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I have a Samsung "smart" TV. A while back, it started opening a pop-up every 10 minutes on top of whatever I was watching to reporting that my internet connecti

I have a Samsung "smart" TV. A while back, it started opening a pop-up every 10 minutes on top of whatever I was watching to reporting that my internet connection was down. My internet was just fine, but apparently their update server had gone down. I had to factory reset it to make it forget my Wi-Fi password and stop bothering me. Now it just has an computer attached and isn't used for anything other than a dumb screen.

rottyguy 10y ago
This will be the last time I buy a Samsung TV. I came home one evening and flicked on the tv to find that it had updated itself. As part of the update, it changed its UA. This one stipulated that I had to acknowledge that it can show popup ads (on a $1200 tv no less). I declined and then it proceeded to wipe out all my apps. Whether this was intentional or a "bug", I was obviously livid. I then spent the better part of 2hrs googling and sitting on tech support until someone walked me through resetting my system. Absolutely dumbfounded how anyone could have thought this was a good idea. One of the few times I seriously would have joined a class action suit.
computator 10y ago
Imagine if all wifi were open. Those TVs and other IoT appliances would happily upload whatever the hell they wanted without asking you anything. I used to bemoan that more people don't maintain completely open wifi connections in the spirit of sharing (assuming you have unlimited Internet). But there's the upside to everyone putting a password: You can choke off all those household devices that demand Internet access!
- nitrogen 10y ago
  Do you think they'll just ship LTE radios in the end?
  - vertex-four 10y ago
    If they can get mobile providers on board, they definitely will. Amazon has an option for "free 3G" on their higher-end Kindle devices, I don't see why a smart TV couldn't provide it.
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      Indeed. There's also tons of stuff with built-in mobile connectivity deployed everywhere. Think electronic road signs, billboard displays, and even emergency systems in elevators. It's a tried and true technology.
      - stock_toaster 10y ago
        And vending machines. some of them report home via cellular to let the company know when they are in need of refilling.
- elihu 10y ago
  > But there's the upside to everyone putting a password: You can choke off all those household devices that demand Internet access! Not for long. As those devices move to prepaid low-data rate cellular service, you won't be able to stop them from phoning home, short of RF shielding. (Sometimes I wonder if a lot of the older electronic devices we consider junk now will become desirable in the future because they "just work" without the various user-hostile spyware, DRM, rootkits, anti-repair features and remote-exploitable security vulnerabilities that seem to be proliferating in modern devices.)
  - pdimitar 10y ago
    That's exactly the reason why I curse myself for not going into an engineering highschool and university and becoming a professional electronics engineer -- on top of being a programmer. Nowadays I feel like a helpless puppet in the hands of vendors that want to make their tech transmit as much data as possible to their servers. I am not even sure the TV I have at home (and to which I didn't give any internet access) can't secretly negotiate a connection with my router. I too feel that some of us have to start collecting some older tech just in case.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    Older devices are going to have limited capabilities due to their older technology, plus when they break you won't be able to repair them because of the unavailability of parts. A better solution is to build our own devices using readily-available parts, such as Raspberry Pis, and make the designs and source code freely available. Then these things can be updated as technology improves, and their cost will be low because they won't have their availability constrained by being out of production.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  You don't need WPA to keep devices from connecting. Any decent router will let you block specific MAC addresses.
bluedino 10y ago
Samsung TV's also had some check they would run and if the Samsung servers were down, you couldn't use certain features of the TV. Easily fixed by setting up a server to spoof it and fake the DNS requests http://www.myce.com/news/users-fix-samsung-smart-tv-time-two-workarounds-known-75148/ http://www.myce.com/news/users-fix-samsung-smart-tv-time-two...
- computator 10y ago
  > Easily fixed by setting up a server to spoof it and fake the DNS requests I love the way you say "easily". Sure, easy for some segment of Hacker News readers. But it would be impossible for almost every other TV user.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    We need an adblock equivalent here. If you package this method (and appropriate methods for other TV vendors) into a trivially installable bundle, it should eventually get to normal people through their geek sons/daughters/spouses/neighbours, like it happened with ad blockers.
samstave 10y ago
Diff company - Vizio (Cognitive) is not on Samsung TVs
flanbiscuit 10y ago
I hated my Samsung "Smart TV". All the apps were slow, the Wifi receiver in it was crappy. Since I have so many devices now that have all the streaming apps (PS3, PS4, WiiU, Apple TV) I can save money when buying a TV by looking for the most dumbed down basic TV I can. I just need something with a good amount of inputs and that's it. The last smart-type TV that I bought actually used Roku baked into it. At least Roku is a well-known and independent service and not a manufacturers proprietary shoddy system.
- 8ytecoder 10y ago
  Are there any dumb TVs at all? I keep thinking there has to be a market for it. It just doesn't make sense to be at the mercy of the TV makers to be able to provide apps and updates - when we have Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, PS4, Xbox One and on and on that can provide a much better experience.
  - flyinghamster 10y ago
    Back before Christmas, I picked up a Sharp 40" set that was very much a dumb TV, exactly how I wanted it. Any smarts (for now, a Raspberry Pi running OSMC) plug into the HDMI ports. About the only thing I can ding it for is that some buttons on the remote aren't available for CEC, so I still have to use my RC6 remote and IR receiver on the Pi to control Kodi for all but the most basic functions. Also, if you're looking for a 4K set, I'm not sure there are any out there that are dumb.
    - WaxProlix 10y ago
      Seiki and a few others make dumb-as-nails 4k screens for dirt cheap prices. Using a 39" one I got a year or so ago right now, and even then it was ~$285 pre tax. Not bad.
  - marceldegraaf 10y ago
    Yes: Humax has released their Pure Vision Display exactly for this reason. It's a 4K IPS display in 43", 49", and 55" sizes with a bunch of HDMI and USB ports. I'm having trouble finding an English product page, but a quick Google should get you the info you need.
rexf 10y ago
We experience a different issue with our Samsung TV. Whenever it updates, it decides to cover the screen with a SmartHub Update modal that ruins the TV watching experience. As a user, I could care less about each time the system updated and I just want to watch my content unobstructed.
derekp7 10y ago
I had something similar with a Magnavox CRT TV years ago. It would "helpfully" show on the screen "STEREO" or "MONO". Every time the signal lost the stereo signal, it would flash MONO, then a couple seconds later flash STEREO. Was a real problem on some channels that a slightly weak audio signal.
turc1656 10y ago
I have this same setup. I never gave my "smart" TV my wifi password. And it was for exactly the type of reason mentioned in this VIZIO article. I have an LG, but it makes no difference. I don't trust any of these manufacturers.

