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.

Comments

"Smart" TVs are stupid.

[sycodon]

Even when they are working correctly.

Re:"Smart" TVs are stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

My TV has youtube support.

Oh wait, it doesn't anymore because youtube deccided to block the api and my tv didn't get an update for it. At least I got a free chromecast as compensation.

You're putting yourself at the mercy of third parties with your tv. If hulu and pandora decide to change their api and your manufacturer doesn't push an update, because it's more then a year old, then I'll see you back crying about how unfair it is.

Re:"Smart" TVs are stupid.

[HiThere]

And to evaluate properly you need a test system that you can expose to the update. When you only have one system, that doesn't work so well.

Re:"Smart" TVs are stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

If they test the update at all, it ought to work the same on all of them, no?

Hell, no. Even within the exact same model a production run is constantly changing as "cost accountants" source components from different suppliers based on price. In theory they're only supposed to use compatible components, but practice inevitably proves this wrong again and again.

The exact same problem occurs in car manufacturing as well. On top of that component suppliers (e.g.: ZF) are constantly tweaking their products while supplying them to OEMs with the exact same SKUs.

Why? Just why?

[H3lldr0p]

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.

Re:Why? Just why?

[Aaden42]

I know we're all nerds here, but most of the market doesn't like having multiple devices & wires to configure. Given a choice between a TV that "has Netflix on it," versus attaching and configuring a separate Roku, AppleTV, or Chrome-ish stick, the vast majority of consumers will plug the TV into power, connect to their WiFi, and be much happier than if they'd had to deal with yet another box with yet another remote and more wires.

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.

Inadequate QA on updates and bricking TV's is lousy business, but again it's a minority of customers who are capable of recognizing that the smart TV caused a greater problem than a separate device. Even that is debatable given the number of users who just use streaming at this point. If an update bricked their Roku and left their TV functional but with no available signal to watch... I guess mailing the bricked Roku back for service is easier, and it's cheaper to replace outright, but that's about it.

Smart TV done Stupid

[drinkypoo]

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.