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The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet and instead use a digital media player or external streaming device. I wholeheartedly agree.

The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet and instead use a digital media player or external streaming device. I wholeheartedly agree. But then several people mentioned wanting to update the firmware. If you'll never connect it to the Internet, then you should never update the firmware either. It goes against conventional wisdom, but updating the firmware in this situation is more likely to cause problems than to bring you desired improvements. The firmware update might have stricter DRM controls; it could have a tricky new way to exfiltrate data out via your streaming box; maybe the firmware update itself contains some static ads; perhaps in the near future we'll have public wifi or free Google community wifi, and the new firmware will have the smarts to use that and bypass your wifi. And these days, once you update the firmware, you often cannot revert back to earlier firmware.

clouddrover 4y ago
> The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet Once 5G is cheap enough the TVs will come with built-in 5G in order to always be connected.
- cpeterso 4y ago
  Or a mesh network of TVs. Your TV might not be connected to the internet, but your neighbor’s neighbor’s neighbor’s TV might be!
senectus1 4y ago
I have a fair amount of success just using a pihole to block unwanted behaviour
YeBanKo 4y ago
And that sentiment is soon going to be obsolete, once 5G is everywhere and your smart TV can connect to the internet without asking for your wifi password.
worble 4y ago
>It goes against conventional wisdom Does it? So long as it's not connected to the internet, and generally works, then why would you want to? Whats the risk?
- mikestew 4y ago
  I stay on top of device firmware updates in order to stay current on security patches, lest bad folks come crawling through the connection. I assume that's the "conventional wisdom" spoken of here. But if the TV never goes anywhere near a network... If it's not a networked device, then the FW update better have enhancements that benefit me, the user, and not Samsung. Otherwise, GTFO with your crab bucket of new bugs.
- nsxwolf 4y ago
  Firmware updates can bring image quality improvements, hardware compatibility fixes, all sorts of stuff beyond the built-in streaming apps.
  - brokenmachine 4y ago
    Aah, the ever-present, nebulous and unlisted "bug fixes and security enhancements". ...oh, and more ads (not mentioned in the changelog). ...and feature removals (not mentioned in the changelog). ...oh, and you can't downgrade (not mentioned in the changelog). Firmware updates are fine, but it should definitely be illegal to not allow a device to be returned by a consumer to the precise functionality it had at the time of purchase. I can't believe people have been brainwashed to accept this as normal.
agilob 4y ago
Why even buy a TV then, why not a PC screen or a projector?
- izacus 4y ago
  Because those tend to not support features people want from their TV - related to DRM, software, connectivity and form factor.
- PreachSoup 4y ago
  Because if u want the best oled panel as pc screen, you have to get a tv
- sgtfrankieboy 4y ago
  Because a 32" monitor is small for a TV? and a projector has tons of downsides? The solution is to buy a commercial TV used in retail environments.
  - TacticalCoder 4y ago
    > and a projector has tons of downsides? I'm not so sure. I've been using a projector as a TV for something like four years straight: no TV at home, only a projector. As a bonus the living room becomes a home cinema. I didn't see much downsides. Zero issue. No ads. Cheaper than a TV for a much wider diagonal and a more "cinema'ish" picture too (I hate it when movies look like cheap sitcoms on modern TVs). And as many of these are made to show slides and whatnots in corporate settings, ads are a big no-no. I think more people should seriously consider that option. EDIT: well I remember one issue... I decided to fix it and it took longer than the time it'd have take to hook a TV. But I did it exactly once, used some fishtape to pull HDMI cables in the system ceiling and family was good to go for years.
    - pb7 4y ago
      >I hate it when movies look like cheap sitcoms on modern TVs That has nothing to do with "TVs" in general and more the software smoothing settings that are on by default. Properly configured (takes literally minutes or less one time) using a website like rtings.com for the optimal settings, a TV will look better than a similar quality projector every time, and in greater lighting situations. There's a reason why projectors aren't popular and it's not because people forget about them. Movies on my OLED TV look incredible, better than a cinema frankly.
