GRcade

While we have the HDTV thread for those living in 2006 who are confused by the choice of new flatscreen TVs...

http://grcade.co.uk/t:hdtv-threadcoming-soon?start=3200

...the world of Smart TV is increasingly growing and becoming a minefield of app catalogues and platforms that could soon be redundant.


Android TV

https://www.android.com/tv/

Vendors: Sony, Philips, Toshiba, Sharp, Chromecast, NVidia, TCL





Tizen

http://developer.samsung.com/tv

Vendors: Samsung





WebOS

http://www.lg.com/us/experience-tvs/smart-tv/use

Vendors: LG





Apple TV

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-tv-4k

Vendors: Apple

Anyone know what TV Denny's got?

Smart TVs are dreadful. When you compare Android on the Shield to the god awful mess Sony foul up their TVs with it's a night and day experience. It's the same OS and apps but Nvidias implementation is light-years better.

TVs should just become little more than monitors that let you change volume and switch between HDMI inputs. If they aren't going to put enough resources into implementing their OS and keeping it up to date then they shouldn't bother with it at all.


strawberry float Smart TVs.

bear wrote:Smart TVs are dreadful. When you compare Android on the Shield to the god awful mess Sony foul up their TVs with it's a night and day experience. It's the same OS and apps but Nvidias implementation is light-years better.

TVs should just become little more than monitors that let you change volume and switch between HDMI inputs. If they aren't going to put enough resources into implementing their OS and keeping it up to date then they shouldn't bother with it at all.


strawberry float Smart TVs.

I've briefly used Android TV on a recent Sony TV and was really impressed with it, maybe the issue only affects older models with weaker CPUs.

Poser wrote:Anyone know what TV Denny's got?

Denny has got a new tv?

My Samsung has Tizen then or whatever it's called. I just assumed it was android for some reason as it integrates seamlessly with my galaxy phone and tablets. I can instantly stream from or to those devices, so I can put photos, films etc on the t.v., or if I need a gooseberry fool, stream the tv to my tablet so I can carry on watching. It's really fast and snappy too, Netflix etc don't have any loading times.

NickSCFC wrote:

bear wrote:Smart TVs are dreadful. When you compare Android on the Shield to the god awful mess Sony foul up their TVs with it's a night and day experience. It's the same OS and apps but Nvidias implementation is light-years better.

TVs should just become little more than monitors that let you change volume and switch between HDMI inputs. If they aren't going to put enough resources into implementing their OS and keeping it up to date then they shouldn't bother with it at all.


strawberry float Smart TVs.

I've briefly used Android TV on a recent Sony TV and was really impressed with it, maybe the issue only affects older models with weaker CPUs.

In that case what will the experience on a 2018 tv be like in 2020?


The experience on a 2018 TV will almost certainly be outclassed by a 2020 version of something like the Fire TV stick which will be available for £50-70. When you can add modern smart functionality to your TV for that sort of price then using Smart TV as a selling point doesn't make much sense to me.

Smart TVs are the AV equivalent of those toasters that can also cook an egg. Sure there are people who'll tell you they are great but for most people they'd be better off with a separate toaster/tv and a small pot/ smart TV dongle.

I think the biggest appeal (from Android TV is the universal search)

Being able to type (or use voice) to find a movie/actor, then have the search engine find it on the TV guide and all your apps seamlessly is really convenient.

Was very impressed with the recent Google Assistant implementation.

Android is shambolic on my 2016 Sony 4K TV as well (XD93). The more you delve into the menus, the more it lags and slows down. It's also prone to producing random error messages as programs secretly running in the background just stop working. You can purchase and play games on the Google Play Store but I think you'd have to be mental. Sony TVs also have a bust EPG for satellite in the UK, which just adds to the whole ropiness of it all and makes the hard drive recording feature redundant.

Saying that, I wouldn't purchase any TV based on its OS. Set it up and never touch it again. The likes of AppleTV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox One, PS4 and SkyQ offer an infinitely better user experience for TV and will be supported far longer. Samsung are notoriously terrible for ceasing support of apps and slapping adverts everywhere.

