Why I will never buy another Samsung device

Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by 72deluxe on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @03:44AM (#30425465)

I have a Panasonic from a few years ago (cheapest 4K I could find; is "smart" so has Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and other UK streaming services like More4, ITV Player, Disney+) and it does rely on contacting Panasonic for them to work. Their server went down the other year and ALL of the services on the TV stopped working - Netflix wouldn't launch any more.

It does contact Panasonic but I have blocked the domains with a Pihole and closed outgoing port 53 other than traffic from the Pihole so nothing can make DNS requests directly (eg. hardcoded to 8.8.8.8).

The TV itself is great though. It runs FirefoxOS I believe.

The TV is not as bad as the LG I had before it which sent a web request to LG every time you pressed a button on the remote control... volume up.... web request to LG. Volume down... TV sent a web request to LG.

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Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by aembleton on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @05:52AM (#30426316)

> Their server went down the other year and ALL of the services on the TV stopped working - Netflix wouldn't launch any more.

> It does contact Panasonic but I have blocked the domains with a Pihole and closed outgoing port 53 other than traffic from the Pihole so nothing can make DNS requests directly (eg. hardcoded to 8.8.8.8).

I don't understand - you've blocked it from contacting Panasonic; does that mean that none of the services work any more? Or is there another domain that it has to keep in contact with that you've allowed? If so, why block the Panasonic domain when you allow it to chat to some other third party?

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Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by 72deluxe on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @07:33AM (#30427114)

Sorry to be vague. I blocked various domains that the TV wanted to use in order to send data back, eg.

ichnaea.netflix.com collect-eu-fy2017.myhomescreen.tv x2.vindicosuite.com

But it is allowed to access other domains such as: nrdp.prod.ftl.netflix.com api-global.netflix.com vcs.vdspf.com push.prod.netflix.com uiboot.netflix.com appboot.netflix.com auth-ctv.digitaluk.co.uk c09.api.freeviewplay.net secure.netflix.com

Nothing on the network other than the Pi can get out of port 53 (DNS).

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Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by secondcoming on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @08:05AM (#30427420)

Hmm, I wonder if all these connections can be used to see if someone is watching live TV without a licence.

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Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by ornornor on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @04:03AM (#30425588)

If you’re talking about an LCD Panasonic, I can’t say anything about them other then they’re a completely different series than the OLED. Almost like a separate brand.

My OLED has Netflix etc. I used the built in Netflix a few times but don’t anymore since because I don’t use Netflix altogether and not subscribed to them. I put it on a special VLAN that has no internet access but can still send and receive traffic to my home assistant instance so as far as the tv is concerned, it’s offline. But it’s never nagged me about it. And when it was fully online (when using the Netflix app), I never received any ad anywhere.

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Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by 72deluxe on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @07:36AM (#30427135)

Yes yours is the posher model! Mine is a LCD - just dug out the model number and it's TX-49EX600B. I languish in LCD land. (And it's 49" - no idea why I thought it was 42").

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Re:Why I will never buy another Samsung device by ornornor on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @08:14AM (#30427494)

Nothing wrong with it. If it does the job and you’re happy with it ,why change. I got an OLED because I didn’t mind paying the price as we use the screen a lot but that’s just me.

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