rottyguy 10y ago

This will be the last time I buy a Samsung TV. I came home one evening and flicked on the tv to find that it had updated itself. As part of the update, it changed its UA. This one stipulated that I had to acknowledge that it can show popup ads (on a $1200 tv no less). I declined and then it proceeded to wipe out all my apps. Whether this was intentional or a "bug", I was obviously livid. I then spent the better part of 2hrs googling and sitting on tech support until someone walked me through resetting my system. Absolutely dumbfounded how anyone could have thought this was a good idea. One of the few times I seriously would have joined a class action suit.

computator 10y ago

Imagine if all wifi were open. Those TVs and other IoT appliances would happily upload whatever the hell they wanted without asking you anything. I used to bemoan that more people don't maintain completely open wifi connections in the spirit of sharing (assuming you have unlimited Internet). But there's the upside to everyone putting a password: You can choke off all those household devices that demand Internet access!

nitrogen 10y ago
Do you think they'll just ship LTE radios in the end?
- vertex-four 10y ago
  If they can get mobile providers on board, they definitely will. Amazon has an option for "free 3G" on their higher-end Kindle devices, I don't see why a smart TV couldn't provide it.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Indeed. There's also tons of stuff with built-in mobile connectivity deployed everywhere. Think electronic road signs, billboard displays, and even emergency systems in elevators. It's a tried and true technology.
    - stock_toaster 10y ago
      And vending machines. some of them report home via cellular to let the company know when they are in need of refilling.
elihu 10y ago
> But there's the upside to everyone putting a password: You can choke off all those household devices that demand Internet access! Not for long. As those devices move to prepaid low-data rate cellular service, you won't be able to stop them from phoning home, short of RF shielding. (Sometimes I wonder if a lot of the older electronic devices we consider junk now will become desirable in the future because they "just work" without the various user-hostile spyware, DRM, rootkits, anti-repair features and remote-exploitable security vulnerabilities that seem to be proliferating in modern devices.)
- pdimitar 10y ago
  That's exactly the reason why I curse myself for not going into an engineering highschool and university and becoming a professional electronics engineer -- on top of being a programmer. Nowadays I feel like a helpless puppet in the hands of vendors that want to make their tech transmit as much data as possible to their servers. I am not even sure the TV I have at home (and to which I didn't give any internet access) can't secretly negotiate a connection with my router. I too feel that some of us have to start collecting some older tech just in case.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  Older devices are going to have limited capabilities due to their older technology, plus when they break you won't be able to repair them because of the unavailability of parts. A better solution is to build our own devices using readily-available parts, such as Raspberry Pis, and make the designs and source code freely available. Then these things can be updated as technology improves, and their cost will be low because they won't have their availability constrained by being out of production.
Arizhel 10y ago
You don't need WPA to keep devices from connecting. Any decent router will let you block specific MAC addresses.

