Our 14 or 15 year-old LG flat panel finally had to be put out of its misery. It stopped receiving (or processing) over-air signals a while back and while somewhat humorous at first, it quickly became damn annoying watching out-of-sync TV images ("I hear you talking but your lips must be taking the scenic route in moving"). With Christmas conveniently at hand, I decided make the new set my gift to the missus since she uses it more than I will ever do, and re-up with LG because in general we've had no real gripes with the prior set until its internals finally started going south.

(Rant on)

Well I guess a LOT has happened in the intervening years. WebOS is the prime culprit. I guess it acts like some sort of OS for the telly universe, but after a few days of actual interface use I will never complain about Windoze again. Try as I might the new set will not recognize the signal from the over-air antenna. DirecTV's receiver DVR is now woefully out-of-date and just as apparently noncompatible as the over-air antenna...and so is their rooftop dish it seems. So now we wait for the snow to melt before they well risk life and limb to upgrade our outside gear. As for streaming stuff which we never had on the old set: our internet service level apparently is now too slow for the needs of such said streaming, or we're lacking bandwidth or just plain both, based on the amount of buffering that we've been experiencing in this Brave New World. At least the visual spinning ring isn't red or green, reminding me of past Xbox horrors. The freebie Pluto content service just plain bites; a 'Melrose Place' channel, really? There is a TON of its content that fixates on the 1980s. Like gross. L-7. Totally. And using the remote as an on-screen pointer to click on virtual buttons; frankly they should've made the remote into a pistol form factor because I didn't get into Star Fleet Academy and never got around to training with phasers. Most annoying UI, but at least when the Klingons next attack Earth my muscle memory should be ready and in-shape in time to help fend them off.

Another new experience for our TV use: trying to launch downloaded video apps has been a painfully annoying nightmare; the arrangement of stored apps is certainly non-intuitive to locate or launch. For instance the freebie YouTube app can only be found AND launched after doing an actual search (typing off of a virtual onscreen keyboard with the aforementioned phaser remote) and not off some obvious screen icon that gets planted in some menu, no matter how deeply nested or layered. But first I have to go through and discard the for-pay YouTube Plus results to get to the freebie version. I used to think that Sony was the king of designing nonsensical user interfaces; I now see that the Koreans are just as bad (I've had to "fix" Mom's Samsung TV on many occasion after she inadvertently messes things up, and that TV's UI is equally horrid). At least with their cellphones Google and Android acts as a somewhat understandable go-between; there is no saving us from the mind-f*ck that is WebOS. Oh for the daze of a simple remote with big channel and volume change buttons, where a person can just park their tired butts in the Barcalounger and mindlessly surf to their empty-headed minds content...

Not with this LG. I have to actually expend brain cells. So not in the spirit of boobtubeness. There is NO 'doth protests too much' here, me thinks.

(Rant off)

Yep, WebOS can be a challenge. Several updates back mine started showing all the various apps I could select at the bottom of the screen (and extending to the right beyond the edge of the TV) for maybe 30 seconds each time the LG is turned on. Youtube, Prime, Plex, a whole bunch of free streaming services, etc. If you know what you want, you can select it quickly at the start, or the menu button on the remote brings up that same app row anytime.

That’s the only way I was able to figure out how to minimize use of that irritating virtual keyboard!

My LG constantly wants to update something, which I ignore. On mine, the spinning wheel is replaced by multi colored spinning dots, which is even more annoying than the wheel.

El Gee's web interface and app setup sucks balls...

The one we have in the garage, 60 inch, won't allow the install of the HBO Max app, Samsung in the house no issue.

Last one I bought for the patio was one of the Roku tv's and it's been simple to setup, loads any app, HBO, Hulu, Prime, Disney and has a channel setup for over the internet channels, local and all eliminating the need for an OTA, and it hooks up to the DirecTV system.

Next one I buy will have the Roku system to replace the aging set in the bedroom and eliminate the Firestick at the same time..

