMPOraL »

EForEndeavour wrote: post #641
acheron wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took seemingly forever, but eventually we (mostly) got HN commenters to stop saying "LOL Betteridge's law of headlines!", along with a Wikipedia link as if we hadn't heard it a hundred times before, to every article. Hopefully we can get to that point with this stupid quote too.

I guess I don't read HN enough that I don't recall ever seeing it here, but a quick Google search confirms your impression: this quote has been super prolific on the site. I hope I at least reached a few readers who hadn't seen it before.

I guess the next quote to axe will be Gell-Mann Amnesia. But hey, they all wouldn't be repeated so often if they weren't painfully accurate.
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