What You Should Know Before Buying a Smart TV

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Smart TV’s already have a nemesis waiting in the wings for buyers of the upcoming technology in the guise of The Red Button Attack, an exploit that can take over your entire system and on to your unsecured router.

Called a “Red Button Attack”, the vulnerability is already widespread in Europe, and could be working its way to the US and other territories.
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That was a bit of a pointless article. All it says is that it might get hacked and then fails to come up with any examples of this actually happening or any products that are actually affected.

Surely the rules are the same on a Smart TV as a PC, tablet or phone. Install a dodgy app from a dodgy source or an app that does something shady like "free" films or a dodgy stream and you will get what you would expect.
 
From the article:
HbbTV has recently been added to the NTSC standard for connected TVs in the US....HbbTV notably allows advertisers to target users for advertising purposes
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Sound good yeah, pay extra for a TV so marketers can advertise more to you, sounds worth it!


What you should know before you buy a "Smart TV": Build a HTPC instead. Seriously, a HTPC is substantially better.
  • My HTPC won't spy on me and send information back to some manufacturer.
  • You don't have to make sure an app from your manufacturer exists for services you want to use. Want HBO GO but have an LG "Smart TV", tough break for you, no HBO Go app for LG. It's a PC so it just works.
  • You aren't at mercy of access to content/features disappearing (like here with Samsung) because of a dispute between companies. These situations have arisen with other manufacturers as well.
  • A HTPC won't disable itself if you don't agree to the terms of service that get shoved down your throat in an automatic update such as what happened here with LG "SmartTVs"
  • My HTPC doesn't shove ads down my throat.
  • My HTPC doesn't have a "lifetime" where the manufacturer abandons it after X years adn things stop working as services get updated.
  • More versatile and keeps pace with updates to entertainment. New service "UlitimateBestEverNetflix2" comes out? Install the software or direct steam via webui from HTPC to TV. With a Smart TV - oh sorry, you need to buy a new one for that feature.

^Click links for shocking and articles about greedy fuckwad corporations doing their best to screw consumers.

I could go on with the list, but with what's there I really don't have to.
 
The idea of a "smart TV" has always been synonymous with the idea of a TV with a built-in VCR / DVD player.

If the built-in component becomes obsolete, you can't upgrade it. You're stuck with it hanging off the set like a tumor for the rest of its life as you plug-in additional components to replace the (now worthless) built-in functionality.

Might as well get a TV that's "just a screen" and plug whatever I want into it from the get-go.
 
No point trying to sell HTPC's to people in this forum. Surely you are preaching to the converted? :D [H] users can set this stuff up for themselves. It is the normal home user that is going to suffer from this issue. (In just the same way that the average [H] user rarely sees a virus as they know a scam when they see one)

There are very different types of Smart TV. I saw an LG the other day and was horrified by how heavy the advertising was. And that awful tracking built in as per articles posted here (see above). Some marketing teams are just evil and see their customers as a way to maximize income.

A brief play with a Sony looked promising - it felt very playstation like. Which makes sense.

I have a 2012 Panasonic TV and glad to report no adverts. Some of the features on the TV are handy - like access to the BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Vimeo, DLNA (I don't use NetFlix\Lovefilm, but they are also on there). These are damn handy to the average home user. All of the extra apps come via a walled garden controlled by Panasonic. Though 90% of the apps in there are crap.

Though I totally agree that nothing can beat a real HTPC (in my case XBMC) as it is much more usable and expandable option. Trouble is it needs a small level of geek to be able to get it to work and stay maintained.
 
Unknown-One said:
The idea of a "smart TV" has always been synonymous with the idea of a TV with a built-in VCR / DVD player.

If the built-in component becomes obsolete, you can't upgrade it. You're stuck with it hanging off the set like a tumor for the rest of its life as you plug-in additional components to replace the (now worthless) built-in functionality.

Might as well get a TV that's "just a screen" and plug whatever I want into it from the get-go.
Click to expand...

+1 this... Good advice for any tech level. Popular devices like Roku are cheap and fit the "smartTV" in a better fashion.

Let the TV makers make good TV's let the media players make media players.
 
You find a neighbor who has their TV facing towards the front window, figure out what brand they have, and build a box to send a string of remote commands that opens the TV's browser and navigates to the website of your choice.

With a laptop and an IR transmitter (or an android phone with built-in IR), it shouldn't be too hard for a skilled programmer to do.

This is actually a hack that has been around for as long as the IR TV remote, but it wasn't until recently that you could do anything more malicious than change the channel to c-span.
 
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Google's Chromecast. i think that for the majority of the people wanting a smart-tv, the chromecast what they want assuming that they have either an i-device or a google device. plus it's just $35 dollars. the chromecast isn't the best thing that i have ever purchased, but it's the best $35 that i have ever spent.
 
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