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Vizio did this back in the 2018 time frame (ask me how I know). It's a small Android tablet with the Vizio app on it. You can also just download the app onto yo
by cgh 2y ago
Vizio did this back in the 2018 time frame (ask me how I know). It's a small Android tablet with the Vizio app on it. You can also just download the app onto your phone and use it that way. It was so unpopular that Vizio eventually relented and handed out normal remotes. As far as I know, their modern TVs continue to use a standard remote.
- cmckn 2y agoI bought a very cheap Vizio TV around that time (I was in college) that didn't include a remote in the box. You had to use the app. I'm sure I'm messing up some of the details, but -- The TV needed to be connected to a network for the app to work. The university required you to register the device's MAC address before it could join the network. The TV had an ethernet port, and its MAC was printed on a sticker on the back of the TV, so I was able to get that going. But it wasn't convenient to keep an ethernet cable routed to the TV (the room was awkward) so my roommate and I wanted to get it on the WiFi. There was literally no way to open the TV's OSD and view the WiFi MAC address with the Vizio app. You needed a physical remote to access that part of the UI. IIRC we ended up finding an old WiFi access point and connected the TV to it in order to view its WiFi MAC in the access point's admin UI. They could have just given us a damn remote in the box! It was infuriating.
- velcrovan 2y agoI still have my 2018 Vizio that came with the stupid android tablet. On day one I blocked internet access for the TV, plugged in an Apple TV, and put the android remote in a drawer where it sits to this day.