Is this a good TV?
Discussion
My mate had a similar problem a few months back.
The smart functions of his geriatric telly were creaking.
So, he upgraded his satellite box, now that does the smart bollux, and the TV lives on as a dumb display.
If the TV freezes when it's just being a dumb HDMI display, I guess it's terminal.
A decade and a half ago, I used a Firestick to compensate for my TV's shortfall in the 'smart' department.
The smart functions of his geriatric telly were creaking.
So, he upgraded his satellite box, now that does the smart bollux, and the TV lives on as a dumb display.
If the TV freezes when it's just being a dumb HDMI display, I guess it's terminal.
A decade and a half ago, I used a Firestick to compensate for my TV's shortfall in the 'smart' department.
If it is the smart operating system/interface that freezes rather than the picture, a firestick might well give your Sony a new lease of life.
Had this problem with an old Samsung a few years ago, got a firestick to bypass the smart OS so the telly is just a telly. Worked fine.
Upgraded last year to an LG OLED, but the old telly/firestick is still going strong in my daughter's student house.
Had this problem with an old Samsung a few years ago, got a firestick to bypass the smart OS so the telly is just a telly. Worked fine.
Upgraded last year to an LG OLED, but the old telly/firestick is still going strong in my daughter's student house.
dontlookdown said:
If it is the smart operating system/interface that freezes rather than the picture, a firestick might well give your Sony a new lease of life.
Had this problem with an old Samsung a few years ago, got a firestick to bypass the smart OS so the telly is just a telly. Worked fine.
Upgraded last year to an LG OLED, but the old telly/firestick is still going strong in my daughter's student house.
Agree with this comment. Get a fire stick if money is a little tight.Had this problem with an old Samsung a few years ago, got a firestick to bypass the smart OS so the telly is just a telly. Worked fine.
Upgraded last year to an LG OLED, but the old telly/firestick is still going strong in my daughter's student house.
Road2Ruin said:
The TV is fine. I have an old 'Crystal screen model and the picture is great. I am sure you could do better, but you would have to spend more. Samsung is not the market leader for nothing, despite the naysayers.
Exactly this. Just because the latest most expensive stuff is better, doesn't mean older cheaper tech is useless. In 2034, the stuff we're raving about today will be 25% of the price and people will be saying "how can you watch that crap". Digger said:
Is that the chap who does similar on AVForums?The 55in version of the TV in the OPs link is £350 here
https://www.rgbdirect.co.uk/product/samsung_ue55du...
https://www.rgbdirect.co.uk/product/samsung_ue55du...
Defcon5 said:
The 55in version of the TV in the OPs link is £350 here
https://www.rgbdirect.co.uk/product/samsung_ue55du...
and the 50" version at £329 from Argos / Currys has resided in my back room for 3 days!https://www.rgbdirect.co.uk/product/samsung_ue55du...
it's better in every way than my 65" living-room based high-range Sony (£2k??? at the time) & even comes with 2 remotes!
The problem with Sony Smart TVs (or it used to be a problem, I haven't bought one recently) is that the entire TV runs under the OS and they have been stingy with the CPU hardware and also poor at pushing updates and bugfixes.
Even if you are watching regular telly on one, it's still running as an Android TV app and so is prone to giving problems. I have a 2015 Bravia (packed away now) and even though the design of the set was lovely and the picture was decent, it had a buggy implementation of Android TV and the computing side of things was pretty underpowered for running that OS. That meant odd jankiness when just watching normal TV - like laggy volume changes, non-responsive EPG, slow channel changes, random refusal to change input sources etc. Once, the 'Chromecast receiver' background process managed to get corrupted which bizarrely resulted in the built-in speakers not working (there was still audio via the optical output) - that took me a couple of weeks to troubleshoot and only because I went through all the running processes one at a time and cleared their data in Android ... a last try before factory reset.
It got a few firmware upgrades which eventually removed most of the lag and jank but still is slow to operate, never got upgraded to the latest version of the OS/GUI and does things like refuse to come out of standby mode if it's left in that state for a week or two. It only really became usable when I switched over to a dedicated Android TV box (Shield TV) and just used that all the time, ignoring the TV's functionality.
If I was buying a new TV now, I'd consider a commercial display screen as well as regular sets when choosing. That way you get a nice 'dumb' display and can just hook up whatever devices you want on the HDMI inputs, like an Android TV box or a Fire TV device. Helps that I no longer watch OTA broadcast television but even if you want that, you can get TV tuner boxes that are compatible with various OSes like Android TV and Fire TV (eg. HDHomerun do twin and quad tuner DTV boxes with ethernet).
Even if you are watching regular telly on one, it's still running as an Android TV app and so is prone to giving problems. I have a 2015 Bravia (packed away now) and even though the design of the set was lovely and the picture was decent, it had a buggy implementation of Android TV and the computing side of things was pretty underpowered for running that OS. That meant odd jankiness when just watching normal TV - like laggy volume changes, non-responsive EPG, slow channel changes, random refusal to change input sources etc. Once, the 'Chromecast receiver' background process managed to get corrupted which bizarrely resulted in the built-in speakers not working (there was still audio via the optical output) - that took me a couple of weeks to troubleshoot and only because I went through all the running processes one at a time and cleared their data in Android ... a last try before factory reset.
It got a few firmware upgrades which eventually removed most of the lag and jank but still is slow to operate, never got upgraded to the latest version of the OS/GUI and does things like refuse to come out of standby mode if it's left in that state for a week or two. It only really became usable when I switched over to a dedicated Android TV box (Shield TV) and just used that all the time, ignoring the TV's functionality.
If I was buying a new TV now, I'd consider a commercial display screen as well as regular sets when choosing. That way you get a nice 'dumb' display and can just hook up whatever devices you want on the HDMI inputs, like an Android TV box or a Fire TV device. Helps that I no longer watch OTA broadcast television but even if you want that, you can get TV tuner boxes that are compatible with various OSes like Android TV and Fire TV (eg. HDHomerun do twin and quad tuner DTV boxes with ethernet).
Current LG OLEDs including from last year are guaranteed a yearly update to the LG WebOS software for 5 years from purchase . . . ie 4 updates.
I believe some of the lower LED ranges are also included . . .
eta linky . . .
https://www.lg.com/us/press-release/more-lg-smart-...
I believe some of the lower LED ranges are also included . . .
eta linky . . .
https://www.lg.com/us/press-release/more-lg-smart-...
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