Smart TV - Ads on the Menu Bar

[MrShak1982]

Surely there must be a way to disable this? If I'd known I'd be getting this I'd have brought a different brand. It's annoying me to the point where I'm serious considering getting rid. Sounds dramatic but it feels invasive. 

[MM_nl]

This is a very bad development 

It feels like when facebook was giving away privacy.

It not only feels invasive, without consent and without option to disable it, ITS IS INVASIVE.

Please fix an opt out. We paid for the device, that should be enough. (No need for extra commercial nonsens.)

The position, used colors and not least the content matching my personaly make me regret being a samsung customer. (not only tv : fridge, phone , washing machine)  

[Kidhack]

I hate when you buy something nice, elegant, and expensive only to be shown more ads on the thing you just bought. Really cheapens the experience. The amount of space it takes up is minimal, but the signal is huge: "we rather show you this small ad than give you the best experience".  It's why if Apple created a TV everyone would but it, not cause it's better, but because they care about the experience. 

[rthewhite]

Same here in the Netherlands...... 

This is my last Samsung product ever, and i will never recommend anyone i know to buy a Samsung product ever again.

It's ridiculous that i paid more then 1000 euros for a product, which was ad free when i bought it, and then down the line all of a sudden ads appear in the menu. That's not what i agreed up on when i bought it Samsung, can i please get my money back?

And you can say, it's only small, you barely notice. The thing is where does it end? And how are you treating your customers if you all of a sudden start adding ads to a product they bought expecting it to be ad free? I don't watch regular linear television anymore to avoid ads and commercials. And now all of a sudden i can't even switch apps anymore without seeing an ad, it's ridiculous....

[Nick4477]

I paid $2,100, u.s. dollars for my television set. And to have sponsored ads that are front and center on the main menu of the television makes it feel cheap and junkie. There should be absolutely no advertisement on this TV at all. Unless I want to put something on there on my own, because I own the TV and I paid for it. I called Samsung technical support and I asked them if there was any way to remove it and they said there was no way that it's embedded into the TV. But they would voice my concern up the chain. Who knows how far that's going to go but this is literally a joke and I hope that Samsung is reading this. I don't know who thought having sponsored ads on a television that cost a lot of money that's front and center on the main menu of the TV was a good idea, really Samsung get your head out of your ass.

[Alex3001]

Absolutely no go, Samsung!

Howver, it helped me to remove ALL ads in my home network and all my mobile devices ANYWHERE

Here is how to get rid of ads for good.

There are several ways to do it.

Way I (very easy, but dangerous):

Use AdGuard DNS server instead of the standard one.

Login to your internet router. I am using fritz box, so I go to fritz.box

Goto Internet entry and find your DNS server addresses there

Change them to AdGuard DNS servers:

IPv4

176.103.130.130

176.103.130.131

IPv6

2a00:5a60::ad1:0ff

2a00:5a60::ad2:0ff

This will block all ads in your home network.

This way is dangerous though: one has to rely on AdGuard integrity.

If anybody hacks AdGuard, they might use it for fishing!

Way II

A way more complicated, but reliable and safe. I'm using it now when typing this message.

Buy a device running Linux. (I am using a raspberry PI)

Connect it to your router and give it a fixed ip address

Install Pi-Hole there

https://pi-hole.net/

Use the ip address of the Pi-Hole device as the DNS server in your router.

This solution is much more safe.

You have a full control on the list of blocked servers.

There is some half a million entries in that list now and it is automatically updated.

The Pi-Hole does nothing else, but blocking.

It will not substitute your bank address for a fishing address.

[Chris166]

That's a fine solution. But, in fact you have only to block:

ads.samsungads.com and

samunsgads.com

If your way is to much trouble.

[Pouryashamsi]

I have the same issue even after I disabled the "3rd party ads". Guess which TV is going back to the store

[Nick4477]

They'd rather have people return the TVs and take a loss instead of releasing a firmware that permanently disables the advertising. That to me is unbelievable.

[Nick4477]

Personally I found that putting this ad blocking DNS server address in the TV block all the ads in the TV completely just going to your network settings and adjust your DNS settings and put in this IP address like the previous post mentioned.

176.103.130.130

Put that DNS address in your TV and reboot your TV and the ads will be gone when a couple minutes they will be gone. Works fine for me.

[dgp1000]

I have tried blocking domain names and monitoring the log on my router and have come to the conclusion it is hard coded, at least on my 2020 model. The only option seems to be to use the service menu which I don't want to try until the TV is out of warranty.