Samsung and LG smart TV intrusive adverts- is this an issue?

[Air Support]

Hi all

I'm looking to buy either a Samsung QLED or LG OLED TV a came across some articles about intrusive adverts when using smart hub apps.

It seems that these are almost impossible to switch off and I'm wondering if this ever was or still is an issue in the UK, as most articles (see example from the Independent Samsung Smart TV ads ) seem to be from 2016/2017 or on US websites.

Anyone suffered from this as any advice would be appreciated before I buy?

Thanks

[legzr1]

Never had them and it’s the first I’ve heard of them too.

Go look at both sets then choose the OLED

[Air Support]

Thanks for that.

I'm thinking of a 65inch B8

Ticks most of the boxes for me.

[anonymous-user]

Air Support said:

Thanks for that.

I'm thinking of a 65inch B8

Ticks most of the boxes for me.

Me too. Went into Curry's to buy the 55" but it was sat next to the 65" and I could not then buy the 55" !!! But £2k is just too much. When it drops below £1700 I'm in! :-)

[Air Support]

I tried waiting last year for price drops when looking at QLEDs, but it didn't seem to happen.

I have a feeling that OLED pricing may be kept in the same sort of range as it's very much a premium product - like top end laptops where ever more performance is added at each price point rather than price reductions across the whole range over time.

Anyway, right time for me to buy and luckily I found some money down the back of the sofa which will help (in reality some old shares I'd pretty much forgotten about which will cover the bulk of the cost).

Will be ordering this week in time for Xmas (I hope!)

[anonymous-user]

Enjoy!

I just can't justify it to myself - I have a projector - 135" widescreen, so really don't "need" a bigger regular tv (40" Samsung LED) but I want to move to OLED, but if I'm spending over £1k I want the step up in size to be big :-)

And I sit 12ft from the TV

We'll see..... :-)

[anonymous-user]

Hmmm. I can now get the OLED65B7 for £1795 delivered with 5 years warranty..... hmmmm

Edit, I've now found the B8 for £1792 delivered.........

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 2nd December 22:58

[Scobblelotcher]

I have an LG tv that shows adverts when using some of the smart apps, they aren’t the worst but are a bit annoying.

I personally removed the ads using a raspberryPI and (the free) PI-Hole application and all other adverts for all other devices on the home network. It took me 30-40 mins to do this but I do a technical trade so found it very easy and love never seeing an ad on the tv, iPhone, iPad etc. It just cost me £30 and an hour.

It’s worth also saying that it isn’t just ads but also lots of malicious traffic that comes via ad networks.

[Air Support]

Scobblelotcher

Thanks for the info 're the ads.

Funnily enough I have a spare raspberry pi not doing anything, but I do feel that when spending significant money on a product like this you shouldn't be subject to additional ads added by the tv manufacturer.

Can I ask if the ads are only in the operating system area when you are selecting apps or can they interrupt content on apps such as say you tube?

I'm pretty certain a you tube video was interrupted by an ad when the tv was being demoed in Currys when live streaming. That sort of thing would definitely pee me off!

Edited by Air Support on Monday 3rd December 01:02

[hbzboy]

RogerDodger said:

Hmmm. I can now get the OLED65B7 for £1795 delivered with 5 years warranty..... hmmmm

Edit, I've now found the B8 for £1792 delivered.........

Edited by RogerDodger on Sunday 2nd December 22:58

200 Less and you can get the 55" OLED C8LPA. beeter TV all round, unless size matters :-)

[Scobblelotcher]

Air Support said:

Scobblelotcher

Thanks for the info 're the ads.

Funnily enough I have a spare raspberry pi not doing anything, but I do feel that when spending significant money on a product like this you shouldn't be subject to additional ads added by the tv manufacturer.

Can I ask if the ads are only in the operating system area when you are selecting apps or can they interrupt content on apps such as say you tube?

I'm pretty certain a you tube video was interrupted by an ad when the tv was being demoed in Currys when live streaming. That sort of thing would definitely pee me off!

