Samsung TVs will get 7 years of updates, starting with 2023 models

Architect_of_Insanity

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,944
Subscriptor++
The idea that you would need to update a TV is still bizarre to me. Just... use it as a display and don't connect it to the internet at all?
This is the way. Having an external box you can shoot dead and replace when it becomes a threat to your privacy is much easier than tossing your whole TV in the bin.

However, of all the "smart" TVs out there, Samsung seems to be the least scammy. I'm open to new info, though.
 
Upvote
93 (98 / -5)

Rally Man

Smack-Fu Master, in training
75
Really? You're just going to post that out there for all the manufacturers to read? That's the quiet part you're not supposed to publish!
Manufacturers will never go back to dumb tv's even if you'd pay them twice as much. The ad business brings in much, much more revenue then purchasing a TV once.
 
Upvote
98 (98 / 0)

Happy Medium

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,023
Subscriptor++
7 years of updates means 7 years of finding new ways to stuff ads into everything. Is there anyone committing to 0 years of updates? That's the TV I want to buy!
Not just stuff in ads! That's 7 years of gradually adding poorly coded components so by the end of the 3 year warranty period your TV feels bloated, laggy, and spontaneously reboots more and more frequently, so then you obviously need to buy a new one! What a wonderful time we live in! /s
 
Upvote
104 (106 / -2)

LDA 6502

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,250
Does it matter if say Netflix or the streaming apps on there just quit supporting it?

For a lot of people it's the apps quitting on them that matters.

Personally I'd pay MORE for just a dumb TV...
Same. But TV manufacturers likely earn a nice chunk from advertisements and other third party deals that originate from their smart TV platforms. And they'd likely want many times what that amount is since the omission would be seen as a premium feature by the MBAs. The electricity savings would likely be negligible. So it is just easier to keep them off the network and ignore the functionality instead.
 
Upvote
26 (27 / -1)
The idea that you would need to update a TV is still bizarre to me. Just... use it as a display and don't connect it to the internet at all?
They "sometimes" use it to upload better color processing algorithms, and there's been updates that improved color accuracy and black levels too. (Or vice versa sometimes)

There's also been a bunch of high profile firmware fixes for various things like VRR, HDR, or brightness bugs....

Just update the TV and then disconnect it from wifi to not have the ads and data connections...

TVs aren't just dumb appliances like before, there's a lot of software in them that makes them work now...

Edit: I get that Ads are part of all the top end TVs now, but there's legitimate software updates.

My actual complaint about this shit is the "fake" software updates that manufacturers do to TVs that doesn't do anything at all but to prevent the jail breaking of the said TVS. stares at LG

Edit 2: Some TV manufacturers let you update through USB sticks too.. not even gonna get into the e tire monitor firmware updates debacle and how broken some monitors are shipped from the factory.
 
Last edited:
Upvote
51 (56 / -5)

Mechjaz

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,798
Subscriptor++
7 years of updates means 7 years of finding new ways to stuff ads into everything. Is there anyone committing to 0 years of updates? That's the TV I want to buy!
I knew I couldn't be the first to think "there is nothing good coming of this." You're never gonna get a new HDMI version, or a higher refresh rate, or new color profile support and decoding.

You're going to get ads, and then some more ads, and then for a little break from that, some innovation (in advertising) on your TV.

Edit: ha, @killerhurtalot incidentally calls out my bluster, but I still feel confident that 99% of what you get is ads and spyware.
 
Upvote
45 (45 / 0)

biffbobfred

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,169
A reminder Samsung put Windows CE in fridges, maybe they learned their lessons there.

There's no margins in TVs. none. so, you find other things to do. I have a TCL TV that will never ever be connected to the Internet again because there's an Evil Update out there waiting for me. Just keep my apple TV up to date.
 
Upvote
19 (19 / 0)

deltaproximus

Ars Scholae Palatinae
855
Subscriptor++
My Sony Android TV that I bought just before COVID lockdowns is already starting have software issues, like sometimes rebooting when switching inputs. I don't think I've noticed a software update for it in the last couple of years. I still have a 55 inch dumb TV upstairs that's about 10 years old that's still working great though, it's just not 4K.
 
