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Do you have any evidence of this? I've never ever talked to anyone that wanted a feature like this in their TV. The manufacturers have incentive, but the consum

Do you have any evidence of this? I've never ever talked to anyone that wanted a feature like this in their TV. The manufacturers have incentive, but the consumers aren't asking for it. And -all- of the interfaces built in to TVs for such things I've used are terrible. Hell, most TVs still can't make a remote/on-screen UI work reasonably. People can talk to their voice agents ("hello assistant, who is the president of the USA") on the toilet and generally expect a reasonable answer. And yet we still have to point some wand at an exact spot on our TVs, press buttons, and hope they register and change channels.

aedron 10y ago
I actually have a 2012 Bravia. It has a webcam and a Skype app. When we get a Skype call, a little popup appears in the bottom left corner, and I can accept/decline with the remote. I can then carry out a video call in either full 50 inches or composited with the TV signal. Coolest thing ever. Digital recording is a great feature too, plug in a USB stick for storage then control and manage recordings with the remote. I actually like to have everything integrated, rather than having to fiddle with my OSMC, which, as an example, in the case of recording would need its own signal input. My only (yet pretty big) issue with the Sony software is that it is slow to start up. From turning on the TV until it will respond to the remote is easily 40-50 seconds, long after the picture appears. You can't even change the channel or volume. And, oh yeah, the YouTube app has been broken for years, but I use the OSMC for that.
- pmontra 10y ago
  What happens when you're on a Skype call on the TV and want to move to another room? I guess it's like with the old wired phones, you don't move. A 50" display is cool but a tablet or a phone are usually better suited to answer calls. The only smart feature I'm using of my LG TV is playing videos from USB sticks. It doesn't have some audio codecs common in MKV containers, but when it works 40" is better than a tablet screen. BTW, the LG is quick enough at starting up. I usually keep it completely off, not in standby. Switch on the power, push the remote, get the image: 9 seconds. Maybe on par with old analog CRTs. I never enabled WiFi because of the terms of service. Even if they are not as invasive as other ToS I saw from other manufacturers, they are way more than they should. I should use the TV to watch things, not to be watched. I already have the PC, tablet and phone for that :-) and at least I can fight there with adblockers and the like. I have a Raspberry 3 connected to the TV and I could do YouTube with that (it's quite OK). Still the tablet is much better. I could chromecast to the TV but it's not worth the trouble.
  - will_hughes 10y ago
    > What happens when you're on a Skype call on the TV and want to move to another room? I I imagine the same thing that happens when you get a call on your Desktop and want to move to another room. "Hey, let me call you back."
  - aedron 10y ago
    If I'm sitting in the sofa and answer the call from there, it usually means I am fine staying put. We usually use it for family abroad, and here the format has the obvious advantage that the whole family can gather around the TV and see/be seen in the call.
- kozak 10y ago
  Samsung has discontinued their Skype TV app this summer, I think Sony will follow soon.
- danieldk 10y ago
  I can then carry out a video call in either full 50 inches or composited with the TV signal. Coolest thing ever. So can my XBox One :). I agree that this is a nice feature, but there is no reason why this can't be part of an external replaceable/upgradable peripheral. I'm also kind of surprised that Apple and Google didn't create an add-on for Apple TV/Chromecast yet, or we could give it to our daughters' grandparents as well ;).
- gst 10y ago
  > I actually have a 2012 Bravia. It has a webcam and a Skype app. Skype is the next thing that's going to disappear from that TV: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34642/is-the-skype-for-tv-app-still-supported https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34642/is-the-skype-for-tv...
cstrat 10y ago
I agree that a lot of features are generally pretty useless... however I love that I can download the Netflix app to my TV directly. It saves me having to use a second device and I can update to another VOD provider if my TV outlives Netflix...
- riskable 10y ago
  My "smart" LG TV has a Netflix app. Still have a Chromecast hooked up for Netflix. Why? Because it is several orders of magnitude faster for me to find the video I want to play on my phone than it is with a TV remote. This same wisdom holds true for TV remotes that have full QWERTY keyboards! TV interfaces just plain suck. They are so slow as to be painful and they are perpetually out of date and always user-unfriendly. I really hoped Apple would come out with a TV that set a baseline for what a TV interface should be just like the original iPhone did for smart phones (which weren't all that smart at the time).
ksk 10y ago
Well if you believe that consumers can vote with their wallets, at least in part, then they've already shown you what they prefer.

