Gets an update a couple of years in to fix some bugs.
Gets second update on year 5 to add ads in all menus.
Gets a third update on year 6 to add a nag banner saying it isn’t going to work anymore soon with a discount code for a new Samsung TV.
Gets a fourth update on year 7 on the backend to disable Samsung account access from the TV but on the front end of the TV making Samsung account access mandatory to use the TV.
They could offer 20 years of updates, and I still wouldn’t give it internet access.
I have connected my TV to the Internet a few times just to update the firmware. Then I turned it right back off again. Not sure if this was actually a great call or not, but I couldn’t help myself. Probably should’ve checked to see if I could do it with a USB drive at least lol.
Genuinely curious, what new features did that updated firmware have that were valuable to you?
At least on my TV, I’ve had firmware updates enable things like variable refresh rate, enable 4K/120Hz, improve the dynamic contrast performance, and fix a couple of weird bugs it had shipped with.
What they’re saying: “we promise to support your device for seven years! Isn’t that great!”
What they mean: “We promise to keep our spying/data gathering/ad serving updated to the latest spying/gathering/ad tech to extract as much data and money as we can.”
(I 100% didn’t read this article and am 100% taking the piss on these shitty companies spying on us and manipulating us)
Oh thank goodness! I would hate to have some hackers invade my television set and my viewing habits be pwned by somebody … Besides Samsung I mean… or anyone who might be willing to pay Samsung.
A baby step in the right direction.
Why should a TV ever need updates? Does anyone still make good “dumb” TVs that don’t want/need an internet connection?
Does anyone still make good “dumb” TVs that don’t want/need an internet connection?
No. Ad revenue offsets the cost of TVs. That’s why they’ve become so cheap. Very few people would pay the extra cash for TVs without it so they don’t manufacture them.
Easy solution: buy an external whatever and never connect it to the internet. HDMI-CEC means it will turn on and auto switch the input to whatever device turned on.
Askin’ the real questions here… average answer i’ve seen is Buy a monitor instead.
I believe the search term you seek may be “commercial signage display”
I wanted a dumb tv. I was so sick of looking, I just got a 27" gaming monitor with 2k resolution for $150.
You can also get a 32" 4K monitor for like $500 but I didn’t really need that.
Haha, look how proudly she is gesturing towards the ads :D
Maybe I’m just jaded, but I feel like they are doing this to maximize how long they have to inject ads and unnecessary features that track our data into our lives. My TV is not connected to the internet.
Will it shut down after the seven years, telling you that the software running on the TV is “no longer supported”?
All in the name of your security of course :)
I am doing this for your own good, boy
Sure daddy 🤡
when i was growing up we had a thirty year old television that worked fine
Nice. Now make a TV that doesn’t need updates. Hint: Drop the internet connection.
Gonna keep it real with you chief. TVs should have never needed updates.
I’m going to agree with you 100% but offer an anecdote, my lg tv has an hdmi 2.0 port but didn’t support Dolby vision at 120 hz out of the box. After an update, it now supports it. Should LG have had that ready to go by the time of manufacture ? Maybe. With design and manufacturing timelines maybe the spec wasn’t ready to implement by the time needed. Is Samsung going to use this to enshitify the tv? Maybe. But the time from design, to manufacture, to retail is such a long process there are cases where a feature update can be justified
I’ll never buy another Samsung TV. I bought a top of the line LCD/LED TV in late 2020 and it had so many weird issues:
It had frame rate issues with some streaming devices. It was widely reported as an issue in the Samsung forums, but it was never fixed.
The interface wasn’t user friendly, taking many many more button presses to switch Inputs than any other TV I’ve had.
The grid of LEDs that were supposed to turn on and off to help make dark spots darker ended up being distracting, you could clearly see when one or two of the LEDs turned on, causing an area to get highlighted by comparison.
Nope, never again, I bought an nice LG OLED and it’s great, build quality, UI, responsiveness, picture quality.
Okay cool. But can they be user serviceable, repairable and/ or dumb, as in not connected to WiFi. I’d much rather just connect my Xbox, Kodi box, jellyfin or PC to my TV and use those to access my media, rather than do it on the TV. Can we bring back pretty, dumb, repairable TVs? Please and Thank you.
I’d love standarized modules to unscrew and separate the “smart” part just like a desktop pc can. If they want to shove in that shit, then at least make me able to pull them out.
