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Smart TVs are dumb

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Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#51

Post by gamblor956 »

ShabbyDoo wrote: post #47
georgemcbay wrote: post #23

In the last days of Chumby we were doing a lot of work with "Smart TV" platforms from Insignia[BestBuy]/Tivo, LG, Samsung, Vizio, etc, and this problem is (or was as of a year ago) pervasive among almost all the "Smart TV" platforms we developed for. It seemed ludicrous to me that they thought it was okay for your TV to have a 30 second to 2 minute bootup time. The Samsung TV we had was the only one actually smart en…

"but you can much more easily upgrade the set-top box with new features every one or two years whereas there's very little reason to get a new TV less than once every 5-10 years." This is the same problem I have with car audio (source,at least), built-in navigation systems, etc. The rate of improvement in cars and screens compared to the cost of upgrading is quite small compared to the value proposition provided by n…

This is why Ford's Sync and Toyota's Entune use your phone as a computer and simply provide a dumb screen.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#52

Post by incision »

MiguelHudnandez wrote: post #10

One reason to resent the pervasiveness of new technology -- not that it's inherently bad or that we're becoming luddites, but we don't want to deal with each company's separate and probably-shitty implementation of something we can do well on our computers. My refrigerator does not need to tweet. My refrigerator is supposed to keep things cold. That's all I expect from it. I don't want a half-baked inventory manageme…

I can absolutely relate to the PS3 gripe as I experience the exact same thing to do no more than watch a rare Blu-Ray.

Thing is, it's really a Sony issue, nothing intrinsic to Internet connectivity which could be used to auto-update in the middle of the night.

Connectivity isn't the problem, gimmicky half-baked features and poorly implemented/purposefully crippled functions are.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#53

Post by [deleted] »

gfodor wrote: post #41
mietek wrote: post #7

It's time for Apple to step in and show everyone how it's done. Of course, once this happens, a lot of people will develop selective amnesia, as it happened with phones.

Yup. The opportunity that will be there when I can hack out an app to run on millions of TVs is going to be as much a paradigm shift as the phone. (and yes, i know about the console attempts, but they are shit execution and only applicable to games really.) The TV ecosystem is basically the Apple playbook to a T: let the competitors try to design a more computer-esque smart version of a dumb device. Laugh heartily at…

[deleted]

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#54

Post by Nursie »

I like my Samsung Smart TV.

Sure, the 'apps' and the ability to search youtube are mostly pointless, but the DLNA is great. What's more, DLNA (player/renderer profiles) is not something that the linux box behind the tv can do very well, so I'm glad of the tv for this.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#55

Post by Domenic_S »

gamblor956 wrote: post #51
ShabbyDoo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but you can much more easily upgrade the set-top box with new features every one or two years whereas there's very little reason to get a new TV less than once every 5-10 years." This is the same problem I have with car audio (source,at least), built-in navigation systems, etc. The rate of improvement in cars and screens compared to the cost of upgrading is quite small compared to the value proposition provided by n…

This is why Ford's Sync and Toyota's Entune use your phone as a computer and simply provide a dumb screen.

Wat?

Entune uses your phone for Pandora & whatnot, but the maps interface is 100% old-skool (non-phone). The audio interface is built-in software. The things that come from your phone are your music, your phone calls, album art, and some data. The whole interface is some 1990s reject touchscreen abomination.

Data (stocks, weather) is provided by XM satellite data, and other data (updating apps) uses your smartphone.

I can't think of a more ridiculous mashup of technologies than Toyota's Entune.

Source: I have a 2013 Prius with premium nav.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#56

Post by mrposty »

DaneelO wrote: post #44

I recently bought an LM558600 and my experience has been contrary to almost everyone elses here. I've found that the remote is very sensitive and usable, and a large improvement over standard n/s/e/w remotes due to the nature of modern interfaces requiring more complex input. It makes entering alphanumeric input far easier too. It takes a little getting used to, but I didn't have the problems others mentioned, nor th…

plex isn't all roses on LG tvs, it's missing a 'watched/not watched' that lg has known about since 2011, but it is pretty damn good.

I've been using plex for some time now, and is one of the reasons I actually chose LG. but they are arsey bastards, integratings ads into their own interface.

http://twitter.com/posty/status/318213380311748608/photo/1

see here for known bugs and missing features: http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/28419-bugs-and-req...

the lack of an input button is maddening to the extreme, it basically forces you to use the interface.

i thought the magic remote was ok too, until i started using the other one, it actually makes so much more sense to me.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#57

Post by SoftwareMaven »

sk5t wrote: post #20
MiguelHudnandez wrote: post #10

One reason to resent the pervasiveness of new technology -- not that it's inherently bad or that we're becoming luddites, but we don't want to deal with each company's separate and probably-shitty implementation of something we can do well on our computers. My refrigerator does not need to tweet. My refrigerator is supposed to keep things cold. That's all I expect from it. I don't want a half-baked inventory manageme…

On refrigerators: Hmmm, maybe. Given the amount of food the average person wastes, some kind of inventory helper is a seriously good idea. I just don't want it to tweet, ever.

I agree, but a half-baked system doesn't help and just adds complexity to one's life.

I would love to be able to see what's in my fridge and pantry in real-time. But until everything has RFID embedded, it will never take less time than just looking in the cupboard when I need to know.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#58

Post by drawkbox »

mietek wrote: post #7

It's time for Apple to step in and show everyone how it's done. Of course, once this happens, a lot of people will develop selective amnesia, as it happened with phones.

Exactly, this isn't about smart TVs. It's to be able to use your TV screen as a dumb bigger monitor and it is the Smart Remote Controller or iOS device that is the actual Smart TV. Smart TV is being able to control your TV better with a device or gestures.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#59

Post by Glyptodon »

brigade wrote: post #38
Glyptodon wrote: post #17

I don't have a smart tv per se, but my TV does have a USB port, ostensibly to play back video, music, and pictures or something, all three of which it pretty much completely fails at if anything is the least bit atypical. Though it does mostly work with the pictures. I'm not sure why they even bothered. Of course it wasn't even a smart TV and it took me ages to figure out that I needed to enable 'gaming' mode to make…

Very few TVs use IPS, since IPS tends to have worse black levels and pixel response time than PVA/MVA (alternatively: it's more expensive to get equivalent specs out of IPS), which are the two specs that TV reviewers care about (black level in particular is the absolute king). IPS's strengths, viewing angles and especially color accuracy, are nowhere near as important to the reviewers, and also not as rigorously meas…

Your point is well taken, and using IPS as a shorthand for 'non-TN' was a mistake, especially with the large number of ostensibly different panel types around now.

However, I still think that generally TVs using the same panel size and type as a monitor are cheaper than the monitor equivalent, especially 32" and up.

Re: Smart TVs are dumb

#60

Post by SoftwareMaven »

pavanky wrote: post #34
macspoofing wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are tons of TVs that are doing it right. Like .... ?

About the smartness aspect of it: You have set top boxes like Roku which are designed well. Hell my PS3 is fairly easy to use. The previous generation of the LG smart TVs were also pretty good without having to deal with the gestures. As for dealing with switching the inputs, many older TVs and computer monitors come with a simple enough mechanism to switch between various inputs. This particular article may be about…

If Apple does something here, I guarantee you that you will be wrong.

The big thing is the if. Apple isn't going to enter this space to create another "me, too" product. They are only going to enter the space if they can do to TV what the iPhone did to mobile phones.

A lot of people think Jobs' implied that they had figured out the TV interface. I hope so, because I'm with a large majority of others in this thread: current "smart TV" is stupid and completely lacks imagination.

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