aedron 10y ago

I actually have a 2012 Bravia. It has a webcam and a Skype app. When we get a Skype call, a little popup appears in the bottom left corner, and I can accept/decline with the remote. I can then carry out a video call in either full 50 inches or composited with the TV signal. Coolest thing ever. Digital recording is a great feature too, plug in a USB stick for storage then control and manage recordings with the remote. I actually like to have everything integrated, rather than having to fiddle with my OSMC, which, as an example, in the case of recording would need its own signal input. My only (yet pretty big) issue with the Sony software is that it is slow to start up. From turning on the TV until it will respond to the remote is easily 40-50 seconds, long after the picture appears. You can't even change the channel or volume. And, oh yeah, the YouTube app has been broken for years, but I use the OSMC for that.

pmontra 10y ago
What happens when you're on a Skype call on the TV and want to move to another room? I guess it's like with the old wired phones, you don't move. A 50" display is cool but a tablet or a phone are usually better suited to answer calls. The only smart feature I'm using of my LG TV is playing videos from USB sticks. It doesn't have some audio codecs common in MKV containers, but when it works 40" is better than a tablet screen. BTW, the LG is quick enough at starting up. I usually keep it completely off, not in standby. Switch on the power, push the remote, get the image: 9 seconds. Maybe on par with old analog CRTs. I never enabled WiFi because of the terms of service. Even if they are not as invasive as other ToS I saw from other manufacturers, they are way more than they should. I should use the TV to watch things, not to be watched. I already have the PC, tablet and phone for that :-) and at least I can fight there with adblockers and the like. I have a Raspberry 3 connected to the TV and I could do YouTube with that (it's quite OK). Still the tablet is much better. I could chromecast to the TV but it's not worth the trouble.
- will_hughes 10y ago
  > What happens when you're on a Skype call on the TV and want to move to another room? I I imagine the same thing that happens when you get a call on your Desktop and want to move to another room. "Hey, let me call you back."
- aedron 10y ago
  If I'm sitting in the sofa and answer the call from there, it usually means I am fine staying put. We usually use it for family abroad, and here the format has the obvious advantage that the whole family can gather around the TV and see/be seen in the call.
kozak 10y ago
Samsung has discontinued their Skype TV app this summer, I think Sony will follow soon.
danieldk 10y ago
I can then carry out a video call in either full 50 inches or composited with the TV signal. Coolest thing ever. So can my XBox One :). I agree that this is a nice feature, but there is no reason why this can't be part of an external replaceable/upgradable peripheral. I'm also kind of surprised that Apple and Google didn't create an add-on for Apple TV/Chromecast yet, or we could give it to our daughters' grandparents as well ;).
gst 10y ago
> I actually have a 2012 Bravia. It has a webcam and a Skype app. Skype is the next thing that's going to disappear from that TV: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34642/is-the-skype-for-tv-app-still-supported https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34642/is-the-skype-for-tv...

cstrat 10y ago

I agree that a lot of features are generally pretty useless... however I love that I can download the Netflix app to my TV directly. It saves me having to use a second device and I can update to another VOD provider if my TV outlives Netflix...

riskable 10y ago
My "smart" LG TV has a Netflix app. Still have a Chromecast hooked up for Netflix. Why? Because it is several orders of magnitude faster for me to find the video I want to play on my phone than it is with a TV remote. This same wisdom holds true for TV remotes that have full QWERTY keyboards! TV interfaces just plain suck. They are so slow as to be painful and they are perpetually out of date and always user-unfriendly. I really hoped Apple would come out with a TV that set a baseline for what a TV interface should be just like the original iPhone did for smart phones (which weren't all that smart at the time).

ksk 10y ago

Well if you believe that consumers can vote with their wallets, at least in part, then they've already shown you what they prefer.