What use is WiFi on a Costco Viso TV?

What use is WiFi on a TV screen?

A relative of mine called, who was told "something" by Costco, that their Visio TVs have WiFi and therefore she wouldn't need the "box" whatever that is.

I don't have cable, nor even a TV, but I suspect that "box" is something that was added when they switched from Analog to Digital (or maybe it's a descrambler).

They said they have to pay the cable company for a second box (the first one is free), so, it's not a modem (because you'd only need one modem).

Anyway, my basic question, for you, is "what use is WiFi in a TV"?

Note that I can easily see that bluetooth is useful, since you can then use that TV with a keyboard; but what good is WiFi in a TV screen at home?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm
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news:ms9a6k$4ho$ snipped-for-privacy@news.mixmin.net...

so you can connect to the internet and watch Youtube, netflix, etc.

Reply to
taxed and spent

Maybe I don't understand. Actually, I don't understand.

To watch youtube, you need a browser, which is usually a program compiled for a certain computer, which runs a certain operating system, and which has a certain byte order and memory structure and a whole bunch of other things associated with a "computer".

Is the TV acting as a "computer"? If so, what operating system is the TV?

What browser does it use? What architecture is that TV browser compiled for?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

The newer smart TVs have their own built in inerface . Maybe you have heard of the devices like ROKU or the one from Amazon. Anyway it lets the TV connect to the internet so if you have say Direct TV you can get movies and other shows on demand bystreaming off the internet. I don't know what system they use,but my TV lets me surf the web. It is awful slow to do with the remote,but I think I could hook up a mouse and keyboard to it if I wanted to.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

And a tv set has become a computer. They needed a CPU to handle the data= =20 conversion, so they might as well allow it to be used as a more general=20 purpose computer.

Both my DTV sets run Linux. A subset, but it's there.

My blu-ray player runs Linux too, as does my TomTom One GPS. It's free,=20 and yet provides a full OS for building on top of.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Ewald? LOL

Reply to
Edmund J. Burke, Ph.D

alt.home.repair:

No, you don't. You just need an interface that will display Youtube content. It's included with a smart TV.

That's all included in your smart TV.

Yes.

I assume it's some customized version of Linux, but it doesn't matter unless you're planning to hack it. Normally you're given a user interface that will allow you access to the features built into the smart TV, which will include apps to access Internet content providers like Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, and others. It may also include some games and other miscellaneous stuff. It may even include a web browser (mine does, but it works poorly.)

Reply to
Nil

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better, that is.

Reply to
micky

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in alt.home.repair:

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV remote is painful. I tried hooking up a USB keyboard, but it didn't work and I haven't bothered to try to troubleshoot it, since it's nothing I'm interested in using. If I want to browse the web I'll just use one of the several other computer devices in the house.

Reply to
Nil

Okay, I can remember Samsung. Thanks.

Reply to
micky

Is this correct yet?

  1. You hook up this "smart TV" to the power but to no other wires.
  2. The WiFi connects to your router, so the TV is "on the net".
  3. The TV has built-in apps to get movies on Youtube, Hulu, Netflix.
  4. Some TVs have a web browser - but they're so slow as to be useless.
  5. Some have a DirectTV (coax wired?) input in the back of the TV?
  6. Some TVs have built-in games.
  7. You can't *add* anything; it's all built in to the TV OS.

Is that the sum total of the advantages of WiFi on a TV?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

Ya, so now you get to wait for it to boot up every time you turn it on.

Mikek

Reply to
amdx

I have a Sony, and it's slow too!

Reply to
amdx

A disadvantage to Smart TVs is that they quite literally spy on you. At least one manufacturer has issued a warning about it:

formatting link

I really don't understand why anyone would even consider the purchase of such a device. I suppose for many that convenience and entertainment trump all other considerations these days.

Reply to
Roger Blake

If I turn on my TV and computer at the same time, the TV barely beats the computer at booting. It takes 17.86 seconds for the picture/sound to show up for the TV.

Reply to
Vic Smith

BTW, that's a hard-wired HD TV attached to a basic cable box not providing HD.

Reply to
Vic Smith

alt.home.repair:

Not necessarily. If you have a TV feed from an antenna or cable service, you hook that up, too. The "Smart" features are internet only, so you need an internet connection to use them. You could hook that part of the TV to your home router with a cable or wirelessly.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, mine is. It displays content slowly (I think that there isn't much memory or storage in the TV for buffering, plus the browser itself may be a Java app, which is inherently slow to start up) but the worst thing about it is that you have to navigate using your TV remote. You may be able to hook up a computer keyboard, which would help.

There's a coax input on mine, but I don't know anything about DirectTV.

Yes. There are "apps" included with the Smart TV software, analogous to the apps on your smart phone. The apps on my Samsung TV can be updated from them. You can purchase others, I think.

The OS and apps may be updateable from the manufacturer.

There may be others. Actually, if I knew then what I know now, I'd get a dumb TV and add one of those add-on boxes like Chromecast or whatever to get the content I use. Most of the apps on my Samsung suck royally. I only use a couple of them.

Reply to
Nil

That's about it. I think my Sharp TV is Android. Slow, clunky. Even the apps that work are inferior to what you would have on a phone/tablet/PC.

I use the "MiraCast" option to cast my Android tablet to the scrren quite often, so I can see my cat videos from YouTube in better quality.

Reply to
dold

Okay. I can remember that too. But I'm getting discouraged.

I think I should follow Mark Lloyd's advice in next thread about using wires when one can.

So I think I'll just get a USB active extension cord and a keyboard/mouse to plug into it;, and an AV balun with cat6 to connect the computer to the DVDR

Reply to
micky

Do I understand the situation correctly that the WiFi enabled TVs are dog slow, for example, at browsing, because of two fundamental flaws?

  1. The CPUs are slow, and,
  2. Using a remote to type URLs is slow.

You can't fix the CPU processing power. But, can you simply add a standard bluetooth keyboard?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

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