Upvote
15 (15 / 0)
They "sometimes" use it to upload better color processing algorithms, and there's been updates that improved color accuracy and black levels too. (Or vice versa sometimes)

There's also been a bunch of high profile firmware fixes for various things like VRR, HDR, or brightness bugs....

Just update the TV and then disconnect it from wifi to not have the ads and data connections...

TVs aren't just dumb appliances like before, there's a lot of software in them that makes them work now...
Agreed. Sometimes real things people want fixed are fixed via firmware.

But I suspect that far less than seven years out, that's no longer what's being downloaded, even if it ever was.
 
Upvote
7 (7 / 0)

A.I. Caramba

Smack-Fu Master, in training
41
However, of all the "smart" TVs out there, Samsung seems to be the least scammy. I'm open to new info, though.


Maybe the least scammy but those fuckbags nuked my entire calibrated profiles when I let the TV update even though I was just using it as a dumb monitor. That was in ~2015 and I learned my lesson about connecting a TV to the internet.
 
Upvote
29 (29 / 0)

nathand496

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,225
Back in the early 90s a game designer/technologist I knew wrote a piece about how PCs weren't appliances. Maybe in the future, but at that point they required lots of fiddling, often stopped working right for no apparent reason, and all the rest people wouldn't accept of an appliance (e.g., a refrigerator).

The PC still hasn't gotten to appliance stage, and now we've gone backwards by putting them in actual appliances.
 
Upvote
27 (28 / -1)
I have a TV in our house that’s 15 years old. Growing up we owned a TV for more than 20 years. This whole idea of connected TVs that will eventually lose support can just DIAF. Dumb screens, smart boxes all the way.
I miss the TVs in a wooden box with the knob that went “klunk, klunk” when you changed one of the 6 channels. Good times….
 
Upvote
37 (39 / -2)

stevenjklein

Ars Praetorian
461
Subscriptor++
From the article:
Apple has provided updates for its first Apple TV since 2015
The first Apple TV came out in 2007 (before the first iPhone).

The 2015 model, called Apple TV HD, was fourth Apple TV. It is indeed still updated, but that’s because it was discontinued in October of 2022, and Apple’s official policy is to support products for 5 years after the last date of sale.
 
Upvote
32 (32 / 0)
This is the way. Having an external box you can shoot dead and replace when it becomes a threat to your privacy is much easier than tossing your whole TV in the bin.

However, of all the "smart" TVs out there, Samsung seems to be the least scammy. I'm open to new info, though.
I have a 2018 Sony Bravia and a 2019 Samsung "the Frame." I don't see many--if any--hits on my PiHole for the Sony, but the Samsung---perhaps because it's a device designed to be always-on---has over 9,000 hits blocked in the last 24 hours. For context, my whole network for my heavily-online family has only 18,000 hits blocked in the past 24 hours.

Maybe your definition of scammy is different than mine, but I suspect Samsung over Sony.
 
Upvote
41 (41 / 0)
Really? You're just going to post that out there for all the manufacturers to read? That's the quiet part you're not supposed to publish!
Eventually, we'll have to pay extra to not get the extra circuitry and "features". Perhaps we already are with "digital signage displays". See also region free DVD and BR players. IIRC, synths also used to have chips that would prevent you from exporting digitally, and you had to pay extra to get machines without them.
 
Upvote
4 (5 / -1)

Steve austin

Ars Praetorian
918
Subscriptor
I gave up on the idea of depending on the built-in “smarts” in a TV when Samsung effectively obsoleted my now 8 year old unit when it was 1 1/2 years old (so just out of warranty) by not upgrading it to the next version of Tizen, so many new apps wouldn’t run on it. At the time, manufacturers‘ ads weren’t a thing, so maybe they have different incentives now - then it was to drive you to replace your perfectly good TV. The biggest outboard streamer manufacturers (Roku and Amazon) are also now incentivized by ads, so unless/until Apple also goes down that hole springing for an AppleTV seems like the best course. The problem now is to be able to get the TV with the best PQ that also lets you treat it as a dumb monitor.
 
Upvote
9 (9 / 0)