smt88 4y ago
> The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet Appallingly, this isn't enough to stop the ads. Many TVs will proactively scan for open networks and connect to them.
- midasuni 4y ago
  Do you have links to blogs that show this happening, I see plenty of hearsay, but I know my LG doesn’t attempt to my honeypot wifi, I’d love to see proof.
  - hedora 4y ago
    Samsung (Dacor) discloses this behavior in their fridge manual; it says it will mesh with Samsung TVs to better target ads. I’m not about to buy a Samsung set to find out what it actually does in practice. The fridge has deep learning object classifiers and internal cameras; I assume that is a big part of its ad targeting capability. Note that the fridge has demand response / energy use time shifting features that don’t work unless it is connected to the internet.
    - wernercd 4y ago
      That's what you get for using a fridge with internet. I thought they were to keep things cold? That requires internet?
      - cassianoleal 4y ago
        There are few things more chilling than certain forums on the Internet.
    - tsukikage 4y ago
      > Samsung (Dacor) discloses this behavior in their fridge manual; it says it will mesh with Samsung TVs to better target ads. ...seriously? ...we collectively did this to ourselves. We live in the science fiction dystopian future we deserve.
tpxl 4y ago
> perhaps in the near future we'll have public wifi or free Google community wifi, and the new firmware will have the smarts to use that and bypass your wifi. Xfinity WiFi has been around for at least 8 years. Amazon sidewalk has been around for over a year. Wanna bet those are or will be used by your smart TV producers to connect them to the internet via wifi?
- tenebrisalietum 4y ago
  What makes me think this will never happen is that - Open Wi-Fi networks are a thing of the past. There hasn't been any around me in a residential area for a long time now. Businesses and workplace lobbies, more likely, though. - No one is going to just give Samsung free Internet except the hapless consumer by supplying Wi-Fi credentials. - Samsung might make a deal with providers, but it would have to have unique credentials embedded in its OS and firmware, and I doubt Samsung has the ability to keep that totally secure. Think about it. If you could get free, anonymous Internet with credentials in a Samsung TV, crackers would be all over that - they'd be searching every crook and nanny for exploits, desoldering NAND and sniffing busses for encryption keys, connecting with Chinese friends to get original datasheets, etc. Even if Samsung embedded an LTE/5G SIM, eSIM, whatever, it would be hacked to bits. "Get model X of samsung TV, get free Internet with this Linux application". It's not realistic for there to be a network connection that you don't know about, pay for, and have your name attached to. Of course the p2p network interface that shows up on the Netflix diagnostic screen is concerning, though. Now if cellular providers start selling TVs, such as AT&T, Verizon, etc. bundling Internet with them, then it can happen.
  - bhelkey 4y ago
    Every TV ships with a unique secret key. Secret keys that are used to do anything other than connect to an Ads server are disabled.
    - PeterisP 4y ago
      Every TV ships with a non-unique secret key and an agreement with some major internet service provider which specifies that accounts using that key will gain network access but only to a specific list of IP addresses that host or proxy firmware updates and advertising content. [edit - to be clear, I'm not saying that this is what Samsung is doing, I'm just describing a plausible way how this might get done]
asdfk-12 4y ago
This is good advice. I kept my 4k Vizio offline until updating the firmware on a whim. The update broke the ability to run 1080p@60hz from my PC, making it effectively useless for normal use. The annoying part about the panel is that it was advertised as 4k but only works at 30hz at that resolution. Cheap, so should have figured.
- WhyNotHugo 4y ago
  Not a TV, but my monitor is 3440x1440. However, it only supports 30Hz at that resolution over HDMI since it has an older HDMI version. It only supports 3440x1400 at 60Hz over DisplayPort. So, if your TV has any other inputs, might want to try those too.
- p1necone 4y ago
