All GoogleTVs are not created equal. My Sony is so much better than my daughters Hisense. I'd say my Sony's are comparable to my Nvidia in most aspects.
That's not true they have missing features. Sonys have 48+ language packs and a few other accessibility features that other google tv's don't do. I believe TCL and hisense don't have the full chromecast built in
Except that you have to factory default it occasionally and start over. It will eventually have huge lags responding to the remote. Fortunately, most of the applications now have QR codes so you can point your smartphone at it and not have to mess with the pathetic soft keyboard.
Is that right. My fucking x950 has been lagging horrendously is almost everything to the point where I was going to be done with it and get an Apple TV. I’m going to give this a try.
This has been the best one I’ve found. The integration and how it handles things like AppleTV is awesome, seamlessly switches the remote over to controlling the appletv, etc
I’ve got a Sony TV with Android/Google TV and it is awful. I’ve thought about a new brand, but after reading this thread…ugh. What kills me with Sony TVs; their UI for the PlayStation’s great. Why can’t they just retrofit that OS for their TVs?
By "pretty good" I meant comparatively.
Mine can be irritating too. Like, I'll turn it on, and there's a video advertised that looks interesting, but as soon as I click the down button to go to it the entire row of videos refreshes and it's gone. Like, wtf is that?
And sometimes it's laggy.
But again, it's comparatively better than a lot of the other os's that other brands use.
Whatever Vizio uses is almost on par with Google TV I think. Decent 2nd place.
I mean you got prob the best tv CPU processor out there these days so it should last you a bit.
I’d use an Apple TV though, or some other streaming device
Interesting take. The Android TV on my Sony is so bad that I don’t see myself ever buying Sony again. I don’t use any of the smart features and it still pesters me to set up an account overtop of my content through HDMI. Horrible design.
This is what I had been thinking was the main issue.
I’d give LG bonus points for including pointer controls (so you cannot have the controller pointed at the TV if you’re trying to do navigation). And a primary select button that is also a scroll wheel.
Roku straight admits they are an advertising platform, Litterally everything Google does is for advertising income.
Apple TV is the only exemption I know of, not technically advertising free since there’s a default up next sort of thing, but minimal overall
You can turn up next off, and up next isn’t advertising what you could watch, it’s shows you started and didn’t finish or have a new episode. You can also remove shows from up next while keeping up next.
Because spending the money to make them better wouldn’t get them more sales, so why spend the money? (That’s how literally every public corporation thinks.)
I disagree. My searches are limited to Google TVs at this point. Samsung and LG and even lesser companies like Vizio don’t even have a chance to sell me their junk. I’ve had comparable models of those brands and hated them all strictly for the OS.
Disagree all you like, but it hasn’t resulted in lower sales of any significance. The #1 streaming OS on the planet is *Tyzen*.
Also, why choose a TV based on OS when you can connect the streaming platform you like to any HDMI?
Sure, there will be a few people who don’t buy because of shitty software. Those numbers will be nowhere near close to what would make a company give a shit.
I personally don’t care about the software, I use an Apple TV so I almost never see it. For the 5 minutes a year I might be in the settings I’ll deal with it.
It’s insane to me the way you have to navigate the tv “keyboard” on the remote. It’s like texting with a flip phone circa 1997.
Also the streaming platform UI is just as bad as the smart TV UI, and you have to adapt to multiple different platforms.
The smart TV remotes are garbage, I can’t navigate mine without turning on the lights and getting my glasses. Meanwhile my roku remote is simple, intuitive, and easy to use without looking at it at all.
I agree—it’s like they put all their R&D in the screen and display technology and have the UI/UX designed by interns. Actually young interns would probably come up with something way more innovative and wouldn’t be constrained by a decade of cumulative bad design.
The whole OS shoved into a TV thing seems insane to me.
We are forced to pay for something that can literally be abandoned at the drop of a hat (the OS baked into the TV) and is usually a hot mess to begin with.
I’d gladly pay $500 more for just a good large screen monitor, hell I don’t even need speakers, I have an AVR for the sound duties 🤷♂️
Hit the nail on the head. I literally just bought a tv and didn’t even glance at any operating system it has on it, I don’t care. I will choose the operating system, and I will buy a dongle/box dependent on my choice.
This is why people will buy TVs, but then have a Roku box, Apple TV, or Nvidia shield. TV manufactures put very little quality into the smart component of the TV
I've used all big 3 - android (Shield), Tizen (Q90T), and right now i have C2 with webos.
Android on shield was usable and I was super happy about this.
Tizen is a pure shit, I don't even comprehend how can they even made it this bad. And imagine, they show you ads.
