Smart TVs are shit. Especially the modern ones. They got worse rather than better!
They are slow and laggy, even doing the most basic things like turning on or changing channel. It was faster the CRT that I used 20 years ago, and it had to warm up before displaying an image! But at least the audio started immediately...
They are also not usable. The UI is crappy and you don't find the most common settings, for example I had to search on the internet where to find the option to disable automatic turn off after 4 hours on an LG TV, the remotes are full of useless buttons (I don't want a huge Netflix button on a remote that if I press by mistake I will lose 10 seconds of the program I'm watching!).
Now I'm using a Sony TV, that I purchased 2 years ago only because it was the TV with less smart crap in it, it works pretty well, it does what a TV should do, let me watch TV channels, program guide, teletext (yes, I still use it), and nothing else (well in theory it has Netflix and other apps in it... but I never connected it to the internet and they don't get in the way). For all the other things, a simple media center PC does them better.
What LG TV are you talking about? My old smart TV was "slow and laggy", but as soon as I upgraded to a mid-range model a lot of those complaints went away.
I can't imagine trying to use a dumb TV now. We have four streaming services in my house, the UI homepage quickly shows which series we're in the middle of and makes it easy to jump back in without navigating a lot of menus.
Even if plex were to do exactly what I want, it's more effort on my end when I just want to be able to easily pull up shows without issues. On top of that, you need a very new TV (with new HDMI 2.1 features) if you want to really experience the power of next-gen gaming consoles.
An older TV might work for your use cases, but I think you're increasingly in the minority. No one I know (except my parents) watches channels anymore, they all just stream Netflix/Hulu/Crunchyroll/Disney. If there's something really niche I want to watch, there's torrents and videostream.
Stay away from cheap Samsung TVs and get a good Sony TV. I love my Bravia x900h.
I don't want streaming services inside the TV. I have a media center PC for that purposes, that is faster than using the UI of the TV, and lets me play all the file formats that I want.
> No one I know (except my parents) watches channels anymore, they all just stream Netflix/Hulu/Crunchyroll/Disney. If there's something really niche I want to watch, there's torrents and videostream.
I watch TV channels in multiple occasions, form watching the news, to watching live sports events (that you don't find in streaming or you find with a lag), to watch all other good programs that still make on TV channels, at least in my country.
That can be good for a user like me, because I can easily deal with an external set-top-box to watch TV channels (in fact I already have one, that also lets me record TV channels and even stream them on my LAN and outside with a VPN, that is cool since not every channel you find in streaming and also inside the house I don't consume my bandwidth).
But there are a ton of users, like my grandparents, that wants a TV that if they press the button 5 on the remote turn on on channel 5, without fancy menu and other stuff. That kind of TV is more and more difficult to find.
Next year they change to DVB T2 in my country (but in all Europe the transition is planed to make room for 5G) and thus we must change all the televisions or at least buy a decoder. I'm in difficult finding a TV for my grandmother, that is as simple as the one that has today, and without smart features, that are complicated and also useless (of course she don't even have an internet connection).
Yeah between the TVs and the content, it's just not worth it to me. I have a TV but haven't even switched it on in months. I watch YouTube on my phone a bit, that's enough for me.
Sort of. Picture quality is way better, but component and build quality is shit because flat-panel TVs are a commodity. They are also way way cheaper.
The manufacturers are now trying to figure out how to add a) value-add at the software level to stand-out from the pack and b) figure out how to increase profitability (hence the ads).
They should increase profitability on the margin of the good, not try to create a perpetual revenue stream out of each customer by making the entire experience invasive.
They are slow and laggy, even doing the most basic things like turning on or changing channel. It was faster the CRT that I used 20 years ago, and it had to warm up before displaying an image! But at least the audio started immediately...
They are also not usable. The UI is crappy and you don't find the most common settings, for example I had to search on the internet where to find the option to disable automatic turn off after 4 hours on an LG TV, the remotes are full of useless buttons (I don't want a huge Netflix button on a remote that if I press by mistake I will lose 10 seconds of the program I'm watching!).
Now I'm using a Sony TV, that I purchased 2 years ago only because it was the TV with less smart crap in it, it works pretty well, it does what a TV should do, let me watch TV channels, program guide, teletext (yes, I still use it), and nothing else (well in theory it has Netflix and other apps in it... but I never connected it to the internet and they don't get in the way). For all the other things, a simple media center PC does them better.