Slashdot Mirror
Samsung TV Owners Furious After Software Update Leaves Sets Unusable (theguardian.com)
Thousands of owners of high-end Samsung TVs have complained after a software update left their recently acquired $1,800 sets with blank, unusable screens. From a report: The Guardian has been contacted by a number of owners complaining that the TVs they bought -- in some cases just two weeks ago -- have been rendered useless by an upgrade sent out by Samsung a week ago. Others have been posting furious messages on the company's community boards complaining that their new TVs are no longer working. The company has told customers it is working to fix the problem but so far, seven days on, nothing has been forthcoming. The problem appears to affect the latest models as owners of older Samsung TVs are not reporting the issue. The report doesn't identify the models that have been affected. But we scanned the forums and found that at least UE49MU7070, UE49MU7070TXXU, and MU6409 models are affected.
Even when they are working correctly.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I put together a panel to monitor the situation, we recommend you screen all updates before applying.
I wouldn't pay $1,800 for a paperweight.
You gotta love those push updates!
I am still looking for a nice 4K OLED 65" screen with say 4 HDMI inputs, RF in and that's all. I don't want built in anything just a screen with some inputs.
I like my electronic toys. Have a lot of fun playing with them, but why all this integration? Why have televisions, something that should be nothing but a passive interface for signals to be made visible with, get turned into weird hybrids that have operating systems, computer parts, and memory?
Is it a matter of people not understanding what they're getting anymore? Is it a matter of perceived value? Oh, my TV is three hundred dollars more expensive than yours! That must mean it's better. Somehow.
It is a FUCKING Television. Why the fuck do people connect it to the internet? Why does it need updates? WHY
As an owner of 2 Samsung smart TVs that are thankfully to old to be affected by this "update", I would recommend never buying a smart TV (and I will avoid doing so in the future).
All you need is a Roku (or other external streaming device) and, if you still use satellite/cable, an external DVR. All my on-tv "smart" apps are hopelessly out of date, feature-poor compared to their Roku equivalents, and utterly useless. I avoid onboard TV apps like the plague, and have disabled toggling them on in my learning remote.
and soon, they will be no longer working even faster than before.
Until these companies get a huge financial penalty for doing this they won't care.
My 2026 Sony 930D smart TV can't even manage to keep up with adjusting the sound volume. Only on the latest firmware update has it been able to play videos in the correct aspect. Totally a waste of money.
Before smart tvs were a thing, I had a Samsung plasma TV that failed under warranty. Samsung did nothing about and made every excuse they could come up with to avoid fixing/replacing until the warranty finally ran out. I have never, and will never, buy a Samsung branded device again.
Yes, that includes smartphones. Enjoying my Pixel at the moment.
The "right" way to do it (if it must be done) is to have an internal HDMI connection to which you connect an android stick, or whatever, for televisions which have the smart TV option. There is no need to even use a real HDMI port, you can use something much cheaper like a simple header connector. And then hide that behind a trap door, or at least make it easy to get far enough into the case to replace it. I know you save a few pence per TV set by putting it all on one PCB, but odds are good that they're going to have to take back these sets and reflash them at service centers via JTAG or similar because they didn't take that route.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
A complete system update with no automatic roll back on load failures? HUH WTF is Samsung thinking. Sounds like they hired a few too many fired Microsoft software engineers. ROLF
Get ye to Costco. Buy TV. Get 90 days. Plenty o'time to get primary working again. Return 'loaner' to Costco (and then get another if ya need mo' time!). All good. Now quit yer bitchin and Make America Great Again!
my last TV purchase was a dumb TV.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Smart Samsung owners (like me) disabled auto-updating, and only allow updates to the TV after the update has been vetted and it's effects are understood.
Unlucky Goldstar
This is why you need a good Firewall, so you prevent your TV from being reachable via the internet.
before the hordes of class action lawyers descend like a plague on them.
