Samsung can now remotely brick your TV

[Bud]

In what appears to be the first precedent of this kind, Samsung has activated the remote kill switch on their TVs to disable the TVs looted from their distribution center in South Africa. 

https://news.samsung.com/za/samsung-supports-retailers-affected-by-looting-with-innovative-television-block-function

TV Block is a security solution that detects if Samsung TV units have been unlawfully activated, and ensures that the television sets can only be used by the rightful owners with a valid proof of purchase. ... This technology is already pre-loaded on all Samsung TV products.

Guess we should expect this practice to become wide spread in general.

[eti]

Well that’s good then, as it’s a valuable lesson in learning which utter crap mongers to avoid.

Any AV consultant that knows what is what will advise to keep the “smart” part of your setup external to the tv - and Roku wins. Keep Samsung and their SHITE out of your house, keep your TV dumb, and use a box.

Anyone knows that. I wouldn’t buy a Samsung ANYTHING, EVER. We have a 14 year old LESS than 720p Panasonic plasma, never once missed a beat, and it’s dumb and glorious.


Back to the story you linked - these are STOLEN ITEMS - end of story. Who would to steal Samsung turd is beyond me, but nevertheless, there’s no recourse for ILLEGAL, STOLEN AND IMMORALLY sourced goods.

Apple do the same with their products
It’s a good idea.

Who cares.

[NiHaoMike]

Any AV consultant that knows what is what will advise to keep the “smart” part of your setup external to the tv - and Roku wins. Keep Samsung and their SHITE out of your house, keep your TV dumb, and use a box.

From what I read, Roku is almost as bad as the built in smart features nowadays. I would say go with a PC for great graphics, or a Raspberry Pi for a super budget option.

[Berni]

Why would anyone steal a Samsung product?
So far out of all the TV brands i was hand on with the best was Samsung. They power on/off within a second or two, the menus are fast and responsive, the remotes are nice small, ergonomic and don't have a pile of unnecessary buttons, the menu are structured in a nice logical way... etc

The shittiest TV brand i used is Phillips. The thing is as slow as molasses.

As for the smart features on TVs they indeed always ware utter crap, better to use an external box for it(I use a PC myself and love it). But with the new TVs the smart features are actually getting to being something usable.  They are now capable of rendering a modern bloated web page in seconds rather than like half a minute( and not even rendering correctly), the various apps like youtube are now fully featured and no longer so slow that you loose your mind. This is probably mostly from stuffing in some of the Android technology and its spinoffs. But this does mean that yes in 10 years the smart functionalities on that TV are going to be useless.

First time i hear they can remotely brick a TV tho. I don't have any problem with that since it was stolen after all. I would assume Samsung has the common sense to not start randomly bricking TVs in order to generate more sales. That would be a massive blow to there reputation once it gets found out.

[AaronLee]

Don't some smartphones have the ability to be bricked if they've been stolen? There's lots of things that can be disabled/made worthless if determined stolen or otherwise compromised. If a large amount of money is stolen and the serial numbers were recorded in advance, if the notes turned up they'd not be honored, but the police called. All sorts of other items with serial numbers, if stolen, likewise can not be honored if a system is in place, such as tickets, gift certificates, etc. Some cars can be disabled if stolen. Years ago, when car audio systems were becoming a popular item for thieves, I remember some higher end models would automatically be bricked if they were removed. Nothing really new here, as far as I'm concerned, other than it's good if even more items are getting anti-theft measures added.

[james_s]

Frankly this seems like a good idea, provided it is only used when something is stolen. If they brick a TV that somebody legitimately owns let me know and I'll be upset, but if it's stolen property then a person is not entitled to make use of it. I have absolutely zero sympathy for looters and thieves and I support anything that makes it harder for them to enjoy their ill gotten gains. People won't steal stuff as often if they know they won't be able to use it.

[eti]

Why would anyone steal a Samsung product?
So far out of all the TV brands i was hand on with the best was Samsung. They power on/off within a second or two, the menus are fast and responsive, the remotes are nice small, ergonomic and don't have a pile of unnecessary buttons, the menu are structured in a nice logical way... etc

The shittiest TV brand i used is Phillips. The thing is as slow as molasses.

As for the smart features on TVs they indeed always ware utter crap, better to use an external box for it(I use a PC myself and love it). But with the new TVs the smart features are actually getting to being something usable.  They are now capable of rendering a modern bloated web page in seconds rather than like half a minute( and not even rendering correctly), the various apps like youtube are now fully featured and no longer so slow that you loose your mind. This is probably mostly from stuffing in some of the Android technology and its spinoffs. But this does mean that yes in 10 years the smart functionalities on that TV are going to be useless.

