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allthetime | on: Root shell on Samsung TV
an aside. I'm visiting my wife's parents and they have a new samsung TV. the remote doesn't even have an input selection button on it anymore. the default state of the tv pushes you to a big complicated home screen covered in ads and always pushing you towards their streaming live TV.

they like most poeople have a cable box plugged in, but every time the tv is switched off, the default behaviour of the tv is to forget what input it was on and goes back to the home screen where you have to use a convoluted set of button presses to get back to a non-samsung, non-app device.

You can switch this off somewhere in the settings, something they would never figure out on their own, so that it re-opens on the last selected input. I did this in the past, but then it seems an OS update wiped out all the settings, including the one that makes their cable remote work with the TV.

there is now no doubt that the TV is made to function primarily as an ad-delivery machine with explicit dark patterns built in for the task. I did them one more favour and reset their ad id and unchecked all the consent boxes on the privacy terms pages

going forward anyone who cares about their choice and privacy should not allow their TV to connect to a network at all and simply use it as a dumb link to their devices of choice, or ideally, find a better company to buy from, if that exists.

y-c-o-m-b | parent | next
My CPAP machine has a modem in it that transmits data without ever being connected to my network. I can see a future where Samsung decides to do something similar. Perhaps even contracts with Starlink so they can transmit even larger chunks of real-time data. It makes me sick to think about that possibility, but I don't think it's far-fetched.
shdjhdfh | root | parent | next
I doubt any TV company will ever do this, for two reasons. The first is simply that it would be obvious due to FCC filings. The second is that 99% of their customers hook their TV up to the internet so they can use streaming apps on their TV. They're very unlikely to eat the cost of putting a cellular model in every TV, take the PR hit for doing so, simply to capture the ACR data of the 1% of their customer base that is most likely to figure out another way to disable it.

Whereas your CPAP machine is likely a high margin device and the reason it has that modem is because insurance companies require compliance data in order to continue providing coverage for replacement supplies. Resmed or whoever is happy to bundle in the cost of the modem + service in order to keep selling high margin supplies.

Fnoord | root | parent | next
Starlink? So I guess the TV cannot be used to harm Russian citizens :>

In that case we find where the antennas are and sabotage them. Aluminium foil around your TV (it can just be covered in for example plastic or black paper), or in/around walls.

pixl97 | root | parent
"SAMSUNG ERROR 306, TV will not unlock until you give it a clear connection to starlink"

Just another line in our "Please drink verification can world".

Also reminds me of the TVs that eventually crashed by collecting to much data but having no internet connection to upload it so it fills up the disk.

Gigachad | root | parent
I bought a Xgimi projector and it would not let me do anything until I connected it to the internet and logged in to a Google account.
randycupertino | parent | next
> the default state of the tv pushes you to a big complicated home screen covered in ads and always pushing you towards their streaming live TV.

Audible does this now too. Instead of opening up to your library and your books on default it opens to an obnoxious home screen that promotes Prince Harry and Kara Swisher's books. It's so annoying. I'm not in the market for Prince Harry's book and I will never be in the market for Prince Harry's book, stop shoving his face at me all the time. I wish we could block certain authors and books from showing up in our ads constantly but there is no way to do it!

shepherdjerred | parent
Samsungs interface is godawful.

TVs once had a simple input button on the controller. Now there’s just the Home Screen that you described. It’s very confusing to use

hamburglar | root | parent | next
The real galling thing that my newest samsung tv started doing on the last update is that it doesn't even start out on the "Media" tab of the home screen. The number one thing I want to do with my TV is now an afterthought. It's left-down-down, click before I even get to do TV stuff with my TV (and of course, after that, I have to wade through the samsung shovelware in order to get to the 2 streaming things I actually use). I saw an "alternate home screen for your samsung tv" project on here a couple days ago and I'm definitely going to check it out when I have an afternoon to curse at samsung.

The part that is really interesting to me is that they seem to be desperately trying to get me comfortable with some kind of "It's not TV, it's Samsung TV" attitude, when what they're actually accomplishing is convincing me that TV just sucks now and it makes me loathe Samsung. It's as if they hired a guy to sit next to me on the couch and every once in a while, he pokes me with a sharp stick and yells "SAMSUNG!"

SoftTalker | root | parent
Screens and menus are cheaper than remotes and buttons.
shepherdjerred | root | parent
I'm talking about the remote and buttons. Samsung's remote is just obscenely bad.

https://p.kagi.com/proxy/51BpdDH3e2L.jpg?c=CXPfL3-FqybbvZNQU...

there is not a button to change inputs. You have to go to a home screen and the inputs are commingled with other options like streaming apps.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Replacement-2019-2024-Solarce...

and of course they 'intelligently' hide inactive inputs