My recommendation now when that fateful time comes is just to stay away from Samsung TVs. Samsungs are built well in general, but I've found them the hardest to change settings on and they're known for capturing your data to sell and to serve more ads through the built-in apps.
All smart TV companies do that, but Samsung is the most egregious from what I've read.
LG is good and has Apple TV+ built into their smart TVs too, but still capture your data to push more ads, especially if you use their remotes to make voice commands.
Best way to use any smart TV if you want to avoid ads and offers to buy their movies and shows is not to connect its interface directly to your network. Leave it off unless you connect just to get firmware updates, then disable it again. They'll gripe at you about not having a connection, but I live with that to block the ads.
Then use your external streaming device connected to an HDMI port for the streaming. If your other gear is all Apple, it will work the best to use an Apple TV (with the goodness of AirPlay, Apple TV+, and Apple's better privacy protections).
That said, even Apple will try to sell you their rentals and digital movies on searches with Siri, even if you have a subsription service where the same show is free (with its subscription). For example, if you have Netflix and it has "There's Something About Mary" on it that month, Apple will try to sell you their rental or digital copy instead. Siri won't even see it on Netflix, you have to know it's there by using a search service.
DirecTV's Genie boxes do the ad thing, but now my parents see the screensaver only and not ads since it's no longer connected to their WiFi network. They don't have to look at blinking, annoying ads now when their show is paused, and DTV gets can't push them either based on their viewing habits since they can't.
They'll get rid of DirecTV altogether once I switch them over to their community's broadband system they already pay for with HOA dues. It'll be much cheaper by far even using more expensive channels and higher tiers, and they'll get free tech calls to fix things too without the runaround they've gotten from DTV to schedule repairs.
Guaranteed once we call DirecTV to cancel they'll hustle to keep them and promise all kinds of things (they've been customers since the early 90's), but too bad! Their customer service and tech support is outsourced overseas and horrible now, they just read from scripts and have no troubleshooting skills. DTV deserves to go. A decade ago their customer service was best in the biz, but no longer. |