bluedino 10y ago

Samsung TV's also had some check they would run and if the Samsung servers were down, you couldn't use certain features of the TV. Easily fixed by setting up a server to spoof it and fake the DNS requests http://www.myce.com/news/users-fix-samsung-smart-tv-time-two-workarounds-known-75148/ http://www.myce.com/news/users-fix-samsung-smart-tv-time-two...

computator 10y ago
> Easily fixed by setting up a server to spoof it and fake the DNS requests I love the way you say "easily". Sure, easy for some segment of Hacker News readers. But it would be impossible for almost every other TV user.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  We need an adblock equivalent here. If you package this method (and appropriate methods for other TV vendors) into a trivially installable bundle, it should eventually get to normal people through their geek sons/daughters/spouses/neighbours, like it happened with ad blockers.

samstave 10y ago

Diff company - Vizio (Cognitive) is not on Samsung TVs

flanbiscuit 10y ago

I hated my Samsung "Smart TV". All the apps were slow, the Wifi receiver in it was crappy. Since I have so many devices now that have all the streaming apps (PS3, PS4, WiiU, Apple TV) I can save money when buying a TV by looking for the most dumbed down basic TV I can. I just need something with a good amount of inputs and that's it. The last smart-type TV that I bought actually used Roku baked into it. At least Roku is a well-known and independent service and not a manufacturers proprietary shoddy system.

8ytecoder 10y ago
Are there any dumb TVs at all? I keep thinking there has to be a market for it. It just doesn't make sense to be at the mercy of the TV makers to be able to provide apps and updates - when we have Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, PS4, Xbox One and on and on that can provide a much better experience.
- flyinghamster 10y ago
  Back before Christmas, I picked up a Sharp 40" set that was very much a dumb TV, exactly how I wanted it. Any smarts (for now, a Raspberry Pi running OSMC) plug into the HDMI ports. About the only thing I can ding it for is that some buttons on the remote aren't available for CEC, so I still have to use my RC6 remote and IR receiver on the Pi to control Kodi for all but the most basic functions. Also, if you're looking for a 4K set, I'm not sure there are any out there that are dumb.
  - WaxProlix 10y ago
    Seiki and a few others make dumb-as-nails 4k screens for dirt cheap prices. Using a 39" one I got a year or so ago right now, and even then it was ~$285 pre tax. Not bad.
- marceldegraaf 10y ago
  Yes: Humax has released their Pure Vision Display exactly for this reason. It's a 4K IPS display in 43", 49", and 55" sizes with a bunch of HDMI and USB ports. I'm having trouble finding an English product page, but a quick Google should get you the info you need.

rexf 10y ago

We experience a different issue with our Samsung TV. Whenever it updates, it decides to cover the screen with a SmartHub Update modal that ruins the TV watching experience. As a user, I could care less about each time the system updated and I just want to watch my content unobstructed.

derekp7 10y ago

I had something similar with a Magnavox CRT TV years ago. It would "helpfully" show on the screen "STEREO" or "MONO". Every time the signal lost the stereo signal, it would flash MONO, then a couple seconds later flash STEREO. Was a real problem on some channels that a slightly weak audio signal.

turc1656 10y ago

I have this same setup. I never gave my "smart" TV my wifi password. And it was for exactly the type of reason mentioned in this VIZIO article. I have an LG, but it makes no difference. I don't trust any of these manufacturers.