For any streaming content you need a stick, or AppleTV, IE stand alone box and quit using the TV based apps as they suck compared to a stand alone box. I wish they sold “dumb” panels as I don’t need anything “connected” on it sans basic level OS updates. Stand alone devices are inexpensive, relatively, and they should just make panels dumb as they would be much cheaper and much less complicated.

Has to be complicated otherwise; you’d figure out how to turn off the camera and microphone (which are defaulted to "on" at the factory).

I have a TCL Roku TV and it's actually VERY intuitive to use and tweak, I love it. It's pretty obvious they took some cues from Apple with it.

Good example is doing a reboot or checking for software updates, it's like 2 clicks on the remote. Older TV's were like 18 clicks, stand on one leg while holding your breath during a full moon.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I have a TCL Roku TV and it's actually VERY intuitive to use and tweak, I love it. It's pretty obvious they took some cues from Apple with it.

I second this. While I am primarily Samsung TV at my house, I sent my parents and Grandmother up with Roku for it's ease of use.
I've even started to replace some of my TV's with Roku ones (or switching to Roku sticks).

I detest new "smart" TVs with apps and such built in.

I hate to hear all this as I am thinking of buying my parents a new TV. Maybe not.

I feel for you monoblok. Your post was funny to read as many of us can relate. Can you return it?

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:

I hate to hear all this as I am thinking of buying my parents a new TV. Maybe not.

As PASig posted (above), the TCL is one of the better ones in terms of how they implemented the "smart" features.

While many (most?) of the smart TVs do offer access to Roku, TCL is one of the few, maybe the only one, that has the actual Roku system built in.

We bought our previous TV, a TCL, from Costco, using the Costco credit card, which automatically gave us an extended warranty. The TCL crapped out the week before the extended warranty expired. The part that failed was the ability to maintain a WiFi connection for streaming.

We wanted a TCL replacement, but Costco did not have them in stock at the time, so they "upgraded" us to an LG that had more features, but the interface to the streaming stuff is crap, compared to TCL's implementation.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
I hate to hear all this as I am thinking of buying my parents a new TV. Maybe not.

I feel for you monoblok. Your post was funny to read as many of us can relate. Can you return it?

I've got a Samsung Smart TV in the living room and another one in the master bedroom.

I found them pretty easy to set up and use.

My 77-year-old father went out and bought a Vizio TV last year because “he heard Vizio was a good brand“. Finds out that it’s a “smart“ TV and then has me come over and set it up for him.

Compared to my TCL Roku TV, this thing is a piece of shit, the interface is horrible and clunky and completely non-intuitive.

When I told my dad he should have waited or asked me and I would have gotten him a TCL, he just growled and said something about “I just wanted a TV I can turn on, what’s with all this smart crap?”.

I have a 27" SONY with the old Trinitron CRT tube.

It works just fine.

Couldn't get rid of it even if I wanted to, it's way too heavy for me to move.

Well, I'd be lost for sure.
Last TV I owned was about 5 years ago. Gave that one to my daughter and never got another.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I have a TCL Roku TV and it's actually VERY intuitive to use and tweak, I love it.

Same here. The Roku smart TV interface is very well laid out.

You need to quit thinking of it as a TV and see it for what it is: a computer with a high end monitor.

I prefer not having to add components to it. I like a self-contained TV. Connect it to the Internet and then use the apps on it.

I pay for YouTube TV but I often go to just free YouTube to watch videos or a rain channel to lull me to sleep.

Our Samsung is pretty easy
Vizio a bit less so
The TCLs we have at work are a breeze.

For simplicity & cost, the TCL are hard to beat & they seem to cut costs on assembly (cheaper feeling plastics) but the picture is quite good.

We just bought a new 75" Hisense Roku TV for Christmas and it was a piece of cake to set up and did away with the Chromecast we were having to use to stream from a mobile device. We bought it on the recommendation of my 77 year old father in law...

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I have a 27" SONY with the old Trinitron CRT tube.

It works just fine.

Couldn't get rid of it even if I wanted to, it's way too heavy for me to move.

Our 32" CRT finally started to crap out just before Christmas 2020. And No, I was not involved in moving it.
Thanks to the forum I went w/ a TCL, around $300 for a 50" and it's been great for a year now.