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Comment by acwan93 | Hacker News Reader

Genuine question: what kind of updates would a dumb TV possibly need?

Antivirus updates of course. Why? Because you connected it to the internet to receive updates!

They are mostly app updates and security issues that only relate to networking and the smart features. But there are occasional updates to support new media features, new color management options, power management changes, etc.

My LG OLED has received updates to support TrueHD audio, add new color settings like Technicolor modes, UI functions like the ability to apply your customized picture settings to all inputs, and changes to the motion smoothing for certain video formats.

Makes sense to me. I just find it hard to believe that TV manufacturers will release software updates for older TVs, but then again I haven’t gone shopping for a TV in nearly a decade.

In my case my smart TV is getting HomeKit and AirPlay 2 support in the next few months with an update. A dumb tv probably wouldn’t need anything.

True, that makes sense. I guess my personal preference would be to keep my TV as just a display and hook up an Apple TV/Chromecast/etc. to it for those features.

Any digital TV could have a software bug that bricks it.

On that note, Samsumg bricked a bunch of their BluRay players (remotely), a few months ago via software update.

"Here's why your Samsung Blu-ray player bricked itself: It downloaded an XML config file that broke the firmware":

https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/18/samsung_bluray_mass_d...

I think the chance of this happening is much higher if new updates are being pushed all the time...

That is true although if the product is new (or the assembly line never ups the installed firmware version) day-one patches due to rushed software could be a thing.

But you're right, I was just saying everything with software has a reason for updates, though not a good one sometimes.

Any piece of equipment can have a malfunction that bricks it. That doesn't mean I want it connected to the mothership.

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