Samsung Home Theater / Blu-Ray Systems bricked remotely

[.start]

Samsung made Home Theater and Blu-Ray Systems have effectively been bricked last Wednesday in what so far is assumed to be a botched software update of sorts. No official statement has been given on the matter so far (while some support channels claim that they are aware of the issue and working on the solution, others still seem to claim that they are not aware of any issues with these systems). In the meantime, customers have taken to the official support forums (at the time of writing the thread is 53 pages long already) and Twitter to vent.

 

Quote

Thousands of users across the internet are reporting severe issues with their Samsung Blu-ray players, home theater, and home cinema systems.

All issues appear to have started at the same time Friday, June 19, when the first reports began popping up on Samsung's official support forums [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], Reddit, and Twitter.

Issues vary depending on the device model; however, the most encountered problems appears to be that Samsung Blu-ray players are entering a reboot loop as soon as they're turned on (see video below).

Source: ZDNet

 

While some news outlets are claiming that this may be related to the expiration of SSL trust anchors (as already happened on Roku devices; see techradar's article on the topic), I personally don't quite buy it. The issue occurs on devices which were connected to the internet at the time and persists even when they are left unplugged and/or without internet for extended periods. Until Samsung officially acknowledges the issue and releases an appropriate statement on the issue, we can only guess.

 

What adds insult to injury is that these devices cannot be reset or flashed to a working firmware version by users since this requires holding a button while the device is running or even navigating the system's menu. Both methods require the system to remain on for extended periods of time meaning that users cannot complete them on their own on affected systems as they tend to reboot far too quickly (some HTS-J4XXX series models even seem to be unable to output HDMI signals).

 

So what's my take on this? Frankly the treatment customers are receiving here is rather frustrating given that no official statement has been released. One of my own systems has been affected and refuses to even provide audio via its AUX and digital ports (which has been my primary use for a while anyways) even though no auto-update functionality was enabled. It's also unclear whether these devices will be repaired at all given Samsung exited the home theater market a couple of years ago in favor of their sound bar products.

 

Given the situation, I'd also highly recommend to take any internet enabled Samsung devices off the network until this has been resolved given that we do not know whether the facilities in their Smart TVs (or even Fridges?!) contain comparable bugs or even share the same problematic module, especially since it is unknown whether affected devices may be recovered by users on their own without taking them to Samsung's service facilities.

 

Update #01 (24/06): Seems like Samsung is now offering repair for affected devices within the UK and Ireland (Source); Support is apparently slow to get going as agents still deny that there's a solution (Source)

Update #02 (24/06): German support is not aware of any solution pointing users towards a German thread in the same forum which still claims that there is no solution yet

Update #03 (30/06): Devices are repaired for free in Europe as far as I can tell - Samsung is still silent about what caused the fault to begin with

 

Sources

• Digital Trends
• lifehacker
• The Verge
• ZDNet

Edited July 1, 2020 by .start

[Shimejii]

Why make a brand new account for this

 

That aside, Brick updates like thisare a big oof. 

[wanderingfool2]

2 hours ago, .start said:

While some news outlets are claiming that this may be related to the expiration of SSL trust anchors (as already happened on Roku devices; see techradar's article on the topic), I personally don't quite buy it. The issue occurs on devices which were connected to the internet at the time and persists even when they are left unplugged and/or without internet for extended periods. Until Samsung officially acknowledges the issue and releases an appropriate statement on the issue, we can only guess.