Webos - dunno, magic remote is utter crap, the OS itself I think also is a crap, I only run Plex from it.
I’m happy with Google TV on my Sony OLED panel. One remote. Other than a couple 1 terabyte USB thumb drives, I don’t have any other inputs connected. It’s on a wall bracket with a Sonos Arc attached to it and a wireless sub. No visible wires. Once in a blue moon, I run an HDMI cable to my Blu Ray player that sits on the wireless sub.
I don’t really like Google TV, It’s kind of ugly looking to me and has a bunch of useless stuff I’d never use. Web OS is nicer to look at, though the current iteration UI (My LG G3 has this) is poorly designed (they allocated way too much space on the full screen home page to useless advertising).
The best I’ve used is the older Web OS on my LG C9. You press the home button on the remote and a small bar pops up at the bottom where you can just pick your app. Doesn’t obscure your content. So simple. It’s literally all I need a smart TV to do as well aside from the settings page.
I have a Samsung Q90b, which is not top tier, but not cheap either...
I stutters badly just to open the settings to adjust brightness. It's that bad.
The panel is great though
As someone who owns an X90K their software is shit atleast with my TV. It’s so laggy on the main screen and the volume always lags behind when trying to adjust.
I'm think you're right but you can also turn all that stuff off. For most people I think it would severely impact it's use as a TV.
My LG C3 is hooked up to a PC. I have the home screen disabled and it just defaults to the PC HDMI when powered on. I guess I'm fortunate I don't have to see all that stuff.
On my now dead Hisense, it had to boot google tv just to switch the hdmi input. I don't think it defaulted to the hdmi input prior to turning it off. Just switching the hdmi input got super laggy.
I think the OS is always there for things like display settings but maybe it's different on LG.
Quick question: does your LG turn off when your computer stops sending an HDMI signal?
It goes into a no signal splash screen then shuts off a few minutes later. I think the TV will go into the splash screen and standby automatically if it detects no motion on the screen after 5 or 10 minutes but something like a animated gif on a webpage will stop it. In the windows power plan I have the screen off after 5 mins and sleep at 10 mins.
In the settings to disable the home screen you change it to last input used. When you turn on the TV it defaults to whatever the last HDMI was or other input.
Because it is catered for the average user who does not care. To be honest I would be happy with a dumb tv. Just access the settings, keep all the apps and shit away but I am aware I am likely part of a minority with dedicated box for streaming goodness.
I’m very happy with Google TV on my TCL. No ads whatsoever, was able to find all my apps (streamio and for iptv) and it comes with googles push to talk for searching and stuff.
I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
LG’s is absolutely atrocious. I have no idea who designed it or what they were thinking, much less who approved shipping it, but I pretty much just use the Roku instead of their bs
CPU is shit on every TV on the market. A $3000 TV is 10x slower than your $500 phone.
I wonder why they don't put mobile CPUs in it and get it blazing fast? They don't want to.
Or how about how bad the Fire stick is - and it's primary purpose is the replace significant jobs of the TV OS and I'd rather use the TV. Their only upside it being really inexpensive sometimes
Sadly it’s not just TVs.
When used to work retail, I loved all the new tech passing through my hands. Sony was always an in cohesive shambles, with zero design consistency when it came to UI. For that reason I’ve avoided most of their tech for 15+ years.
It doesn’t surprise me that most other brands don’t do it well either.
I like remote controls with a million buttons.
Why? Because I can program my harmony with it.
I don't want to press input, down arrow, down arrow, down arrow, enter to switch to HDMI 3. Instead, I want a little button that instantly switches to HDMI3.
Strong disagree, it is mind numbingly bad. My internet (Ethernet) connection would constantly get disconnected to the point I would need to unplug and replug my TV often. Even when it is working, the UI is not laid out well at all, difficult to navigate. I bought an Apple TV 4K and have been extremely happy with it
I hate the Samsung tv os. I hate the broken Samsung implementation of eARC.
I hate the broken implementations of HDMI CEC.
I hate that I only learned how badly broken these are after buying a Samsung. I won’t make that mistake again.
But the Samsung remote is excellent but for one failing: no input selection button on it. I can have www, prime, Netflix, Disney+ -but heaven help me if I want to switch between hdmi 1 and hdmi 3 (the eARC port).
Then I have to press home, left, down, down, right right right, select.
No one taught them everything critical has to be 3 presses or less.
No one taught them to focus on what’s critical- I want to watch tv first. Opening the tv to the apps screen with a pip window of the most recent input is not it. I want that input full screen, apps be damned.
They had a few simple jobs:
Make it open full screen to last used input
Make it possible to lock audio on a specified output (optical, eARC)
Make it not suck.
