The problem with old Smart TVs... They start running slow.

[Marc_LFD]

Pretty much all TVs are unfortunately Smart TVs, but of course you don't have to use them if you don't want to, right? If it's a TCL that someone had, it was using the Fire OS and required to log in to an Amazon account so if you tried to skip, you couldn't use the TV at all. What gosh damn bs that is!

Back to my main point... For a brief time I had a Sharp 32" Full HD Smart TV running on Android, the problem is that it was Android 11 and the apps really made the TV struggle to boot up and work normally.

I assume if you buy a Smart TV that you just avoid using an internet connection + apps (that's if it lets you), then it should work fine as a Traditional TV. It's what I did with my 43" LG (WebOS), no system updates, nothing, just a TV.

 

[Scarlet]

Yeah I haven't even accepted the terms and conditions for my TV lol. I just have an Nvidia Shield TV Pro plugged into it and it does the job better than the TV ever would've managed itself.

 

[tech3475]

My advice when buying a smart TV is to buy one where you can basically ignore any smart stuff and use it as a dumb TV.

It's what I do with my Samung, LG and Hisense TVs which I only plug in for firmware updates.

Worst case a Fire stick, Roku, ONN or whatever is available relatively cheap as an addon.

My parents have a very old TV which was an early smart one, the TV part still works but the smart stuff is effectively useless. Amazon ended up giving my a free BD player when they dropped that TV....ironically that player's smart stuff is now useless but it still works as a BD player.

Yeah I haven't even accepted the terms and conditions for my TV lol. I just have an Nvidia Shield TV Pro plugged into it and it does the job better than the TV ever would've managed itself.

I actually just upgraded my 500GB model to an SSD and backup the old SSHDD, besides needing to manually turn it off and on via the front button due to power issues, it's surprisingly fast now.

I also re-pasted it while I was at it.

You may be interested in this article I saw the other day:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ield-tv-the-most-updated-android-device-ever/

That said, I wish they released a new model with this level of OS support, as I'd be hesitant to buy another one considering it's price in case they do drop support. It's already useless for the iplayer and missing other UK providers.

 

[DinohScene]

My 2010 Samsung telly also has "smart" capabilities...
I've never used it and never will, same goes for the next telly, it's just a glorified monitor really :'D
But no, nothing along the lines of artificially running slower or performing worse.

 

[diggeloid]

Smart TVs are a scourge. I've never seen one that didn't slow down after a few months. Finding a dumb one is pretty hard nowadays. AFAIK, most manufacturers subsidize the cost by selling your data and showing ads, so smart TVs are actually quite cheaper than their dumb counterparts. If you want to find one with a good panel, you usually need to look into digital signage, which isn't cheap and is meant for businesses.

My streaming setup right now is a cheap Onn with Roku built in, but I never accepted the terms of service nor connected it to wifi, so it is effectively a dumb TV. I have a Steam Deck w/ dock and a paired PS5 controller. When I turn on the controller, it wakes the deck, and then the deck turns on the TV and switches to the correct input.

Worst case a Fire stick, Roku, ONN or whatever is available relatively cheap as an addon.

Idk about the others, but fire sticks suck now too. They update constantly which (conveniently for Amazon), means old models slow down and become unusable. Even if you try to block Amazon's update servers, your installed apps will 'expire' after a few months, and will not launch until you reconnect. I ran into that when trying to use one as a simple security camera viewer that only needed to access LAN devices.

So yeah, everything TV related sucks right now

 

[Jayro]

I use a 4K TV as my desktop monitor, because I needed 4K on the cheap for Photoshop and CAD work, more than gaming. Needed the sheer pixel space, and the TV is larger than I wanted, but it's nice to watch movies on, I'll give it that.

But in order to enjoy it, I have to keep it offline, or I get annoying android-like popups and text bubbles hovering over whatever I'm doing on the computer and I will not tolerate that. So it stays offline. It's on an exploitable version of WebOS at the moment, but the exploit I tried that's supposed to be compatible doesn't launch.

 

[tech3475]

Idk about the others, but fire sticks suck now too. They update constantly which (conveniently for Amazon), means old models slow down and become unusable. Even if you try to block Amazon's update servers, your installed apps will 'expire' after a few months, and will not launch until you reconnect. I ran into that when trying to use one as a simple security camera viewer that only needed to access LAN devices.

I haven't had any real issues myself in recent years, although I tend to stick to 4k/max. Presuming they don't block Kodi or VLC which I use for watching videos on LAN/USB.

The main issue I have with alternative devices, including my Shield, is that they all have issues one way all another e.g. lacking specific services/apps.

That said, even alternatives like the ONN in NA have had issues such as bricking.

