63 points
*

Projectivy launcher, problem solved adequately duct taped.

Stop connecting your TVs directly to the internet, I don’t care what OS it’s running. The trend is clear with TV manufacturers, and if your current TV OS doesn’t yet inject ads into your streaming box’s HDMI stream, why risk it updating? Because that’s coming soon enough, and I imagine what it does, an update requiring your TV to have internet connection won’t be far behind.

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24 points

Wait for the popups insisting you connect and upgrade before you can use the TV

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13 points

Projectivy is great. Some bugs here and there, but overall I love the much simpler UI and that I can actually keep my “continue watching” row at the top.

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8 points

Yeah a alternative launcher is the way to go, I use FL launcher but it’s similar. And what I like about android on the TV is that you at least get access to the system via adb and can turn off some things like the default launcher.

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1 point

This still needs lots of improvement I think. Accidentally removed an app from favourites and now it’s nowhere to be found?

I love the look and feel, but it’s far from the perfect launcher.

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4 points

Is there a consensus that Sony tvs are better due to android TV on them?

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8 points
*

I do appreciat the fact that sony TVs have native android, the TV menues are also more intuative IMO

Though regardless of the TVs OS, its best to not plug a TV directly into the internet. If you can afford it, get a dedicated android box, fire stick, or any other smart dongle you can afford.

TVs, your kitchen fridge, or even cars now seem to be a privacy nightmare. Updates also dont happen often enough or the manufacture chooses to drop support leaving consumers home networks at risk.

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5 points

Wouldn’t the android box, fire stick connecting the internet be doing the same thing that you don’t want your smart TV to be doing?

I always always thought getting one of those was to either circumvent the TV OS limitation (Example LG webOS) or to improve user experience on entry level smart TV or older smart TV.

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4 points
*

The one upside to a dedicated streaming box is the guaranteed security updates.

Netflix for example may choose to support the app on your fire stick or nvidia shield for a longer time then on a specific TV.

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3 points

No I specifically bought a Sony for my parents for ease of use and it is one of the worst purchases I have ever made.

I picked this specific model after looking for 3 months.

No where in any of the documentation or reviews did it say by plugging in a HDD I can only record a channel if I’m watching it and not record one channel while watching another which is a total deal breaker.

Also it has developed a fault where it basically shits its self every couple of weeks and the picture pixelates. It needs to be unplugged for a week and plugged back in. I’ve tried a new power pack but it doesn’t really help. The only other thing I could do is get a new main board but can’t source one with 6 months of searching eBay.

Do yourself a favour and buy a cheap LG panel and stick a streaming stick in it and never connect it to the internet.

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1 point
*

by plugging in a HDD I can only record a channel if I’m watching it and not record one channel while watching another

That actually makes sense if we’re talking DVB-[C, S or T] channels received through an internal hardware tuner. A tuner can only tune in on one frequency at once. To record one channel while watching another, it would need to have two internal tuners, which isn’t very common and, I’d say, not something to expect unless specifically advertised.

Also it has developed a fault where it basically shits its self every couple of weeks and the picture pixelates. It needs to be unplugged for a week and plugged back in.

Warranty?

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2 points

Warranty expired

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3 points
*

Mine is fine. But I don’t really have experience with any other smart TVs.

I’ve installed Projectivy launcher since Google mandated 50% of your home screen being an ad, though.

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16 points

These smart tvs just suck. All these integrated systems. Much better off having a seperate device like Roku or Chromecast.

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2 points

You seem to be under the impression that Roku and Chromecast don’t do the exact same things.

There is no good solution because connecting a Pi or something is not as good as modern TVs without an AV1 decoder and it also doesn’t have a good remote interface as far as I know.

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1 point
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I went down the Pi 4B with Kodi path. It wasn’t very reliable. It was just sometimes when I went to watch something, it just was broken. And I had to go through troubleshooting instead of watching whatever I had turned it on for.

I ended up with an Amazon firestick. Even using Kodi (and smarttube) on that works faster and more reliably.

But then I have the Amazon firestick nosing around in everything I do lol. But I did disconnect my TV from the internet…

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19 points
*

Don’t connect them to the internet. Problem solved.

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11 points

Nah. Not good enough for me. I thought I would just do that but the thing still has to boot android in order to show you the HDMI input. So it has to constantly suck power like a vampire in order to keep a SoC running, and if it loses power, it has to boot the system again.

I got a cheap TCL and it smells like burning plastic, even when its “off”. I suspect it’s because of that SoC constantly running.

Next time I’m buying a computer monitor instead of a smart-but-not-connected TV.

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5 points

Google TV and others require it

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2 points

??? I got a Sharp Android TV this year and it just works without connecting

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19 points
*

The author of the article is under the mistaken impression that bundling the “smart” features into the TV increases the price. It’s actually the opposite.

By injecting ads and bloatware into the TVs, the manufacturers earn more money, by far, than the cost of the features. A dumb TV would cost more.

The best solution is to decouple them; get the cheapest TV you can with the video quality/size you want, then attach your own device to stream content. I use a modified Fire Stick due to price, mostly with Stremio/Torrentio/Debrid, but there are lots of options.

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3 points

that works until they start connecting to wifi networks that are open, or to which they somehow got to know the credentials

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1 point

Fake news, as far as I can tell. Lots of claims this is happening, but nobody has brought receipts. Considering how easy it would be to catch, and how likely illegal it is to connect to and use networks without permission, this is definitely an urban legend.

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2 points

Lots of claims this is happening

I don’t know of this is happening, but I don’t see how a small automatic updare couldn’t “add this feature”

Considering how easy it would be to catch,

how easy it would be?

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1 point

This, or show an annoying popup over the screen saying it can’t connect to network and wifi needs to be configured

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