this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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I used to have a TCL soundbar.
In addition to being extremely mediocre, it promised to integrate with my WiFi so that music could be airplayed through it. After adding it to my WiFi, it still broadcast the open ‘setup’ WiFi network.
If you joined the setup network, you could SSH into the soundbar as root without a password and dump the dhcp.conf file, which would give anyone access to my home WiFi network. Other TCL models also allowed for root via SSH, but used 12345678 as the password. A skilled hacker could just bot these via wardriving and turn them into network listeners.
It may have still broadcast the setup network because I blocked the device from accessing the internet. I only ever went poking around on it because I noticed that the setup network kept getting set to the same channels as my home network and it was causing interference. I eventually just factory reset the device so it had no information on it at all.
After the umpteenth time of not being found by my TV, a hard reset killed it. Just got stuck booting and never recovered.
Anyway - crap brand. Sad day for Sony TV fans.
Read about that boot issue and how it starts as a "full storage" message. Also how it was outside the warranty period for most cases, so you end up with a literal brick. I'd be pissed if my TV died just a few years in.
TCL might not make a good sound bar,but I've never seen a bad TCL tv. Are they as nice as Sony? Hell no.
Do they cost 1/4 the price? Yep.
Edit: also, PlayStation is the only profit maker for Sony.
And TCL has been making displays for all of the major OEMs for years now.
Playstation is nowhere near the only profit maker for Sony https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q2_sony.pdf (from https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/archive.html)