in 1305591 20140421 124255 Timothy Murphy wrote:
Mike Tomlinson wrote:

Wonder if it has some sort of phone-home thing going on... You have just
put me off buying one now!
You'd be crazy to buy one.

I've several Samsung devices - Android phone and two TV's (series 5 and 6),
as well as a printer and DVD player.
In my experience Samsung hardware is unsurpassed,
but their software is strangely bad.
However, my series 6 TV seems to have improved quite a lot recently,
with 2 updates yesterday adding apps that are quite useful.

They're full of bugs and vulns, and you're
dependent on the manufacturer to provide firmware updates. IMO it's
better to get a thick TV and a separate set-top box that can be swapped
out or upgraded to a more capable one.

I just bought a Google Chromecast but haven't tried it yet.
I'm not clear if this could be use in the same way as a set-top box?
(It came with no instructions whatever.)

Are you sure? Mine came with set-up instructions and was up and going in
5 minutes. I've mostly used it for youtube on the TV (sport & concerts).