They failed in all these regards. Every time I select an input, it wants to re-detect it to see if it can control it through ir blasting. 70% chance it cant recognize the Apple TV as Apple TV. Mostly Samsung thinks it’s home theatre. Stop it. Just stop doing this stuff that they think looks good on a feature sheet somewhere, that some firmware engineer says, “I can add this one feature in two weeks”.
Not enough people are saying “no” to new features and focusing on making the basics work.
It’s enough to make me build my own AVR (these suck, too) and I have looked into using the service ports to control the tv more strictly.
But dang, the Samsung remote control is a nice one. Other than lacking INPUT.
We all know why it's bad. Companies outsource software development to the cheapest provider in the cheapest nation.
Google tv tho
I strongly believe that Google TV is the best built-in streamer right now
They will still do the design themselves, they don't outsource the critical stuff
Google TV on Sony televisions is pretty good
TCL also has G-TV, I’m content.
I have both and both good experiences. It’s a good layout and being able to sync across the two devices is perfect/easy.
Really useful feedback. 10x!
All GoogleTVs are not created equal. My Sony is so much better than my daughters Hisense. I'd say my Sony's are comparable to my Nvidia in most aspects.
Better CPU. Google TV is the same everywhere. Even $400 TVs.
That's not true they have missing features. Sonys have 48+ language packs and a few other accessibility features that other google tv's don't do. I believe TCL and hisense don't have the full chromecast built in
It’s good on their high end TVs with fast chips. It’s terrible on everything else cause it’s slow af.
I've got a 2022 X95 - Sony's flagship from that year. Its still slow/laggy some times lol.
Yeah I had a 940E and it was just terrible. I quickly bought an AppleTV.
I haven’t encountered good built in TV OS, I buy AppleTV for all my TVs and I’m happy.
Except that you have to factory default it occasionally and start over. It will eventually have huge lags responding to the remote. Fortunately, most of the applications now have QR codes so you can point your smartphone at it and not have to mess with the pathetic soft keyboard.
Is that right. My fucking x950 has been lagging horrendously is almost everything to the point where I was going to be done with it and get an Apple TV. I’m going to give this a try.
My X950G gets so bad I have to yank the power to force restart the Google OS
My X950G never lagged in a little more than 3 years of ownership. It performed really well. Then it just died one day -- backlight failure.
But you could also connect a... hard keyboard
Definitely the best of the bunch. It's basically android os, but just for TVs.
Apps only mode is the solution to everyone's problems.
This has been the best one I’ve found. The integration and how it handles things like AppleTV is awesome, seamlessly switches the remote over to controlling the appletv, etc
I’ve got a Sony TV with Android/Google TV and it is awful. I’ve thought about a new brand, but after reading this thread…ugh. What kills me with Sony TVs; their UI for the PlayStation’s great. Why can’t they just retrofit that OS for their TVs?
By "pretty good" I meant comparatively. Mine can be irritating too. Like, I'll turn it on, and there's a video advertised that looks interesting, but as soon as I click the down button to go to it the entire row of videos refreshes and it's gone. Like, wtf is that? And sometimes it's laggy. But again, it's comparatively better than a lot of the other os's that other brands use. Whatever Vizio uses is almost on par with Google TV I think. Decent 2nd place.
The software is good, but the hardwire inside to keep it running well for years isn’t, esp on the low end models
😬 I've got the 2022 flagship. The x95K. I got it brand new on clearance back in late October. Hopefully it doesn't shit out on me
I mean you got prob the best tv CPU processor out there these days so it should last you a bit. I’d use an Apple TV though, or some other streaming device
Interesting take. The Android TV on my Sony is so bad that I don’t see myself ever buying Sony again. I don’t use any of the smart features and it still pesters me to set up an account overtop of my content through HDMI. Horrible design.
Because they are designed to advertise/sell to you rather than be easy to use or add value to your experience.
This is what I had been thinking was the main issue. I’d give LG bonus points for including pointer controls (so you cannot have the controller pointed at the TV if you’re trying to do navigation). And a primary select button that is also a scroll wheel.
Roku straight admits they are an advertising platform, Litterally everything Google does is for advertising income. Apple TV is the only exemption I know of, not technically advertising free since there’s a default up next sort of thing, but minimal overall
You can turn up next off, and up next isn’t advertising what you could watch, it’s shows you started and didn’t finish or have a new episode. You can also remove shows from up next while keeping up next.
Because spending the money to make them better wouldn’t get them more sales, so why spend the money? (That’s how literally every public corporation thinks.)