  It might be supported but non obvious, some TVs only support 4k60 through one of the HDMI ports. It could also be a cable issue, although I believe the option usually shows up on cables that dont support it and only fails once you try to switch.
  - asdfk-12 4y ago
    New cable, tried both ports. The update was the only x-factor.
    - Melatonic 4y ago
      Try setting a custom resolution on your PC and mess with the settings
- staticman2 4y ago
  I'd check reddit and avsforum.com to see if anyone has encountered that issue with your model and come up with a fix.
- thirdsun 4y ago
  I find that hard to believe. This is most likely an issue with your GPU or cable/port used.
shaboinkin 4y ago
I learned this with my router. I updated the firmware thinking it was the smart thing to do, security fixed and all that, but instead I was greeted with ads for their other products and them wanted to shove their stupid phone app in my face to interact with the router. I then installed OpenWRT and said nuts to using proprietary router firmware.
- EastSmith 4y ago
  I am in a search for Wi-Fi 6 router, can you please name the company I should avoid?
  - fny 4y ago
    Just buy a router that supports OpenWRT.
  - abawany 4y ago
    A low-price option is the Netgear WAX202 that recently got support merged into main. It supports wifi-6 and can be had for as little as $30.
derefr 4y ago
The problem is that we're at a point in the evolution of TVs where robust support for HDMI-CEC (especially in combination with ARC/eARC) isn't guaranteed; but might be something you can get later through a firmware update. When you finally decide to shell out for a sound bar, and after hooking it up, your TV now suddenly takes 30 seconds to flicker to life from sleep, you'll really want that firmware update. (It's similar to where we were ~5 years ago with motherboards and NVMe boot support. The motherboard had the M.2 socket; but whether the NVMe device showed up in the boot options was up to chance. Often it'd only work in legacy mode but not UEFI mode. But, after a few-months-later motherboard firmware update, things would begin to work the way you'd expect.)
sgtnoodle 4y ago
Firmware updates may resolve HDMI compatibilities, though, and in my mind it's always worth the risk even if there's a 10% chance of improvement because HDMI reliability is terrible. When I mounted my TV, I embedded a single HDMI cable, a single cat5e cable, and a single optical cable in the wall. Conduit wasn't an option due to the age and construction of the wall, so changing it would require power tools and drywall mud. I have a sound bar rather than a receiver because it makes my wife happy. The sound bar works best with ARC. Optical works too, but power and volume isn't synchronized. I have an NVIDIA shield mounted behind the TV because the TV's software stack got too lethargic, and the TV's built-in decoder has silicon bugs that break video in Netflix, and break surround sound in everything but Netflix. Surprisingly, everything works reliably about 95% of the time. It's unfortunate that I consider that a win. I just added a 4-1 HDMI splitter with ARC passthrough in order to get a Blu-ray player back in the mix, and it was boring!
- warble 4y ago
  Wow, never once ever had an issue with HDMI, although I only go 4K at most. I never even considered it a possibility.
  - sgtnoodle 4y ago
    This thread has motivated me to try and tackle my current audio drop out problem. Every 5-10 minutes, the audio drops out for a second. I'm currently updating the firmware on my soundbar as a shot in the dark...
    - sgtnoodle 4y ago
      Well, I tried a new HDMI topology and that didn't improve things. I tried intentionally mis-configuring the TV to break ARC but still have CEC power and volume control of my sound bar, but the sound bar still defaults to ARC on power up rather than SPDIF. I've given up on ARC completely in my setup. The Nvidia Shield remote can control sound bar volume via IR. I just successfully watched a full movie without any drop outs. Also, I may be imagining it, but the Shield feels more responsive. It seems like it must be the TV's fault. Don't buy a Sony I guess.
roody15 4y ago
Hmm I like just buying 4k displays with no smart features at all. 65 sceptre works great.. is just a display (does need a sound bar as built in speakers are poor). No need to fight against your device IMO.
- jakeinspace 4y ago
  Sure, but that’s not a very high-end panel. When Samsung and LG make almost all the best panels, it’s tricky to avoid if you aren’t willing to sacrifice picture quality.
  - Melatonic 4y ago