Edited by Air Support on Monday 3rd December 01:02

The ads you mention are delivered by two different parties. The ads displayed in the OS are LG’s and the ones in YouTube are Google’s. The YouTube ads are a fairly recent addition and are highly annoying if you watch YouTube a lot (I do). The Pi-Hole can be used to remove them all.

Basically everyone is trying to get their ads in where they can, which is very annoying (to me at least!)

Edited by Scobblelotcher on Monday 3rd December 07:36

[Air Support]

Thanks for the reply.

The OS ads aren't an issue I think as they seem reasonably discreet. The You Tube ads interrupting content would be really annoying. I usually view You Tube via PC, tablet and Amazon Fire tv which don't seem to suffer this after the upfront ads.

I take it that the raspberry pi once set up sits on your network and sucks up the ads. I did see some info on this online last night but it wasn't the best of explanations.

[Brainpox]

I get ads on the source selection screen on my Samsung.

They aren't intrusive but I paid a pretty penny for the TV so I feel a bit mugged off that I see any ads on the core menu of the TV...

[Air Support]

From what I can find on line it only seems to be Samsung and LG doing this and Samsung are the worst - funny how this isn't mentioned when you look to buy the telly!

At least I'll be going into it with my eyes open (I hope).

[Luke.]

RogerDodger said:

Hmmm. I can now get the OLED65B7 for £1795 delivered with 5 years warranty..... hmmmm

Edit, I've now found the B8 for £1792 delivered.........

Edited by RogerDodger on Sunday 2nd December 22:58

Where from?

[Scobblelotcher]

Air Support said:

Thanks for the reply.

The OS ads aren't an issue I think as they seem reasonably discreet. The You Tube ads interrupting content would be really annoying. I usually view You Tube via PC, tablet and Amazon Fire tv which don't seem to suffer this after the upfront ads.

I take it that the raspberry pi once set up sits on your network and sucks up the ads. I did see some info on this online last night but it wasn't the best of explanations.

Pi-Hole is essentially a DNS server that has block lists that detect ad networks being called and it black holes them.

For simplicity you would tell your router to provide the DNS address of the Pi-Hole for any devices that use DHCP or alternatively you could just point your TV's DNS at the Pi-Hole.

I have my router providing the Pi-Hole as the DNS address so anyone that joins either the wired or wifi network in my house gets the Pi-Hole DNS address given to them without any configuration on their device and it's hidden/seamless and they don't get any ads regardless of the device used i.e. ipad/Iphone,TV etc

[tenohfive]

RogerDodger said:

Hmmm. I can now get the OLED65B7 for £1795 delivered with 5 years warranty..... hmmmm

Edit, I've now found the B8 for £1792 delivered.........

Edited by RogerDodger on Sunday 2nd December 22:58

Don't just look at who is cheapest, look at who will fix it without issue if something isn't quite right.
John Lewis or Richer Sounds do 6 & 7 year guarantees and have solid reputations for keeping customers sweet. If it's being sold by one of them - do it.

[anonymous-user]

The B8 was from a company in Latvia with only 12 months warranty so ignored that.

The B7 is from Reliant Direct (they get very good reviews all over the place) plus 4 others. £1795. That's with LGs 5 year warranty.

p.s. there is a scammer appearing in all the google price comparisons for the B8PLA "the electronics emporium" - way too cheap and clearly a scam. £1350..... :-)

[Air Support]

Scobblelotcher said:

Really helpful stuff .......

Thanks, starting to make some sense now and looks like a good use for the pi

[anonymous-user]

I ended up coming into a bit of cash so I went to Richer Sounds yesterday and grabbed the OLED65B8SLA for £2k. The more I thought about what has been said on here, the more it makes sense with such a big purchase to buy from someone who won't quibble if there is a problem.

Amazing bit of kit. Just waiting on the right bits to arrive to wall mount it tomorrow. Tried my 40" wall bracket and it ripped the rawl plugs out :-) (drywall).