I don’t bother with the “Smart” part of my TV. I have a Sky box, a PS4 and an Xbone and they provide me with all the on demand/catchup stuff that I need.

I've been using Netflix on my LG since I got it and it's been flawless. Can't imagine using many smart services beyond that, TBH.

I absolutely strawberry floating hate Android and regret ever bothering getting my Sony TV, its slow, unresponsive and for some reason doesn't work properly with my Yamaha soundbar.

I could accept the poor performance if it were a cheap £400 TV but for a Top end model like mine I expected far better than this piss poor wankfest of an OS.

I think Smart TVs are a great idea.

I use both Amazon Video and Netflix on my Smart TV (Sony Android) on a regular basis.

When I first got my TV I disabled a load of apps thinking it would make the TV run faster. Ended up having sounds problems with Amazon so reset it and just left it alone and it's worked fine since.

Team Panasonic. Didn't think I'd use the Smart tv part of my set but the media player app has been pretty useful for wirelessly streaming 4K video from my homeserver. Really surprised by it, especially it working over wifi while a wired beefy computer struggles on 4K. I've not touched anything else on it though... it has like 100 apps that just get in the way.

Kodi on a Firestick for my IPTV viewing.

Aren't all modern TVs smart?

Anyway WebOS is absolutely fine. Have to say I didn't use the smart features on my Samsung which was a few years old, but my new LG is perfectly fine at the moment. Having everything integrated into the TV is definitely a good thing and if it ever does get surpassed then I'll either buy a new box to provide those features or more likely a new TV by that time.

The Samsung was pretty slow and not very useful for me. So I used an Nvidia Shield, it didn't bother me that the TV had smart features which I didn't use though, not really sure why it would bother anyone.

The way I see it if they work that's fine and if they don't then you just use something else to provide those features and its just as fine.

HSH28 wrote:
Anyway WebOS is absolutely fine. Have to say I didn't use the smart features on my Samsung which was a few years old, but my new LG is perfectly fine at the moment. Having everything integrated into the TV is definitely a good thing and if it ever does get surpassed then I'll either buy a new box to provide those features or more likely a new TV by that time.

Hugo, have you attached any external media directly to your LG yet? I have a lot of stuff on a 2tb HDD, which I'm planning on filling with all of my DVDs using handbrake. I currently have this attached to the PS4 but, as you've said, it'd be far more convenient if it was just running through the TV.

I plugged the HDD into the TV, but it said the TV needed to format the drive. It will therefore take me quite a while to transfer everything across to a PC and back again, just to find out if it works well enough.

Just wondering if you (or anyone with a recent LG) had tried this yet? There's very little online about it (that I can see.)

Cheers.

Poser wrote:Hugo, have you attached any external media directly to your LG yet?

Yeah, I've attached an external HDD that I formatted and am using to do recording from the TV and a stick which I used to test a few HDR video files I downloaded.

Seems ok, though I can't verify how it works with different video formats or what it'll be like to navigate with a lot of content on a drive.

I've had a smart LG for years and it works fine.
Yes, I'm not the most demanding of users as I only use it for NowTV, netflix or Amazon but I've never had a problem and my new Samsung is equally fine for the same job.
It saves me having to use my fire TV or stick so I gave those to my parents.

HSH28 wrote:

Poser wrote:Hugo, have you attached any external media directly to your LG yet?

Yeah, I've attached an external HDD that I formatted and am using to do recording from the TV and a stick which I used to test a few HDR video files I downloaded.

Seems ok, though I can't verify how it works with different video formats or what it'll be like to navigate with a lot of content on a drive.

OK, thanks a lot, I'll give it a go this weekend. Think I'll experiment with some folders to keep stuff organised. I did find a guide after posting the above that says the TV defaults to NTFS format, which is handy as I'm hoping to use some bigger files than 4gb if possible.

Google just announced an Android TV dongle, it's only for developers right now but seems like a good idea

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker ... le-io-2018