    There are "monitors" even for high end OLEDs I also considered maybe trying to import a TV from the EU - do they have stronger privacy laws that would prevent this? Panasonic makes some VERY nice OLED TV's out of the country
  - fomine3 4y ago
    They sell their best panels to 3rd party. Is 3rd party's best TV available is depending on country.
pseudosavant 4y ago
Obviously most users won't be able to do this, but this is exactly the type of reason I use OpenWRT on my RPi-based router. I have a firewall rule that prevents the TV from communicating with anything in the WAN zone. I can still have the TV on the Wi-Fi and still use features like Airplay. I disable the firewall rule if I want to try updating the TV firmware.
- danielheath 4y ago
  That breaks the built in chromecast, right (since the TV is the one fetching the stream), but I suppose you could plug in a regular chromecast dongle if that matters to you.
  - olyjohn 4y ago
    So... do all that work so that you can send all your shit to Google instead of Samsung?
    - danielheath 4y ago
      Google may well be violating their privacy policy which specifically claims they don't do that, but I don't think it's likely; they run a pretty tight ship RE legal messaging, and _someone would have noticed_ since all you have to do is watch a video on a non-google property and watch the network traffic.
- lifeisstillgood 4y ago
  QQ: how do you replace the ISP router - my cable provider clT out refused to give me the PPP / etc details or I have to go find an RPi with adsl io. I guess I can solve it but any pointers gratefully rec d
  - dn3500 4y ago
    See if your cable modem has a pass-through mode. This disables the NAT, DHCP, etc and passes the IP address of the cable side of the modem through to one of the ethernet jacks. Then you plug your own router in to that and do your own NAT, DHCP, firewall, etc. I know Arris used to have this, haven't checked recently. My current ISP has the cable modem completely locked down. No control over DHCP, no punching service ports through the NAT for home servers. Also they've got me double NATed.
asciimov 4y ago
Sometimes firmware updates are necessary. I've got a Tcl tv that had HDR issues out of the box that were fixed by an updated firmware.
dn3500 4y ago
I had a Panasonic TV about ten years ago that refused to play any content off my home server unless it could talk to its own servers over the internet first.
_8j50 4y ago
I have an untrusted segment of my network I connect my tv to. If I streamed from something else, I would have to put that device also in an untrusted segment and dedicate it to that task but that means more time spent admining a device that no one is paying me to admin.
- brokenmachine 4y ago
  I have my router set to disallow any connection from the TV to WAN. That way I can still use its inbuilt apps to play from my NAS, but it can't talk to outside.
synicalx 4y ago
> the new firmware will have the smarts to use that and bypass your wifi. Easy fix for that - disconnect the antenna wires for whatever your TV is using for wifi.
challenger-derp 4y ago
So far, my experience with Samsung products is that they're really badly put together in my experience. In the past, I've had multiple Samsung Note Smartphones (changed every 2-3 years because they would stop functioning), two Samsung smart TVs (latest one that's still in use is one whose wifi module stopped functioning after a firmware update), and a Samsung 27-inch monitor (unstable connectivity to computer). All the Samsung products were poor experiences one way or another. I've replaced my last Samsung Note with an (my first) iPhone (that has lasted 6-7 years since and is still going!); and replaced the monitor with a Dell one (none of my current or previous Dell & Philips monitors ever gave issues!). Hearing how some Samsung TVs now comes with ads feels like a new low for the user experience. I'm personally avoiding Samsung products until things change.
sethammons 4y ago
I'm stuck in a similar boat. Expensive TV now trying to steel my attention when I turn it on because my 12yo thought they were being helpful by connecting to the internet. Was just thinking about trying a factory reset. 30s of "look at our apps" followed by 30s "update your software." I love the picture quality and HATE the "smart" features.
squiffsquiff 4y ago
This has been discussed previously and one of the major issues is that many devices require internet connectivity to complete initial setup before they can be used.
qzx_pierri 4y ago
A piHole fixed issues I had with my Samsung smart TV. No more ads in the homescreen, and there’s a way to disable analytics deep into the TV’s setting menu.