Maybe people will become more educated. A large screen panel should be more like a monitor, and less like an internet connected media device.
I wonder if the solution Samsung will come up with is a thumb drive with a new system image.
Because if the existing devices are truly bricked, that's about the only way (short of device replacement) that is going to solve this.
There's your problem. They're just cutting corners (in a round shape).
Since I bought my Samsung, I've received many system updates to them. Never any new features, but the performance and reliability have tanked. My TV boot loops most every time I try to start it after having not started for a while. Whoever works on the operating system for Samsung are complete idiots.
It is Samsung, at least they didn't explode.
Relax. You may have lost your Kardashian drip feed, but the CIA can still see you.
Can you even get a TV that isn't a Smart TV anymore? I recently purchased a new TV and I couldn't find any 4K TVs there were not "smart" TVs. I didn't want a smart TV and certainly didn't want to pay extra to have that crap added to my TV, but none were to be found. I didn't want a "monitor" since I needed/wanted the TV tuner and wanted 55" or larger.
Are the affected TVs at least able to phone home for a new version of the update? Or are they total bricks?
The guys that had their TV's for 2 weeks or so are in a good position. Just take it back to the retailer.
That.
Is.
Fucking.
Hilarious.
At least they didn't catch fire. Samsung is getting better.
Offering (and choosing to purchase) the integrated model is a rational choice. *Not* offering a plain dumb screen option is annoying to us nerds, but we're kind of a purchasing minority for this stuff./
I get that product convergence is a thing and that it can be useful when it happens well. Maybe it's this time we're living through. I don't remember what it was like when VCRs were first coming out, if there were similar difficulties with their connecting to televisions. I can remember the need to switch to channel 3 before you could watch a tape and flipping the selector box for Ataris before you could play. However, those became a thing. People learned how to make it work in short order. It wasn't wrapped up in this pseudo-mystical "only the nerds" can make it work bullshit I continually see being spouted.
Was it decided that the public couldn't be counted on to learn to work the TV? Or was it the Boomers again with their constant whine about the pace of life?
Learn. Unlearn. Relearn.
I bought a cheap Samsung TV after our old plasma died, as a stop-gap until the OLEDs have been out for a couple of years (and have the bugs worked out of them.)
Not impressed at all with the functionality of the built-in apps, nor the firmware upgrades. The extent of the release notes are always "Fix minor issues and enhance the performance of your TV" along with removing Twitter or some other app I wouldn't use on a TV anyways.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Someone I know has one of the medium range Samsung smart TVs ($700-$1k), the screen is great but the "smart" functionality is the buggiest piece of garbage I've ever seen. It has to be factory reset once every few months or it can't even load common apps, its interface is clunky, it doesn't support a lot of popular apps, etc. Integrated smart functions are just never going to work, trying to support dozens or hundreds of different TV models is always going to end badly. Whereas supporting a few iterations of a standalone box is relatively easy. Also TV manufacturers have a vested interest in keeping you buying new TVs (ie breaking/not supporting the old ones), standalone box makers have an interest in keeping you utilizing their equipment even if it is a bit old.
Samsung is a company committed to total client satisfaction. TV software will be fixed very soon, so that Samsung smart TV will explode at switch-on, as customers correctly expect for a properly working Samsung product.
Is why you disable updates and only use manual updates after you've made sure there was no issues with it.
I have a Samsung TV that I got a few years ago. It has not failed, but Samsung has been removing and adding apps at will, without my consent. Samsung is a bully of a company. I will never, ever buy another Samsung product of any kind.
I've never had a smart TV. I'm happy with my simple Roku. It gets my Netflix and Hulu stuff, I can get other stuff if I want, I've never heard of an update bricking one, and if it did, I'd be out a whole lot less than $1800.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
A TV is a display device.
If you then want it to load content, operate as a computer, browse the Internet, have a separate device.
