Am i an idiot? Have a smart TV and using it with a fire stick. Why?

[Monkey Man]

I'll take that.

What happens is that TV's are for general consumption so in order to prevent shenanigans and heartache / confusion, they limit add-ons to trusted developers / companies.

In dev mode you can install whatever you like, I'm guessing to cover devs who're obviously testing what they're coding as-they-go.

I've forgotten the procedure on Google TV's (like the one @MadAsAHatter is talking about), but it's just a matter of hitting enter / yes over the appropriate sub-menu title.

@MadAsAHatter, check that your TV hasn't run out of disk space bro'; that's most-often the reason peeps can't install anything new, and of course please try dev mode.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I'll take that.

What happens is that TV's are for general consumption so in order to prevent shenanigans and heartache / confusion, they limit add-ons to trusted developers / companies.

In dev mode you can install whatever you like, I'm guessing to cover devs who're obviously testing what they're coding as-they-go.

I've forgotten the procedure on Google TV's (like the one @MadAsAHatter is talking about), but it's just a matter of hitting enter / yes over the appropriate sub-menu title.

@MadAsAHatter, check that your TV hasn't run out of disk space bro'; that's most-often the reason peeps can't install anything new, and of course please try dev mode.

I'm not too worried about it. It's one of the 1st gen smart TVs and I've never used any of the smart features anyway. Everything is setup on my Roku the way want it.

 

[Monkey Man]

Oh well, the info's there so it might help someone else at some point.

 

[PDC]

We bought on one of the smartest TV's on the planet. But 2 of the apps we use the most that were built on the TV had terrible stutter / freeze issues. Stream them from our ROKU - flawless. So I totally get bypassing the smart TV loaded apps and sticking with your streaming device of choice!!

 

[Robostyle]

Remember when TV was free?

 

[84superchamp]

Remember when TV was free?

TV "garbage" is still free.

 

[The~Kid]

TV "garbage" is still free.

This

 

[311boogieman]

Strange. I don't experience anything like that. I'm not really a big TV guy though and 90% of the time I'm watching classic cartoons over the digital antennae shit. MeTV Toons.

Thanks for pointing out MeTVToons - I miss the old Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour from when I was a kid. Every Saturday morning with my brother. Back before cartoons got all woke and DEI. Some of that shit was gold. That and the old Charlie Browns and Christmas Specials. I have not seen any of this in probably 35 years. Where Did All The Good Times Go?

Love my WWII documentaries too.

Our Visio is probably 5 years old too. There is some decent stuff on the Watch Visio Free app

 

[lol]

That sounds right. Cartoons are right at your mental and emotional level.

"I'm too mentally and emotionally mature for cartoons. Excuse me while I go binge watch bing bang theory."

 

[JDs Couch]

"I'm too mentally and emotionally mature for cartoons. Excuse me while I go binge watch bing bang theory."

View attachment 433529

What is bing bang theory?

 

[lol]

What is bing bang theory?

“What is bing bang theory?”

 

[70 Mach 1]

We bought on one of the smartest TV's on the planet. But 2 of the apps we use the most that were built on the TV had terrible stutter / freeze issues. Stream them from our ROKU - flawless. So I totally get bypassing the smart TV loaded apps and sticking with your streaming device of choice!!

Yeah i have a gitch with fox news.
Audio is echoing. Only way to stop it to restart the FS.
But its continuing all day long. Keep restarting the shit. Annoying.

All the other apps are fine.

@The~Kid
For my beloved Mets games theyre on SNY
I can either buy a seasonal package through one of the apps which i can't remember right now.
Or just get the box for 6 months

Price is about the same. But if i go with the app i dont have to deal installing, returning it in October and switching inputs every night

 

[The~Kid]

Yeah i have a gitch with fox news.
Audio is echoing. Only way to stop it to restart the FS.
But its continuing all day long. Keep restarting the shit. Annoying.

All the other apps are fine.

@The~Kid
For my beloved Mets games theyre on SNY
I can either buy a seasonal package through one of the apps which i can't remember right now.
Or just get the box for 6 months

Price is about the same. But if i go with the app i dont have to deal installing, returning it in October and switching inputs every night

Yeah your right it's only 30 games a season on weekends or something on Disney+/ESPN. Hmmm from what you say that app doesn't sound bad.

