Supra smart TVs aren't so super smart: Hole lets hackers go all Max Headroom on e-tellies Owners of Supra Smart Cloud TVs are in danger of getting some unwanted programming: it's possible for miscreants or malware on your Wi-Fi network to switch whatever you're watching for video of their or its choosing. Bug-hunter Dhiraj Mishra laid claim to CVE-2019-12477, a remote file inclusion zero-day vulnerability that …
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This is a feature of all smart TV's that support UPnP/DLNA, any device on the local network can send video streams to the TV and has been able to do so for the last 15 years or so. If you want to see real cool hack's get into the remote and messaging control API's, you can do real spooky things like send a message "have you done your homework?" if answer is no then turn TV off. Kids be loving that one.
Yup - when I got my Synology box I got a bit frustrated with the DLNA server not authenticating so I could restrict the availablity of different categories of tv/films to my kids. Very annoying.
Presumably this "hack" also allows for someone to interfere with a wired TV, as long as it's addressable from the wifi network. If it's on a network, it's dlna discoverable, which means this should work.
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Bought a fairly expensive Sony Bravia but the "smart-software" is as intelligent as a sack of rocks. By default it runs an app called YouView which it needs to access TV programs via the internet, ITV hub etc. But with this enabled you are blocked from recording Freeview programs to external media via the USB port. So you need to disable YouView to record terrestrial TV programs (limited to one recording at a time anyway) but now you can't watch programs on the ITV hub etc. There are also numerous other bugs with the Sony Bravia software that have never been fixed in software updates. In the end we've bought a Humax box, now we can record multiple programs at the same time and have easy access to ITV hub etc. So in effect, using the "smart TV" as a dumb screen. Won't be buying another "smart" Sony TV again when this one dies.
> But with this enabled you are blocked from recording programs to external media via the USB port.
This is not a bug, but in all likelihood built in by demand from MPAA/RIAA and the like so that you can't then just get a Netflix/Prime subscription and then stream the lot to a few (for some values of "few") thumb drives for your viewing pleasure later on.
There are no features to record anything other than the Freeview channels anyway, so it isn't even possible to record any streaming / internet based programs, so blocking the recording feature serves no purpose other than to annoy the TV user. Not that the Sony recording software is very reliable anyway. It occasionally misses a program from the recording schedule and when this happens it never records anything again in the schedule until you delete the missed programs. The logic of the software matching the current time against the recording schedule is flaky.
Another bug... changing channel gets slower and slower over time. After a few months it can take up to ten seconds to change channel. A full power off reboot is needed to resolve the issue.
It took the purchase of the Humax box to get the so called smart features, because the Sony TV is definitely not smart. It is positively idiotic and annoyingly stupid.
I had a lovely Samsung that developed a fault. Extended warranty job with the shop - no problem. Since it was 1080 they couldn't source a replacement panel and let me go to town in the shop with a budget to blow. I picked a Sony Bravia with Android that was pretty high up the range.
I can't use half of the catch-up features without plugging in an aerial. I don't even have an aerial point here because I have TVHeadend running in the garage. The menus are slow and clunky. I wouldn't give much of a shit, running everything through Kodi (including broadcast telly), but it doesn't pass half the buttons through on HDMI CEC either. Numbers? Channel up/down? Nah mate.
A friend of mine has a very similar Sony, and has a whole world of problems with it. He actually uses the TV to do TV stuff rather than just as a display, and he regaled me with his litany of woes which ran for the best part of an hour without repeating. (We were driving somewhere, so we had time to burn on a good moan!)
When Sony get it right, they can produce something fantastic. I had a beautiful Sony DVP-NS900 DVD player hooked up to an STR-VA555ES amp, and my PS2 plugged in. Each one of these devices was brilliant in its day. And the Trinitron tubes gave great colour (although I had a Panasonic plasma screen to go with that kit). But aside from these examples, Sony have been pretty universally disappointing.
As for my TV? Two stars out of five. "Fucking mediocre"
Don't think I'll get a job in What Hifi with that though.
Also, my old Humax kicked ass :)
Rarely do I have to use my Sony TV as anything other than something that displays whatever the AV Reciever is thowing out. But when I do... it is an exercise in frustration. Mainly as a combo of input lag on a s-l-o-w front end. It's horrible to use and usually forces me to deploy my non-trivial full range of expletives in doing so.
Maybe I need to power cycle it every so often just in case. A pox on Sony for this one.
"A full power off reboot is needed to resolve the issue."
OMG -- you have to turn the TV OFF?
In this day and age? Inconceivable !!!
... and probably illegal.
(Not that I've ever found anything very smart about "smart" TVs. Unfortunately "they" seem to have decided that there's no market for dumb TVs that just work. Can't seem to buy those anymore. Probably illustrates that marketing folks are even dumber than the products they peddle.)
My "WebOS" LG is doing a fine job, for now at least. The only thing I wish I could do was easily stream music from play music (because I like to own my music, and it's convenient to use it to have a copy online) The app will happily stream to a chromecast, but nothing else.
MPAA DRM and geo-restrictions screwing people over everywhere. Encrypted recordings, Youview which launches iPlayer and other apps which refuse to work over a VPN, even though the TV can say exactly where it is due to the signal it is getting.
Don't even get me started on HDMI/HDCP.
Usability for loads of things are fucked and people should be aware than 9 out of 10 times the tv problems are due to the Hollywood studios and stuff they force tv makers to do and the things they force tv channels to do via licencing agreements.
They are the reason you cant watch legit content on linux, 4k on some android box's, nothing at all on rooted phones and force shitty DRM on tv' and other equipment through their part of being part of HDMI organisation.
We would not need smart tv's if Hollywood were not so anal with pushing DRM.
I have a Philips WatchLine with Pixel Plus. To this day people who see the image on that screen still marvel at how good it looks. Yes, it is a beast that needs two grown men to move it, but I don't care as it doesn't move. It is getting old, though, and I am starting to think about looking around to see what my options are.
Cloud will not be one of them, and I am dead set on keeping "smart" out of my house as well. A TV is a dumb screen, anything with intelligence should be what is sending it the image to show. The only thing that irks me is the fact that all TVs with the best screens also drag in that effing "smart" stuff.
I guess I'll just have to make do with a truly dumb terminal screen, and forego all the bells and whistles.
I was able to buy a non-"smart" TV off the shelf at Target a year or so ago.
Granted, they only stocked one model. But there was the one.
I expect the next "TV" replacement will be a dumb monitor, driven by a set-top box. It's not like I have any trust whatsoever in most of those, but I'll take one misbegotten security-hole-ridden spybox over two. And the set-top boxes seem to get more frequent updates, and they're a lot cheaper and easier to replace. They cold-boot faster than the TV, too.
And here I am, trying to find a truly "Dumb" 4K TV for under or at the cost of a smart one.
My home theater receiver handles audio and video switching, all amplification, and the TV is just "there for the show".
No cable input, no broadcast tuner needed.
I do understand that they may need something "smart" in the controls section, possibly an embedded OS of a bit higher function for some stuff like on-screen menu, Dynamic backlight Brightness/HDR and maybe something for HDCP, but the last gen dumb units had it all working fine...
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