back to article MELTDOWN: Samsung, Sony not-so-smart TVs go titsup for TWO days

Samsung smart TVs have been turned into dumb goggle boxes for the past two days – after the devices have been unable use the internet. Coincidently, Sony smart TVs are also having troubles using the web. A Samsung spokesperson told The Register it is investigating reports that some of its web-connected tellies and Blu-Ray …

  1. John Tserkezis

    "So here are your solutions:"

    Are you kidding? It might cover most of here, but we're just scraping the barrel compared to the average Joes out there who don't know IP from cheese.

    I've made my views on the "cloud" quite clear here.

    Only thing left is to say is I TOLD YOU SO.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: John Tserkezis

      "Are you kidding? It might cover most of here, but we're just scraping the barrel compared to the average Joes out there who don't know IP from cheese."

      We're a site for professional techies. We're not Samsung's tech support ;-) If you can follow the instructions, great. If not, hammer Sammy – they should be fixing this.

      C.

      1. Christian Berger

        Re: John Tserkezis

        If this was a site for professional techies, there wouldn't be a guide to fix this, as professional techies only connect their TVs to the Internet for security research.

        (other than that this site seems to be more aimed at professional salespeople than techies)

        1. Chris Miller

          Now working again

          My Samsung Blu-ray PVR is now back online - it was still broken last night, so something must have changed in the last few hours. Its DNS config points (as it has always done) to the local gateway (192.168.1.1), which some on other forums have claimed is a problem.

          FWIW e1722.g.akamaiedge.net (= www.samsung.com) resolves (for me in the UK) to 184.24.107.225

      2. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: John Tserkezis

        The solutions suggested in the story don't seem to fix the solution given on that blog page, you need to serve a file on a webserver you control and change your local DNS to make samsung.com point to it.

        It's academic now as Samsung have put the XML file back.

        That's not a very smart TV if it can't cache that file and goes on strike if it can't find it.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: John Tserkezis

          "That's not a very smart TV if it can't cache that file and goes on strike if it can't find it."

          That's not a very smart TV if it has to phone home before allowing the likes of iPlayer or Netflix to work. There's no need at all for that other than data slurping. IMV, no device should be phoning home unless it's to connect to their own app shop or their own apps. It most certainly should not fail to work with 3rd party apps via the users own BB connection, DNS etc. just because "home" isn't answering the phone.

    2. VinceH

      "I've made my views on the "cloud" quite clear here."

      This isn't so much a problem with the "cloud" - from the description given in the story, it's more a problem with crap phoning home and throwing a hissy fit if it's unsuccessful.

      But I do agree with you about cloudy crap in general.

      1. Panicnow

        "This isn't so much a problem with the "cloud" - from the description given in the story, it's more a problem with crap phoning home and throwing a hissy fit if it's unsuccessful."

        But this is precisly a cloud operation! The TV should be able to work without phoning home first

        1. VinceH

          "But this is precisly a cloud operation! The TV should be able to work without phoning home first"

          Only if you take the view that everything on the interwebs is the cloud. I don't - and I therefore certainly don't class "phoning home" as a cloud thing. Although, as this case shows, it is as much of a bloody nuisance.

          1. Cliff

            Working as designed, just ask Steve Bong!

            Actually I'm not even a teensy bit surprised, this is what happens when 20 manufacturers with multiple teams run off in 40+ directions to solve a single marketing bullet-point with no standardisation or harmonisation. It means you end up relying on the manufacturer not changing direction for a decade or so and supporting legacy infrastructure (and we know how much they love doing that).

            Case in point, to watch a DVD on a tablet, Samsung produced a great little device, makes a local hotspot as well as supporting wired networks, USB, remote backup to disc, nicely packaged, fairly priced.

            Except the ONLY client app you have to use is made by Toshiba(!), unsupported, hasn't had an upgrade in years, and works like a private beta or research project, sometimes you swipe the screen to navigate like a poorly implemented remote control, it handles a tap as an OK, so tapping on a link is actually pressing OK on a different link, the sound levels are consistently 6dB too low, it's a mess. They gave up on it, meaning three best I can hope for is a miserable experience until it dies.