It's less likely though that they would have issued an update for devices that were past their EOL.  A broken SSL actually makes sense, especially if you had yours with auto-update turned off.  Whether it is plugged in to the internet or not, SSL could still break things if they didn't handle the certificates correctly (e.g. it assumes there is a connection and tries loading an internal certificate and freaks out)

[.start]

21 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

It's less likely though that they would have issued an update for devices that were past their EOL.  A broken SSL actually makes sense, especially if you had yours with auto-update turned off.  Whether it is plugged in to the internet or not, SSL could still break things if they didn't handle the certificates correctly (e.g. it assumes there is a connection and tries loading an internal certificate and freaks out)

As far as I'm aware, these devices do not come with an RTC module meaning that they are not aware of the date and time unless connected to the internet upon startup so you'd expect that discharging any capacitors and disconnecting them would fix things (which isn't the case). Nor do they seem to establish any sort of communication with the outside in their bricked state which I'd somewhat expect if the date and time were critical to the application's startup (I realized this when testing the theory by connecting the player to a Linux machine running an ntp server announcing the current date as the 23rd of June 2019 along with a DHCP server assigning addresses from the 192.178.0.0/24 range while announcing the time server). The last update for the HT-J4500 was released in 2017 by the way (and thus already installed since you will still get update notifications every once in a while even when there is no automatic update).

 

Regardless, if it is related to the trust anchor expiry debacle, I'd have to heavily question Samsung's development department. For anybody dealing with PKIs, it should be obvious that these certificates expire at some point (typically every 10-20 years or so) and that the devices in question will be released in a timeframe where this could reasonably occur. Even if you plan for obsolesence (which I sure hope was not the case here), you could still assume that some poor sod may end up feeding the device the wrong date by accident, bricking it in the process (I'm looking at you, Apple ).

[DildorTheDecent]

>current year.

>actually using dedicated Blu-Ray players.

>not just using any of the Blu-Ray equipped consoles.

 

Honestly they played themselves.

 

Inb4, pRoPeR bLu-RaY PlAyErS aRe sO mUcH bEtTeR. They obviously aren't, kek.

 

[Dabombinable]

28 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

>current year.

>actually using dedicated Blu-Ray players.

>not just using any of the Blu-Ray equipped consoles.

 

Honestly they played themselves.

 

Inb4, pRoPeR bLu-RaY PlAyErS aRe sO mUcH bEtTeR. They obviously aren't, kek.

 

If only my brother's PS4 had come with the media remote (like my OG Xbox - excellent DVD player) - and didn't have it's PSU up and die. Then my Mum wouldn't have wasted money on a dedicated player (no name, already missing DRM updates).

[Froody129]

I think it's hilarious that we honest-to-god have to worry about Blu-ray drives and fridges bricking themselves through a software update. 

[Guest]

I haven’t actually turned my Blu-Ray player on since 2014, but good to know it’s getting updates.

[Intergalacticbits]

I never let my Blu-ray player connect to the internet because I just always had the sneaky feeling that someone would mess it up from across the internet. Trying to use it for something, degrade its play back quality to some degree or just trash it for meanness.

 

A somebody not caring that I went to the trouble of buying it and the disks because the playback picture quality was important to me.

That I spent my hard earned money for the picture quality, the large 4K TV, player and disks because for me half the entertainment enjoyment is the crisp quality picture.

 

A somebody not caring that I don't feel good about a streaming movie that goes up and down in picture quality while I'm watching it.

That actually looks fuzzy at times depending on what service I'm getting it from.

That makes me feel like a fool for paying premium movie prices online for what looks at times like a fuzzy UHF over the air antenna broadcast from back in history. 

 

Yeah I don't let my Blu-ray player connect online or my 4K TV either. I'll be glad to connect them when quality becomes important again in things and services I buy.

 

 They make stuff cheap today.

While I'm ranting, give me some freaking hardware for the money please world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jagdtigger]

27 minutes ago, Intergalacticbits said:

I just always had the sneaky feeling that someone would mess it up from across the internet.

If by internet you mean your local network behind a "router" that cannot happen...

[Intergalacticbits]

53 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

If by internet you mean your local network behind a "router" that cannot happen..

 

In the past the geographic area (local county and part of nearby surrounding county) where I live.

When flat screens with apps first started to be a big thing.

Peoples TVs were getting trashed here mostly just one brand and some of another brand.

Just locally here to the point they had to get them serviced or replace them.

