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Ask HN: Tips for hacking a TV?

76 points fewgrehrehre | 1 comments | 16 Oct 24 03:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source

I've got a spare television lying around (specifically, a Samsung UN24H4500), and I thought it'd be fun to take a crack at seeing what I can do with it. The only hitch is that I've never really done any hardware hacking before, so I don't really know where to start!

Any tips and pointers would be much appreciated, in terms of common ways to search for and exploit vulnerabilities, or the exploitation of other televisions. Alternatively, if this is an absolute fool's errand, and the whole thing is locked down tighter than Fort Knox, a firm warning that this is not a good thing to dick around with over a weekend would also be appreciated.

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Benjamin_Dobell ◴[18 Oct 24 09:51 UTC] No.41877796[source]▶
Hacking TVs was a favourite pasttime of mine. There's nothing quite like flashing a TV with AOSP such that it thinks it's 55" smartphone. Lock screen and all.

See if you can find a service manual for your TV. You'll want to get UART as soon as possible.

Just remember crashes are for chumps: https://gist.github.com/Benjamin-Dobell/bb13f6169aaa48625453...

PS. I think that may be my favourite piece of code I've ever written. Mostly because it's completely absurd but worked just fine.

replies(1): >>41878262 #
rubyfan ◴[18 Oct 24 11:07 UTC] No.41878262[source]▶
I have a Samsung smart tv which I’ve never accepted t&c and never connected to wifi.

I’d love to make it dumb or at least get rid of the nags to accept t&c or connect when someone accidentally hits the wrong button on the remote. Anything out there to do that?

replies(2): >>41878621 #>>41879022 #
phkahler ◴[18 Oct 24 12:06 UTC] No.41878621[source]▶
Same. I'd be happy to turn it on and not have a menu over half the screen every time.
replies(1): >>41881577 #
1. rubyfan ◴[18 Oct 24 17:27 UTC] No.41881577[source]▶
In a world where Raspberry Pi exists you’d think we’d be able to make such a TV happen.