            Reminded me to stick to the standards-based stuff, it's why we have them.

  2. Huckleberry Muckelroy

    Samsung Ignorant Arrogance

    I own a Samsung HomeSync media box. It is a very nice concept, but unusable as a media box. For that, I am happy with a WD Live to stream from my PC. The Samsung box is unusable because of Samsung's ignorant proprietary OS and concept of functionality. I believe that when this TV prob is sorted out, the cause will be the Samsung brain-broke designers.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Samsung Ignorant Arrogance

      I've tried WD Live, but its format support isn't up to snuff and its upscaler is the pits. I'd be more inclined to use one of those newer Pi' 2s to install Kodi (I tried it with the original B, but even with 2.1A backing it up it couldn't seem to remain stable; perhaps the stronger 2 can better handle it).

  3. reg 5

    I am hoping for a stupid TV to become available.

    After following all the problems and issues with so called smart TVs I a waiting for newer stupid TVs to come to the market before replacing my current old stupid TV.

    If I want to surf, I have computers, tables and more for such, I do not need that on a TV.

    Unfortunately it seems like I will have to wait until someone comes out with reasonable priced 4K monitors that are large enough as TVs just seem to get "smarter and smarter" according to their advertising with no basic TVs available for sale.

    1. I_am_Chris

      Re: I am hoping for a stupid TV to become available.

      Err, just don't plug it onto the interwebs? It'll be as dumb as you like.

      1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

        Re: I am hoping for a stupid TV to become available.

        Tried this with Blu Ray and got for a film

        Please connect the Blu Ray to the internet to authenticate the disc or something like that.

        It was a bad move as nearly half an hour later the Samsung Blu Ray was still updating firmware and apps for stuff I have never used before.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: I am hoping for a stupid TV to become available.

      I haven't seen one smart TV interface I like and LG and Samsung ones have been caught uploading stuff to the mothership.

      Stupid TV (or even monitor) + Android TV stick/box + Kodi FTW. If you use Amazon, Netflix, etc... then minimal gapps as well.

      Not an official Google Android TV box though, those probably have the same problem as smart TVs.

      1. MacGyver

        Re: I am hoping for a stupid TV to become available.

        But for a more powerful solution (for fancy skins with fancy menus), use a cheap <$150 Intel NUC (with built-in IR) and OpenELEC (Linux+Kodi [previously known as XBMC]). It will play every swinging file you can throw at it (and decode it in hardware if your kit can do it), it can even decode H.265 in software if you are running something a little more beefy.

        If you run Windows there are ways (addons) to use Amazon and Netflix too.

        I imagine you already know all that Dan55, I was just sharing because I really like Kodi.

        1. MotionCompensation

          Re: I am hoping for a stupid TV to become available.

          I've steen Intel NUCs with Windows andere Intel drivers phone home, they connect to servicegateway.intel.com for some reason. Without the Intel anti theft stuff installed.

          You can learn all sorts of interesting things, watching internet traffic of things.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Turns a Smart TV into a Dumb TV?

    What's not to like about this?

    Ok so I don't have one of these but I'm not interested in all this internet connectivity from my TV. It is a two-way street as we all know. So my (cough-cough) late night trip to the Hot-Babes channel will be broadcast to the mothership.

    I really don't want the world and their dog to know

    1) What TV Channels I watch

    2) What I record for later viewing.

    I see that not being able to reach the Samsung or Sony or LG Motherships as a big win win.

    The problem starts when this inability to phone home stops the whole thing from working let alone as a dumb TV.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Turns a Smart TV into a Dumb TV?

      The problem starts when this inability to phone home stops the whole thing from working let alone as a dumb TV.

      Give it time. I'm sure they're working on eventually having complete control and knowledge of your viewing experience.

      1. Cliff

        Re: Turns a Smart TV into a Dumb TV?