Hey presto, your TV will always work by plugging it back into another working device, your content device will always work by plugging it back into another TV.
TVs are just large monitors nowadays. That's it. Stop locking yourself into the apps, content, media, etc. supported by a Smart TV. Buy a Dumb TV (I would actually advertise one as that if I were a brand-leader, people WOULD buy it, if only for self-deprecation!). Buy a smart device that displays your content. In fact, get several. It'll cost no more and you'll have a backup.
And nowadays a Dumb TV, a variety of cheap/free devices to display over-the-air content / casts / streams will be cheaper than, more reliable than, most cost-effective than, more upgradable than, and more resilient to service failure than a single Smart TV.
Just sayin'
If it were true that "more people than not want a nice flat screen they can hang on the wall and not have any other boxes", then you'd still be able to buy a TV equipped with a CableCard slot.
Seriously, at this time, I gave up on Samsung since $ for $, they are expensive and really have not only QA issues, but bad marketing. My TV actually has the ability to control the tuner, but samsung has elected to not allow that. Why? Because they charge a great deal more for that.
At this time, we are looking at going to Vizio.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"owners of older Samsung TVs are not reporting the issue"
Wouldn't have anything to do with older TVs not getting *any* updates at all, would it?
"They are stupid by design."
Samsung is now SamCried?
If you want smarts buy a fire stick, chromecast or roku. Max $50.
I don't know why anybody would bother with a smart tv. I refuse to get one, since I can just plug in whatever device I want to be the computer. Then, if I don't like one or the other, I don't have to throw out the whole thing.
Your error is in the term 'owner'. It should be obvious that Samsung is the rightful owner in this case, and that you merely bought a license to look at the alleged box as long as your complied with the terms of your EULA.
...a Curtis Mathes, the most expensive television set in America, and darn well worth it
Samsung UN32F6300 32" HDTV I use as a computer monitor only.
The drill - After many weeks of working it will turn off then on randomly. Unplug it for 24 hours or longer, see if it will turn on if so make a dash to the update selection, if an update it normally works for a bit longer. Of course the fix of turning off all sleep times was followed.
My old monitor is now next to it's side, as it's down again.
Samsung makes bad fridges, washers that explode, smartphones that catch fire and Tv's that spy on you ... why do people buy samsung?
I am so sick and fucking tired of all these software updates. If you can't produce a good product get a job at your local Pizza Hut.
And devops
Shoe-polished dried turds as jewelry is actually a thing -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
HI-End. For $1,800?
That sounds like bottom of the shit barrel to me. Ten times that for a mid-size (80" or so) is about "Upper Middle Class".
Smart TVs should've been enough for people to know why we should never have started going for IoT devices in the first place, unfortunately people are too dumb to notice such things.
When they first appeared, some over a decade ago, it already had all the problems they still have today. Long lasting appliance (TVs), tied to some extremely crappy hardware running a horrible OS that was never updated and got useless in less than a year, riddled with security and privacy problems that no one used past a novelty thing.
Now that pretty much all brands had some sort of scandal regarding smart TV leaking data, being used to spy on owners and whatnot, they are still there for some reason.
It's pretty much the worst way to do just about anything they are programmed to do. They have clunky outdated apps, last less than a smartphone or any other device, and brands drop support as soon as the new line of TVs comes out.
I have one, because I got in a deal where I got two TVs for the price of one. And fortunately enough, my model has a separate remote control for the smart TV functions which I shoved in a drawer after purchase and never used it. That's the smartest thing you can do with your smart TV - never use the smart functions. Possible exceptions for brands like Sony that uses Android TV instead of some poorly developed and badly maintained proprietary OS, but even those might be worse than just shoving a Chromecast or some other tabletop device there.
At least they're not exploding.
It's a Smart TV. It's telling the user to get outside and exercise.
AH HA!
"Now I remember where I put the Galaxy 8 patch!"
Recommendation: SELL Samsung stock!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.