clouddrover 4y ago

> The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet Once 5G is cheap enough the TVs will come with built-in 5G in order to always be connected.

cpeterso 4y ago
Or a mesh network of TVs. Your TV might not be connected to the internet, but your neighbor’s neighbor’s neighbor’s TV might be!

senectus1 4y ago

I have a fair amount of success just using a pihole to block unwanted behaviour

YeBanKo 4y ago

And that sentiment is soon going to be obsolete, once 5G is everywhere and your smart TV can connect to the internet without asking for your wifi password.

worble 4y ago

>It goes against conventional wisdom Does it? So long as it's not connected to the internet, and generally works, then why would you want to? Whats the risk?

mikestew 4y ago
I stay on top of device firmware updates in order to stay current on security patches, lest bad folks come crawling through the connection. I assume that's the "conventional wisdom" spoken of here. But if the TV never goes anywhere near a network... If it's not a networked device, then the FW update better have enhancements that benefit me, the user, and not Samsung. Otherwise, GTFO with your crab bucket of new bugs.
nsxwolf 4y ago
Firmware updates can bring image quality improvements, hardware compatibility fixes, all sorts of stuff beyond the built-in streaming apps.
- brokenmachine 4y ago
  Aah, the ever-present, nebulous and unlisted "bug fixes and security enhancements". ...oh, and more ads (not mentioned in the changelog). ...and feature removals (not mentioned in the changelog). ...oh, and you can't downgrade (not mentioned in the changelog). Firmware updates are fine, but it should definitely be illegal to not allow a device to be returned by a consumer to the precise functionality it had at the time of purchase. I can't believe people have been brainwashed to accept this as normal.

agilob 4y ago

Why even buy a TV then, why not a PC screen or a projector?

izacus 4y ago
Because those tend to not support features people want from their TV - related to DRM, software, connectivity and form factor.
PreachSoup 4y ago
Because if u want the best oled panel as pc screen, you have to get a tv
sgtfrankieboy 4y ago
Because a 32" monitor is small for a TV? and a projector has tons of downsides? The solution is to buy a commercial TV used in retail environments.
- TacticalCoder 4y ago
  > and a projector has tons of downsides? I'm not so sure. I've been using a projector as a TV for something like four years straight: no TV at home, only a projector. As a bonus the living room becomes a home cinema. I didn't see much downsides. Zero issue. No ads. Cheaper than a TV for a much wider diagonal and a more "cinema'ish" picture too (I hate it when movies look like cheap sitcoms on modern TVs). And as many of these are made to show slides and whatnots in corporate settings, ads are a big no-no. I think more people should seriously consider that option. EDIT: well I remember one issue... I decided to fix it and it took longer than the time it'd have take to hook a TV. But I did it exactly once, used some fishtape to pull HDMI cables in the system ceiling and family was good to go for years.
  - pb7 4y ago
    >I hate it when movies look like cheap sitcoms on modern TVs That has nothing to do with "TVs" in general and more the software smoothing settings that are on by default. Properly configured (takes literally minutes or less one time) using a website like rtings.com for the optimal settings, a TV will look better than a similar quality projector every time, and in greater lighting situations. There's a reason why projectors aren't popular and it's not because people forget about them. Movies on my OLED TV look incredible, better than a cinema frankly.

smt88 4y ago

> The sentiment here on HN is to never connect the TV to the Internet Appallingly, this isn't enough to stop the ads. Many TVs will proactively scan for open networks and connect to them.