        Agree, my TV manufacturer has no business monitoring my (actually rather benign, but that's my choice) viewing. Less still do they have any business installing dreadful apps like Samsung force onto my phone which through terrible design and lazy programming take clock cycles and memory on my phone even when completely unused in years. These shitty apps grow and proliferate with each generation, meaning I now have to delete stuff I want in order to accommodate stuff I don't. That'll happen to all your smart devices too, give it another year.

  5. Christian Berger

    Why would you even fix this?

    Seriously is there any reason why you would want your TV-set to phone home? It sounds like a terrible idea to me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why would you even fix this?

      What's a terrible idea is buying a TV that insists on resolving the OEM's domain as a "test" that the internet is working, and then assumes the internet is not working if that test fails. YDI.

    2. Don Dumb
      Facepalm

      Re: Why would you even fix this?

      @Christian Berger - "Why would you even fix this?Yeah, why would people who pay for Netflix want to connect to the internet?"

      Oh FFS - is it too difficult to understand that some of us have TVs with native iPlayer and Netflix apps (which, by the way has no microphone or camera) which we might actually want to use.

      I'll be honest, I don't mind my TV knowing which iPlayer programme I've watched as amazingly, iPlayer already knows that too! (and they know no more about me than the TV)

      I know privacy is a big issue but not everything is a privacy issue - this is about a TV seemingly so badly made that to watch YouTube, the TV has to know that it can reach an ip address that has nothing to do with YouTube.

      1. Chris Miller

        Re: Why would you even fix this?

        I think the problem (on Samsung anyway) is that the Smart TV is a walled garden - it displays a page (which I'm guessing comes from a Samsung web site) of icons that you can select using your remote (including iPlayer and YouTube, but not e.g. 4OD). So if you can't reach 'samsung.com', you're really dead in the water.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In a word...Feeble..

    Really hope this slows the rise of the Smart TV versus availability of basic models. But I doubt it! The mainstream media are fast asleep... As their are on every other tech issue, save for collating how many users Twitter / Facebook added this week.

    Ad to that (deliberate pun), Samsung and LG just don't listen to their customers. They've committed themselves to the their plans of having every TV net connected by two years time. Just like the SIM card maker that didn't get hacked, they're hoping this will all blow over quickly!

    Ouch!.. Help get the word out folks! .. .. Death to Smart TV's!

    1. MacGyver

      Re: I agree

      I will simply not give it my Wifi password and not plug it into a CAT5 cable, so unless they put a SIM and transceiver in my TV it can't ever phone home. They can want it connected all they want, but we decide whether to let it into our data network. Who cares what crappy players they put in their TVs, I would never use it anyway, they never support every codec and usually have menu systems created by morons anyway. Add in privacy issues and the choice becomes clear, just don't use those features.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I agree

        The horse has bolted MacGyver!!! Its not in your hands...Its already been shown that LG TV's disable a host of features if you don't let the Smart TV spy on you and report back....

      2. jeffdyer

        Re: I agree

        My Sony TV works very well, I can watch Netflix and Amazon prime without powering up the PS3 or 4, show photos from my Xperia Z without cables, and get a detailed program view, far superior to the Freeview or Virgin Media offerings.

        It can record to USB, I have the PS4's old 500Gb hard drive plugged in at the moment.

        It's a great device, convergence is here to stay in our house.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Seems to be back up now, but thanks for the dnsmasq tip, added in case of future mishaps.

    (I guess I should complain about having a single point of failure, but I'm not surprised at all, very smart the TV is not. Still, convenient to be able to use Netflix and HBO Nordic, and few local streaming services, directly from the TV. The interface sucks, but in the case of Netflix, just browse beforehand what you want to watch and add to your playlist, that is readily available from the TV app. As to privacy concerns, if someone finds out I just watched a crappy 80s horror flick, so be it. And no, I don't have a voice-enabled model, they're just plain creepy with the recent discoveries.)

  8. Peshman

    Storm in a teacup!

