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I don't connect any of my Samsung TVs to the Internet, instead opting to use Google's stupid Google TV sticks, with some modifications to reduce some of the crapware that even those ship with and get rid of the otherwise unavoidable advertisements everywhere. This is, so far, the best setup I've managed, but even then it's far from ideal. These TVs are absolutely buggy. The most HDMI ports you can seem to find is around 3, and good luck getting them all to work right. HDMI CEC support can be enabled, but for some dumb reason you can't control the volume over HDMI CEC, so you still need an IR blaster for that (one point for using Google TV: the remote has a pretty versatile IR blaster built-in.) You also may think a Samsung TV and a Samsung "soundbar" would be a good pairing since they're both Samsung, and you'd be very foolish to think that, don't bother updating the firmware on either thing, it's going to randomly not work either way. I have to reboot the damn thing any time I want to use the HDMI input that it forwards to the TV because of course that doesn't work even when the firmware on both devices is completely up to date. Lest you think maybe it's just me, I have family who also has a Samsung TV + Samsung Soundbar combo and it also is similarly spotty. What I want: - A display panel that looks decent. - A decent HDMI switch built-in, 5 inputs seems fair enough. - A remote control that can send inputs over CEC. - Automatic power off when there's no connection. What I get: - Advertisements everywhere. - Tizen, the most miserable operating system I've had the displeasure of trying to use, and its godforsaken app store of garbage. - Display processing that makes everything look horrifying by default. - A game mode that improves latency from horrific to awful but causes really strange and confusing glitches. - An ecosystem of very questionable hardware. Overpriced speakers inside of a plastic shell with a bunch of marketing attached, that barely work, and require taking one of the two or three HDMI ports you have for full functionality. - If you dare connect it to the internet, you are subjected to ACR and data collection that should probably flat out be outlawed. I didn't ask for any of this, but Samsung et al. need more revenue sources for these things I guess, that I don't believe they even sell at a loss anyway. At this point I'm wondering if there is a single fucking thing I will ever buy in the future that I won't become completely disillusioned with. There's also my car, which has software brakes, and there's a known software bug that can cause them to error when you start the car sometimes, and it's not even an EV, where I'm sure I could experience the hell of tomorrow, today. |