I have a smart TV that is connected to my wifi. Online-wise I make use of only Netflix. I do see, though, icons for my desktop, my laptop, YouTube, etc.
The few times I tried monkeying with these, the interface seemed clunky and the load time led me to abandon exploring further (I admit I didn’t spend a whole lot of time nor effort on this).
Do folks use their smart TVs to browse the internet? Watch YouTube videos? Scroll through photos on their PCs?
I have a feeling these features are whistles and bells that don’t quite work efficiently enough to be practical, but I want to make sure I’m not missing out on any fun.
mmm
YouTube, yep. I don’t bother so much, but the other half has subscribed to a bunch of YouTube channels he’s interested in, and YouTube makes pretty good suggestions for his interests based on his viewing history.
Netflix is the main feature we use, and other similar services. As you say, web browsing is too clunky and awkward to be worthwhile.
ETA: although, now that I write that, I can’t recall if he’s using YouTube from the Smart TV, or from the Chromecast…
Also a Samsung Smart TV, and to be honest, I generally do 3 things with it:
[ol]
[li]Component input from the DVD player. Not that “smart” to be honest.[/li][li]Playing videos and music from USB flash drives. Quite smart.[/li][li]Music over Spotify app. Smart enough.[/li][/ol]
Considering the list of features and functions it has, it may seem like I’m not doing much… but I feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth from it and more.
All of the apps? Certainly not. But I use several.
I use the Netflix and YouTube apps regularly. I use the video player frequently. I use the browser, picture viewer and music player occasionally. I used the Flixster app until I exhausted everything they had that I wanted to watch. (Should check back, see if they’ve added anything new.) I broadcast from my tablet, sometimes (sometimes just for fun, sometimes because I want to play a video that neither the TV or BluRay will play right).
I also use several of those on my BluRay player, due to the ideosyncracies of the versions of the apps on each. (TV Netflix stretches 4:3 videos whereas BluRay Netflix is slower to respond, TV and BluRay (non-disk) video players choke on different formats, TV YouTube has weird sound issues with certain videos, whereas BluRay YouTube is slower to respond again.)
No, I’m not using the full range of its capabilities - life’s too short. It doesn’t help that different manufacturers have such widely differing interfaces and ranges of apps. It could be useful that my TV can access all the files on my personal cloud hard drive (the 21st century equivalent of the holiday snaps slide-show!), but the interface to the web browser is really fiddly (using the remote to chase a pointer around an onscreen keyboard - what’s the point, in the end?), and a lot of the available apps are to fairly crappy subscription services offering nothing of any great interest. But mine has access to a couple of French and German services, which would suit my interests, if I could make time to watch the news in French or German.
I do make some use of the on-demand services of the main terrestrial channels, as a back-up for things I’ve missed or not set the PVR for.
In a sense, I do. I use all of its major inputs: HDMI, USB, Bluetooth & Internet (I have it wired via Ethernet rather than wireless).
More precisely, I’ve used it for cable, my Blu-Ray player, streamed stuff off YouTube & Kodi, used Pandora and viewed a movie off a USB stick. Played with Chromecast a little but haven’t had a need for it yet. I even installed an Android game on it when I saw Google tell me that it works on “all your Android devices” and saw my TV listed. I have it paired to a cheap Bluetooth keyboard which is nice when I want to search something on YouTube, etc. Only thing I’m missing is Amazon Prime video but that’s because Amazon is a jerk about making a general Android app and would rather try to make you screw around with their Fire stick for another $40 and it’s not worth that to me (especially since my TV natively has all the stick’s other features).
Technically, I’ll never use all of its capabilities because it’s essentially an Android tablet that gets cable. I’m not going to read the SDMB on it (though I do have a web browser but it’s clunky) or shop Amazon on it. I’m not going to hop on it to check the weather or my email versus just using my phone. But I certainly get the “Smart TV” experience out of it.
I have had some different types and it depend a lot on the interface. If the interface is good it’s better to have in all in one unit, one remote and all. If it’s bad it’s not worth it and a stick TV of some type would be better.
My current one is a LG with Web OS and it does a good job integrating all those services into a single and simple menu, I really like how the search will do so across services and return a list of where the movie is offered, where I can go directly to the app I chose. I also like how it even integrates TV inputs, allowing me to add them to the smart menu as a choice like ‘Netflix’ or ‘Youtube’ and how when I connect a device to that port it pops up and asks me if I wish to switch to it.
Mine is great for Netflix and Amazon Prime. I use it for YouTube too, but the search capability seems limited. I can, however, search YouTube on my phone and cast it to the TV.
No one uses all the capabilities of any electronic device. Manufacturers fill them with features that are useful to some but not all of their customers. The idea is to give something worthwhile to all segments of the potential market, even if those segments don’t overlap. And the general feeling is the more features, the better.
I used to play my music through our smart TV, via the Amazon music app.
Not too long ago I got this email:
[QUOTE=Amazon Customer “Service”]
Hello,
We’re writing to let you know that the Amazon Cloud Player app will no longer be available on your Samsung TV after November 30, 2016.
This means you won’t be able stream music directly from the Amazon Cloud Player app on your Samsung TV. As we continually seek to improve our service, this occasionally means we can no longer support certain devices or features.
[/QUOTE]
Jerks. :mad:
Yeah, Amazon wants everyone to shell out forty bucks for a piece of junk with 99% redundant features compared to the TV you already own.
Funny thing is that, anytime I go to make a purchase, Amazon piddles itself trying to tell me “Did you know you can watch MOVIES!!!” – Yeah, I knew but you actively put up barriers to stop me from doing so. Nice value-added feature there :rolleyes:
Not quite. I worked for a TV manufacturer for 12 years and the driving force in SMART TV apps was to have more than the competitors. No thought was given to usefulness of the apps, just the sheer volume of app icons to put on the box.
I got one of the new Vizio TVs. They’re getting rid of apps and just building Chromecast right into the TV. So I have all the apps I need without having to deal with their stuff.
The streaming capabilities are usually limited and neither upgradable nor expandable. The manufacturer-specific capabilities are… primitive at best. The interface to use and control all of the features is usually somewhere between late alpha and “we don’t need beta testing.”
But I do tell my audiences that the can mess with the stuff built into their TVs, disc players and game consoles to get a feel for streaming before they buy a device. Good enough for that.
I don’t use any of the features of my Samsung smart TV. Apps are clunky and slow.
I have a TCL TV with built-in Roku and I use all the features of that. It’s really a Roku with a monitor as opposed to a TV with smart features tacked on.
I use the Netflix, Amazon prime, youtube, web browser, picture sharing apps on my LG TV. They all work fine. I wouldn’t call them “late alpha” at all. The only thing I don’t like is the clunkiness of text input, which every device run by a remote has.
Might depend on the OS the TV has. Mine has Android TV and runs smooth for me. As I said, I synched a Bluetooth keyboard for text input and everything’s groovy.
But it looks like Android TV is just on a handful of devices so maybe other operating systems aren’t as user friendly or responsive.