    Get over it. If you're willing to wear a tin hat and cut yourself off from everything to avoid being snooped on then fair enough, you have a point to be made.

    If you have a debit/credit card, a drivers License, utility bills, bus pass/travelcard/oyster card, mortgage, loans or finance of any sort, mobile phone, land line, cctv outside your front door and even step foot into most shops then you're being tailed. You're an idiot if you think otherwise.

    Your telly is just one more thing adding to the already massive amounts of data being collected on you. It's too late to lose sleep over it now.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Storm in a teacup!

      It's not all or nothing, you know. You can choose to opt out of certain things, like mothership-reporting TVs, Facebook, and loyalty cards.

      1. Charles 9
        Big Brother

        Re: Storm in a teacup!

        Actually, it's closer to all or nothing than you think. If it ain't one thing recording you, it's another, and you have no control over what happens in public streets where it's a free-for-all. Heck, thanks to satellites and aerial photography, they can even take multiple pictures (including infrared) of a mountain retreat miles from any electricity. So no, retreating to the mountains is becoming less viable of an option.

    2. psyq

      Re: Storm in a teacup!

      What exactly is tin foil hat about not wanting my TV to phone home?

      If this is what you fancy, by all means please go on. You can also request your next house to be made of glass. Some of us still do not wish that kind of openness and there is nothing wrong with it.

  9. Mark 85

    It does seem odd that two brands were/are having the issue at the same time. And the reboot the TV advice seems right out the MS Helldesk playbook.

    BTW, I'm a techie (not security nor sysadmin) but I won't own a smart TV and nor do I even attempt to give help to friends and relatives who own them. It's bad enough at times with PC help....

  10. Detective Emil
    Headmaster

    According to sleuths commenting on the outage, the TVs expect to talk to a machine with the IP address 23.66.247.46 to confirm they have a working internet connection.

    Well, not really. As the output from host shows, the address resolves to a node in Akamai's Content Distribution Network. These things change according to time and location. Currently I get a different IP according to whether I'm coming in from home or the office (just 3km away). To expect a single address to work, and to keep working, for everybody around the world (or even just in Blighty) is optimistic.

  11. Pen-y-gors

    An alternative to TV

    Buy a large goldfish tank - in the long run it may be nearly as expensive as a fancy TV, but it's a lot more soothing to watch.

    1. Stoneshop
      Thumb Up

      Preferred by 9 out of 10 cats

      FYI, the Germans call it 'Katzenfernseher', Cat TV

      1. OliverJ

        Re: Preferred by 9 out of 10 cats

        Quite literally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlvxgOa6IbM

        There is a longer version also of about 30 mins.

      2. Mister_C
        Unhappy

        Re: Preferred by 9 out of 10 cats

        Can't be stopped by a Katzenjammer though

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TV Makers should stick to what they know

    Make a decent media center type PC and give the TV a nice connection method. Allow customers to choose PC. People good at software can manage it and secure it.

    TV will never be smart, just connected as far as I can see so far...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Missed the obvious

    I've been checking signal strength and other settings on the wifi router for two days. Obviously I should have blamed manufacturer from the start.

  14. All names Taken
    Alien

    OI! Moderator

    Paragraph 6, link to contact samsung .com

    href="http://www.sodnpoo.com/posts.xml/spoofing_the_samsung_smart_tv_internet_check.xml" contact code www.samsung.com code to check

    Please explain

    1. Pookietoo

      Re: OI! Moderator

      It's a link to a page where someone tells how he figured out what sort of "phone home" his TV was doing. What's to explain, and why ask a forum moderator?

  15. cmannett85

    " I keep getting the loading thing in the top right & "service The service cannot be accessed at this time" message pls HELP"

    I love getting bug reports like this.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Bingo!

    "Samsung is aware that some consumers have reported challenges ...."

    Problem, the word is problem, not challenge.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Bingo!

      I think your buzzword dictionary needs updating. I've been hearing the "challenge" thing for probably 15 years. Usually from management as if they're trying to hide the fact that you'll need lots of aspirin and adult beverages to deal with the latest "challenge"... err... asinine idea.