 

[JDs Couch]

Yeah i have a gitch with fox news.
Audio is echoing. Only way to stop it to restart the FS.
But its continuing all day long. Keep restarting the shit. Annoying.

All the other apps are fine.

@The~Kid
For my beloved Mets games theyre on SNY
I can either buy a seasonal package through one of the apps which i can't remember right now.
Or just get the box for 6 months

Price is about the same. But if i go with the app i dont have to deal installing, returning it in October and switching inputs every night

Fox News is echoing...I mean, the jokes write themselves. Of course, it's echoing the propaganda coming from the Turd in Chief.....

 

[Monkey Man]

We bought on one of the smartest TV's on the planet. But 2 of the apps we use the most that were built on the TV had terrible stutter / freeze issues. Stream them from our ROKU - flawless. So I totally get bypassing the smart TV loaded apps and sticking with your streaming device of choice!!

Not saying that this is what happened in your case but you probably know that most stutter / freeze issues are attributable to disk or memory space.

Most smart TV's don't provide much room for apps, especially if you want to install and run a bunch.

I ended up deleting all the Netflix-type apps from my TV 'cause I couldn't even update a basic YouTube app, such was the disk-space situation. IIRC I had roughly 80mb left when I finally figured it out.

By deleting the stuff I mentioned (and all caches associated with them) I managed to free up 1.5GB. She purrs like a kitten now.

 

[PDC]

Not saying that this is what happened in your case but you probably know that most stutter / freeze issues are attributable to disk or memory space.

Most smart TV's don't provide much room for apps, especially if you want to install and run a bunch.

I ended up deleting all the Netflix-type apps from my TV 'cause I couldn't even update a basic YouTube app, such was the disk-space situation. IIRC I had roughly 80mb left when I finally figured it out.

By deleting the stuff I mentioned (and all caches associated with them) I managed to free up 1.5GB. She purrs like a kitten now.

Damn! I had never thought of that - and it makes perfect sense. Becuase we are using our ROKU ultra, I might just delete all the pre-loaded crap off of this new TV! Thank You!!!

 

[Robostyle]

Recently had to buy a new TV because i needed more HDMI ports. Apparently 2 isn't enough anymore, due to every streaming service having their own interface.

 

[Monkey Man]

Damn! I had never thought of that - and it makes perfect sense. Becuase we are using our ROKU ultra, I might just delete all the pre-loaded crap off of this new TV! Thank You!!!

Thank God someone's perhaps gonna benefit from my tips in the thread bro'. Awesome!

I'm tippin' that if it weren't for the fact that the TV market is so-cutthroat in its price wars, they'd all boast 8G of storage at a minimum rather than 4 or less. The pre-installed apps and TV OS alone usually take up more than half the available space, which "don't help any" as they say in the classics.

You'll find general operation snappier once a decent chunk of space is freed-up.

On top of that, once dev mode is activated, there should be a parameter that allows you to drastically shorten (or eliminate, but that actually feels awkward to navigate) the transition effects. This is where, as you move from, say, a category into its constituent sub-categories / parameters, traversing the screen with the cursor from left to right or vice-versa, the graphics / lists move smoothly to help the brain understand what it's doing. The transition time, when reduced to around 25% (edit - it may have been 50%) of the default, retains that "brain connection" but speeds everything up to feel way-more-responsive. Reducing it to zero doesn't really work 'cause navigation becomes a little disorienting.

 

[Monkey Man]

OK I just checked for those who might've be interested.

On my Bravia TV:

System -> Developer options

Window animation scale - 0.5
Transition animation scale - 0.5
Animator duration scale - 0.5

I can't remember what the defaults were, only that after fiddling around with the above settings for a while this is what I settled on 'cause it worked a treat.

HTH

 

[The~Kid]

Yeah TVs are crazy now. Really didn't think of it took it for granted but it's pretty much a computer in your living room.

Even have access to the internet and a billion channels on Samsung TV Plus and honestly don't know half the things this does