“Technology… is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.”
~Carrie Snow~
Following on the heels of Dan Antion’s Monday morning rant about his TV services, I have my own rant about a new smart(?) TV I recently purchased.
It’s a beautiful 55″ TV, one that I gifted to myself after much deliberation about the cost. Gibbs said I could have bought him a lot more cat food with a less expensive box, but I reminded him that he’s not starving, so…
The TV has been set up for a couple of weeks now, sitting on a nice (and free to a good home) TV stand, offering much viewing pleasure except for one issue with an app. I keep getting kicked out of Netflix. It runs for awhile and then boom! Out! None of the other apps have done this while streaming.
Yesterday, I spent a few hours trying to rectify what apparently has been an issue with this TV company since at least 2017. That’s what I found on the internet, something I missed when researching prior to the purchase. The help desk person tried to assist by guiding me through a few possible solutions, plus she emailed me additional steps if the initial steps failed, but nothing helped.
I went back on the internet, found another solution to try, but nope. That didn’t help either.
Then I called a local TV seller who initially went through steps I already tried – unplug the TV; unplug the TV, then the router, wait 5 minutes, then plug the router and TV back in again; uninstall and reinstall the app, which one cannot do with factory-installed apps; return to factory settings (been there, done that). Finally, he said if I had another streaming device, like Roku (which I do), to plug that in and forget the TV app.
I did. The Roku worked. Yay!
But here’s my rant. Why did I pay this much money for a TV manufactured by a company that knows they have an issue and hasn’t come up with a fix? Why do I have to plug in the Roku device to make this work?
Why does technology have to stab me in the app?
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Mary J Melange 
I have been thinking about upgrading my current 42″ tv which is small by today’s standards, but I do not want to go through what you describe here. So, my tv works, and I will be happy with that until it doesn’t. 🙂 Now, find something to watch on that 55″. 🙂
There are larger, non-smart TVs out there, Judy. You could probably find a non-frustrating make and model that works well. I like my TV in every way except for the app thing and as long as I’ve found a solution, I’ll try to enjoy my time with it. 😏🙂
Ugh – Mary, I feel your pain. How a technology company that evolves their products on a never ending cycle can’t fix a problem after four years, is ridiculous. The benefit of a smart tv is that you don’t need Roku – sorry, I know, you know that. There’s a new TV in my future, but I will double down on research.
PS, thanks for the mention.
You’re welcome!
The local TV guy said that this will happen with smart TVs, that the apps don’t always work right. I only read that about my brand, but it makes me wonder if I should have bought a non-smart TV and another Roku device. Live and learn, Dan!
I guess the answer is, nothing works perfectly. I can’t subscribe to Peacock (NBC) on Roku. It m as Jed me sad to think I may need multiple “smart” devices.
Natasha and I tried Peacock, but we cancelled it as we didn’t find much value in the programming. The only show I am hooked on via NBC is “This is Us” and I have other options to watch it. The smart TV has Chromecast built in, so I can stream from my phone or laptop if need be. With one negative, comes a few positives.
I was about 3/4 of the way through Night Gallery when the streaming switched from a free NBC (free because I still had a basic cable plan) archive access to Peacock that I can’t sign up for. At least I got to see “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar” before it ended.
Glad you can get it to work Mary, these smart tv’s sound like quite a challenge! 💛
New technology is always a challenge, Xenia, but I always give it a try!
It just says smart tv. It does not say how smart. Or always smart tv. Kluge enough technology together and something is bound not to work. Smart tv, smart phone, smart apps. My laptop computer is supposed to tell me when the battery is running low. Right… you know the screen blanks and it shuts down. I guess that is a warning. Kinda like the you just stepped off of a cliff warning. Smart stuff in action is truly a thing to behold. And to think we have not even gotten to Alexa the wunder kid.
I’m not even going to go there with Alexa. I don’t need to talk to her or have her be my personal assistant. I’d rather talk to Gibbs that cat. Yes, technology is wonderful when it works, but it doesn’t always and that is the frustrating part. I have better things to do with my life than spend an afternoon trying to rectify the issues.
I also bought a new 55″ TV a few months ago and had also some problems with getting everything set up the way I like it. You sometimes just get lost in all this menus, even on simple devices…
I got lost trying to find the setting that turns off the “beep” every time I make a selection with the remote. I finally found it, but it took a few days of scrolling around. At least that was resolved!
I’m still looking how to stop getting (warning) messages if you want to change a selection. They start appearing after a did an update and I can’t turn them off…
One more thing… I hope there’s still some budget for getting Mr. Gibbs some extra treats… 😉
No worries about Gibbs. Natasha donated a package of chicken livers before she moved out and since I hate liver, guess who is benefitting? 😼🙂
Technology, can live with it , can live without it , these days 💜
Right, Willow, although I’d be lost without my smart phone. 😏
Me too 💜
At first I had no problem with the Netflix app on my new tv, but now it won’t come on, even if I (master tv) transfer from my iPad or phone. 🤪 So frustrating and all the fixes out there don’t work.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
So, I am not alone. I wonder what makes Netflix different from the rest that TVs have difficulty in running it. Roku may have solved the problem, but it shouldn’t be.
After I got my new tv I returned the separate Roku unit 😫
Luckily, I had the Roku for my bedroom TV. Not sure what I would have done otherwise.
The new tv supposedly is the roku embedded version.🥴
Technology is by definition a backstabber. That’s my take on it. I cannot figure out our TV remote control so like a child I have to wait for my husband to turn on the TV. I get your frustration. It’s expensive and ridiculous.
I’m getting used to the remote, but I don’t like that it’s black and I can’t read some of the buttons in low light. That’s less about technology and more about old lady eyes. 😶
I agree, Mary, that this is shameful. It does not sound like a new problem. Four years is plenty of time to either fix the problem, or modify marketing material to report the gap. To pretend the problem doesn’t exist and leave the buyer hanging is … well, shameful.
I glad however you found a fix. I’d be grinding my teeth.
With technology, teeth grinding is inevitable. I don’t think anyone will be concerned about a fix unless people stop buying that brand of TV or stop using Netflix.
Stop using Netflix … during a pandemic?! That’s just crazy talk 😜
Ha! Sorry for being unrealistic. 🥴😁
When we got our most recent TV, we purposely went for the most simple one we could find, with the express intention of plugging in set-top-boxes like the Roku.
You were smart. I told a friend earlier today that I could have spent less money on a non-smart TV and Roku. Lesson learned.
I feel your pain. We have Comcast as a provider and they keep switching which channels we can get – causes us to have to reprogram the TV or we’ll spend the whole night just hunting for them!! It is such a hassle! Glad your ROKU worked!
Cable providers are like the grocery store when items get moved around and they no longer carry your favorite brand of ice cream. Frustrating!
I have the bitsy Roku box, and run everything but actual TV through it. Since I don’t watch actual TV, that isn’t a problem.
It appears you have the TV thing covered, Marian.
Because despite the problem existing you still bought the TV so why spend money on fixing it when people are still buying it?
One of our tvs is a 2015 model and it’s too old for the Disney app. We’re stuck in an endless upgrade spiral. (I spit on their upgrade. I just stream it from my phone instead.)
My friend’s older model did a similar thing to her…the apps via the remote became unsupported, so she had to buy a Chromecast and stream from he iPad. I’m guessing that eventually my TV will do the same when it’s too old for current tech.
I thought about going the Chromecast route but screen mirroring is free. 😁