  17. Anonymous Coward 101

    Smart TVs Suck

    My mum got a new Toshiba smart TV recently, and the BBC iPlayer app was incredibly jerky. The novel solution was to get a Roku stick which worked perfectly. The smart TV 'functionality' will never be used again.

    Why can they not get things to work correctly out of the factory?

    1. Bod

      Re: Smart TVs Suck

      My Samsung woks rather well. As an Amazon Prime subscriber I use Amazon Instant Video a fair bit for the inclusive content, and the HD content is really quite good. A lot of stuff I've watched and won't bother now buying on Blu Ray.

      Though I do have a 76mbps connection ;)

      Oh and I use the Plex app a lot which talks to my NAS media server. That thankfully worked even though the TV was showing no Internet connection.

      the iPlayer app is not the best, but adequate. I prefer iPlayer on Sky HD, especially as it can download the content.

      1. Pookietoo

        Re: Smart TVs Suck

        But what about the stir fry?

  18. Warm Braw

    I have a Sony blu ray player

    They use IP geolocation to decide on the "services" shown to you in the menus. One day it decided I was in Germany and deleted iPlayer, et al, and reconfigured the UI to provide localised German content.

    According to tech support, it was the fault of my ISP and that until they were prepared to grant me a lease on an IP address that Sony recognised as being in the, UK nothing would change.

    Things were resolved after a short period of time, then Sony and the BBC put a bullet in iPlayer support for good.

    And that's the trouble with these devices, you have no meaningful control over their operation: connect to the Internet because you want, say, iPlayer and you're subject to whimsical decisions to update firmware or geographical location, Even if you avoid that, you lose most of the functionality whenever a coding assumption proves invalid and are then dependent on a relucant manufacturer issuing a firmware update.

    Not that's there's such a thing as a dumb TV any more. The only reason I have a Samsung smart TV is that my previous dumbish Toshiba had to be replaced by the retailer under warranty because it can't cope with recent changes to Freeview HD and there's no sign of a firmware fix for that either...

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: I have a Sony blu ray player

      Identical thing happened to me. Sony Blu Ray, iplayer disappeared one time. Eventually for good thanks to stupid BBC policy.

      Now using a PS3 to access iPlayer, that's a horrible user-interface and again subject to logging in to Sony network just to watch BBC programs - which I am loathe to do but am putting up with for now.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looks like I won't be getting one then...

    ... as I set my firewall to block TVs from "phoning home" after the LG "Oops, how did we accidentally send a listing of all the files on your network to our server?".

  20. MJI Silver badge

    Mine is just off not dumb

    I can view pictures, but mine is not on the network, saw no reason why, updates come over the air.

    As I have said before I want a good tuner, a good panel, good processing, plenty of HDMI.

    As to smart I have a pair of consoles better for smart than any TV, IPlayer is fine, web surfing is fine, and they are the same brand as my TV!

    And they are regularly updated!

  21. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    In defence of Sammy tvs, I've recently bought two smart and two dumb and they're pretty good. The one I bought for the other half streams stuff fine and can (sort of) web browse and she is happy. Being a computer geek, I haven't even connected mine to the wireless ...

    Having said that, I hate problems with audio "un-sync" on Freeview ... but that doesn't seem to be a brand related problem but blamed on a more general issue with tv hardware 'unable to cope with the requirements of the data stream'. Sorry, 13 grains-per-sec on "Dave-ja vu-yesterday+1+24+7" too much? Why is there no hard sync between the video frame and the audio?

    1. graeme leggett Silver badge

      They do seem to be decent TVs brought low by this problem.

      I can only guess that at the design stage, it made sense for the TV to make a check that the internet was "working" rather than a user being baffled why iplayer (for instance) wasn't working. What they hadn't put enough effort into was then being sure that this check upon which all the smart functions depended was itself dependable. I shouldn't have thunk the extra code for it to test more than one ip address would have been that much effort had they realised the weakness.