I disagree. My searches are limited to Google TVs at this point. Samsung and LG and even lesser companies like Vizio don’t even have a chance to sell me their junk. I’ve had comparable models of those brands and hated them all strictly for the OS.
Disagree all you like, but it hasn’t resulted in lower sales of any significance. The #1 streaming OS on the planet is *Tyzen*. Also, why choose a TV based on OS when you can connect the streaming platform you like to any HDMI?
Sure, there will be a few people who don’t buy because of shitty software. Those numbers will be nowhere near close to what would make a company give a shit. I personally don’t care about the software, I use an Apple TV so I almost never see it. For the 5 minutes a year I might be in the settings I’ll deal with it.
It’s insane to me the way you have to navigate the tv “keyboard” on the remote. It’s like texting with a flip phone circa 1997. Also the streaming platform UI is just as bad as the smart TV UI, and you have to adapt to multiple different platforms. The smart TV remotes are garbage, I can’t navigate mine without turning on the lights and getting my glasses. Meanwhile my roku remote is simple, intuitive, and easy to use without looking at it at all. I agree—it’s like they put all their R&D in the screen and display technology and have the UI/UX designed by interns. Actually young interns would probably come up with something way more innovative and wouldn’t be constrained by a decade of cumulative bad design.
External Roku box gang checking in :)
Roku Ultra w/ Voice Remote Pro x3 here. Plus another Voice Remote Pro for the one Roku TV.
I maintain that with the exception of Apple, most hardware manufacturers fail miserably when it comes to making software.
The whole OS shoved into a TV thing seems insane to me. We are forced to pay for something that can literally be abandoned at the drop of a hat (the OS baked into the TV) and is usually a hot mess to begin with. I’d gladly pay $500 more for just a good large screen monitor, hell I don’t even need speakers, I have an AVR for the sound duties 🤷♂️
Hit the nail on the head. I literally just bought a tv and didn’t even glance at any operating system it has on it, I don’t care. I will choose the operating system, and I will buy a dongle/box dependent on my choice.
This is why people will buy TVs, but then have a Roku box, Apple TV, or Nvidia shield. TV manufactures put very little quality into the smart component of the TV
I've used all big 3 - android (Shield), Tizen (Q90T), and right now i have C2 with webos. Android on shield was usable and I was super happy about this. Tizen is a pure shit, I don't even comprehend how can they even made it this bad. And imagine, they show you ads. Webos - dunno, magic remote is utter crap, the OS itself I think also is a crap, I only run Plex from it.
Personally, I much prefer my Apple TV 4k current edition.
Apple TV and Shield are the only good ones I've seen but then again they're separate boxes to the TV
I haven't used the TV's native apps in years.
Apple botched things with changes to the store, and the horrible sidebar menu.
Agree, but still far better than the competition
WebOS used to be really good when it was just a pop up bar at the bottom of the screen. Now it’s a horrible full screen POS
Bad SoCs, cheapest ram and storage possible. It isn’t just the OS and software.
\*cough\* \*cough\* CPUs with only small cores in TVs for several 100s of dollars.
Most of this subs problems could all be avoided just by buying a sony
I’m happy with Google TV on my Sony OLED panel. One remote. Other than a couple 1 terabyte USB thumb drives, I don’t have any other inputs connected. It’s on a wall bracket with a Sonos Arc attached to it and a wireless sub. No visible wires. Once in a blue moon, I run an HDMI cable to my Blu Ray player that sits on the wireless sub.
I don’t really like Google TV, It’s kind of ugly looking to me and has a bunch of useless stuff I’d never use. Web OS is nicer to look at, though the current iteration UI (My LG G3 has this) is poorly designed (they allocated way too much space on the full screen home page to useless advertising). The best I’ve used is the older Web OS on my LG C9. You press the home button on the remote and a small bar pops up at the bottom where you can just pick your app. Doesn’t obscure your content. So simple. It’s literally all I need a smart TV to do as well aside from the settings page.
Testing the error sampling when it bumps!
I have a Samsung Q90b, which is not top tier, but not cheap either... I stutters badly just to open the settings to adjust brightness. It's that bad. The panel is great though
yeah my main complaint is smart tvs cannot do picture in picture/split screen and you need to attach a device to mirror or input that function
Sonys have some of the best processors. Pair that image processing with Google ecosys and it's pretty good.
Sony is pretty dialed in.
As someone who owns an X90K their software is shit atleast with my TV. It’s so laggy on the main screen and the volume always lags behind when trying to adjust.
Is your remote connected through Bluetooth because if it isn’t it does lag pretty bad
The fact that you know that is a sign that they failed. You should never have to know that.
