Philips has been able to add SHA-2 hash support to several of its smart TVs, meaning the smartTV functionality will continue to work. The company previously reported that adding support for SHA-2 was not possible for its high-end smart TVs from 2009, leaving owners of these TVs without smart TV functionality.
In November we reported that high-end Philips smart TVs from 2009 would no longer be able to use the smart functionality because the electronics giant was unable to add support for SHA-2 hashing to the TVs. Philips later offered them to be compensated with an Amazon Fire TV stick.
Philips received about 1500 requests of affected smart TV owners to receive a Fire TV stick, a Philips spokesman told the website Tweakers.net. However, just before Christmas, the company did find a way to add SHA-2 support, meaning owners can continue to use their smart TV as they were used to.
Therefore Philips also decided to no longer offer the Fire TV sticks as compensation. Only users that made their compensation request in time will get a Fire TV stick. But in reality most users will not really get a Fire TV stick as Philips found out that the 2009 TVs are not compatible with the device. Therefore Philips sends out Chromecasts by default. Users who nevertheless want a Fire TV stick can request to get one instead of a Chromecast.
SHA-2 is the successor to SHA-1, a secure hashing method used for HTTPS. SHA-1 is currently phased out as it's no longer considered secure. E.g. any Youtube app is no longer allowed to connect using SHA-1 by Google. Therefore Philips had to add SHA-2 support to its TVs which it first claimed was impossible.