 

[Silterpy]

My first Hisense smart TV bricked itself with an Android update. Thankfully, I was able to contact the manufacturer on Reddit, and they sent me a firmware update file, which fixed it. I ended up replacing it 2 months ago because it randomly bricked itself again (it hadn't been connected to the internet since the first time it happened). I managed to find the firmware update again in the summer and used the TV for about 4 months. Then the TV would randomly turn off, so I replaced it with a Hisense Roku smart TV. The new TV has its issues, like a black screen if I swap inputs too fast. It's easy to fix but annoying. I wish they made 4k "dumb" tvs

 

[tech3475]

My first Roku smart TV bricked itself with an Android update. Thankfully, I was able to contact the manufacturer on Reddit, and they sent me a firmware update file, which fixed it. I ended up replacing it 2 months ago because it randomly bricked itself again (it hadn't been connected to the internet since the first time it happened). I managed to find the firmware update again in the summer and used the TV for about 4 months. Then the TV would randomly turn off, so I replaced it with a Hisense Roku smart TV. The new TV has its issues, like a black screen if I swap inputs too fast. It's easy to fix but annoying. I wish they made 4k "dumb" tvs

How is a Roku TV which should be running Roku OS bricking itself with an Android update?

That's like saying my Android phone got bricked by an iOS update.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Yeah I haven't even accepted the terms and conditions for my TV lol. I just have an Nvidia Shield TV Pro plugged into it and it does the job better than the TV ever would've managed itself.

that's all i do i never even go into the stupid tv's smart menu. also KODI FTW

 

[Marc_LFD]

that's all i do i never even go into the stupid tv's smart menu. also KODI FTW

That's the thing I like about Xbox even if I don't use to play, I can load up Kodi. For some reason the PSN Store doesn't or won't have it.

 

[Silterpy]

How is a Roku TV which should be running Roku OS bricking itself with an Android update?

That's like saying my Android phone got bricked by an iOS update.

I wrote "Roku" by accident. It was a Hisense Android 4K smart TV. I had Roku on my brain because my new TV is a Roku TV.

 

[wamble]

All SmartTV manufacturers spy on us, just like just about every mainstream device we buy nowadays. It's all about the spyware. Not a peep from the mainstream.

 

[tech3475]

I wrote "Roku" by accident. It was a Hisense Android 4K smart TV. I had Roku on my brain because my new TV is a Roku TV.

I have heard a few issues with Android based TV devices bricking, including ONN and Fire devices.

So far I haven't heard anything concrete as to why though except theories like low storage and poor error handling.

 

[lightwo]

Alternative 1: Get a "dumb TV", apparently companies like Sceptre, Caixun, Supersonic still make them. Throw your favourite media centre at it (PC? Xbox? set top box?) and off you go.

Alternative 2: Use a large monitor (or a normal-sized one if you please). Their OSD is as smart as they get. Ditto from above.

Alternative 3...?: Hack together your own TV by taking a display and throwing a display controller at it.

Full disclosure, I had no TV or even watched TV in any form for most of my life. I have no idea what people use with their TVs other than consoles, and sometimes computers

 

[The Real Jdbye]

New smart TVs are slow too, but Android TV/Google TV seems to be especially bad. Manufacturers always put the bare minimum specs they can get away with for 4K playback because streaming is literally all they care about (because they can sell you ads and dedicated streaming service buttons) and basic menu navigation is slow as a result.

 

[Chellarina]

Smart TVs are actually terrible spyware. They should always be left unplugged from the internet. And even then, they'll communicate with your phone unless you take steps. I have sensitive ears and would always get bothered with them communicating my personal data with high peeps.

I fixed this by removing internet access from the TV and buying a Fairphone and putting an alternative OS on there where I can block a lot of this stuff easier.

I had to get rid of my expensive Fire TV 4K because it's ads made it too slow. Replaced it with a Nvidia Shield which despite being old, has a more vanilla and hackable Android TV OS. Unfortunately, they finally updated it for the first time in years recently and it now also has ads plastered at the top of the menu. So... Yeah... How is that shit legal?

Theoretically, I can put the same custom Android OS on there that supports the Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, it probably becomes fairly useless if you do so because all these streaming service technologies and 4K etc "protect" themselves with proprietary DMCA protection algorithms so...

Maybe once I get Jellyfin working properly and I get fed up of completely and legitimately watching Netflix which I definitely do, honest, guvnor.

 

[Marc_LFD]

New smart TVs are slow too, but Android TV/Google TV seems to be especially bad. Manufacturers always put the bare minimum specs they can get away with for 4K playback because streaming is literally all they care about (because they can sell you ads and dedicated streaming service buttons) and basic menu navigation is slow as a result.

The good thing about Android TVs is if you don't want any apps on it, you can wipe them all and turn it into a "Standard TV".

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The good thing about Android TVs is if you don't want any apps on it, you can wipe them all and turn it into a "Standard TV".

How do you do that? It won't let me uninstall some of them on my mom's TV, and the storage is always full, so it'd be nice to get rid of them.
You can enable dev mode on Samsung TVs to uninstall the built in apps but they come back if you let it go online, still if you don't want to use the smart TV functions then you can just keep it offline anyway.

 

[KingVamp]

Well, I haven't even added the internet to the TV itself and it is still doing fine.