First time i hear they can remotely brick a TV tho. I don't have any problem with that since it was stolen after all. I would assume Samsung has the common sense to not start randomly bricking TVs in order to generate more sales. That would be a massive blow to there reputation once it gets found out.

I would delegate this to those with more everyday experience, aka "AVS forums" - they know this stuff inside out,. back to front, upside down etc - this is their bread and butter. The "smart" TV manufacturers are NOTORIOUS for abandoning their shitty products - these sets are NOT their main and/or sole interest, and thus, they have ZERO interest in keeping them patched/supported, just as with the gangantuan array of TRASH Android handsets. They care about repeat sales, not repeat updates for older machines. My 2015 Roku is STILL receiving the latest OS updates, I check it once every 6 months, and the same cannot be said for the JUNK "smart" TVs.

This is a fact - I've done HUGE amounts of research on this, not to mention listening to Scott Wilkison of the aforementioned "AVS forums" talking LIVE on a Saturday evening via "The Tech Guy" from http://live.twit.tv - and you can multiply that by however many (5+ I reckon) years, and X amount of hours I've heard him and other ACTUAL industry experts discussing these subjects, and taking calls from consumers.

External TV box ALWAYS WINS, irrefutable fact.

[james_s]

So far out of all the TV brands i was hand on with the best was Samsung. They power on/off within a second or two, the menus are fast and responsive, the remotes are nice small, ergonomic and don't have a pile of unnecessary buttons, the menu are structured in a nice logical way... etc

Likewise my TV is also a Samsung, it's great, for all the reasons you mention. Ok it was broken when I got it (for free) but I fixed it 6 years ago and haven't had a single problem with it since then. In my experience Samsung makes some of the best TVs on the market. I don't like "smart" TVs of any brand but since I have a nice Raspberry Pi based streaming player I don't really care. If I ever own a smart TV it will never get connected to the internet anyway.

[eti]

Why would anyone steal a Samsung product?
So far out of all the TV brands i was hand on with the best was Samsung. They power on/off within a second or two, the menus are fast and responsive, the remotes are nice small, ergonomic and don't have a pile of unnecessary buttons, the menu are structured in a nice logical way... etc

The shittiest TV brand i used is Phillips. The thing is as slow as molasses.

As for the smart features on TVs they indeed always ware utter crap, better to use an external box for it(I use a PC myself and love it). But with the new TVs the smart features are actually getting to being something usable.  They are now capable of rendering a modern bloated web page in seconds rather than like half a minute( and not even rendering correctly), the various apps like youtube are now fully featured and no longer so slow that you loose your mind. This is probably mostly from stuffing in some of the Android technology and its spinoffs. But this does mean that yes in 10 years the smart functionalities on that TV are going to be useless.

First time i hear they can remotely brick a TV tho. I don't have any problem with that since it was stolen after all. I would assume Samsung has the common sense to not start randomly bricking TVs in order to generate more sales. That would be a massive blow to there reputation once it gets found out.

If the best you can say is that you find Samsung the best of all that you've tried, then wowee... you must have REALLY REALLLLLLLLLLLY been scraping the barrel! 

My mate was given a 4 year old Sammy TV, and the little plastic diffuser domes that sit atop the LED backlit array grid, would randomly FALL OFF, due to the TINY dabs of adhesive used to stick them over the LEDs. It's a known issue.

As for anyone referring to R/Pi as a "solution" for streaming - lest we forget that about 0.0000000001% of ACTUAL consumers would do that - let's not make obscure comparisons to reality.



In the old days, NORMAL stuff was made well and LASTED. Now, the "normal" stuff is generic SHITE, and the not QUITE so shite, more expensive stuff is branded as "premium". People are dumb, and they are EASILY SOLD. The world is a mess, and who cares? Not many.

[james_s]

If the best you can say is that you find Samsung the best of all that you've tried, then wowee... you must have REALLY REALLLLLLLLLLLY been scraping the barrel! 

Are you drunk? Or are you just completely lacking any kind of social skills whatsoever? Every once in a while I click to view one of these blocked posts and every time I regret wasting my time. You must think you're sooooo smart and enlightened, congratulations, have a gold star. Maybe some day I'll learn. 

[eti]

If the best you can say is that you find Samsung the best of all that you've tried, then wowee... you must have REALLY REALLLLLLLLLLLY been scraping the barrel! 

Are you drunk? Or are you just completely lacking any kind of social skills whatsoever? Every once in a while I click to view one of these blocked posts and every time I regret wasting my time. You must think you're sooooo smart and enlightened, congratulations, have a gold star. Maybe some day I'll learn. 

