Walmart Seals Deal to Buy VIZIO

[Bobby]

Vizio used to make some pretty solid TVs, but they have gone downhill the last few years. I am not a fan of their Smartcast OS.

I hate their Smartcast OS, that’s why I have an Apple TV, Roku, and a Firestick.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Why would anyone use a TV OS to stream their favorite content? Perhaps this is the only realm Walmart could improve upon (but they won't).

 

[dishdude]

Why would anyone use a TV OS to stream their favorite content? Perhaps this is the only realm Walmart could improve upon (but they won't).

I have a Sony and two Hisenses, use the built in Android OS on all of them. Works great.

 

[Bruce]

I have a Sony and two Hisenses, use the built in Android OS on all of them. Works great.

I have two Sonys, Z9K and a A90J, both bought about 2 years ago, I find them very slow compared to the Roku Ultra.

 

[dishdude]

I have two Sonys, Z9K and a A90J, both bought about 2 years ago, I find them very slow compared to the Roku Ultra.

They must have bumped the processor up, my X80K is great.

 

[Yespage]

That may be your opinion but it is not mine. I’ve had a P75C1 set for 7 years. It cost $3500 at the time, it was top of the line. It has 4K and all the HDRs, except HDR10+. it is bright and has very good blacks. I’m going to watch a 4K blu-ray of Oppenheimer on it tonight and it will look better than it does in theaters.

First HDTV was a cheapo Vizio over 10 years ago. Still works. Not the best image, but back in the day any HDTV was awesome!

Got a nicer but also not expensive 4K with HDR Vizio which reviews indicated was the best HDR at the price point. Still liking it, though it does like to reboot sometimes when changing sources. It is a few years old.

 

[Bruce]

They must have bumped the processor up, my X80K is great.

Never said they were not good, just my Roku Ultra is much faster.

 

[NashGuy]

Why would anyone use a TV OS to stream their favorite content? Perhaps this is the only realm Walmart could improve upon (but they won't).

Using the built-in smart TV OS rather than an external streaming device is rapidly becoming the norm. TV manufacturers have been putting better processors and software in their TVs in recent years and, in the case of three of the top 5 selling brands (TCL, Hisense and Sony), the smart TV OS is either Google TV or Roku, so the same thing as you can find on popular external streamers. (There are also a few budget TVs that run Amazon's Fire TV OS.)

There's a lot of money to be made in controlling a TV's UI and app store: ad revenue, cuts of subscription revenue, and enhanced profits from the user data that is gathered.

 

[comfortably_numb]

There's a lot of money to be made in controlling a TV's UI and app store: ad revenue, cuts of subscription revenue, and enhanced profits from the user data that is gathered.

I guess I just haven't been keeping up. Hard to believe there could now be an "old school" group of streaming customers who think of their primary way of using content is an external "stick" or STB. Could be because my primary TV is a "dumb" TV.

 

[navychop]

My Sony is WAY faster than my H3. But I’ve settled using a FireStick, even faster.

 

[NashGuy]

I guess I just haven't been keeping up. Hard to believe there could now be an "old school" group of streaming customers who think of their primary way of using content is an external "stick" or STB. Could be because my primary TV is a "dumb" TV.

Well, it definitely used to be the case that streaming through a smart TV was not as good as using an external streamer. Apps were slower and clunkier, and in some cases, not even available. And sure, some of us still prefer our external devices. (I love my Apple TV 4K.) But smart TVs have definitely gotten better, and certainly good enough for the average consumer. (Remember that guys like us who post on this kind of forum aren't representative of the average consumer.)

One nice thing about using the smart TV OS is that it integrates free popular channels from the OTA tuner alongside free streaming channels and the various apps you use. It's possible to do that with an external streamer too, but in that case you need to buy and set up an additional piece of equipment, a network-connected tuner, such as an HDHomeRun or Tablo DVR. Such devices are very niche. The vast majority of folks using external streamers, if they watch OTA channels at all, simply switch inputs back to their TV so they can watch through its built-in tuner.

 

[comfortably_numb]

(Remember that guys like us who post on this kind of forum aren't representative of the average consumer.)

There's a member here whose profile banner is "Remember, Satelliteguys are not your average customer!"

 

[comfortably_numb]

My Sony is WAY faster than my H3. But I’ve settled using a FireStick, even faster.

I've been using a Roku Ultra for the past year, super fast. I also like that it has an ethernet port so I can connect directly to my switch.

 

[Bruce]

I've been using a Roku Ultra for the past year, super fast. I also like that it has an ethernet port so I can connect directly to my switch.

There is the one thing I notice with my Sony, even with ethernet plugged in, every app takes a few seconds to get to the best picture, always starts out SD..

Never have that issue with my Roku Ultra.

While the interface on the Ultra is more basic looking, it never has issues, every app just works, while I have read how certain apps have issues with Google TV, or with the Fire units, Paramount+ was the latest.

 

[klang]

All the apps I use, which is most of them, still work just fine on my 2020 vintage Sony. I'm sure that won't always be the case but that just means time to look for a new one. Haven't noticed any speed issues except when Peacock first came out it was slow to load. That seems to be corrected.

 

[comfortably_numb]

The 2-year-old LG 4K TV in my bedroom has perhaps the best EPG I've ever seen for my OTA channels, but the LG OS is clunky for streaming apps. I suspect, as others have said, these TV OS designs will improve over time.

 

[Ronnie-]

Vizio used to make some pretty solid TVs, but they have gone downhill the last few years. I am not a fan of their Smartcast OS.

The latest version of smartcast (which I think they actually renamed), which not all tvs have yet, is actually a VAST improvement. Now, any improvement would have been big, but it is almost like a completely new OS. Very fluid and easy to navigate.

Vizio is giving its TV software a much-needed overhaul

The new Home Screen interface looks like a streaming app.

www.theverge.com

 

[savarese04]

I have a few Sony TVs of various age (all Android TV, all top of the line when I purchased them) and I will say that they are definitely faster than the old Samsung smart TVs I had with the proprietary apps that never got updated. However, even on day 1, they were never faster than my Apple TV or 4k Max Fire Stick. And the bloatware! I had to run ADB to get rid of some of the more obnoxious crap.

 

[NashGuy]

While the interface on the Ultra is more basic looking, it never has issues, every app just works, while I have read how certain apps have issues with Google TV, or with the Fire units, Paramount+ was the latest.

The Paramount+ app is kind of a turd on Google TV and, from what I hear, on Fire TV too. (It's basically the same app, I guess, since both OSes are Android.) But their app for Apple TV is pretty good.

 

[NashGuy]

The latest version of smartcast (which I think they actually renamed), which not all tvs have yet, is actually a VAST improvement. Now, any improvement would have been big, but it is almost like a completely new OS. Very fluid and easy to navigate.

Vizio is giving its TV software a much-needed overhaul

The new Home Screen interface looks like a streaming app.

www.theverge.com

Thanks for that link. I checked out the little video there. Hopefully Walmart takes this new Vizio Home Screen OS and puts it on an inexpensive 4K HDR10+ streaming device. Call it the Vizio StreamStick, include the same simple voice remote that they sell with their current TVs, and sell it for maybe $30 at Walmart and elsewhere.