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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.
Presumably they worked when purchased so they paid 1800 for a TV that Samsung converted to a paperweight. I have to wonder, don't they test these updates on real sets?
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.
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.'"
my last TV purchase was a dumb TV.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
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.
I tried using a Universal remote once. People in alpha centauri were not amused to be muted.
#DeleteFacebook
It is Samsung, at least they didn't explode.
whether it is a relatively rare issue that is being blown out of proportion.
I'm not so sure about "blown out of proportion", even if it is rare. It serves to highlight the risk and folly of buying a "smart" TV -- or, for that matter, any expensive thing that includes a computer you have little control over, that depends on third-party services, and that and that you don't intend to replace very often (I'm looking at you, automobiles).
what if they just made it so without connection it won't boot or it needs to phone home occasionally.
Then it goes back to the store.