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Smart TVs have awful menus and incredibly slow boot times even when you turn the internet off.

by thom 6y ago

alkonaut 6y ago
You don’t need to use the smart features. The point is the best TV for the money is a smart one.
- simlevesque 6y ago
  Did you read the comment you replied to ? There are no mentions of using the smart features at all, he's talking about useless menus and slow boot time.
  - alkonaut 6y ago
    I assumed by ”menus” he meant navigating those smart features. Not sure what other menus are frequently used? Settings? Inputs? If you even need to navigate a menu (fast or slow) for everyday use, it must have a terrible UX to begin with. The smart features are indeed slow on most TVs. Boot times vary.
    - EricE 6y ago
      On some Samsung TVs I have used, and least one model of either TCL or Visio non-smart menu functions are slow and clumsy. Input switching on one "smart" TV in particular (I'm pretty sure it was a Visio) was like a four step process instead of a simple button press. It was really eye opening just how bad designers could screw up something that should literally be a one button press. You can't assume anything with new electronics - some of the UI designs are stupendously horrible.
tokamak-teapot 6y ago
We have a Sony from maybe 8 years ago and it’s fine. Boot time is only a few seconds. Certainly I hardly notice any wait when I grab the Apple TV or Switch and wake it up. It switches to the appropriate input automatically as it wakes. That’s about all we use it for. It’s a Smart TV in theory but we have never used its ‘features’. It’s not connected to any network and it doesn’t seem to try to connect to wifi sneakily. Audio is connected out to an amp and speakers and sounds fine. If it ever breaks (not sure if LCD has a finite lifespan) we’d probably get something similar but would be checking it has the same ability to just act like a monitor with auto input switching and audio out.
gambiting 6y ago
Well, some do, sure. I got a new LG CX last month and it's incredibly fast - switches on like my CRT TV used to, it's almost instant. And all the apps work very quickly, menus don't stutter at all......huge change from a Bravia TV I had before, that was like "press a button and wait 10 seconds for something to happen" and you couldn't change the input for at least 30 seconds after switching it on.
EricE 6y ago
Not all of them. My parents LE OLEDs power up faster than my older "dumb" Panasonic plasma. Samsung TVs menus and response times are crap, however. Not sure how they are so wildly popular.

Smart TVs have awful menus and incredibly slow boot times even when you turn the internet off.

by thom 6y ago

Smart TVs have awful menus and incredibly slow boot times even when you turn the internet off.

alkonaut 6y ago

You don’t need to use the smart features. The point is the best TV for the money is a smart one.

simlevesque 6y ago
Did you read the comment you replied to ? There are no mentions of using the smart features at all, he's talking about useless menus and slow boot time.
- alkonaut 6y ago
  I assumed by ”menus” he meant navigating those smart features. Not sure what other menus are frequently used? Settings? Inputs? If you even need to navigate a menu (fast or slow) for everyday use, it must have a terrible UX to begin with. The smart features are indeed slow on most TVs. Boot times vary.
  - EricE 6y ago
    On some Samsung TVs I have used, and least one model of either TCL or Visio non-smart menu functions are slow and clumsy. Input switching on one "smart" TV in particular (I'm pretty sure it was a Visio) was like a four step process instead of a simple button press. It was really eye opening just how bad designers could screw up something that should literally be a one button press. You can't assume anything with new electronics - some of the UI designs are stupendously horrible.

tokamak-teapot 6y ago

We have a Sony from maybe 8 years ago and it’s fine. Boot time is only a few seconds. Certainly I hardly notice any wait when I grab the Apple TV or Switch and wake it up. It switches to the appropriate input automatically as it wakes. That’s about all we use it for. It’s a Smart TV in theory but we have never used its ‘features’. It’s not connected to any network and it doesn’t seem to try to connect to wifi sneakily. Audio is connected out to an amp and speakers and sounds fine. If it ever breaks (not sure if LCD has a finite lifespan) we’d probably get something similar but would be checking it has the same ability to just act like a monitor with auto input switching and audio out.

gambiting 6y ago

Well, some do, sure. I got a new LG CX last month and it's incredibly fast - switches on like my CRT TV used to, it's almost instant. And all the apps work very quickly, menus don't stutter at all......huge change from a Bravia TV I had before, that was like "press a button and wait 10 seconds for something to happen" and you couldn't change the input for at least 30 seconds after switching it on.

EricE 6y ago

Not all of them. My parents LE OLEDs power up faster than my older "dumb" Panasonic plasma. Samsung TVs menus and response times are crap, however. Not sure how they are so wildly popular.