My buddy has a Samsung Smart TV featuring a large "smart" remote. On one side, there is your standard remote control layout. On the other side is a QWERTY keyboard and other buttons meant for controlling media apps like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and YouTube... perfect idea for working with search boxes. The problem is NONE OF THE APPS recognize the keyboard. Seriously... why did they bother?
Smart TVs are dumb
61–70 of 94 posts
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#62One 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 recently did exactly the same thing with my PS3. I had an hour to kill, but it took overnight downloading the updates.
For comparison, I can download from Steam at over 5Mbps. The PS3 took 20 minutes to download a 50MB update.
My TV on the other hand, which is the pre-'smart' generation of Samsung TVs - does a reasonable job of streaming media from the network.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#63My TV, which is fairly new and a well known brand, takes 30 seconds to boot up from a warm standby state, and several minutes from a cold state.
What's more annoying than that though is that it takes a full second to change channels due to the needed signal capture and buffering for DTV signals.
The interface is abysmal and even with a HDMI cable and the BluRay set to the right resolution (a chore in itself), I still have to manually change the aspect ratio for some DVDs, which takes around 20 button presses and 20 seconds or so to accomplish, and then needs to be reset when done watching.
As a result I watch TV maybe an hour a week if that. Which is fine by me, but I doubt I'm the only one that has given up.
I remember having a TV made in the 1950s that had a rack of vacuum tubes in the back. It took less time to "warm up" than modern TVs take for their OS to boot. People complained a lot about the warm up time. And changing channels always happened instantly.
This is before we even get to "smart TV" features.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#64What else would one expect from a commodity business? The manufacturers are desperate to differentiate themselves from each other and from their own previous year's models, but their strengths are most certainly not in software, still less in UX. The manufacturers see their margins shriveling and are casting about, but it's pointless. See Panasonic making noise about getting out of the panel business -- it doesn't matter that they make the best TV sets; they can't possibly compete against contract LCD OEMs.
Of course the future is TVs as monitors; but getting there will be painful.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#65It's time to start calling these things what they are: monitors. Nobody would touch a monitor with a 30-second startup time. Retailers should start listing startup as another statistic in the product info, along with screen size and the number of inputs.
You clearly haven't used the ViewSonic monitors I have at work. They take a good 20 seconds to turn on from standby.
It's most frustrating as I use them as externals for my laptop. The laptop display springs in to life, but as I have one of the externals set as primary I'm waiting a while before I can see the unlock screen.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
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:…
I really don't get it why people over here are heads over heels about Apple. They most definitely will not re-invent the wheel.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#67It'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…
SmartTVs aren't even Android-before-iPhone, they're Windows Mobile.
I had a Windows Mobile handset, and while the hardware was fantastic, the user experience was horrific. That accurately describes any attempt to use the 'SmartTV' functionality on my Samsung BR/PVR box.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are tons of TVs that are doing it right. Apple doesn't need to "show everyone how it's done". This particular example is of one manufacturer messing up one product line.
It's unfortunately endemic to the whole industry. My "smart" TV is a Vizio. Really I wish TV manufacturers would offer "monitors" (screens without TV tuners). If one manufacturer goes this way, people who only want a screen for e.g. their Roku might buy that one instead.
Unfortunately, this isn't free for the manufacturers, and most people are not going to want to spend the same (still less, more) on a TV with fewer features -- even if they'll never use them.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#69It'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…
The problem here is that the TV hardware business is chicken feed compared to the TV content business. And while Apple is very, very good at negotiating with content owners, the money in TV is tied up in really, really complicated and retrogressive contracts, and the TV people perceive Apple as predatory, entirely missing the point of what happened to the record industry.
Re: Smart TVs are dumb
#70With the whole 'built-in Plex' thing that LG TVs had, I was actually pretty interested in getting one. After seeing them in action, I've realized that these people obviously don't test their software in any real circumstances. Companies building 'smart' devices need to ensure that the core interactions people are going to have with their devices are as good as or better than the alternatives. What LG could easily hav…
Maybe I'm weird, but 'smart' to me implies "uses zero energy when not in use".
This TV has significant trickle. I tested it with a Killa-Watt. You might be thinking of an energystar rating or something?