midasuni 4y ago
Do you have links to blogs that show this happening, I see plenty of hearsay, but I know my LG doesn’t attempt to my honeypot wifi, I’d love to see proof.
- hedora 4y ago
  Samsung (Dacor) discloses this behavior in their fridge manual; it says it will mesh with Samsung TVs to better target ads. I’m not about to buy a Samsung set to find out what it actually does in practice. The fridge has deep learning object classifiers and internal cameras; I assume that is a big part of its ad targeting capability. Note that the fridge has demand response / energy use time shifting features that don’t work unless it is connected to the internet.
  - wernercd 4y ago
    That's what you get for using a fridge with internet. I thought they were to keep things cold? That requires internet?
    - cassianoleal 4y ago
      There are few things more chilling than certain forums on the Internet.
  - tsukikage 4y ago
    > Samsung (Dacor) discloses this behavior in their fridge manual; it says it will mesh with Samsung TVs to better target ads. ...seriously? ...we collectively did this to ourselves. We live in the science fiction dystopian future we deserve.

tpxl 4y ago

> perhaps in the near future we'll have public wifi or free Google community wifi, and the new firmware will have the smarts to use that and bypass your wifi. Xfinity WiFi has been around for at least 8 years. Amazon sidewalk has been around for over a year. Wanna bet those are or will be used by your smart TV producers to connect them to the internet via wifi?

tenebrisalietum 4y ago
What makes me think this will never happen is that - Open Wi-Fi networks are a thing of the past. There hasn't been any around me in a residential area for a long time now. Businesses and workplace lobbies, more likely, though. - No one is going to just give Samsung free Internet except the hapless consumer by supplying Wi-Fi credentials. - Samsung might make a deal with providers, but it would have to have unique credentials embedded in its OS and firmware, and I doubt Samsung has the ability to keep that totally secure. Think about it. If you could get free, anonymous Internet with credentials in a Samsung TV, crackers would be all over that - they'd be searching every crook and nanny for exploits, desoldering NAND and sniffing busses for encryption keys, connecting with Chinese friends to get original datasheets, etc. Even if Samsung embedded an LTE/5G SIM, eSIM, whatever, it would be hacked to bits. "Get model X of samsung TV, get free Internet with this Linux application". It's not realistic for there to be a network connection that you don't know about, pay for, and have your name attached to. Of course the p2p network interface that shows up on the Netflix diagnostic screen is concerning, though. Now if cellular providers start selling TVs, such as AT&T, Verizon, etc. bundling Internet with them, then it can happen.
- bhelkey 4y ago
  Every TV ships with a unique secret key. Secret keys that are used to do anything other than connect to an Ads server are disabled.
  - PeterisP 4y ago
    Every TV ships with a non-unique secret key and an agreement with some major internet service provider which specifies that accounts using that key will gain network access but only to a specific list of IP addresses that host or proxy firmware updates and advertising content. [edit - to be clear, I'm not saying that this is what Samsung is doing, I'm just describing a plausible way how this might get done]

asdfk-12 4y ago

This is good advice. I kept my 4k Vizio offline until updating the firmware on a whim. The update broke the ability to run 1080p@60hz from my PC, making it effectively useless for normal use. The annoying part about the panel is that it was advertised as 4k but only works at 30hz at that resolution. Cheap, so should have figured.

WhyNotHugo 4y ago
Not a TV, but my monitor is 3440x1440. However, it only supports 30Hz at that resolution over HDMI since it has an older HDMI version. It only supports 3440x1400 at 60Hz over DisplayPort. So, if your TV has any other inputs, might want to try those too.
p1necone 4y ago
It might be supported but non obvious, some TVs only support 4k60 through one of the HDMI ports. It could also be a cable issue, although I believe the option usually shows up on cables that dont support it and only fails once you try to switch.
- asdfk-12 4y ago
  New cable, tried both ports. The update was the only x-factor.
  - Melatonic 4y ago
    Try setting a custom resolution on your PC and mess with the settings
staticman2 4y ago
I'd check reddit and avsforum.com to see if anyone has encountered that issue with your model and come up with a fix.
thirdsun 4y ago
I find that hard to believe. This is most likely an issue with your GPU or cable/port used.