I was brought up not to take what wasn't mine: you have TAKEN offence, and it doesn't belong to you. Why would you do that? My views are none of your concern, and I have free will and the right to express them. I apologise that you're so easily disturbed by inoffensive views on technology, esp ones that LACK personal attacks or insults (a weak stance in any debate)

I've forwarded your concerns to the relevant team @ /dev/null; please expect a response within 24-48hrs. Have a superb week.

[EEVblog]

I've forwarded your concerns to the relevant team

Please don't. It's a technical forum full of opinioned engineers, chill out.

[eti]

I've forwarded your concerns to the relevant team

Please don't. It's a technical forum full of opinioned engineers, chill out.

I am sufficiently refrigerated - hehe - the "relevant team" is located at /dev/null (the same provider of "support" that r/pi forums subscribe to) - yes, we certainly can be an opinionated lot, but I do not seek to do so, and have to bite my tongue A LOT when surrounded by so many angry old men, haha!

[Simon]

The cost of theft is generally bourn by all the other consumers one way or another. Why people don't like connecting a TV to the internet I don't know, it's just another computer like the one on your desk or in your pocket.

I don't do TV anyway, I have a 43" 4k monitors I can plug any of my devices into without having to set yet another one up and as the most I do is watch films have no use for a TV as such. The only reason I would use such a sized screen is to have many people see the same content, when on my own either of my 27" 4k monitors already attached to my computer that use much less power are perfectly adequate.

[Ranayna]

Why people don't like connecting a TV to the internet I don't know, it's just another computer like the one on your desk or in your pocket.

Because most of the time it is a quite crappy, often outdated and slow computer, whose main purpose seems to be displaying ads.

My current TV is now i think more than 15 years old. Not even Full HD, but also no smarts in sight. I honestly dread the day it dies, while i would appreciate a higher resolution screen, i do not want to have to deal with a smart TV.

[AaronLee]

Why people don't like connecting a TV to the internet I don't know, it's just another computer like the one on your desk or in your pocket.

Because most of the time it is a quite crappy, often outdated and slow computer, whose main purpose seems to be displaying ads.

My current TV is now i think more than 15 years old. Not even Full HD, but also no smarts in sight. I honestly dread the day it dies, while i would appreciate a higher resolution screen, i do not want to have to deal with a smart TV.

Do you mean they don't sell non-smart TVs anymore? I wouldn't know because I'm with Simon, and I don't even own a TV nor have researched the current TV market for a very long time. TVs don't make for good computer monitors, so the only TV-like devices I buy are real computer monitors.

[eti]

Samsung have been investigated for watching people in their homes via the internal camera on some of their TVs. Yeah so no privacy issues there hey. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Blissful to live in ignorance.

[Ranayna]

Do you mean they don't sell non-smart TVs anymore? I wouldn't know because I'm with Simon, and I don't even own a TV nor have researched the current TV market for a very long time. TVs don't make for good computer monitors, so the only TV-like devices I buy are real computer monitors.

If a TV for you has some kind of integrated tuner, then no, i do not think that many non-smart TVs are made anymore. At least not in the common consumer brands.
If you can live with an external device to provide signal, then indeed monitors are a decent substitution, but those get expensive when you want large sizes and stuff like OLED screens.
Other than that, there are sometimes also Devices like Information Displays though. Many of these use TV panels, but lack all the smarts. Paradoxically, these are sometimes more expensive than the equivalent TV

[AaronLee]

As for anyone referring to R/Pi as a "solution" for streaming - lest we forget that about 0.0000000001% of ACTUAL consumers would do that - let's not make obscure comparisons to reality.

Perhaps math isn't your strong suit. 0.0000000001% of the world population is 0.008 persons, with the number of actual consumers naturally being even less than that. So a total impossibility to even consider that. And yes, I understand the concept of an exaggeration, but making up a number like that is way beyond the point of being just an exaggeration, to the point of being ridiculously absurd, especially when you're talking about "reality".

[AaronLee]

Samsung have been investigated for watching people in their homes via the internal camera on some of their TVs. Yeah so no privacy issues there hey. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Blissful to live in ignorance.

Link please. I did a search and found some reports of data being sent from their TVs, but nothing about video from the internal camera, which would be a whole other level.

[AaronLee]

Do you mean they don't sell non-smart TVs anymore? I wouldn't know because I'm with Simon, and I don't even own a TV nor have researched the current TV market for a very long time. TVs don't make for good computer monitors, so the only TV-like devices I buy are real computer monitors.