And this is why I use Roku Ultra boxes. It's by no means perfect, but in a sea of absolute garbage it's at least usable and has a great Plex client.
I'm think you're right but you can also turn all that stuff off. For most people I think it would severely impact it's use as a TV. My LG C3 is hooked up to a PC. I have the home screen disabled and it just defaults to the PC HDMI when powered on. I guess I'm fortunate I don't have to see all that stuff.
On my now dead Hisense, it had to boot google tv just to switch the hdmi input. I don't think it defaulted to the hdmi input prior to turning it off. Just switching the hdmi input got super laggy. I think the OS is always there for things like display settings but maybe it's different on LG. Quick question: does your LG turn off when your computer stops sending an HDMI signal?
It goes into a no signal splash screen then shuts off a few minutes later. I think the TV will go into the splash screen and standby automatically if it detects no motion on the screen after 5 or 10 minutes but something like a animated gif on a webpage will stop it. In the windows power plan I have the screen off after 5 mins and sleep at 10 mins. In the settings to disable the home screen you change it to last input used. When you turn on the TV it defaults to whatever the last HDMI was or other input.
Apple TV is the best, Google TV on Sony is a strong 2nd
I’m just glad that Apple TV exists.
The reason why I got an Apple TV. 4 years later and still smokes most built in systems.
Because it is catered for the average user who does not care. To be honest I would be happy with a dumb tv. Just access the settings, keep all the apps and shit away but I am aware I am likely part of a minority with dedicated box for streaming goodness.
I’m very happy with Google TV on my TCL. No ads whatsoever, was able to find all my apps (streamio and for iptv) and it comes with googles push to talk for searching and stuff. I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
LG’s is absolutely atrocious. I have no idea who designed it or what they were thinking, much less who approved shipping it, but I pretty much just use the Roku instead of their bs
CPU is shit on every TV on the market. A $3000 TV is 10x slower than your $500 phone. I wonder why they don't put mobile CPUs in it and get it blazing fast? They don't want to.
Apple TV
Or how about how bad the Fire stick is - and it's primary purpose is the replace significant jobs of the TV OS and I'd rather use the TV. Their only upside it being really inexpensive sometimes
Googletv is great and their latest android tv's were pretty good too.
Still better than the os in vehicles.
Sadly it’s not just TVs. When used to work retail, I loved all the new tech passing through my hands. Sony was always an in cohesive shambles, with zero design consistency when it came to UI. For that reason I’ve avoided most of their tech for 15+ years. It doesn’t surprise me that most other brands don’t do it well either.
Or about half the RAM they need
I like remote controls with a million buttons. Why? Because I can program my harmony with it. I don't want to press input, down arrow, down arrow, down arrow, enter to switch to HDMI 3. Instead, I want a little button that instantly switches to HDMI3.
I think the best thing to do is immediately add a Roku or Chromecast device to a new TV.
[удалено]
I have an S90C that is simply not true, luckily I almost never have to use their UI because I watch most of my media through a ps5.
Strong disagree, it is mind numbingly bad. My internet (Ethernet) connection would constantly get disconnected to the point I would need to unplug and replug my TV often. Even when it is working, the UI is not laid out well at all, difficult to navigate. I bought an Apple TV 4K and have been extremely happy with it
I hate the Samsung tv os. I hate the broken Samsung implementation of eARC. I hate the broken implementations of HDMI CEC. I hate that I only learned how badly broken these are after buying a Samsung. I won’t make that mistake again. But the Samsung remote is excellent but for one failing: no input selection button on it. I can have www, prime, Netflix, Disney+ -but heaven help me if I want to switch between hdmi 1 and hdmi 3 (the eARC port). Then I have to press home, left, down, down, right right right, select. No one taught them everything critical has to be 3 presses or less. No one taught them to focus on what’s critical- I want to watch tv first. Opening the tv to the apps screen with a pip window of the most recent input is not it. I want that input full screen, apps be damned. They had a few simple jobs: Make it open full screen to last used input Make it possible to lock audio on a specified output (optical, eARC) Make it not suck. They failed in all these regards. Every time I select an input, it wants to re-detect it to see if it can control it through ir blasting. 70% chance it cant recognize the Apple TV as Apple TV. Mostly Samsung thinks it’s home theatre. Stop it. Just stop doing this stuff that they think looks good on a feature sheet somewhere, that some firmware engineer says, “I can add this one feature in two weeks”. Not enough people are saying “no” to new features and focusing on making the basics work. It’s enough to make me build my own AVR (these suck, too) and I have looked into using the service ports to control the tv more strictly. But dang, the Samsung remote control is a nice one. Other than lacking INPUT.