shaboinkin 4y ago

I learned this with my router. I updated the firmware thinking it was the smart thing to do, security fixed and all that, but instead I was greeted with ads for their other products and them wanted to shove their stupid phone app in my face to interact with the router. I then installed OpenWRT and said nuts to using proprietary router firmware.

EastSmith 4y ago
I am in a search for Wi-Fi 6 router, can you please name the company I should avoid?
- fny 4y ago
  Just buy a router that supports OpenWRT.
- abawany 4y ago
  A low-price option is the Netgear WAX202 that recently got support merged into main. It supports wifi-6 and can be had for as little as $30.

derefr 4y ago

The problem is that we're at a point in the evolution of TVs where robust support for HDMI-CEC (especially in combination with ARC/eARC) isn't guaranteed; but might be something you can get later through a firmware update. When you finally decide to shell out for a sound bar, and after hooking it up, your TV now suddenly takes 30 seconds to flicker to life from sleep, you'll really want that firmware update. (It's similar to where we were ~5 years ago with motherboards and NVMe boot support. The motherboard had the M.2 socket; but whether the NVMe device showed up in the boot options was up to chance. Often it'd only work in legacy mode but not UEFI mode. But, after a few-months-later motherboard firmware update, things would begin to work the way you'd expect.)

sgtnoodle 4y ago

Firmware updates may resolve HDMI compatibilities, though, and in my mind it's always worth the risk even if there's a 10% chance of improvement because HDMI reliability is terrible. When I mounted my TV, I embedded a single HDMI cable, a single cat5e cable, and a single optical cable in the wall. Conduit wasn't an option due to the age and construction of the wall, so changing it would require power tools and drywall mud. I have a sound bar rather than a receiver because it makes my wife happy. The sound bar works best with ARC. Optical works too, but power and volume isn't synchronized. I have an NVIDIA shield mounted behind the TV because the TV's software stack got too lethargic, and the TV's built-in decoder has silicon bugs that break video in Netflix, and break surround sound in everything but Netflix. Surprisingly, everything works reliably about 95% of the time. It's unfortunate that I consider that a win. I just added a 4-1 HDMI splitter with ARC passthrough in order to get a Blu-ray player back in the mix, and it was boring!

warble 4y ago
Wow, never once ever had an issue with HDMI, although I only go 4K at most. I never even considered it a possibility.
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  This thread has motivated me to try and tackle my current audio drop out problem. Every 5-10 minutes, the audio drops out for a second. I'm currently updating the firmware on my soundbar as a shot in the dark...
  - sgtnoodle 4y ago
    Well, I tried a new HDMI topology and that didn't improve things. I tried intentionally mis-configuring the TV to break ARC but still have CEC power and volume control of my sound bar, but the sound bar still defaults to ARC on power up rather than SPDIF. I've given up on ARC completely in my setup. The Nvidia Shield remote can control sound bar volume via IR. I just successfully watched a full movie without any drop outs. Also, I may be imagining it, but the Shield feels more responsive. It seems like it must be the TV's fault. Don't buy a Sony I guess.

roody15 4y ago

Hmm I like just buying 4k displays with no smart features at all. 65 sceptre works great.. is just a display (does need a sound bar as built in speakers are poor). No need to fight against your device IMO.

jakeinspace 4y ago
Sure, but that’s not a very high-end panel. When Samsung and LG make almost all the best panels, it’s tricky to avoid if you aren’t willing to sacrifice picture quality.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  There are "monitors" even for high end OLEDs I also considered maybe trying to import a TV from the EU - do they have stronger privacy laws that would prevent this? Panasonic makes some VERY nice OLED TV's out of the country
- fomine3 4y ago
  They sell their best panels to 3rd party. Is 3rd party's best TV available is depending on country.