If a TV for you has some kind of integrated tuner, then no, i do not think that many non-smart TVs are made anymore. At least not in the common consumer brands.
If you can live with an external device to provide signal, then indeed monitors are a decent substitution, but those get expensive when you want large sizes and stuff like OLED screens.
Other than that, there are sometimes also Devices like Information Displays though. Many of these use TV panels, but lack all the smarts. Paradoxically, these are sometimes more expensive than the equivalent TV

Yes, a real monitor only can be much more expensive than an equivalent size TV. But the quality of the picture is also much better, at least for all cases I've checked. For low-res needs, or viewing from a distance, an large screen TV might be fine. For up close high-res needs, TVs used as monitors are crap, unless there's some I've not seen.

[tom66]

Apple do this too, on phones stolen from Apple stores.

[tom66]

Yes, a real monitor only can be much more expensive than an equivalent size TV. But the quality of the picture is also much better, at least for all cases I've checked. For low-res needs, or viewing from a distance, an large screen TV might be fine. For up close high-res needs, TVs used as monitors are crap, unless there's some I've not seen.

It's cheaper to buy 4K TV's nowadays than 4K monitors.
I personally have 2 x 28" 4K monitors, and they're great.  But they cost £400 in total new (which was very cheap, they are now more expensive due to the silicon shortage, last I checked.)
A 48" 4K TV would cost about the same and offers more screen area, although less total pixels.

I know a 3D CAD mechanical designer who has a 39" 4K TV as his main desktop display and has it partitioned into 2/3 displays as needed.

[PKTKS]

(..)
I would delegate this to those with more everyday experience, aka "AVS forums" - they know this stuff inside out,. back to front, upside down etc - this is their bread and butter. The "smart" TV manufacturers are NOTORIOUS for abandoning their shitty products - these sets are NOT their main and/or sole interest, and thus, they have ZERO interest in keeping them patched/supported, just as with the gangantuan array of TRASH Android handsets. They care about repeat sales, not repeat updates for older machines. My 2015 Roku is STILL receiving the latest OS updates, I check it once every 6 months, and the same cannot be said for the JUNK "smart" TVs.
(..)

Nope  for quite some time it has been impossible to dissociate things as they was..

Audiophile HIFI days -GONE
AV integrated SHITE - GONE
Video standards - GONE

the list goes on

Presently the cost of these "SMART" gizmos boils down 75% to 85% just onto the PANEL.
Those who manufacture the PANELS are making money...

The rest of the stack is IP property piling like nuts

All things converged and blurred to 2 or 3 brands which detain the vertical stack
AMD/ATI  NV/ARM and the whole ecosystem around ANDROID TYZEN  and smart gizmos made from what once upon a time was open software..

Apple gizmos are not very  much different.
Piling the whole stack into silicon will be the next step..

They won't be repairable..
They won't be open in any terms .

Vendors will obsolete that shit at will at insane rate..
We urge need to get rid of these trends...

They are already at pace.
Software can do much more damage into our lives than old style hardware locks

Paul

[Berni]

I would delegate this to those with more everyday experience, aka "AVS forums" - they know this stuff inside out,. back to front, upside down etc - this is their bread and butter. The "smart" TV manufacturers are NOTORIOUS for abandoning their shitty products - these sets are NOT their main and/or sole interest, and thus, they have ZERO interest in keeping them patched/supported, just as with the gangantuan array of TRASH Android handsets. They care about repeat sales, not repeat updates for older machines. My 2015 Roku is STILL receiving the latest OS updates, I check it once every 6 months, and the same cannot be said for the JUNK "smart" TVs.

This is a fact - I've done HUGE amounts of research on this, not to mention listening to Scott Wilkison of the aforementioned "AVS forums" talking LIVE on a Saturday evening via "The Tech Guy" from http://live.twit.tv - and you can multiply that by however many (5+ I reckon) years, and X amount of hours I've heard him and other ACTUAL industry experts discussing these subjects, and taking calls from consumers.

External TV box ALWAYS WINS, irrefutable fact.

I did mention in my post that any smart functionality in that TV is going to be completely unusable after 10 years. Since yes they abandon firmware development and move on to a new TV model.

This is why i also said in my post that we have a PC connected to the TV. I actually don't even remember when the tuner inside the TV was even used. Its basically always being used as a huge HDMI monitor, not even the internal speakers are used because there is a separate 5.1 system. So for my use case all i need is the dumbest possible TV that can display 1080p from HDMI.

However i KNOW that my use case is not identical to the use case of my neighbor or my neighbors neighbor. Some people like using the smart TV functionalities. Or sometimes i myself find them convenient if i am traveling and happen to have a smart TV in my apartment/hotel/whatever. Out of those that i used i had a pretty good experience with Samsung ones. I haven't used every single brand to know for sure, but i found using it a pleasant experience with Samsung. It was fast and responsive while i could quickly intuitively figure out how the menus work, no notable frustration in using it.

Just because you personalty don't have a use for something this doesn't mean that nobody else has.