I agree. Worse, the software is crap from the start. I have one of these Samsung TVs. It is offline and will be forever in its lifetime.
Not only is the software that comes with it really useless, it phones home the first time you do connect it and installs a sh*tload of crapware, depending on your region. In my case lots of useless stuff around sports and tabloids. These apps are then prominently featured in the TV's menu.
No, you cannot diaable or remove them, nor reclaim that screen estate and put something else there. You install a couple things and have to scroll to find those, while the absolutely insane garbage sits in the middle of the screen. Only way back: Factory reset, never connect it again. Smart..
But if the OP article is correct, you can prevent the TV from phoning home in the first place by spoofing the other way -- say, configuring the DNS that the TV sees to automatically return "no answer" for www.samsung.com. The question is, will the TV still see your local network? If so, you can stream to it from a DLNA server, as someone else upthread pointed out.
Maybe, yes. Potential issues: You probably need to repeat the 'firmware reset, connect again' step a couple of times (like the author in the post required multiple tries). There might be uncaught requests that, for example, update the full thing.
My current best bet would be [1]. But so far I'm using a Pi, with xbmc. There's no way the TV stuff can improve on that.
your suggestion implies that the system is built rationally and to a standard. Who's to say something in that config file isnt used as a hardcoded setting somewhere in the code?
You might be able to spoof the DNS to the TV without changing anything on the TV. However, it's quite possible that the code inside the TV is sufficiently insane that what I suggested would not be possible, even if you spoofed DNS externally; that's why I was wondering if anyone had tried experimenting.
yep, this post laments the problems when "smart" automation often goes wrong - also touching on automating tasks where people need to pay attention at the same time, such as driving or aviation:
While I agree with some parts with that post, I think the conclusion is wrong. I believe the root of the problem are the wrong terminal values. "Smart" technology is not put there to really solve a problem, but to drive sales. Providing real utility for users is secondary, as long as the new feature has big marketing value. Therefore I see the problem not with engineers and designers, but with salesmen giving orders and marketing-driven development.
As for lessons for driving, I see only two ways - either do actually train drivers like they should be, just like pilots are trained, or automate them out completely. Current level of training required for getting a driver's licence is a complete joke, and the attitude of most of the people who took or are taking the exam is just plain scary.
Not only is the software that comes with it really useless, it phones home the first time you do connect it and installs a sh*tload of crapware, depending on your region. In my case lots of useless stuff around sports and tabloids. These apps are then prominently featured in the TV's menu.
No, you cannot diaable or remove them, nor reclaim that screen estate and put something else there. You install a couple things and have to scroll to find those, while the absolutely insane garbage sits in the middle of the screen. Only way back: Factory reset, never connect it again. Smart..