this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Does it bother anyone else to pay for all that "smartness" and then figure out how NOT to use it?
How can consumers fight back against this bullshit?
You aren’t paying for the smartness. You are actually getting a subsidized TV that should cost a whole lot more but is being sold for cheap since it is also a data collection device.
Non smart TVs are more expensive than their smart counterparts.
The only answer is to never give your smart tv access to your network and to use an external device for streaming.
This is exactly what I do, my TV never connects to my network.
You’re right. What you really need is a tv that reacts less bad to being online. It’s a shame Logitech killed the Harmony because dumbing down your tv successfully generally requires a universal remote.
As a long time Harmony user, expert, and former employee .... The Sofabaton remotes are the closest substitute I've found. Easy to configure and use. Just no "activities" like a Harmony. But at least you can set it to control the volume on X device when you have it in the mode to control Y device.
Activities are the killer app of Harmony. How do you set it to switch inputs on the various devices?
It has a physical scroll wheel to switch between devices. The on each device mode you can customize the buttons.
I use configure one of the buttons to be a hot key to set the TVs input for the device I have selected.
Again, it's not as automated as an activity, but it eliminates switching around to different devices and finding inputs.
In our case we have some devices connected to a receiver (Apple TV) and others to TV (game systems). We use ARC for audio for those devices. I suppose it’s easier if everything is connected to TV for that purpose.
Not really. All the extra circuitry costs money. Building and maintaining the software costs money. And that's way more than you're expected to "earn".
As much as it fuels your conspiracy boners, it's not like Samsung is raking in billions by showing you ads.
If you want to discuss this topic further, I’d be happy to. But not if you’re going to causally throw around insults.
You don’t know anything about me or my work experience.
Throwing around insults is not helpful, but neither is "trust me bro".
Where was the trust me bro part in his response?
OP literally said to not assume what he did or didnt???
I just did some searching around and found out that smart tv with the same specs as dum tv is cheeper.
That's the neat thing: I don't need to.
If you're just parroting the same narrative without any basis like anybody else and also use the same narratives, I can safely assume that unless proven otherwise, you don't know what you're talking about.
Username checks out
Thanks for confirming my original response to you.
Vizio makes twice as much profit from those ads and tracking services than the actual TVs:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/10/22773073/vizio-acr-advertising-inscape-data-privacy-q3-2021
Do you think that Facebook doesn’t cost money to build or run?
A crappy years-old ARM-powered smartphone SOC stuck inside a TV costs next to nothing.
It bothers me a LOT!
Especially when I don't even use the smart shit, basically use it as a glorified monitor and the thing pops up a message "Our terms and conditions have changed". I cannot use my fucking TV till I accept the new terms and if I refuse, the TV just turns off.
It's such bullshit! I own the TV, how can you change the terms and conditions after the fact? Can I change the terms and conditions? I know I paid $1000 for this TV, but I changed my mind, can you please give me back 250$. I altered the deal, pray I don't alter it any further.
Same with my goddamned piece of shit phone. Here is a new software version, it will remove 3 features you love and use every day, drains your battery twice as fast and makes the whole thing slow. You can maybe hack shit till it doesn't update automatically and only occasionally bugs you about it. But then you don't get any security updates or compatibility fixes, so that's not really a good option either. So you buy a new device every 2 years, even though it was perfectly fine.
I know the EU is working on it, but I can't wait for the day manufacturers are forced to provide at least 5-7 years of security/compatibility updates for devices, without also bundling feature updates. And be legally bound to the terms and conditions at the moment of sale, no changing the deal after it's done.
Weird, the new ToC just says "I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further."
The only solace I can offer is that I think most TOS have been deemed unenforceable since literarily no-one reads that shit.
Somone correct me if I'm wrong please.
Don't give it internet access and it can't get new terms and services.
We altered the deal, pray we don't alter it further.
It bothers me it's so hard to find one that doesn't include it, but it doesn't feel like it's bloating the price to me, if that's what you mean. Besides the insistence on the smart shit, TV's have constantly been getting better, bigger, and yet still cheaper.
It's unfortunate, but if anything the smart features are part of why they're staying so cheap. The TV costs the same to make no matter what, but when every company under the sun is paying a fee to have their app baked into the tv, you don't have to charge the end-user as much to make the same profit. Not to mention the treasure trove of data you can collect(and sell) from the ones who connect it to the internet.
This happens everywhere now.
We had the garage doors replaced, and replaced the openers since they were also a couple decades old and a small part of the total cost. Every damned opener that wasnt bare-bones had smart features. Camera, motion detection, wifi... of course, none of it to any sort of standard, and requiring a special app and account with the vendor. Smart devices are fine - I want smart, to some standard like zwave - but I'll be god damned if I'm going to make an account with Genie so they can track and sell my garage door use.
Same thing with the dishwasher. The house being as old as it is, all the devices are hitting planned obsolecense at the same time. All the new dishwashers that have any decent features are smart. Again, with some shitty bespoke app, and requiring an account. This time, I got the damned thing and just haven't installed the app or configured the wifi on it. Maybe it's talking to one of the neighbor's unsecured wifi networks; I guess I can live with that.
We got lucky on the refrigerator (this time, something inside broke and leaked water into the underfloor for a week before we caught it). We got a model that had everything we wanted and didn't have wifi.
I read an article a few months ago about a conference where all these companies are bitching that people are buying these things and not connecting them; with any luck, they've been losing money on them and will stop adding smart features to everything. But I'm not holding my breath.
I already have >500 accounts spread across various shops, game dev accounts (because every publisher needs its own launcher), services, etc.
Too much data floating around the world because just another joe needed to seel some more data >_>
Yeah there’s this idea that we all want high tech, high surveillance everything. Fuck that, I want stuff that works right without accounts, or can work on a home hub or something like that. I hate feeling expected to load my phone with an app for everything I interact with
It's mostly because it's all heavily integrated. The chipset that drives the smart platform also drives everything else, including the inputs and stuff.