  22. djack

    Too many aliases?

    It is back up and running now, and resolving to the same address it was last night (when it failed). However, last night there were five CNAME records in the chain :-

    www.samsung.com. 0 IN CNAME www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.

    www.samsung.com.edgekey.net. 2616 IN CNAME www.samsung.com.akadns.net.

    www.samsung.com.akadns.net. 4 IN CNAME china-www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.

    china-www.samsung.com.edgekey.net. 7998 IN CNAME china-www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net.

    china-www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net. 117 IN CNAME e1722.g.akamaiedge.net.

    e1722.g.akamaiedge.net. 12 IN A 104.72.168.26

    Whereas this morning there are only three :-

    www.samsung.com. 60 IN CNAME www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.

    www.samsung.com.edgekey.net. 9367 IN CNAME www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net.

    www.samsung.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net. 1998 IN CNAME e1722.g.akamaiedge.net.

    e1722.g.akamaiedge.net. 11 IN A 104.72.168.26

    I think that's a smoking gun.

    Still, it's bloody stupid having SmartHub depend on www.samsung.com or even an Internet connection - I have an app that provides nice access to content on my local media server - the missus was not happy that that was unavailable too.

    1. Little_Crow

      Re: Too many aliases?

      Bloody stupid, but sadly not unsurprising.

      I had the issue on my E Series TV, no access to internet based content, despite the internet working fine on every other device.

      I'm surprised you had an issue with an app to access local content, though. I use Plex and it worked just fine - which kept the missus happy.

  23. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Sony Bravia

    Mine seems to routinely lose its connection, refusing to connect to the wifi hub, which it can see, but refuses to admit it can see.

    I only become aware of this on the odd occasion that I actually look at the internet through it, which is pretty rare.

    I think I resolve it by restoring factory settings. I think that's what I do.I can't actually remember how I resolved it last time. There isn't anything in the instructions.

    But it shouldn't need that sort of TLC.

    It;s a TV, ffs.

  24. Yugguy

    Er, my tv is fine thanks

    I have a Samsung SmartTV.

    It is, and has been connected to the Internet without issue.

    That said, as someone else commented, it is painfully clunky. It does have netflix/amazon prime etc. apps on it but it is far easier just to chromecast to it off my phone

  25. MacGyver

    This TV is for Netflix and this TV is for Hulu.

    People really should stop buying TVs with these kind of "features" in them. Manufactures are slow to fix issues related to third party "plugins" and even if they get better at it, why would I want to be able to choose only from the plugins that they happened to be able to get everyone's lawyers to agree with this week? It adds cost and complexity, and to suffer those two things for a sub-par experience is dumb. I would like a TV with many HDMI inputs, some old-timey analog ports, the ability to read the occasional USB stick, and lots of adjustment features. Not some half-baked "Smart" TV. "Oh sorry, your TV is too old to run Youtube 4.3, please buy another TV and try again."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This TV is for Netflix and this TV is for Hulu.

      Exactly, a Plugin TV? Real bad idea! I wonder how people with a Smart TV + Skype got burned last year, when Microsoft shut-users-out w/o notice unless they upgraded!

  26. rblythe

    Well, at least the complaining can sleep better knowing their conversations haven't been transmitted across the net. Right?

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Time for some custom firmware

  28. Bod

    Dependency on a server

    I had the same problem the last couple of days but I'd assumed there was an issue with the TV or maybe my router had blocked it for some reason. Left it and was going to fiddle about resetting this and that, but turns out it's fine today.

    It did make me think though that all the apps that need network access to work, while independent of Samsung, won't work unless the TV can talk to a Samsung server. Stuff like Netflix/Amazon should be able to work talking to their own servers even if Samsung's are down. Okay it won't be able to check for an update to the app, but fair enough.