pseudosavant 4y ago

Obviously most users won't be able to do this, but this is exactly the type of reason I use OpenWRT on my RPi-based router. I have a firewall rule that prevents the TV from communicating with anything in the WAN zone. I can still have the TV on the Wi-Fi and still use features like Airplay. I disable the firewall rule if I want to try updating the TV firmware.

danielheath 4y ago
That breaks the built in chromecast, right (since the TV is the one fetching the stream), but I suppose you could plug in a regular chromecast dongle if that matters to you.
- olyjohn 4y ago
  So... do all that work so that you can send all your shit to Google instead of Samsung?
  - danielheath 4y ago
    Google may well be violating their privacy policy which specifically claims they don't do that, but I don't think it's likely; they run a pretty tight ship RE legal messaging, and _someone would have noticed_ since all you have to do is watch a video on a non-google property and watch the network traffic.
lifeisstillgood 4y ago
QQ: how do you replace the ISP router - my cable provider clT out refused to give me the PPP / etc details or I have to go find an RPi with adsl io. I guess I can solve it but any pointers gratefully rec d
- dn3500 4y ago
  See if your cable modem has a pass-through mode. This disables the NAT, DHCP, etc and passes the IP address of the cable side of the modem through to one of the ethernet jacks. Then you plug your own router in to that and do your own NAT, DHCP, firewall, etc. I know Arris used to have this, haven't checked recently. My current ISP has the cable modem completely locked down. No control over DHCP, no punching service ports through the NAT for home servers. Also they've got me double NATed.

asciimov 4y ago

Sometimes firmware updates are necessary. I've got a Tcl tv that had HDR issues out of the box that were fixed by an updated firmware.

dn3500 4y ago

I had a Panasonic TV about ten years ago that refused to play any content off my home server unless it could talk to its own servers over the internet first.

_8j50 4y ago

I have an untrusted segment of my network I connect my tv to. If I streamed from something else, I would have to put that device also in an untrusted segment and dedicate it to that task but that means more time spent admining a device that no one is paying me to admin.

brokenmachine 4y ago
I have my router set to disallow any connection from the TV to WAN. That way I can still use its inbuilt apps to play from my NAS, but it can't talk to outside.

synicalx 4y ago

> the new firmware will have the smarts to use that and bypass your wifi. Easy fix for that - disconnect the antenna wires for whatever your TV is using for wifi.

challenger-derp 4y ago

So far, my experience with Samsung products is that they're really badly put together in my experience. In the past, I've had multiple Samsung Note Smartphones (changed every 2-3 years because they would stop functioning), two Samsung smart TVs (latest one that's still in use is one whose wifi module stopped functioning after a firmware update), and a Samsung 27-inch monitor (unstable connectivity to computer). All the Samsung products were poor experiences one way or another. I've replaced my last Samsung Note with an (my first) iPhone (that has lasted 6-7 years since and is still going!); and replaced the monitor with a Dell one (none of my current or previous Dell & Philips monitors ever gave issues!). Hearing how some Samsung TVs now comes with ads feels like a new low for the user experience. I'm personally avoiding Samsung products until things change.

sethammons 4y ago

I'm stuck in a similar boat. Expensive TV now trying to steel my attention when I turn it on because my 12yo thought they were being helpful by connecting to the internet. Was just thinking about trying a factory reset. 30s of "look at our apps" followed by 30s "update your software." I love the picture quality and HATE the "smart" features.

squiffsquiff 4y ago

This has been discussed previously and one of the major issues is that many devices require internet connectivity to complete initial setup before they can be used.

qzx_pierri 4y ago

A piHole fixed issues I had with my Samsung smart TV. No more ads in the homescreen, and there’s a way to disable analytics deep into the TV’s setting menu.