Why here locally back then?

I don't know and I haven't heard about it ever happening anymore since then.

People in the area leaned they had to get separate streaming thing or not connect them at all during that time.

 

Other stuff more subtle happens sometimes too.

I don't want to debate it with you.

I'll just say people know what they experience. 

[PlayStation 2]

Smart products, because you paid more for a more dubious product.

[Belgarathian]

6 hours ago, DildorTheDecent said:

>current year.

>actually using dedicated Blu-Ray players.

>not just using any of the Blu-Ray equipped consoles.

 

Honestly they played themselves.

 

Inb4, pRoPeR bLu-RaY PlAyErS aRe sO mUcH bEtTeR. They obviously aren't, kek.

 

For the budget stuff, no you might as well just go for a console but for most people a cheap blu-ray player might be more accessible. On the other end of the spectrum, consoles can't keep up with the image processing and audio DAC chips that are in some of the higher end Blu-ray players so if you've spent good money on you AV gear then why would you skip on the source?

 

This is just dumb though.

[.start]

23 minutes ago, Belgarathian said:

For the budget stuff, no you might as well just go for a console but for most people a cheap blu-ray player might be more accessible. On the other end of the spectrum, consoles can't keep up with the image processing and audio DAC chips that are in some of the higher end Blu-ray players so if you've spent good money on you AV gear then why would you skip on the source?

On the budget side you'd also be missing the sound system with a console alone. For the low price of 150-250€ you'd essentially get a device that played physical media prior to Netflix and Amazon providing large libraries (at least in Europe) while maintaining the option to have access to those libraries in the future, decent audio for your TV (probably more relevant for the older folks) or PC and the ability to hook up your phone via Bluetooth for music. So compared to a console with an introductory price of roughly 400-500€ (which sure, you might've been able to snag for cheaper at times) you'd get a lot of bang for your buck.

 

As stated above: I've been using mine primarily as a sound system in my office for quite some time completely disregarding the fact that it could theoretically play discs (even though I have to admit that I had used its Netflix/YouTube integration every once in a while given that it's just a good bit more power efficient and quieter than a hefty gaming tower). If this is the end of it, I'd probably just replace it with a "dumb" audio setup of sorts and maybe invest in a Chromecast if I feel the need to access online content in the future. But honestly, if I was setting this up for my Grandparents, I'd still go for a fully integrated system comparable to this (aka TV + Soundbar these days) since it's simply so much easier to get used to (imagine explaining how to turn on three or four different devices and getting something to play to your Grandma - Just getting her not to accidentally delete the Wifi connections off her phone is challenging enough at this point).

[mr moose]

Why does this sort of device even need updates?   If service providers adhere to standards then your home theatre should be fine without an update. 

[wanderingfool2]

26 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Why does this sort of device even need updates?   If service providers adhere to standards then your home theatre should be fine without an update. 

Updating built in apps (I know a few sound systems that had functionality added on later, like streaming services etc).  Blu-ray players also require updates if the keys were cracked (I think, been a while since I looked at blu-ray specs).

 

In this case though, it really doesn't seem like an update would have done this.  Mainly because the OP mentioned auto-updates were off, and it's happening on devices that shouldn't be getting updates (due to their age and that there hasn't been an update in years).

 

My guess is still on something similar to a SSL certificate experation (or similar where it's using a time and getting glitched because of it).

[Trik'Stari]

It's almost like always online functionality that you as the owner have no control over, is a bad idea from almost every single standpoint.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Why do home theaters /blu-ray players need an internet connection, again? 

 

 

IoT continues to be the textbook example of how you can sustain a whole industry in the basis of negative productivity - effectively destroying value for end users. 

[jagdtigger]

21 hours ago, Intergalacticbits said:

I don't want to debate it with you.

If someone was able to mess with your stuff that is behind a firewall from the internet you have way bigger issues than not wanting to argue with me... (just for fun lookup your IP on shodan....)