    It does also signify an end of service at some point when Samsung pulls the plug on the hub service, as they inevitably will when they come up with something new and old TVs become unsupported. While some people do buy TVs every couple of years, some keep them for 10+. Though these days they do tend to break down within 5 years. I remember TVs that used to last 20 or so and know of people still running 20+ year old CRTs.

  29. Peshman

    Maybe, just maybe...

    During their UAT phase someone decided that it might be more convenient to have the TV call home to check to see if there are any software updates just as soon as it is switched on? You know, like Joe public who doesn't want, or need, to know about firmware maintenance or software updates might find it convenient not to have to know about how these things are done.

    My Sammy F series and H series are both web enabled but I know better than to have any models with speech recognition or built-in webcams. I bought them to hook into my Amazon Prime acc and Plex. There is only one wire coming out of the TV in the bedroom for power. The Mrs resisted putting a Tv in the bedroom because she didn't want it taking over the room with wires snaking out all over the place. She lives in the real world where tech is supposed to enhance her quality of life because in her world a TV is supposed to entertain and be something that she can just switch on and watch The Great British bake off.

  30. Haku
    FAIL

    TV / DVR etc. menu systems

    I do like a 'dumb' screen, one that happily shows footage from whatever box you plug into it, however, it has come to my attention from using various friends/family TVs & DVRs etc. that most menu systems suck balls, wether the TV is 'smart' or not.

    And not only are most menus terrible to navigate, most associated remote controls for the devices are just as badly designed, it's like they got a generic button layout and shoehorned their functions into that layout, rather than starting from scratch and realising certain functions are going to be used a lot and require a larger, easier accessable button for your thumb.

    I'd write 'them' a letter but I doubt they'd even read it, something along the lines of:

    "Dear manufacturers, please spend more than 5 minutes designing your menu systems and remote controls, perhaps get some average people to try and use them to give feedback before you decide it's finished and sell it.

    Thank you.

    Yours sincerely, everyone."

    1. Kubla Cant

      Re: TV / DVR etc. menu systems

      Agreed! The new iPlayer UI is especially bad.

      I suspect that many of the problems are a result of developing and testing in environments that are much faster and more responsive than the TV at home. In the case of my Samsung, the response to the remote is sluggish, and a UI like iPlayer that seems to load a complete new page with every key press is barely usable.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, got my nightly Nexflix fix from the Playstation 4

    I was shocked at just how better it is. The Samsung Smart telly can stay dumb. for all I care.

  32. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Mwahahahah!

    No, really...

    Bwahahahaha!

  33. Innocent-Bystander*

    What The Hell?

    Samsung snoops on you, you complain... Samsung fixes the snooping problem, you still complain... Make up your minds people!

    /sarc.

  34. dshan

    Dead Sets Walking

    So when the inevitable happens and Samsung goes titsup all their "smart" TVs will stop working with the internet and the streaming? Great job geniuses, why don't you check for sites that are likely to last, like, oh, www.apple.com and www.google.com?

  35. Wombling_Free

    Any Samsung fail counts as a win

    if it means their bloody awful software isn't running.

    I do note that my Chromecast, plugged into my Samsung TV, is working perfectly.

  36. Andy 30

    It doesn't take a genius

    Samsung is a South Korean firm, Sony made a certain film. They both go offline at the same time. Duh??????????????????????????????????????????

    Clearly a "coincidence"

  37. James 100

    Dumb setup

    I was thinking how dumb this sounds - why bother with the "phone home" bit at all? Then I remembered this is exactly how iThings implement WiFi login portal detection - request some Apple URL; if that gets hijacked to a login page, display that before you regard the WiFi connection as "up". They do handle failure more gracefully, though: as I recall, if Apple's URL isn't reachable, it tells you the connection doesn't seem to have working Net access and asks if you want to connect regardless, or try another access point.

    So, if Samsung fold, or samsung.com somehow gets taken over (court order, Nokia-style split between the different bits of company, etc) those "smart" TVs become permanently dumb barring a hack like this? Thanks Samsung. At least when other manufacturers fold, you just have to do without support and firmware updates, instead of having the kit brick itself!

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