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Samsung can now remotely brick your TV
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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


--- Quote ---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.
--- End quote ---

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:

--- Quote from: eti on September 09, 2021, 04:47:18 am ---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.

--- End quote ---
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.
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