I live in an apartment building whose walls don't really attenuate RF at all. And like most of the building I have a Samsung "smart" TV. So most evenings I get three or four screencast requests from neighbors' phones that I have to deny. That's annoying enough but it also stops whatever I'm watching in the process.
The manual didn't include instructions for turning off Bluetooth, and when I called Samsung they said you in fact can't turn it off. I could simply pull the antenna, I guess, but it seems to be integrated with the WiFi so then I couldn't watch any streaming.
I ended up changing the BT device name to "STOP USING THIS ONE" but apparently nobody reads it because I still get the connection requests daily.
I’d probably just turn off Bluetooth / WiFi and get a setup box like Apple TV, Roku etc. which usually is much nicer than the TV OS anyway. The only time I’m interacting with my TVs UI is when I’m switching input channels.
Ditto. AppleTV or Nvidia Shield (with custom launcher). Personally, I'm now in with AppleTV. I had two Shields and hated when they pushed an update a few years ago to stock android that pushed ads (to services I didn't subscribe to) and that was it for me. There werent as many custom launchers as there are nowadays, but still, went to AppleTv and have been happy. That said, I'd stay clear with Roku with their latest shenanigans as they continue to test their customer's limits with ads now on their home screen [1]. Granted this is on their TV sets, I would still stay clear of their dedicated set-top boxes as it's only a matter of time when they push their limits there too [2].
[1] <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/roku-says-unpopular-...>
LTT made a video [0] where they tried "5G blocking paint" in real world scenario, this is always an option if you like black.
> I live in an apartment building whose walls don't really attenuate RF at all.
I wonder if there's a market for special panels that block sound and common wifi/bluetooth bands...
> So most evenings I get three or four screencast requests from neighbors' phones that I have to deny. That's annoying enough but it also stops whatever I'm watching in the process.
I'd be tempted to call support every single time, and feign that I simply can't understand why their product that I purchased keeps breaking...
I reinstalled a BLE inspect app to troubleshoot something, and I was shocked at the sheer amount of Samsung TVs (and I own none) I had to wade through to find my device. The fact they're all in discoverable mode at all times makes opening my regular Bluetooth just as bad, too.
>So most evenings I get three or four screencast requests from neighbors' phones that I have to deny
What happens if you accept it? Do you just see your neighbors screen? This sounds like something terrifying enough to convince your neighbors to pay attention.
Simply rename the device “malware” at this point.
It wouldn’t make a difference
Hmmm, if only there was some actual malware exploit which would configure "victim" devices so that they would never connect to something of the exact same bluetooth/wifi name ever again.
Then you could pick an improbable name and run a rather spicy honeypot for a while,, until there's no more activity. Then it'd be safe to turn it off and bring the real device online.